How long every day do you homeschool?

[spaceman]

And how old is your child?

[Sarah0000]

It depends on what you would label as homeschool. My kid is six in kindergarten and we do traditional school stuff about two hours a week but unschooling types of things about two hours a day. This does not include reading aloud unless we're doing narration or some other specific output.

[Garga]

Oldest starts at 8:15 and ends at 4:00.  Sometimes earlier.  That time includes 5 10-minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch.  He's in 10th grade. 

 

Youngest starts at 9:00 and ends at 3:00 or 3:30.  That includes 4 10-minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch.  He's in 7th grade.  

 

It's incredibly rare for them to work in the evening.  Come to think of it, they've never worked in the evening this year.  

 

Once in a while my oldest will have to do schoolwork for a few hours on Saturday, but that's only been for his Chemistry or Algebra II online classes with a different teacher from myself.  I work hard at balancing the workload so that everything is done M-F, but sometimes they assign something out of the blue that takes longer than we'd thought, or is extra that I wasn't anticipating and it has to be done on Sat morning.  That's happened about 5 times this year in our 15 weeks of school.  We both hate it when that happens.  

 

The first few weeks were tricky for my 10th grader as I had over-scheduled him.  The above is the lighter version than what we started with.

Edited December 24, 2017 by Garga

[EKS]

Here are times for my younger son.  Times include absolutely everything, so seat work, games, science activities, read alouds, etc.

 

K: 1-2 hours 

1st: 2-3 hours 

2nd: 3 hours

3rd: 3-4 hours

4th: 4 hours

5th: Went to a b&m school, so 7+ hours (including homework)

6th: Same as 5th

7th: 5 hours

8th: 5 hours

 

 

[Lori D.]

It will vary WIDELY, depending on the child and the child's needs, plus how many subjects you want to cover, and how much is extracurricular activities are counted towards hours, as well as more time needed for outsourced online classes or outside the home classes in the middle/high school years. And if you have a student with LDs, any remedial or special therapy types of work can extend your day.

 

And, it depends on if you prefer to do fewer hours a day but work 5 days a week, or school year-round, OR if you prefer to work longer but just 4 days a week.

 

BUT... a VERY rough general scheduling for just the concentrated "seat work", hands-on learning, and supplements might look something like this (without any extra read alouds or outside-the-house extracurriculars for the early elementary grades):

 

1st grade = 1.0 - 1.5 hours / day

2nd grade = 1.5 - 2.0 hours / day

3rd grade = 2.0 - 3.0 hours / day

4th grade = 3.0 - 4.0 hours / day

5th grade = 4.0 - 4.5 hours / day

6th grade = 4.5 - 5.0 hours / day

 

7th/8th grade = 5.0 - 6.0 hours / day

high school = 5.5 - 7.0 hours / day 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2017 by Lori D.

[Jackie]

For what I consider “school workâ€, we have a 4 day week and my daughter did 2 hours/day at 5 years old, 2.5 hours/day at 6 years old, and is doing 3 hours/day at 7 years old. I intend to continue increasing 1/2 hour a day each year. These hours include any required math, language arts, science, social studies, foreign language, and often a chosen “elective†(any topic she wanted direct instruction on that didn’t fit into our usual routines). They do not include family read alouds, extracurricular outside classes like gymnastics or ceramics, or any time voluntarily doing things that could be considered academic such as playing educational apps or free reading.

[spaceman]

I'm considering switching covers next year and we do 7 hours now and plan to for next year. (That's everything, including going for a walk and dance class) He's 11 (5th this year, 6th next)

 

I also do require him to finish on Saturday mornings what wasn't finished before (it rarely happens, is usually my fault, and he seems to like it).

 

I think I'm nervous that the new cover won't like what we do. I mean, it doesn't really matter, there isn't anything wrong with our old cover. I was after more accountability and maybe some friends, which the new cover has. They look over your stuff and make sure you're doing well (and are in fact homeschooling). The other cover just takes money once a year. We don't even turn in attendance.

[spaceman]

It will vary WIDELY, depending on the child and the child's needs, plus how many subjects you want to cover, and how much is extracurricular activities are counted towards hours, as well as more time needed for outsourced online classes or outside the home classes in the middle/high school years. And if you have a student with LDs, any remedial or special therapy types of work can extend your day.

 

And, it depends on if you prefer to do fewer hours a day but work 5 days a week, or school year-round, OR if you prefer to work longer but just 4 days a week.

 

BUT... a VERY rough general scheduling for just the concentrated "seat work" time might look something like this (without any extra read alouds or extracurriculars for the elementary grades) :

 

1st grade = 1.0 - 1.5 hours / day

2nd grade = 1.5 - 2.0 hours / day

3rd grade = 2.0 - 3.0 hours / day

4th grade = 3.0 - 4.0 hours / day

5th grade = 4.0 - 4.5 hours / day

6th grade = 4.5 - 5.0 hours / day

 

7th/8th grade = 5.0 - 6.0 hours / day

high school = 5.5 - 7.0 hours / day

Thank you very much for this and for including that it's seat work.

 

My 7 hours (5th grade) includes exercise and lunch, dropping off his sister at school, science experiments (does that count?).

[Hobbes]

Currently, my newly 8yo goes from about 8:30-11:30, sometimes more or less. That includes 1.5-2 hrs of morning time together, with a lot of reading aloud. My 9yo goes 8:30-12ish, with the same morning time.

 

A couple of days a week we spend about 40 mins during or after lunch doing science or history. We school four days a week.

 

I really think YMMV. I homeschooled K-12 and even in high school, almost never spent more than 4 hours a day on school. Had no problem with entering university or making the Dean's honour list. I think it makes a difference what you want to accomplish. I could have definitely have done more, but we did meet our goals effectively.

[cintinative]

Like others said, it is highly variable based on workload and the kid. Sometimes you may choose not to include certain subjects like languages.  

 

For us, all days but Wed, we start at 9 a.m. and go until 11:30, break for an hour, and then go from 12:30 to about 3.  So five hours with me. Then they have reading for 30 minutes, quizlet (if they haven't done it earlier) and piano (10 minutes), and maybe some copywork  for a total of less than an hour. So 5-6 hours. Wednesdays we have co-op from 9-1 p.m. including a half hour lunch and they do art for 1 hour and also read, do piano, and Headventureland. So also about five hours. They are 5th and 6th grade.   Our coursework is in my signature and I consider us to be doing a rigorous course of study. 

[Lori D.]

Thank you very much for this and for including that it's seat work.

 

My 7 hours (5th grade) includes exercise and lunch, dropping off his sister at school, science experiments (does that count?).

 

Your homeschool, your rules. ;) Of course it counts. :) Sounds like you guys are doing plenty! I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine with your new cover school.

Edited December 24, 2017 by Lori D.

[Jean in Newcastle]

My high schooler does five hours tops. Many days are in the four hour range. But she gets the work done. I did the same with her older brother and he has had a good transition to college. (I used to feel a bit intimidated by the long rigorous schedules that some have but have decided that this works for us. ). As someone else said, YMMV.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Melissa in Australia]

How much do I the instructor do? The whole day

 

From 8 to 11.30 with twins. We have several short breaks in that time. Some of that time is fine motor therapy.

 

Then a 30 minute break for me. Then ds14 from 12 to 4 pm. He has profound dyslexia and I need to work with him for every subject.

[Momto6inIN]

I as the teacher do school from 9-12 and 2-5 plus some grading in the evening with planning sprinkled in during breaks so pretty much all day.

 

K DD: half an hour plus listening in to science and history and sometimes IEW (her choice)

4th grade DD: 9:30-11:30 and 2-4

8th grade DD: 9-12 and 2-5

10th grade DS: 9-12 and 2-5 or sometimes 6

12th grade DS: hard to tell because he works and takes a class at the cc and does his other school work wherever it fits but probably 6-7 hours a day

 

Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk

Edited December 27, 2017 by Momto5inIN

[HomeAgain]

My 2nd grader schools for about 6.5 hours a day/4 days a week.  But before I get shot :lol: , so much of that is movement and play still.  We do a very active history, do p.e. 3-4x a week in organized p.e., activity-based science, and so forth.  Seat work is up to about an hour now, done in 10 minute increments.

[MinivanMom]

Seatwork:

PK-K: 20-30 min

1-3: 1.5-2 hrs

4-5: 2.5-3 hrs

5-8: 4-5 hrs

 

Currently I have 5 kids homeschooling, and I spend 8-11 am actively involved in teaching before taking a break (for me) to take littler kids to the park. I check and discuss work with older kids at noon and again at 3 pm (before & after the littler kids have silent reading). So I'm spending about 4 solid hrs interacting with the kids plus another 2 hrs where the older kids are working while I supervise. 

[Seeking Squirrels]

We usually start around 9:30-10:00 and go until 12:00. Then we start again around 1:00-1:30 and go to about 3:30. A 4th grader and a K. K is usually just playing near us or tagging along with history and science. Her specific K stuff that we sit down and do is probably 20-30 min. 

 

So 30 min for K, ~4 hours for 4th. 

[mytwomonkeys]

8th grader averaging 4 -5 hours a day