What are your school hours and how strict? and bed times for all ages

[Susan in TN]

We start at 8am and the kids follow a general routine of getting their subjects done. It has to be done somewhat according to a schedule so that I can get one-on-one time and group lessons done without too much hassle. Everyone is done for the morning at about 11, and they have a break, lunch, and chores. We have story time at 12:30, and start afternoon lessons at 1:30. Pretty much everyone is done between 2:30 and 3:00 except my high schooler who keeps her own schedule. My 12yo sometimes works longer as well, depending on how much reading she needs to do.

 

Bedtime for the 4 youngers (12yo, 10yo, 9yo, 6yo) - pjs and snack at 7pm, maybe a story if dh is available, and bed at 7:30, though they often read or draw for a bit before turning their lights out. Dd17 generally goes to bed around 10.

[Soror]

I have a general time-line in my head but it is just a rough guideline. Official start time is 9am and I aim for us to start by then if we haven't already but quite often someone or multiple people have already started, sometimes my girls might have their 3Rs done by then,  but  activities vary on different nights as do bedtimes so wake up times tend to vary as well and then I find with kids sometimes they just need more or less sleep. I aim for lunch around 12:30 and to have everyone's 3R's done by then and ds history and/or science done as well. After lunch, who knows, often it will be some extra like poetry or such. Bedtime varies due to activities, aim is for around 9 or so. They wake up when they wake up, I never wake a kid unless it can't be avoided, I think adequate sleep is more important than about anything else and I know how I hate to be woken up so I don't like to do it to them either, of course if they start consistently waking up late then I'll change things up to make sure they get some more sleep- earlier bedtimes, people sleeping by themselves, limiting nighttime reading until they get lined back up.

[Wabi Sabi]

My children are younger and I work full-time with a schedule that can change from week to week, sometimes from day to day with no notice. Plus, we have frequently have medical appointments, family obligations (we have several elderly family members and we often have to drop what we're doing and go assist them when there's a crisis) and other things that come up that simply must be dealt with during the day, so needless to say, sticking to a strict schedule just isn't possible.

I'm still pretty loosey-goosey and very relaxed with my younger child, but my oldest has what I would consider a fairly heavy load of demanding work. I write out all of his assignments in a planner. He doesn't have to start his work by any certain time of day or work for a minimum number of hours each day, but he does know that everything needs to be complete by the deadline given. He has to plan his time accordingly. When we have appointments or outings scheduled I make sure to note those on his planner and talk to him about them so that he knows to plan around them, and when last minute things pop up we both remain flexible: on my part, I might move an assignment to another day, and his part he might have to plan on doing some of it on the weekend as "homework."

 

[RootAnn]

With several kids needing my attention during the day, we have to have some sort of a schedule. Otherwise, either very little would get done or everyone would want my attention & assistance at the same time. We have a posted schedule, but it serves more as the lines on the road to keep us on track than a set of iron bars penning us in.

 

Since I have a range of ages, there are some schooling while others are playing. There are some reading while others are exercising or watching a Latin video. Some weeks, we are doing school while DH is sleeping because of his work schedule. We all try to be courteous and keep others' needs in mind.

 

We do take phone calls & visits during 'school hours' - but they aren't extreme. We do some school (math & typing practice, mostly) during the summer to make up for days when we'd rather be out in the sun all day. We change as necessary, though, so who knows what it will be like down the road.

[luuknam]

I'm new to this, but I don't have set hours. Broccoli does almost all his school work while Celery is at therapy (2.5 hours a week) or TKD (at least 1.5 hours a week, obviously outside of traditional school hours), and Celery does some work during Broccoli's TKD hours, and more at various times any day of the week. Both go to bed around 8-8:30-ish, and tend to wake up at 7:30-ish. But, they're obviously younger, and like I said, I'm new at this.

[IsabelC]

Our 'school hours' are very flexible. Basically I have a plan for what educational activities I want to get done each day, we start when we're ready (clean, fed, chores done) and we work through it until we're done. A lot of our learning happens together, via questions and discussion, however I do encourage quiet work when they are doing their math and LA curriculum, because they're usually all working on different things so there is no need to discuss it (except right now we are doing a math unit study). And I get cranky if one interrupts the others' music practice (music practice is sacred and should only be interrupted in cases of life-threatening emergency).

Bed time, we don't follow a strict daily time routine, but we do send the kids to bed rather than let them completely self-regulate. The rule is that if they can't get up and do their morning tasks cheerfully, then this is a symptom of lack of sleep, so they need to go to bed earlier that night. The 12yo is allowed to read or listen to soft music in bed if he doesn't want to go to sleep, but the girls I will require lights out if I think they need sleep (especially the 7yo as she is a terrible bookworm and would read half the night if we let her).