total amount of time devoted to academics - homeschooled 10-year old

[stupidusername]

My 10-year old spends about 20 hours per week on academics plus another 10 hours or so per week on music. 

 

He loves music and doesn't want to cut back.

 

Just curious if others think this seems like too much, too little, or about right.

[RootAnn]

So your 10 yr old is about 4th grade? Four hours per day seems about right for 4th grade if you can get it all done in that time.

As he gets older, the time he spends on academics will grow depending on the subjects you add in. Sounds ok for now, though.

[katilac]

We were definitely done in four hours in 4th grade. 

[Desert Strawberry]

Sounds right.

[Reefgazer]

Sounds about right to me.

[In2why]

I guesstimate we do about 4 hours a day as well.  Sometimes more if we have something in particular and sometimes a little less.    

[PhotoGal]

I added up that we do about 30 hours per week, but around 10 hours is on foreign language - so we are pretty similar in that sense.

[foxbridgeacademy]

For us, 4 hours would be the most we would spend in a day.  We can usually get Math, Lang. Arts(Writing, Spelling, Grammar, Vocab., Literature) and either Science or History done in about 2.5.  But as you can see we only do the basics in a formal way.  We do spend a lot of time talking, researching, reading, watching Doc's.... but for me that's just "us" so I don't count it.

[OneStepAtATime]

4 hours sounds good.  Be aware that 4 hours at home is WAY more than a child in public is actually spending on focused academics.  There are so many things going on besides academics in a standard classroom with a ton of kids that the percentage of time spent focused on actual academic learning is really pretty small.  A large portion of my family are teachers, I have taught in a classroom setting on several occasions as a substitute and have sat in my kids' classes when they were still in brick and mortar.  Believe me, 4 hours at home daily is just fine and will be far more effective than 4 hours in a public school, or even 7 hours in many public schools.

[EndOfOrdinary]

Often times music has quite a wonderful overlap into academics.  It uses not only both sides of the brain, but forces them to make connections at rapid rates. Rhythm flows not only use mathematics, but also aid with language and foreign language learning.  Tons of history and cultural connections are present. 

 

It seems like the two might not be a traditional mix to consider all academics, but definitely something homeschooling would allow you consider a combined academic time.

[madteaparty]

For us, 4 hours would be the most we would spend in a day. 

Same here.

 

[IsabelC]

It's very difficult to judge these things, not just because of not actually knowing your son, but also because of not knowing at what level of intensity he is working. I think your hours add up to quite a lot, but not too much if your child still has some unstructured time and is not showing any signs of stress or exhaustion. 10 hours a week of music is certainly not too much for a child who enjoys music, so I wouldn't cut that back unless you really needed to.

[abba12]

It sounds about right to me :) As kids homeschooling, prior to high school we all generally began school after breakfast and finished by lunch, so that's my benchmark lol.

[boscopup]

Sounds good to me. My 4th grader did about 4 hours a day this school year. And if he's wanting to spend 2 hours a day on music, that's fine. I wouldn't force that much practice on a child that age, but I'd be fine with the child choosing it on his own.

[stupidusername]

Does he complain?

No.

[Kevin'sMom]

My 10-year-old son does about three hours in the morning plus an hour and in the afternoon. He also does 15 minutes of piano practice every day, plus two hour-long lessons twice a week. He has chess for 2 hours once a week, and karate twice a week. (Hopefully, karate counts as having some PE). I sneak in extra lessons as often as I can: "Why do I have to learn grammar? What's it actually good for, anyway?" He seriously should not have asked that!

 

In any case, I don't think the academics are enough. I would rather do four hours in the morning and two in the afternoon, but I think for fifth grade I am just going to do five hours. For summer school, I am going to do three, then we will go to the pool every day when he is done.