s/o How Long Does Your School Take? (Poll) Edited to add "no child"

[Slache]

When your sitting in a room actively teaching or tutoring your children. Thanks!

[Ethel Mertz]

For a 6th grader - around 5 1/2 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week. Included in that time are 3 languages (his choice, narrowed down from 5).

[SeaConquest]

Seatwork or all in? Do you include extracurricular activities like music and sports?

[KungFuPanda]

Our hours don't coincide with the stages. At my house it's more like:

 

K-2 2 hours or less

 

3-5- 2-3 hours

 

6-8 ~ 4 hours

 

9-12 6-8 hours

[Slache]

Seatwork or all in? Do you include extracurricular activities like music and sports?

 

When your sitting in a room actively teaching or tutoring your children. I'll change the OP. : )

[Mandylubug]

Well... each child spends 3-5 hours each. Olders more like 5 but myself, rotating through the day spend way more teaching...but because I teach all four individually for some subjects and work one on one. So while no kid spends more than 5 hours on school day, I spend a good 8 to 9 if needed to handhold on multiple subjects.

[sewingmama]

Won't let me vote. We are K-2 right now and do about 4 hours a day. This will be our max till high school though.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Even high school I teach about 4 hours but that isn't how long my children's school takes.  They take longer because they do a lot of it independently.  (Plus my actual involvement in their school is longer too if you count all the grading and prep I do even on a daily basis.)

[LucyStoner]

6th grader probably averages 7 hours a day 4 days a week and a couple of elective type classes (music, ceramics) out of the house.  He also takes two enrichment math and science classes on the weekend.  Most of his classmates are in regular schools.  That said there have been days where he was done/fried in 2-3 hours and other days where he studied more like 8-10 hours.  that flexibility is one reason we homeschool.  Of all of that, I am actively supervising everything except his reading.  I am actively teaching (ie math) or coaching (ie spelling bee prep) probably 4 hours each day he does work plus 1-2 hours of spelling coaching on other days (which is only quasi considered school for him).   He gets 30 minutes for lunch if we are home and 5-10 minutes between subjects.  If he is having a hard time focusing, we do some yoga or I kick him outside to run or ride his bike for a bit.

 

Kindergarten is more like 30 minutes a day in seat work or math games plus some classes like ceramics and martial arts out of the house.  I read with him and set up art projects a lot but no less than I would if he were in school.  I put math problems up for him on the white board and he wanders by and does them. 

[LucyStoner]

It wouldn't let me vote unless I voted in all 3 categories.  I don't have any 7th-12th graders though so my vote there would be purely guesswork. 

 

If people whose oldest is 5 are voting in the higher grade brackets, the results are basically meaningless. 

[Farrar]

Oh, that's why it wouldn't let me vote? It hilariously told me I didn't have enough posts. How many posts have you got to have!  :lol:

 

When my kids were younger, probably an average about 2 hours. Now that they're a little older, more like 4. But it varies hugely. I think we only did about two full hours today. There are days when we do six. There are days where we do one. And it's always been like that for us. Plus, we spent three hours today with friends doing our science club. It's a huge component of our science studies. It's also social time because we take breaks. I never know how to count stuff like that in these things.

[catz]

Seatwork or all in? Do you include extracurricular activities like music and sports?

 

:iagree:   This is a good question.  I said 3-5 hours for my 8th grader, but it is not totally accurate.  He probably averages 5-6.  Tues/Thurs are shorter here for a free play group and music lessons (which I consider important).  Friday is longer because he gets up and does a few things and then goes to 3 co-op classes.  He does other activities outside the house I consider at least somewhat academic or "phy/ed".  Plus he reads up to an hour a day.  So even though I said, 3-5 for him, I don't think that encapsulates our homeschooling.

[Katy]

I choose mostly self-teaching curriculum, and I just assign things, supervise, and help when necessary.

 

Obviously some things for little ones have to be taught.  I mean, after basic math facts and reading are learned I probably spend less time on school work than most of my friends with kids in public school, if you include commute times.

[goldberry]

Won't let me vote for some reason...says I must have at least one post on the forums.  ???  I think I've got that.

High school 3-5 hours.  DD acts like she is being tortured if asked to do more.

[FaithManor]

I had to guess on the younger ones because I haven't had anyone in those grades in years. So I went based on what curriculum and requirements I think I would have. Caveat, it would likely include piano practice or some other structured practice for an extra curricular. So three or four hours for a 4th grader would include a half hour of practice.

 

High school takes about 6 hours per day. My kids have six subjects or credits a piece sometimes seven. It can vary, if they are writing a paper or studying for exams it might be an eight hour day, but if they've recently taken exams and are starting a new unit and have no heady assignments, it could be as low as five.

 

By the senior year, I like to make the day stout enough to be college preparatory. 15 credit hours or five courses per semester usually means 15 hours in class and 15 hours of work and reading per week without a study group or really special, time consuming project. That's 30 hours or a six hour day Monday through Friday.

 

For my one complaining child, I schooled him for the day. Got him up at 5:45 a.m. to hastily eat breakfast, dress, etc. and get ready for the bus, took him out and drove around for an hour and a half, brought him back made him sit still and work until 10 am, gave him a very short recess that had to include a drink of water and a trip to the bathroom, no food until noon despite the early start of the day, ten minutes to eat - the max that the local school allows, 20 min. to play, back to the grind until 2 p.m., 10 minute recess, and back at it until 3 p.m., board the "bus", drive around for 1.5 half, and then have a quick snack and sit down to the deliberately assigned homework that is so common to the elementary school here. IE if your child gets all of his or her work done in school, there will be additional assignments that come home even if none of the other students will never do them. Dinner at 6 p.m., an hour of free time after dinner, and then off to bed to get ready for the next day.

 

He awakened the next day a decided he really liked homeschool! LOL

[Kathryn]

Don't have older kids so can't vote. My K student is at the table about 30 minutes. Then we have reading time and Signing Time during the day. My 3rd grader takes about 3 hours total.

[AMJ]

Poll problem: no option to select if we don't have a child in a particular age group. I answered the same for the early stage because I was forced to answer in order to vote. Discount one of the 3-5 hour answers for the earliest grade category.

[AMJ]

I had to guess on the younger ones because I haven't had anyone in those grades in years. So I went based on what curriculum and requirements I think I would have. Caveat, it would likely include piano practice or some other structured practice for an extra curricular. So three or four hours for a 4th grader would include a half hour of practice.

 

High school takes about 6 hours per day. My kids have six subjects or credits a piece sometimes seven. It can vary, if they are writing a paper or studying for exams it might be an eight hour day, but if they've recently taken exams and are starting a new unit and have no heady assignments, it could be as low as five.

 

By the senior year, I like to make the day stout enough to be college preparatory. 15 credit hours or five courses per semester usually means 15 hours in class and 15 hours of work and reading per week without a study group or really special, time consuming project. That's 30 hours or a six hour day Monday through Friday.

 

For my one complaining child, I schooled him for the day. Got him up at 5:45 a.m. to hastily eat breakfast, dress, etc. and get ready for the bus, took him out and drove around for an hour and a half, brought him back made him sit still and work until 10 am, gave him a very short recess that had to include a drink of water and a trip to the bathroom, no food until noon despite the early start of the day, ten minutes to eat - the max that the local school allows, 20 min. to play, back to the grind until 2 p.m., 10 minute recess, and back at it until 3 p.m., board the "bus", drive around for 1.5 half, and then have a quick snack and sit down to the deliberately assigned homework that is so common to the elementary school here. IE if your child gets all of his or her work done in school, there will be additional assignments that come home even if none of the other students will never do them. Dinner at 6 p.m., an hour of free time after dinner, and then off to bed to get ready for the next day.

 

He awakened the next day a decided he really liked homeschool! LOL

My kids started in brick & mortar school before we switched to homeschool. Your model school day for the complainer sounded easy in comparison to their old reality! You can tell your kids that, too, if they ever doubt how realistic you made your model.

[happypamama]

I'm not including evening readalouds in this.

 

Ker -- under three hours, including group subjects

4th grader -- about four hours, maybe a little more depending on group subjects

7th grader -- six or so hours

[Desert Strawberry]

I spend very little time with each child per day. Maybe an hour or two at the most. My 6th grader is almost completely independent. My 3rd grader needs the most time. He's maybe getting two hours. My little k and preK get stories at naptime, and counting games while I dress them. Pretty much that's it. All of my kids are doing schoolwork/learning games around 5 hours a day. They just don't require my participation.

[Slache]

Thank you everyone! Poll edited!

[idnib]

When your sitting in a room actively teaching or tutoring your children. Thanks!

 

Were you the person who said you were worried in the other thread?

[Slache]

Were you the person who said you were worried in the other thread?

 

Shush.

[myfunnybunch]

When your sitting in a room actively teaching or tutoring your children. Thanks!

 

I counted the time that I am sitting in the room because my children are doing schoolwork as time spent doing school. There are times when I am not actively teaching anyone, but if I leave the room everything goes to hell in a handbasket I find that things go more smoothly if I am physically present. Unless, of course, "Quit poking your brother!" counts as active teaching.

 

Seriously, I don't do a whole lot else during school time. My young gents are easily distracted, one with real attention and impulse control issues. I find things run more smoothly if I am actively present. I may sew or fold laundry or read or plan lessons or correct completed schoolwork but I am spending the bulk of my time and attention on school during school hours.

 

Cat

 

[idnib]

Shush.

 

:leaving:

[Jean in Newcastle]

So much depends on the individual child and their age and if there is anything hormonal going on or if they have a special need of any kind or. . .   what phase the moon is in at the moment!  

[EndOfOrdinary]

I am actively working on stepping out of the situation, so that shifts things a bit. DS does school for a good six plus hours on days when he doesn't have social time blocked out. However I am teaching less than three of them. Most of it is me planning or typing up tests/study guides, drilling orally with foreign language, spelling tests, or reading aloud. There are lots of discussions, but I don't know how much of that is teaching and how much is just tea and talking.

 

At the end of every month I spend two epic days OneNoting the whole next month. Then it is his show. In the next two months or so I might even get a part time job at a coffee shop during the day. Adult Conversation!!!

[Ausmumof3]

I voted 3-5 for primary but I have two in this group and a toddler. When I only had one in the age it was less than 3. Also it includes music.

[Melissa in Australia]

for my DD 14 I voted 6-8 hours but that is not ME teaching her. she mostly self teachers. I just need to check answers, assist with writing program, teach science and assign length of reading of Spielvogel for History. I would think  that I would be actively teaching her less than 1 hour a day.
 
For ds11, 3- 5 hours is a good day.He can in fact take way longer. I actively teach him every subject. Basically he is struggling academically.

[Donna]

I voted 3-5 hours for my 7th grader. That is the time I am sitting and actively teaching her. She does a number of subjects on her own during the day and intersperses a number of hours of instrument practice between her school subjects so she is "working" from about 8:30am until about 4pm…sometimes the hours shift if we have other things that day and get started late or have an appointment in the middle.

[....]

I thought there was a thread recently on the General Education board on this topic (if you wanted to search for it).

 

I work year-round with each one of my kids one-on-one...like tutoring.  They have my undivided attention and we go over everything together.  We are very efficient and they don't take breaks during their "time".  

 

1st grader: 30 minutes - 1 hour

4th grader: 1 hour - 1.5 hours

6th grader: 1.5 hours

7th grader: 2 hours

 

These times do not include extracurriculars, outside homeschool classes, teaching themselves Scratch, ballet, art class at a studio, my older kids teaching classes in the evenings at the gym, volunteering, watching documentaries, doing projects on their own, making models, visiting museums, reading, etc. (we do a lot of *stuff*)

[Cinder]

I have one 4th grader I'm homeschooling; I voted 3-5 hours. We usually read for about an hour. The rest of the time is spent trying to get math done. lol. Kidding, sort of--we do cover science, English, spelling, but math is the bane of dd's existence. She would love it if she could learn math just by me reading it to her and not having to practice the concepts. She is quite the dreamer so sometimes it's hard to get her to focus on the task. If I'm not sitting with her the stuff doesn't get done. When she feels motivated to work she can get everything done in less than 3 hours. But generally it takes us longer.

[Butter]

My 1st grader takes maybe 15-20 minutes of my direct time a day.  He also joins us for religion, science, history, art, and music.  I'm working with 3-4 kids at a time for those subjects.  The 3rd grader takes a total of 1 1/2-2 hours of my time for language arts and math as does the 7th grader and then there are those other subjects all together.  So while I picked 3-5 hours for the 3rd and 7th graders, it's at the same time.

[LMD]

I'm just at the early stages of contemplating next year's schedule, when I'll have a 4/5th, 2/3rd and k-er. If I don't include our PE time or individual reading time it comes to about 5-6 hours a day. That's school time, where I am 'at work'.

[lea_lpz]

Oh good this made me feel better. I thought we'd be up to 4 hrs this year with my 2nd and k'er but we are usually right around 3 hours of school a day for her, with one hour being done independent, one hour with mom one on one, and one doing stuff with mom and her little brother. I do one on one with my k'er when she's spun independent work. I'm glad that we're about average according to this poll. I thought maybe we should step it up, but I just can't imagine getting another hour out if her!

[Soror]

With my daughter who is 2nd grade it is usually around 1.5- 2 hrs, I'm usually with my son 10yo 4/5th grader around 3-4 hrs and he generally does 1 hr or so on his own of content reading. My son is not able to do much on his own due to EF and memory issues from ADHD, so I'm just thrilled that he can do anything solo. * none of this counts how much time they take to do various things on their own, my son has been spending many hours programming lately and is often reading various different kinds of books

[AimeeM]

My K'er actually takes longer than my 7th grader, if you mean direct tutoring. Since my K'er is completely dependent upon mom's attention and instruction, I mean.

 

We do Morning Meeting, which is when both grade schoolers do memory work, we do a read aloud (more geared towards my K'er, but DD enjoys it too, lol), DD does handwriting, while DS5 does calendar. After that, I do direct instruction with my 7th grader, introducing anything new, and doing any mom-dependent subjects, which takes an hour or so, and then she splits off to do her actual assignments. 

Whereas I need to do everything WITH my K'er, and he isn't ready for any independent work (other than maybe a handwriting sheet, but even then I need to be right there to correct his grip).

[Tohru]

I feel like a slacker compared to everyone else. 

 

All mine get less than 3 hours per day. preK through 12th.

[Audrey]

Mine is grade 10 and I voted 6-8 hours, but I don't actively sit there and tutor him the whole time.  At 15 years old, I shouldn't have to do that.  He gets active tutoring for math and French and, on occasion, Latin. We have dialogue for other subjects, but that may not happen every day for every subject.  At this point, he doesn't do every subject every day anyway.  I assign his work, but with a couple of exceptions, he schedules the work himself.  He does math, French and Latin daily -- all other subjects are completed on his time schedule, but by the dues dates for the assignments.  There are some days where he does only science for the rest of the day after math and languages, or he might do all of his art history in one afternoon. I feel that, at the high school level, self-management is important. Being able to work to a deadline is important.  These are highly valuable skills that are critical for success in the workplace and further studies.

[Arcadia]

I'm wondering what direct attention entails for most people with young children. From the sounds of it, a lot of kids can work more independently than mine.

For me, direct attention is like when I teach my kids piano. I have to sit or stand next to them and make sure hand positions and posture is correct. For German we do the school homework together so I consider that direct attention, however they do their assigned German readings independently so I can do my own thing.

 

My younger boy is a day dreamer so I have to be nearby to remind him to stay on task. However I can be reading my book or marking their math work or cooking so I don't count that as direct attention.

 

My kids read early so that helps me in that they could read their own LA and math workbooks.

[Camelfeet]

Actively tutoring or teaching?  Less than three hours a day.  Sometimes I only spend an hour directly teaching.  We have a lot of materials that can be done independently.  The only classes that I am giving constant direct attention would be history, science, and writing.  For the rest, I am there to give guidance so that they know how to complete the work - which usually only takes a few minutes of explaining or clarifying.  Mine are very independent and don't often come to me for help. My youngest gets up in the morning and usually does 2 hours of work (math, reading) before anyone else in the house is even up.  

 

The 7 year old could finish all the assigned work (including time spent with an arabic tutor) in less than 4 hours.  The older one would be done in less than 5, but she spends so much time procrastinating that it usually takes her all day.   

[Onceuponatime]

I answered according to how much time my kids spend doing school work, not how much time I spend actively teaching, which is a lot less.

 

My time actively teaching decreases as my children get older and more independent. When they were young, I was directly involved in all subjects, by 3rd grade I was beginning to step  back after giving explanations and instructions. However, I am always available to drop whatever I am doing to provide assistance. Now, I typically spend the most one on one time with math and science. At the end of the day's work, we spend about half an hour going over what was done and making corrections if necessary.