What does 4.5 hours of instruction for a 1st grader look like?

[macmacmoo]

One of the state we might move to requires 4.5 hours of instruction per day. I can conceptualizer how to do that with a higher grade student or a student who can read independently. For my first grader we average two and a half to three hours a day, and that broken into chunks because he sure can't sit still for very long. If you have a lower grammar stage student and your state has a set length of day, what's your schedule look like?

[lexi]

Can you add in things like physical activity (doing something outside) and life skills type things (cooking, helping pick up)? What about read aloud time? Time spent listening to audio books while building Legos or putting together a puzzle?

My state doesn't have set hours but hat is a long time for a 1st grader. Hopefully people with more experience will chime in.

[Ellie]

One of the state we might move to requires 4.5 hours of instruction per day. I can conceptualize how to do that with a higher grade student or a student who can read independently. For my first grader we average two and a half to three hours a day, and that broken into chunks because he sure can't sit still for very long. If you have a lower grammar stage student and your state has a set length of day, what's your schedule look like?

 

It's a good thing I never lived in a state like that, because I'm pretty sure my "4.5 hours of instruction" would not look anything like school officials imagined. It would include pretty much everything we did from the moment we got up until the moment when I turned the lights off at night.

[justasque]

"Hours of instruction" is simply not a good metric for assessing or documenting what's going on in a homeschool environment, especially for a first grader.  You've got to keep that in mind as you decide how to address this requirement.  That said, everything counts.  Seatwork (workbooks, etc.) obviously count.  Reading (the student to you, you to the student, the student to themself) counts, as does listening to audio books, even if it is at bedtime or in the car or on the weekends.  Outings count - museums, parks, historical locations, factory tours, zoos, farms, other climates/habitats (the ocean, the forest, the mountains, wetlands, etc.), other cities/countries.  Cultural events - musical performances, plays, festivals, ethnic meals - all as participants or observers.  Pretend play in response to reading or historical studies (pretending to be characters from Greek myths, for example).  Creative endeavors - LEGO building, artwork, etc.  Active play - bike riding, climbing, sports, swimming, hiking.  Learning to do self-care things, including housework, dealing with money, cooking, and so on.  Library visits.    

Are you expected to actually document your hours, and show it to someone?  

Don't overthink this.  Focus on educating your child, and let any required documentation flow from that, not the other way around.   

[rose]

Nature walks and phys-ed  would be high on my list. You could easily burn an hour of time on each of those activities. Anything that develops fine motor skills could be counted (like colouring, beading, or legos). 

[EmseB]

Instruction != seat work.  I mean, maybe it does to some educational bureaucrat who is writing these standards, but they are not in charge of my kids' education.

 

Cooking, walking around the neighborhood looking at nature, physical outdoor games, imaginative play...it's all learning at that age. If I did 4.5 hours of seat work with my 6 year old we'd both be in tears.

 

I, personally, would simply find a way to write (assuming you have to write what you've done or are planning to do) creatively about what you're doing and analyze your day to see where your first grader is learning even when it may not be you talking to him and making him do seat work.

 

For example, you could consider the half an hour spent playing with cars and such as "creative composition". :)

[AmandaVT]

If I had had to document 4.5 hrs/ day  for DS last year, I would have included:

 

All reading time, including the stories we read before bed

outside play

tennis, soccer, etc. classes

field trips (including library and grocery store)

cooking meals

hygiene and health - showering, teeth brushing, anything I could think of in our day that would cover those

And then the regular schools stuff he did, which was a good bit less than 4.5 hrs a day

[rebcoola]

We use a charter and we count a lesson in math as one hour no matter how long it actually takes because that is how long it would take in school.  Same goes for other subjects that have a lesson.  We only count actual time for participation subjects like PE, & Music.

[EmilyGF]

I visited a neighborhood kindergarten with 7.5 hour days. This was the layout:

 

30 min Breakfast

1 hour "Literacy" - songs, games, reading, etc

1 hour Library/Computer Lab/PE/Art/?

1 hour "Literacy" 

1 hour lunch/recess

30 min quiet rest

1 hour "math" - remember this will include games

1 hour play time

30 min ?

 

What I got out of the presentation was that I cover in 45 minutes what they cover in a day, but that there are many things that schools would count towards their time.

[MrsRobinson]

Our state also mandates hours rather than days or weeks. I included helping in papa's garden and helping with papa's bee hives. I counted magic school bus episodes, wild kratts,planet earth, nat geo videos, etc. in addition to many of the above mentioned.

[zoobie]

GA's law requires 180 days of 4.5 hours of instruction or the equivalent. I've honestly never sweated the details. I print out an August to July calendar and stick it in my planning notebook. If I'm ever asked for it, that's my attendance sheet and 180 days would be marked off on it at that point. ;) My kids get way more than 180 x 4.5 hrs of educational exposure. It doesn't have to happen at a desk. We just got home from vacation where we went to zoos and museums (and more). Check for each day of that. Aquarium? Check. Beach exploration with granddad where he describes the history of the area, the fish, how storms changed the topography and ecosystem? Check. Spend time reading? Check. Cooking in the kitchen? Oh, that's math and life skills and check! Watch an educational video? Assemble Legos? Color/draw/paint/clay? Check check check!

[Wabi Sabi]

That would be pretty easy for us. 
 

45 minutes for grammar, writing, phonics 
30 minutes for math 
30 minutes for piano practice (I'd count the actual weekly lesson as music class too.) 
60 minutes for reading together
15 minutes for Latin or another language 
60 minutes playing outside for PE (Or dance class, Little League, swimming lessons, etc. I'd count all of those things in my hours if I had to.) 
30 minutes for an educational show like Magic School Bus or Liberty's Kids

That doesn't even include field trips, gardening, homeschool nature classes, cooking, all the time my first grader spent last year drawing, building with Legos, working with modeling clay, listening to audiobooks, and so forth, every single bit of which I also wold consider "school."  Heck, she spent many, many hours outside building fairy houses this spring/early summer after reading a picture book from the library about fairies. That's a literature extension project, right? Ha. 
 

[Ellie]

GA's law requires 180 days of 4.5 hours of instruction or the equivalent. I've honestly never sweated the details. I print out an August to July calendar and stick it in my planning notebook. If I'm ever asked for it, that's my attendance sheet and 180 days would be marked off on it at that point. ;) My kids get way more than 180 x 4.5 hrs of educational exposure. It doesn't have to happen at a desk. We just got home from vacation where we went to zoos and museums (and more). Check for each day of that. Aquarium? Check. Beach exploration with granddad where he describes the history of the area, the fish, how storms changed the topography and ecosystem? Check. Spend time reading? Check. Cooking in the kitchen? Oh, that's math and life skills and check! Watch an educational video? Assemble Legos? Color/draw/paint/clay? Check check check!

 

Of course, GA doesn't require you to turn in anything to anyone to prove anything, so it isn't something y'all have to actually worry about. :-)

[rocassie]

We generally averaged about 2hrs for my 1st grader.  This was sit down, intentional work for math, spelling, reading, and Five In a Row. I could stretch to 4.5hrs by also counting outside/physical activity, read alouds, chore instruction, and random art/craft projects we do.  

[HomeAgain]

It varies, as everyone else said.  Two things that have helped in our house:

 

1. No TV from 8-3, and no video games during the week.  Ipad is restricted to a few apps only.

2. Actively working on skills and setting up the house to have lots of opportunities to explore and use those skills.

 

Anything from 8-3 counts here: gardening, cooking, playing in the backyard, logic games, board games...the goal is to have a few directed lessons throughout the day and then lots of time to explore independently.

[Ewe Mama]

Helping in the kitchen, helping with chores = social studies and large and fine motor skills development! health and nutrition

 

Reading/phonics

Math

Penmanship/copy work

Being read aloud to

Poetry

Games

Narration

Finding answers to a child's questions

 

 

Playing outside= physical education

Nature walks and following rabbit trails = science

Educational videos

Taking care of pets

Field trips

Playtime

 

All of these things (and many others) are how a child learns. A child's rump does not need to be in a chair at a desk to be called "instruction."

 

Best wishes to you as you find your way through this journey!

[Mommy to monkeys]

1 hour of seatwork

1 hour of quiet reading time

1 hour of read aloud time (possibly split up)

1 hour of outside/excercise time

30 minutes of lunch

That doesn't count chores ie life skills, playing legos (that's a cognitive activity don't you know), arts and crafts, listening to music or anything else. Easy Peasy.

 

[extendedforecast]

It varies, as everyone else said. Two things that have helped in our house:

 

1. No TV from 8-3, and no video games during the week. Ipad is restricted to a few apps only.

2. Actively working on skills and setting up the house to have lots of opportunities to explore and use those skills.

 

Anything from 8-3 counts here: gardening, cooking, playing in the backyard, logic games, board games...the goal is to have a few directed lessons throughout the day and then lots of time to explore independently.

I'm curious as to how you're inplementing #2. I'm trying to do the same at home for my kids.

[HomeAgain]

I'm curious as to how you're inplementing #2. I'm trying to do the same at home for my kids.

 

Well, our goals for last year were simple, but it's basically a lot of strewing.  :)  After going over the basics of addition I took out our math balance and left it on a low cabinet to explore.  I taught how to weave, and then left the frame and a basket of strips to work on during his own time.  I rotate out historical block sets and colorful dice and jump ropes and dot markers...anything that builds on what he's doing with me, but can be completed independently.  Right now we're working on visualizing things in different ways.  Our trip to the art museum this past week included looking at a bunch of impressionist style paintings and we talked about how things look different based on where you stand.  The book I put on his side table after was called If At First You Do Not See, about a caterpillar's journey but making the reader turn the book to look at the art from different angles.  I should have gotten a hardback copy. :D He's also working on learning number bonds/visualizing groups of numbers.  I left out the MUS cases and a cheap set of flash cards, neither of which we're using during our math time together.

[boscopup]

I would totally count housework, cooking, and play time at that age. I aim for roughly one hour per grade level of academic work, and I would have no problem listing daily life items as "school" if my state required reporting hours like that. What takes 4.5 hours to teach a class of 30 wiggly first graders takes an hour or two with an individual first grader. Also, public schools are able to count a full day even if they're watching (non-educational) movies or having parties all day - the hours are just the time spent at school. So in homeschool, the hours spent at your home and on field trips all should count, right?

[Soror]

Our requirements work out similarly but we don't have to start counting until 2nd. I think it is utterly ridiculous that a 2nd grader and 12th grader have the same time requirements. TBH I'm generous with what I count and how much I count-I don't fabricate but I round up a bit- not like saying 5 min spelling lesson is a full hr or anything- We just don't do that much seat work- dd had maybe 2 hrs last year in 2nd and 1 hr in 1st. Also for us we don't have to count specific days so some days I might not count much but then have something big on the weekend and we have 365 days to count and I take advantage of them for the lower grades!

 

for mine it has looked like some combo of the below:

1 hr math- ds always took at least this long, dd is much quicker but I still count the full hr, she does as much or more than him

1hr various LA- writing - grammar - spelling-phonics

1 -2 hrs - Lit/Content-read alouds (don't forget you can use audio books during quiet time, car rides etc)

plus some combo of the rest:

1 hr- science/PE- nature walks, biking, outdoor activity

30-1hr- life skills- chores- cooking etc- we would generally have more than this but I don't like to count this too much as I accept this isn't what they are looking for- I prefer to put down activities that translate better into edu-speak

30-1hr documentary/educational shows

30m-1hr+m art- can be as simple as a coloring book- my girls LOVE coloring and can do it for hrs- ds was always dragged along with anything art so he doesn't get much here

30-1hr+ music appreciation- can be as simple as listening to the classics while you do whatever else- play with legos, blocks, do your chores, look at books, drive somewhere

 

any co-op activity counted in the appropriate educational category or as PE for park days

any extracurricular-ds did Cub Scouts and I counted that; dd did dance and scouts

family trips-vacation

any church related thing under religion

[SebastianCat]

Don't forget to count any church attendance, Bible reading, devotions, etc., as "religious instruction."

 

When my kids were that age, I frequently did our Read Alouds at lunchtime, because it was easier to listen when the hands and mouths were busy with something else.   But if I had to count hours, I'd absolutely count that as a "double dip" - 30 minutes lunch, 30 minutes Literature.

[FO4UR]

1 hour of seatwork.

 

2 hours of being read to or listening to audiobooks, broken up throughout the day.

 

At least 2 hours of unstructured play outside.

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

You count stuff you wouldn't imagine counting.  Learning doesn't have to look like being chained to a desk all day.  And this is coming from someone who could never claim to be an unschooler. 

 

 

[Mrs. B]

For us it included character training, usually in regards to attitudes and actions towards siblings. We did 1-2 hours of actual school like work. Most weeks included any combination of the following: documentaries, some PBS or other educational shows (Magic Schoolbus, How the States Got their Shapes, Liberty Kids, cooking programs, etc...), a community homeschool program (usually 1-2 hours through the library, nature center, local museum, or zoo), community service projects, basic house chores they wouldn't have time to do if in school all day, out and about with me on errands (who needs a worksheet on what a post man does vs what a fireman does when they actually get to visit the post office and see the firemen go out on runs since the firehouse is next to a nearby park???), PE activities, audiobooks, bedtime read alouds (usually an age appropriate biography), self-initiated or mom initiated arts and crafts, listening to various music (classical composers, hymns, Folksongs, patriotic, and bluegrass are our main selections), Bible devotions, basic gardening, beginning piano lessons, and basic music theory. Never mind their opportunities to be regularly and deeply involved in the lives of family and friends of various ages, temperaments, nationalities, religious beliefs, and socioeconomic statuses.

[MomOfABunch]

We use a charter and we count a lesson in math as one hour no matter how long it actually takes because that is how long it would take in school. Same goes for other subjects that have a lesson. We only count actual time for participation subjects like PE, & Music.

We used K12 the first year of homeschooling and this is how they did it. Each lesson had a time value assigned - math 60 min, vocabulary 30 min, etc. the lessons never took anywhere near that long, but the kids were still given that value when the lesson was completed. You could change the value, but I was told to only do that if the lesson took longer than the assigned value. The value correspond to the time each lesson took in a public school setting. Things just don't take as long one on one.

[ScoutTN]

4.5 hours of seatwork? Non-existent in our homeschool.

 

My 7 yo first grader did about 1.5 hours of seatwork, plus tagging along with science, an online history program and RAs. My state requires 4 hrs to make a school day, but I don't worry about that. If Ds did math, LA and piano, it was a school day. Lots of outside time, imaginative play and several extra curricular activities.