Seeker of Schole Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 I am planning out first grade, and I am wondering about scheduling. I know some resources say one hour per school year, but that means only one hour of school for first grade. That only gives us time for math and reading, which leaves out A LOT. So I am wondering if any of you would be willing to share your first grade schedule, or at least approx how much time you spend per day for first grade. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 We have a crazy schedule, but I'd say we do about...2-4 hours a day of work, but that includes ~2hours of free reading my boys do (they are fluent readers), an hour or so of math (sometimes more.) and writing out copywork and now we are doing Spanish too. We don't have a definite sit down time, but it is usually after dinner that the boys do their table work. While I do my homework, they do theirs. I have decided to keep First grade restricted to 4 subjects: Reading, Writing, Math and Spanish. We touch on content subjects via reading, but we don't have much formal going on right now. I'm trying to figure out our summer schedule and what we will be doing for 2nd grade also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnaj Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 For kindergarten we spent about an hour a day on math and language arts. Anything else we did (science, history, art, etc) was extra. For 1st grade, we are going to be a bit more "rigorous" than we were for kindergarten, and we will definitely be spending more than an hour a day schooling. I'm not sure how much time we will be spending until we get started, but I know my daughter is completely comfortable spending more than an hour a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 I'd love to keep it down to an hour a day, but I think an hour and a half to two hours is likely to be more realistic. I don't count read alouds, crafts, field trips (with family or with HS group), educational screen time, or anything else I'd be comfortable talking about and doing with the most radical of Unschoolers. I still couldn't get it all done in an hour with the ex-first graders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking Squirrels Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 My schedule has us doing 2.5-3 hours a day for first grade. But that's just on paper, we haven't been there yet. So I don't know if it's realistic. I've also been very curious about how long others spend. I'm not sure if I should be trying to cut it down or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystie Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 My third child will be first grade when we start back and she'll have about 30-45 minutes of direct teaching time. We do Circle Time (Morning Time, Memory Time) for about 30-45 minutes all together, which includes singing, Scripture, catechism, and poetry. Then we all do math at the same time and hers only takes 10-15 minutes, but I'm usually helping everyone with math for 30-45 minutes. Then we do phonics & reading practice for 10-15 minutes, then read aloud some for 15ish minutes, then do handwriting for 5-10 minutes. In the evening there is more reading aloud, she usually listens to an audio book for awhile in the afternoon, and twice a week a friend and I swap younger and older kids and I teach the older elementary-aged kids and she'll read the younger (4-6 year olds) ones picture books for an hour. Just as important is lots of independent (i.e. not directed or organized by adult) play time, lots of time outdoors, and lots of read alouds and good music. But that is scholé – just a part of The Good Life – not "school." :) So although I plan our week to make sure there is lots of time for the scholé activities, the scheduled "school" time is less than an hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 We do Morning Time all together for a tiny bit over an hour in the morning. That's praying, reading from great children's literature, poetry, and depending on the day some combination of composer study, artist study, nature study, saints, history, science, and geography. All those true good and beautiful things that are so hard to find time for. Mostly done from the couch in full cuddle position so it doesn't really feel like "school." Later we do about 20-30 minutes of math, and 20-30 minutes of either phonics or grammar (we trade off). So in the end about 2 hours for first grade? If we have a longer project (art project, science experiment) we may even reach 3 hours but that is a rarity. I've always thought that "1 hour per grade" rule was meant to be direct pencil to paper time, if that makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 I can't imagine doing grade 1 in an hour. We're doing K this year with DS and it takes over an hour, if I do not skip anything (and we're only formally doing math, phonics, handwriting; the others - religion, history, science - are literature read alouds and not part of that time). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchbark Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 We spend roughly an hour on read-aloud/circle time. This includes Bible memory, Bible story, poetry, children's lit, living history or science, phonics or reading practice, and math-- we use Ray's Primary Arithmetic which is oral at this stage. Later in the day DS will do some coloring and a tiny bit of handwriting practice. This probably amounts to 15 minutes of table work. We work on knitting for maybe 10-15 min a couple times a week, recorder the same. Once a week or so we will do something crafty. All this adds up to less than 2 hrs of schoolwork a day. But this is besides lots of free play, free art (usually drawing), outdoor time, housework, and helping with cooking and baking, all of which I consider part of a well-rounded education. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 I could see 90 minutes with a quick worker. My rising first grader will do 10 min grammar MWF, 10-20 min spelling, 10 min writing, 10 min reading, 20 min math, 20 min science T/Th, 20min history MWF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanikit Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 I have no idea how much time I spend with my first grader - she is highly active and I would never have her sitting more than about 15-20 minutes without a break so Math is usually two sessions (about 30-40min/day), she reads aloud to me for about 10-15 minutes from whichever book we are using (and then that gets repeated at bedtime for about 20-30min total reading with any phonics instruction included) Spelling probably takes 15 min but we don't do it every day.. Writing probably also takes 15-20 minutes and here is where I get the other subjects in - I will read her some history and then get her to copy or write her narration, or we will do science and either fill in a worksheet or write out the salient points. However I sort of work on an hour of seatwork - not on an hour of school so read alouds happen cuddled on the couch, science experiments can take place anytime, silent reading happens in her bedroom, math fact drill will be on the computer, songs and circle time and even teaching her sister things (which is revision for her) happens throughout the day - so you could say we are schooling all day (she has plenty of free play too), but actual seatwork is about an hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 Our day looks like this: (ETA: We had an older first grader this year. My son was 6.5-7 this year. Along with a younger first grade girl who was 5 turning 6. She is a bit more advanced than her brother, so they are easily combined academically.) 8:00AM Breakfast 8:30AM Bible / Memory Verse 9:00AM Math (RightStart or Singapore) 9:30AM Reading (AAR) with First Child (Other child does handwriting, Reflex Math, gets a snack, and takes a short break) 10:00AM Reading (AAR) with Second Child (Other child does handwriting, Reflex math, gets a snack, and takes a short break) 10:30AM Grammar (FLL) 10:45AM Read Aloud (Our 'for fun' read aloud) 11:15AM Copywork or Narration (WWE) based on read aloud 11:30AM Spelling and Dictation (AAS) 12:00PM Lunch / Play On days we don't have a field trip, we do our content subjects after lunch. Otherwise we just spend this time getting ready to leave the house. (cleaning, etc.) But when we are home, we do this.... 1:00PM Memory Work (we use some classical conversation stuff for this. Review science, history timeline, bible verses, grammar stuff, etc.) 1:15PM Science or History starts (using Elemental or SOTW) 2:00PM - 2:30PM Finished with School Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy_of_4 Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 Our 1st grade schedule looks like this: Math - 45 minutes Reading (done with phonics) - 20 min. Spelling - 10 min. Writing - 10 min Handwriting - 10 min Science - 20 min History - 20 min. Grammar - 15 min. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrissySC Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 First grade here ... not counting any art, cognitive or such play, and no independent reading ... about 2-4 hours here. We do math, science, history, writing, phonics, grammar and mechanics, and reading every week. I use simple no thrills and it gets done quick. This does not count any puzzles, paper dolls, coloring sheets, piano, recorder, choice reading, play dough, crafts, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeker of Schole Posted May 11, 2014 Author Share Posted May 11, 2014 Just as important is lots of independent (i.e. not directed or organized by adult) play time, lots of time outdoors, and lots of read alouds and good music. But that is scholé – just a part of The Good Life – not "school." :) So although I plan our week to make sure there is lots of time for the scholé activities, the scheduled "school" time is less than an hour. Part of the reason I'm coming out to four hours each day for school time is the inclusion of art, music, nature study, quiet reading time, literature, etc as our school time. If I eliminate those, our day looks a lot shorter. Thank you all for the feedback. I just don't want to overdo and kill her love for learning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyClassical Posted May 11, 2014 Share Posted May 11, 2014 For K, it took 2-3 hours to get through in the morning. For first grade, I've followed the recommendations from the WTM book and it works put to 2.5-4 hours per day scheduled; we will see how long it actually takes comes August. I think the timeframes are reasonable for each subject area based on last year. I'll edit this later with my actually planned schedule - since I can't show you the envelope with it written down in colored pencil. 😜 I need to start scheduling lessons in homeschool tracker anyway. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 When I say an hour in first grade what I mean is an hour of seatwork. That does not include read alouds and such. They can get through their math, spelling or phonics, copywork, and FLL 1 lesson in less than an hour, easy peasy. At a later time in the day we'd do science and history, which doesn't include seatwork for first graders in my house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 My first grader has done about an hour to hour and a half of seat work, plus another hour of me reading something to him. We usually start with CLE Math, then do R&S Reading and Phonics. Then we do some reading for history and science. Later, we do a couple pages of Beast Academy. Then he's done. I incorporate handwriting into reading and phonics, and we're not doing writing yet. My oldest also did first grade in 1.5-2 hours. He was already reading well, so we did 20 minutes of spelling to cover phonics. Math was about 20 minutes. FLL took about 5 minutes. WWE took about 15-20 minutes. Then we'd spend about 30 minutes on either history or science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simplemom Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 Our 3 r's took about 60-75 uninterrupted minutes in 1st grade, planning on the same thing for dd next year. 1. We started with the calendar, having him mark the day of school on the calendar pointing out the correct day of the week, etc.... (less than 5 min) 2. I read a short book or we learned a hymn or folksongs (thanks YouTube for help there cuz I can't carry a tune-5 minutes) 3. Copywork 1-2 neat sentences after I was sure he had good pencil grasp and formed letters correctly with proper spacing (10 minutes) 4. Math interactive hands on lesson followed by short math worksheet from MEP lessons (20-35 minutes depending on the day) 5. Presented a short phonics lesson from a no frills phonics program with him applying the rule to word lists and sentences (10 minutes) 6. He read to me on his level from a reader with help as needed (5-10 minutes) Extras made up for the other hours needed to constitute a legal 4 hour school day....reading poetry or classic read alouds around lunchtime, beginning narration with a Bible storybook and brief history stories about famous people, rotational once/week extras (PE, art, nature study, composer study, piano lessons weekly with daily practice, outside the house community programs, library trips), field trips, cooking lessons, educational videos like Magic Schoolbus or Liberty Kids, educational games, Salsa Spanish lessons, service projects, audiobooks, etc...... This year for 2nd it is taking 1 1/2 hours seat work, but after that we doing more in the way of read alouds, more narration on our history and science readers, spelling with sentence dictation instead of phonics and copywork, and he does independent reading and handicrafts in addition to what he did last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 Thank you. It looks like a long break or two sessions a day (depending on your perspective) is the way to go. I'm in the rather enviable position of having to shop from my shelves a bit before I narrow things down enough to plan scheduling, but what I remember about ds1's first grade schedule is: Wake up, climb into mommy's bed for read alouds: 30-60 minutes Independent chores (choreganizers) and free play during big sister's read-aloud's: 30-60 minutes Play with sister during mom's chores: however long a record album of classical music took; this also "counted" for music appreciation. Seatwork with Mom: about 60 minutes Workbooks while big sis worked with mom, and then free play; going over his workbooks took about 15 minutesish and I forget whether I did it the next day or after I was done working with the older child Lunch Shared lessons with big sis: history, science, art, music, Latin, etc. 45-60 minutes Chores while mom took a bath and smoked a cigarette; dd set the table and I think ds took premade dinners out of the freezer and put them in the microwave Dinner, chores, 30-60 minutes of read alouds bedtime--free reading, quiet play with toys, and audio books allowed as long as it didn't disturb Mom's lesson planning and big Sis's independent academic work I'm still trying to figure out how this is going to look with an only child and how NOT to replace all the sibling play with Minecraft videos! I'm also coming to an appreciation of just how much lesson planning and housework I was able to get done during Daddy Visitation, which is time I don't have with little ds and a valid reason for using curricula that requires less intensive planning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerico Posted May 12, 2014 Share Posted May 12, 2014 We just finished 1st. We school year around, m-thurs We started with circle time around 10 ish. This is singing together, bible, catechism. Then phonics review, grammar (2x/week), and our writing with ease dictation. (Roughly 30 min.) Then table time for copy work. (10 min) After lunch and getting my toddler to nap, we could focus on math (30-60 minutes depending on how cooperative we were that day... Ahem.) then free play. In the afternoon, we ended up adding throughout the year 1 history lesson & notebooking. Then added science at the end (when i finally decided on a science lol) 2 afternoons lesson & notebooking. We are adding latin into our circle time next year and art 1 afternoon but otherwise keeping the same schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courtney_Ostaff Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 LOL! I'm a light-weight! We do about 30min-1hr after lunch in kindergarten. We squeeze in 2 page (front & back) from Singapore Math, the calendar section of Saxon Math K, a worksheet from Saxon Math K, 1 page of handwriting worksheet, counting to 100 by 5s and 10s, counting to 20 by 2s, 1 lesson in OPGTR, 1 page in PP, 1 page (front and back) in a Kumon Time workbook, and for a reward at the end, a page in a Crayola workbook where she draws a picture and writes a sentence to go with. Then again, we do it all at once, intense and focused. I don't fool around. :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystie Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Yeah, I would count spelling as handwriting and writing (I don't do composition until 8yo or even 9). And 1st grade history and science is covered just by wide and varied read-alouds, no programs necessary. But, if you're counting art and nature study and reading aloud, then four hours per day makes sense. But an hour or less of seatwork, or pencil-work, is plenty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkatingMom Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Today was a good example of a typical 1st grade day for us. DS is a young 1st grader....he will be 7 in July. Formal Lessons Math - 25 minutes Phonics/Spelling 15 minutes Writing - 5minutes Read-aloud - 10 minutes Informal Lessons Math App - 15 minutes Science - 20 minutes (the kids cross referenced wildflowers they picked) Science - 1 episode magic school bus on pollen. Literature (at bedtime) 10 minutes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.