how much time does your 6th/7th grader spend on independent work outside of the school day?

[blue daisy]

The title pretty much says it all. LOL.  My 11 year old does most of his work independently, with me checking in frequently and assisting as needed.  But he is just slooooowwwwww at everything. The work is not too hard for him at all, but an appropriate challenge. He;s a little bit of a perfectionist and likes to make everything neat.  But it's also just his personality, in addition to being HFA and ADHD. He just does everything in his life slowly.  ONe of the reasons we're homeschooling is to help balance school/extracurriculars and family time. My goal is for kids to not being doing school work in the evenings and weekends although DS11 sometimes has to finish his work during that time. I totally understand that this will increase, especially as we get to high school.

 

So, just to get a sense of what's appropriate for this age, how much time does your middle schooler spend on independent work OUTSIDE of your typical school day (so evenings, weekends, etc.)

[ScoutTN]

2-3 hours in a week. Usually reading literature or history. Sometimes drawing for her art class. All things she enjoys.

 

Eta: She has an Art and Drama tutorial one day a week and only gets math done before she goes, so we have only 4 real school days.

Edited February 2, 2017 by ScoutTN

[Miss Tick]

Probably 2 hours trying to catch up with their outside class, occasionally finishing a writing assignment or history reading. I've confessed elsewhere, though, that we have too much on our academic played this year and I hope to cut back a bit next year. A little more down time wouldn't hurt any of us!

[athomeontheprairie]

Maybe I'm doing school wrong, or not enough. My dd11 is in 6th. If we start on time and she is motivated she can be completely finished by 2. She never has school work in the evening or on weekends.

[Lori D.]

Maybe 1 hour PER WEEK of solo reading outside of school hours, usually done later in an afternoon or two. Nothing on the weekends, except maybe 1-2 weekends in the year we'd put in some extra hours to get a special big science project done. In 6th/7th grades, we were schooling for about 4.5 to 5 hours a day, 4x/week, and maybe 1.5 to 2 hours/day on the 5th day because we were active in doing things with the homeschool group on that day.

 

BUT, neither DS here would have been able to complete schoolwork largely solo in the way your DS does. For very different reasons, both DSs needed more support up through about age 13-14, so much of the school work was done together in the living room, with me there to answer questions as they arose, or to re-direct as needed when they started to get distracted and their focus started to drift away from doing the work. That also made it a lot easier for me to make sure we were 'on schedule', or to make quick adjustments to the day's schedule so we didn't have work left at the end of school hours (i.e., drop an assignment, push something back to the next day/week, scaffold more intensely if needed to push through and get the subject done, etc.).

 

Looks like you have lots of younger ones, so that might not work for you. Other ideas:

 

- don't write everything -- do some work orally to speed up

 

- reduce workload

If DS grasps the concept, only have him do selected/circled problems or questions

 

- pre-plan for dropping some things

Go through the year's material in advance and star a few books, assignments, etc. that can be dropped during the year if you are starting to get "behind schedule"

 

- move to a "loop" schedule

Work for whatever hours a day is appropriate for your DS, then stop; the next day, pick up where you left off in the schedule and continue

 

- or, try block scheduling

Do Science and History each only 2x/week but for longer blocks of time, and use your 5th day for catch-up; do family Art 1x/week

 

- don't do all subjects every day

Alternate Grammar (3x/week) and Geography (2x/week); or Typing (3x/week) and Logic (2x/week); or drop 1 day/week for things DS is doing well in (ex: Reading, Spelling, or Writing 4x/week rather than 5x/week)

 

- combine for reading

Perhaps shift a few of DS's books to family read-alouds, or listen all together as audio books

Edited February 1, 2017 by Lori D.

[Roadrunner]

We might do a lab over the weekend, but other than that most work is done during the school hours. DS will read independently in the evenings sometimes, but most of the time after school hours are spent doing sports and music, both eating up really every remaining hour of the day, so no time for extra school.

[Farrar]

I don't know how to answer this. I ask that the kids read in the evenings, but I don't consider that "homework" or whatever. The "school day" is how long it takes to get the work done. If there's a lot of work left over at the end of the "day" then either we extend the school day or I assume that I assigned too much and we table it for the following day.

[freesia]

1 1/2-2 hours of independent.

[deerforest]

I don't know how to answer this. We do school together for 3 hours and then she has 2-3 hours of things to do on her own like read/take notes, practice typing, write, practice Spanish. We start at 7 and she is usually done with everything by 1-2. If she has to leave to go to an activity and lost track of time, she finishes when she gets back. But I don't really want her spending more than that much time on school work. We've gotten better at estimating assignments.

[blue daisy]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the input. I get the sense that I need to relax my expectations a bit. :)

 

The work is not too hard. I feel like it's meaningful work, not just busy work. Sometimes I switch written work to oral just to save time but on the whole I don't think he's doing enough writing so I try not to skip it too much. He takes an outside math class do I don't have control over that work but it's not endless repetition. It's a select handful of meaningful problems. He just really takes his time, making his graphs really nice, etc. He takes a long time moving from one thing to the next, etc. He's not being naughty or anything and he does everything with a cheerful attitude... He's just pokey. He always has been. :)

 

I try to have our day done by about 2-3 but some days he just doesn't have it all done. I am including reading and instrument practice here as well. Maybe I just need to let go of what I had planned by then and move it to the next day.

 

Yes, the other kids make it challenging... my middle two are VERY high maintenance and of course with their ages, need me there for all of their work. And the three year old keeps it interesting... lol

 

I also get caught in the habit of letting him do too much on his own because he is responsible and then getting frustrated if he doesn't keep up some days. I need to remember he's only 11 and still needs me. Thanks for that reminder. :)

[Julie of KY]

None.

[2_girls_mommy]

Good question. My current 7th grader doesn't have the slow issues. She pretty much likes to get her work done with me, and is very social and very motivated to get it done and have free time. So she works my assigned schedule from around 8:30 in the morning to around 2 or 3 and gets the majority of her work done in that time period. She does wander off to play with her little sister at times, so will lose time. She also rarely gets math finished in the 8-9 time slot mainly because she doesn't get at it until closer to 8:30 or 8:45. So we work for 15-30 min. Then she puts it up and pulls it back out later to finish in her free time after school which she does very quickly.  If she wandered off a lot during her Latin time period to play with her sister, then she would have Latin to finish in the evening too. And she pretty much does her science on her own in the early evenings. She does a co-op class with assigned work. Once or twice a week she needs to pull it out and read and do some notebooking or the occasional at home experiment. We don't have a scheduled time in the day for this. We do our together work during the day. So after dance classes and such she may have 30 min to an hour of work left to finish for a day. I am not against homework at this age to help them manage their time.

 

My other dd is more like you described. She is just slow at everything. Always has been. She makes fine grades. But she works several hours on her own every night. She doesn't mind. She prefers that to moving quickly during the days. We have trouble getting her up and going in the mornings. And she can sit and stare and do nothing constantly. So it works better to keep switching our subjects at the given time, then put it up for her to finish later. Otherwise she would sit and stare at one subject for 3 hours and still not finish one subject in a morning and not have much to show at the end of the day. So at night, the nights we don't have late nights at something, she often works 2 hours or more on her own. I don't do school at night. 

[sdobis]

None. We are having an easier year this year because I'm trying to shore up skills due to my daughter's dyslexia. Lots of math, reading, and spelling with a smaller than usual amount of science, history, and writing. I prefer that there not be "homework" outside of our school day. She reads a lot on her own, but this is a lot of manga and a few other books of her choice.

 

Almost all of her free time is spent on art and reading.

[MerryAtHope]

I found a few things really helped in this area:

 

1, If you haven't already, let him know specifically that your goal is for him not to have work to do in the evenings and on weekends. Would he like that too?

 

If so, then map out what you would like a day to look like. Add in wiggle-room time and transition time, but show him what your expectation is for the day. Sometimes seeing things in black and white really helped my kids.

 

2, Workboxes. These are like a 3-d schedule with all of the materials organized for the student. They really helped cut down on dawdle time for my kids.

 

3, Have periodic talks about how he works best. What helps him stay on track? What distracts him? Helping a student with metacognition or thinking about how they think can help them develop strategies to stay on track better.

 

4, If you know of specific things that distract him, remove those things. For example, if he gets distracted in his room or by a window, find another work space for him. If he tends to play games on his Nintendo DS for a "break" between subjects and then plays a long time before getting back to work, make that for "after school only." And so on. 

 

5, You may find that short, periodic times of checking in with him will help him stay on track better. For example, if it's math time, set a time limit and tell him to come back to you when that time is up. If he isn't done with math, that can be homework, but you'll move on to the next subject. Then, when it's time for school to be done, he can have free time--unless he has homework. 

 

This helped my kids see more concretely that they were dawdling, because the times were defined as "school" time or "free" time--and they were much less likely to want to give up time they considered to be "their" time. When it was just "work until you are done" they dawdled to make their own free time--not really realizing they could have a nice long chunk of free time if they just finished. It gave them a reason to get their work done sooner. 

 

HTH some!

[blue daisy]

I found a few things really helped in this area:

 

1, If you haven't already, let him know specifically that your goal is for him not to have work to do in the evenings and on weekends. Would he like that too?

 

If so, then map out what you would like a day to look like. Add in wiggle-room time and transition time, but show him what your expectation is for the day. Sometimes seeing things in black and white really helped my kids.

 

2, Workboxes. These are like a 3-d schedule with all of the materials organized for the student. They really helped cut down on dawdle time for my kids.

 

3, Have periodic talks about how he works best. What helps him stay on track? What distracts him? Helping a student with metacognition or thinking about how they think can help them develop strategies to stay on track better.

 

4, If you know of specific things that distract him, remove those things. For example, if he gets distracted in his room or by a window, find another work space for him. If he tends to play games on his Nintendo DS for a "break" between subjects and then plays a long time before getting back to work, make that for "after school only." And so on. 

 

5, You may find that short, periodic times of checking in with him will help him stay on track better. For example, if it's math time, set a time limit and tell him to come back to you when that time is up. If he isn't done with math, that can be homework, but you'll move on to the next subject. Then, when it's time for school to be done, he can have free time--unless he has homework. 

 

This helped my kids see more concretely that they were dawdling, because the times were defined as "school" time or "free" time--and they were much less likely to want to give up time they considered to be "their" time. When it was just "work until you are done" they dawdled to make their own free time--not really realizing they could have a nice long chunk of free time if they just finished. It gave them a reason to get their work done sooner. 

 

HTH some!

 

Thanks! These are helpful tips.  The main thing distracting him is his siblings. LOL. He also gets caught up in making everything look perfect, so we're working on that.  I like the idea of setting a limit on a certain subject and having him finish it later. The one that takes longest is math, and it's not a lot of problems, but like I said, he just really takes him time creating beautiful graphs (sometimes color coded!) and I haven't always noticed how much he was dragging out each problem.  I'm going to be checking in on him more frequently. :)

[RootAnn]

None, but my current 6th grader doesn't have outside classes.

 

My #2 didn't either. Dd#1 always put off for tomorrow what she could have done today, so her extra time was finishing in the summer. (She's still this way except for her online classes.)

[zarabellesmom]

None.

 

I don't make a thing about independent work. If my 13 year old needs me to be there to get through in a timely way, I'm there. I don't want the day to run over, for me or for him, so I do what I have to to make sure it doesn't.

 

We probably run 50/50 on independence so far. I have zero issues with scaffolding him 50% of the time to move through work efficiently. I'd imagine the ratio will change over time.

 

I don't give 'homework' or anything like that. If I wanted school to spill over into non-school time, I'd have my kid at a b&m school.

 

It's harder with little kids around...one thing I wish I had done with my eldest, when my ds was small, was to scaffold her more! She didn't really need it....she was one of those kids who does independent work conscientiously...but emotionally, even 11 year olds need a teacher or a parent to be involved and engaged with their learning. Probably more than I realised at the time.

I wish I could like this more than once.

[Wheres Toto]

We don't do any work outside of school hours unless you count reading or a field trip.

 

Both my kids work fairly independently on the core school work, but I'm usually close by to help if needed.  They'll ask questions and I can make sure they are staying on track but if there is something they need extensive help with, I usually have them put it aside until they finish everything else.  

 

I've tried workboxes in the past but since my kids mostly have worksheet/book work at this point they weren't very practical.  Instead we have a work binder, that currently is actually a storage clipboard.   Each day I put there paper work for the day in their binder, write everything in their planners so they can see what stuff they have to do that won't fit in the binder (like reading from Mosdos or the Beast Academy guide book).  Usually this is their Math, pages from the Mosdos workbook, Vocabulary from Classical Roots book, a cursive practice page.   They also have to do an hour of assigned reading, an hour of screen free quiet time, and an hour of exercise.  If they have something they are struggling with, I would probably cut short their screen free time so they could get it done before we head out for extra-curricular activities.

 

In addition to the above, we do history, art, science, music, and Spanish together.  Those are another area I might postpone for another day if either of them are struggling to get their core subjects done.