What do you do when you need more hours?

[Kela]

My daughter is in K5/1st grade. My state requires so many hours per school year. Today we did about 45 minutes for Bible, 1.5 hours for math (I know that's a lot but she was loving it and I actually had to make her stop.) About 45 minutes for reading and probably 1/2 hour for science. In order to fulfill the requirements we need to do 5.5 hours per day. Our day was still only 3.5 hours of actual instruction time. According to HSLDA, this is not units of study or chapters but actual instruction time. I am doing activities with them such as games and manipulatives in addition to seat work. What else can I add?

[theelfqueen]

How does your regulation describe it? Can you tell us where or quote the reg? 

[wendyroo]

I would count art of all kinds: conventional mediums plus Lego/block building, bathtub paints, stringing beads, play dough, etc.
I would count PE time: playing outside, biking, hiking, swim lessons, etc.
I would count educational shows: Wild Kratts, Super Why, Storybots, etc.
I would count all audiobook and read aloud time including bedtime stories.
I would count music: singing, playing (or playing around with) instruments, learning about instruments, discussing music, etc.
I would count all logic/problem solving/critical thinking: jigsaw puzzles, logic games, etc.
I would count all health and "home ec" instruction: learning about diet, cooking, boating safety, etc.
I would count all classes, museum and zoo visits, even shopping or bank visits if you discuss budgeting/economics/comparison shopping, etc.
I would count technology and computer skills.

Really, I would count all the things they "count" as part of a public school day.  And I would not limit that to only what they normally offer to kids her age...just because they don't offer cooking, computer programming or sex ed to 5 or 6 year old, doesn't mean that we can't include those in our school day.

Then again, take this advice with a grain of salt because I live in a no-regulation state where I don't even have to register my homeschoolers.

[lulalu]

Do the hours need to be certain subjects? Can you count other educational activities? I would count read aloud times, Legos, outside play time, helping in the kitchen, art activities, and so on. 

[ScoutTN]

19 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

I would count art of all kinds: conventional mediums plus Lego/block building, bathtub paints, stringing beads, play dough, etc.
I would count PE time: playing outside, biking, hiking, swim lessons, etc.
I would count educational shows: Wild Kratts, Super Why, Storybots, etc.
I would count all audiobook and read aloud time including bedtime stories.
I would count music: singing, playing (or playing around with) instruments, learning about instruments, discussing music, etc.
I would count all logic/problem solving/critical thinking: jigsaw puzzles, logic games, etc.
I would count all health and "home ec" instruction: learning about diet, cooking, boating safety, etc.
I would count all classes, museum and zoo visits, even shopping or bank visits if you discuss budgeting/economics/comparison shopping, etc.
I would count technology and computer skills.

Really, I would count all the things they "count" as part of a public school day.  And I would not limit that to only what they normally offer to kids her age...just because they don't offer cooking, computer programming or sex ed to 5 or 6 year old, doesn't mean that we can't include those in our school day.

Then again, take this advice with a grain of salt because I live in a no-regulation state where I don't even have to register my homeschoolers.

This! Everything is educational! 

[Lori D.]

Public schools do NOT "instruct" for 5.5 hours straight each day at the kinder/1st age. Nor at any of the elementary ages. For the Kinder/1st ages, at MOST, maybe 2 hours of actual instruction is happening, and the rest of the day is the teacher herding cats, classroom management, re-explaining, and re-directing children on-task.

There is no need to waste your time in homeschooling on that. Count everything you do in real life as school, and just label it in the "jargon" required. Examples:

- Math = any mention or use of numbers, counting, patterns, sorting, etc. during the day
- Language Arts = all of your read-alouds, audiobooks, solo reading, informal writing, etc. etc.
- Field Trips: any errands or outings you do
- Reinforcement: card games, board games, educational computer websites/games, educational videos, etc.
- Social Studies = discussing community/jobs while running errands;
- Arts & Crafts: coloring pages, stickers, painting, stamping, clay, glitter, etc. 
- Music = singing; playing music; listening to music; dancing to music; etc.
- Consumer Sciences: assisting with making/cleaning up breakfast, lunch, snacks, etc.
- PE: morning walk around the block; nature hike, trampoline bouncing, jump roping, etc.

Again, as a homeschooler, you do NOT need -- or WANT -- to imitate a public school classroom. That is NOT going to be in your individual child's best interest.

[Kela]

Those are great suggestion! 

Here are the regulations:

You must provide your child with at least 1,000 hours of instruction every school term.

Six hundred of the 1,000 hours of instruction must be among one or more of the following core subjects:

• reading,
• math,
• social studies,
• language arts, and
• science.

These subjects must be taught consonantly with the child’s age and ability. Of those 600 hours, among the core subjects, 400 must occur at the “regular” homeschool location, which is not defined in law.

[Kela]

If you are homeschooling a child who is younger than 16, you must maintain (but do not need to submit) the following records for the child:

• A plan book, diary, or other record indicating subjects taught and educational activities engaged in. This requirement can be satisfied by keeping a daily log of hours of instruction. (HSLDA offers a fillable spreadsheet that our members can use to keep a daily log, attached below.)
• Samples of your child’s work.
• Academic evaluations. (These could be regular tests in the various subjects, annual standardized tests, etc.)

Alternatively, you can maintain “other written, credible evidence” that is equivalent to the three types of records listed above.

Always have on hand at least two full years' worth of records (unless you are just starting out).

During a child’s elementary and middle school years, you should always have on hand at least two full years' worth of records. For a high school student, the records (for all 4 years) should be kept indefinitely.

[Kela]

I'm not sure what to do about testing. None of her subjects, Miquon Math, 100 Easy Lessons, Bible or Sonlight Science have tests. I will do the standardized tests though.

[Lori D.]

Also, before you get too far into planning about how to track and test... Contact your local homeschooling organization and find out exactly *what* you really DO need for your record keeping, and what other homeschoolers do for filling up their "school hours", tracking hours, etc.

[AnneGG]

I have a first grader and we are in a high regulation situation too. I am naturally a very scheduled and organized person, almost to a fault. I completely understand and respect the other posters saying they would count living life as school, but that doesn’t work here. There is a LOT of planning involved on my end. I tinker around with the activities to ensure we don’t wind up short on our requirements. I’ll post a pic of my daily plan. “The Daily 5” is straight out of the public school playbook, I had it in there last year and my evaluator said it was great. YMMV because technically it does have the adult reading aloud chapters. In my experience, the key is using the educator language. When I type this plan up for my official records I will denote that I used a 5E lesson plan for math. Math Lit is considered the first e, engagement. Miquon worksheet will be evaluate. I haven’t decided on the other aspects yet. 🤣
 

For testing, I just make up my own exit tickets that have the main themes from whatever we learned and then I grade it (not in front of my son because I think it’s ridiculous to grade a first grader.) We’ve also done projects at the end of our science and social studies units and I use those as our “test.” We use Miquon too, but I bought Red Bird math (computer) so I can print out the measured progress. He only does Red Bird once a week. 

Edited September 15, 2021 by AnneGG

[wendyroo]

32 minutes ago, AnneGG said:

I have a first grader and we are in a high regulation situation too. I am naturally a very scheduled and organized person, almost to a fault. I completely understand and respect the other posters saying they would count living life as school, but that doesn’t work here. There is a LOT of planning involved on my end. I tinker around with the activities to ensure we don’t wind up short on our requirements. I’ll post a pic of my daily plan. “The Daily 5” is straight out of the public school playbook, I had it in there last year and my evaluator said it was great. YMMV because technically it does have the adult reading aloud chapters. 
 

For testing, I just make up my own exit tickets that have the main themes from whatever we learned and then I grade it (not in front of my son because I think it’s ridiculous to grade a first grader.) We’ve also done projects at the end of our science and social studies units and I use those as our “test.” We use Miquon too, but I bought Red Bird math (computer) so I can print out the measured progress. He only does Red Bird once a week. 

Am I doing the math right that those times add up to almost 6.5 hours of school for a first grader?!?!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of plan, but around here aiming for that would burn us out and drive us away from homeschooling. Almost all of that work looks like it is high prep, teacher intensive, requires high levels of impulse and self control, long attention spans, and tons of fine motor stamina.

[Clemsondana]

When mine were in early elementary, I had a daily plan that took 1-3 hours - some math, handwriting, reading (phonics or reading comprehension, depending on age), and then a bit of science, history, geography, art, or music (we did these in blocks of 2-6 weeks, so only one at a time).  At the end of each day I listed what we had done in a standard student homework agenda.  Some days might include a hands-on activity (build a model, draw a picture, color a map), and I saved these or took pictures.  Some days had field trips.  I read classic stories (fables, the original Winnie the Pooh, etc) out loud and considered that part of our time, too.  They had outside time or active play inside if the weather was bad, and you could list that, too.  Many of their toys were educational - building toys, games like Memory, floor puzzles with maps or the human body or the solar system, etc.  Those could be counted as science or history time. Their screen time was stuff like Magic School Bus, Wild Kratts, etc, and I'd count that as educational, too, if I needed to.  

With my kids, we could not have done anything approaching direct instruction for 4+ hours/day.  But, they could happily spend a whole day at a kids museum, old-time farm museum, or national park.  We weren't exacting - some days were probably stretching to be 4 hours, but activity days were sometimes 6-8 hours of exploration.  I think that for young kids the hours thing doesn't really fit.  As they get older, they naturally take longer.  

As for the records-keeping, I just got a file box and dumped everything in it.  I had a couple of boxes for each kid.  After 2 years had passed, I'd weed out everything that I didn't want (workbook pages, etc) and keep 1 file folder of examples (one math test, one handwriting page, and any fun projects or neat writing assignments) so that I could compare over the years.  We found that our saved work got smaller, likely because little kid crafts are so bulky, but printed copies of a high schooler's typed papers are very compact (although math is still bulky). 

Edited to say:  Other than math, handwriting, maybe spelling, and the occasional project, we did very little output  in early elementary.  I had planned to do more school-ish things, but found that having to produce output got in the way of learning.  My 2nd grader didn't write papers, but they used army men to re-enact various famous battles for fun.  Sometimes I'd snap a picture.  We started working on output more in 5-6 grade, when I focus on essay writing.  

Edited September 15, 2021 by Clemsondana

[ieta_cassiopeia]

12 hours ago, Kela said:

My daughter is in K5/1st grade. My state requires so many hours per school year. Today we did about 45 minutes for Bible, 1.5 hours for math (I know that's a lot but she was loving it and I actually had to make her stop.) About 45 minutes for reading and probably 1/2 hour for science. In order to fulfill the requirements we need to do 5.5 hours per day. Our day was still only 3.5 hours of actual instruction time. According to HSLDA, this is not units of study or chapters but actual instruction time. I am doing activities with them such as games and manipulatives in addition to seat work. What else can I add?

Is she doing any writing (or anything that could prepare the wrists for the effort of writing, such as creating art)? Also, is she doing any physical education? These don't necessarily have to happen every day, but they'd definitely help your daughter's education, deserve some place in the plan if not already there, and should be included in your hour count for state purposes as and when they are included.

If you're not sure if your daughter can handle much more output, pick something that is all or mostly input, like reading books (or having books read to her, either by you or by technology), watching educational videos or music appreciation. These can be things you can do without having to put in as much work as for subjects like maths (where teaching effort can't really be scaled down at this age).

The other option is to extend your school year. A 40-week year with a 1000-hour requirement means only 5 hours of teaching per weekday, except for those weeks where you have an all-day outing (pretty much all of which are educational at this age), when the other days only need 4.5 hours of teaching. And at first-grader age, I think it is likely the child will learn more by having more consistent education than doing longer hours punctuated by long holidays.

Edited September 15, 2021 by ieta_cassiopeia

[Noreen Claire]

It looks like you're homeschooling in Missouri? A quick Google search shows that school isn't compulsory in MO until age seven.

https://fhe-mo.org/missourilaw

 

(I'm not in MO. Find a local homeschool group and ask for help!)

ETA: find a LOCAL group, and don't just take what hslda says for truth without looking into it. They aren't always correct. 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Noreen Claire

[Lori D.]

3 hours ago, wendyroo said:

...There is absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of plan, but around here aiming for that would burn us out and drive us away from homeschooling. Almost all of that work looks like it is high prep, teacher intensive, requires high levels of impulse and self control, long attention spans, and tons of fine motor stamina.

Agree. That is one of the problems in how public schools are set up for elementary ages. Because of declining test scores and ability with basic math & reading skills, rather than actually directly addressing the problems, administrators say "we need more rigor" -- and shove increasing amounts of inappropriate work for that age into lower and lower grades, believing that is what "rigor" is, and that "rigor" solves the problem.

Rather than increasing academic skills and performance, the result is:  increased seat work + decreased time for exploration/imaginative play = burned out on learning by 4th/5th grade.

Back to scheduling academics in the homeschool setting:

Because homeschooling allows for so much learning to happen in a short period of time through 1-on-1 teaching/tutoring, the general rule of thumb is roughly 1 hour of academics per grade level. So 1 to 1.5 hours for a full-on 1st grader is plenty -- with a young kinder/1st grader, 1 hour of formal work is plenty.

If a child is genuinely interested in doing more, and enjoys reading/read-alouds, activities, exploring, etc. -- then I could see a 5yo kinder/1st student doing something like 15 minutes of morning "together time + 45-60 minutes of core subjects (math & LA) + 30-60 minutes of content subjects (Science, Social Studies) + 15 minutes of rotating 1-2x/week for each of Art/Music/other subject(s). So a total of 2-2.5 hours of formal, structured learning time per day.

With all the great suggestions from @wendyroo, @Clemsondana, and @Noreen Claire -- LOTS of informal activities can be put on the schedule to fill high-regulation state needs, while NOT burning out child (or parent)...

Edited September 15, 2021 by Lori D.

[AnneGG]

5 hours ago, wendyroo said:

Am I doing the math right that those times add up to almost 6.5 hours of school for a first grader?!?!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of plan, but around here aiming for that would burn us out and drive us away from homeschooling. Almost all of that work looks like it is high prep, teacher intensive, requires high levels of impulse and self control, long attention spans, and tons of fine motor stamina.

I’m trying to bank some extra time since we are getting ready to move and will not be doing anywhere near 5.5 hours for several weeks.

Its not hours of formal sit down school at all. It’s TV that happens to correlate (peg + cat) , it’s books that I frame as teaching time, it’s games and activity I deem as exploration (making cookies and playing using our senses), it’s a walk around the block and tallying up taxis we spot. 
 

It’s definitely high prep. He’s the only kid I homeschool so I have the time. The professionals (he has therapies for SN) in our life are definitely against homeschool so that adds another layer of stress, not knowing if and when the authorities may demand proof of education.

As I said, a lot of proving your hours just comes down to knowing the educational jargon. Daily 5/5 E/ Workshops don’t have to be formal desk work , they are a code for plugging in whatever it is you are doing. If you were planning to clean the house together, plug it into a lesson plan. There are like 100 ways to make that sound academic and actually be academic. 
 

We all do what we need to do and what works for us in our specific situations. Maybe one day I won’t have to do all of this.

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by AnneGG

[AnneGG]

OP do you have an evaluator? If so, I’d recommend checking with him or her directly. Mine has a list of do’s and don’t that really outline everything. I turn stuff in every 9 weeks so that I don’t have a big project at the end. It’s also cheaper that way.🤣

[cbollin]

When I heard the 5.5 hrs a day... I kinda figured Missouri. Why? Because I misunderstood it that way when I was looking at laws in case we moved there to be nearer dh's family.  glad that did not happen. but.  anyway.....  Agreeing to check if you're required to count hours before a certain age.  Most of my friends did not worry about counting hours like that before a certain age due to the laws.  Let me share their collective experiences. and yes, the mom graduated her children to college, etc......

My Missouri friends were big on telling me, 1000 hours does not mean 180 days at 5.5 hours a day. I was really freaked out about it with my youngest who just could not do that.

They were quick to remind me that life/learning/school happens all year round. So those non M-F hours count.

They counted nature walks as science in those early years.  Church time was "bible lessons" (aka non-core subjects).   and one of them was very insistent that it was part of "social studies" in early years to learn "life skills" as chores, etc.  That same person was also insistent that once they were older, regularly establish chores were not counted.  But cooking in early years for that person was counted in her core hours. Why? lots of measuring and clock reading was applied math.

definitely echoing to find some local groups.

 

ps: disclaimer. I'm not a legal person and I did not end up moving there. so this is all hearsay from my friends. and is food for thought how to approach it

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by cbollin

[Zinnia2]

We used to live in a state with an hour requirement.  I counted everything--play dates with friends, hikes in the woods during the day, co-op day, choir practice, sports practice, all the things.  I also counted snack time as part of the time.   My kids have always enjoyed read-alouds, and for us, nap time morphed into reading time, so that was a full hour of me reading or audio books that I counted as well.  I figure if public school includes "drop everything and read" time, that's pretty much the equivalent.  

Edited September 17, 2021 by BetsyT

[Renai]

On 9/15/2021 at 12:28 PM, AnneGG said:

 

As I said, a lot of proving your hours just comes down to knowing the educational jargon. Daily 5/5 E/ Workshops don’t have to be formal desk work , they are a code for plugging in whatever it is you are doing. If you were planning to clean the house together, plug it into a lesson plan. There are like 100 ways to make that sound academic and actually be academic. 

We all do what we need to do and what works for us in our specific situations. Maybe one day I won’t have to do all of this.

 

When I worked in b & m prek in a public school (while still homeschooling my kids), I'd have the older grade teachers walking in and commenting about how the kids only played all day, insinuating I didn't work much. I finally put up the prek standards (correlated with the future kindergarten standards) being covered (they were already in the posted required lesson plans) on a large sheet every week on the bulletin board. That was the language they understood.

Does anyone else remember Paula's lesson plan for "Digging in the Dirt?" Back in 2004 or so... I think I have it around here somewhere...

Edited September 18, 2021 by Renai
added info

[Lori D.]

7 hours ago, Renai said:

... Does anyone else remember Paula's lesson plan for "Digging in the Dirt?" Back in 2004 or so... I think I have it around here somewhere...

All I can think of is Paula's Archives -- the Boredom Busters page has a lot of great ideas of activities that build motor skills and/or could count towards PE, Art, Science, or other... 😄 

Or is it this Paula, of Paula's Primary Classroom blog? Here's the blog post on "Get Dirty with Darling and Delightful Ideas for 'D'".

Or someone else named Paula?? 😄 

[Renai]

56 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

All I can think of is Paula's Archives -- the Boredom Busters page has a lot of great ideas of activities that build motor skills and/or could count towards PE, Art, Science, or other... 😄 

Or is it this Paula, of Paula's Primary Classroom blog? Here's the blog post on "Get Dirty with Darling and Delightful Ideas for 'D'".

Or someone else named Paula?? 😄 

Yes, that's the Paula. She had posted on the old WTM forum and I had copied the post. I can't find it right now though. Someone had asked if it was okay if their 4 year old was just outside digging in the dirt. Of course it was, and Paula put it in a lesson plan, ie, educationese. It was a classic post, written around 2004 or so...

[Lori D.]

26 minutes ago, Renai said:

Yes, that's the Paula. She had posted on the old WTM forum and I had copied the post. I can't find it right now though. Someone had asked if it was okay if their 4 year old was just outside digging in the dirt. Of course it was, and Paula put it in a lesson plan, ie, educationese. It was a classic post, written around 2004 or so...

Alas, I don't think we can search that far back. That would have been on the original boards, and I don't think we can "get" to those posts anymore. I think that was Paula H. I remember she had published Vocabulary Vine, a root-based vocabulary study. 😄 She had great stuff. I hope you can find that lesson plan and repost it! 

[kiwik]

5.5 hours is more than the kids here do at school.  They do 4.5 hours when you take the 1.5 hours outside play at morning tea and lunch and it jumps up to about 5.25 at high school.  We do have a 40 week years but there are probably a week of public holidays and teacher only days so 39 is probably more accurate.  I would be inclined to have 2 hours quiet time a day with audio books and a hard copy book to match and count that as reading  plus an hour outside play a day and call it PE. That would leave you with 2.5 hours to do the rest.

[73349]

Do make sure you are counting library/read-alouds/independent book time & non-required writing activities as language arts (e.g., the student just decides to write to Grandma), discussing where the groceries came from as social studies (Let's see on the map where this pineapple came from!), and all the other things you do that are truly learning activities that many educated people just consider part of parenting but actually build valuable academic knowledge.

Some people bash "kitchen math" (which I get if it's the only math people are doing) as school but this month, my 8th-grader has recognized and easily solved multiple algebra problems in the format y = b - x  because of the way that back in elementary school, we would count together when filling the muffin tin, (12 empty and 0 full, 11 empty and 1 full, etc.). So if that's how you do cooking/baking together--mathematically--by all means, count it as hands-on math practice.

Counting hours in lower elementary sounds very frustrating--we did maybe 2 hours a day (and about such 220 days) of seat work at that level. Best wishes to you as you manage the administrivia!

Edited September 20, 2021 by Carolina Wren

[Kela]

Thanks for all the great ideas! How would I log field trips? Library trips, etc? Also, what is the difference between language arts and reading? My child is not reading independently yet, does being read to count? Would Bible count as reading? Their program includes me reading a Bible story while they color a corresponding picture, then having comprehension questions as well as a Bible verse.

[Clemsondana]

For field trips, I just listed where we went in our agenda.  For hours for field trips, library time, etc, just write how long you were there.  If you listen to a book on tape in the car, count that, too.  We included phonics, literature, reading comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar in language arts (obviously not all of them at all ages). If I read out loud, it counted.  Reading the Bible is fine.  Entire classes are taught on the Bible as literature, and reading comprehension can be done with any story, Bible or otherwise.  When a student can't read, literature/poetry can only be learned by having it read to them, so listening to them is fine.  Mine loved fables at that age. 

[73349]

46 minutes ago, Kela said:

Thanks for all the great ideas! How would I log field trips? Library trips, etc? Also, what is the difference between language arts and reading? My child is not reading independently yet, does being read to count? Would Bible count as reading? Their program includes me reading a Bible story while they color a corresponding picture, then having comprehension questions as well as a Bible verse.

The English language arts can include reading (including listening to books/poems and answering reading comprehension questions), writing (including spelling and playing-with-words activities, and I'd include penmanship), speaking (e.g., being asked to recount a story to someone else), drama (ever do sock puppet shows?), vocabulary work, and anything else that will develop the use of language. If a library trip is to get and read stories, it's language arts.

Field trips can go with whatever subject they fit best with. A farm, to learn where food comes from? Social studies. A science museum, to learn about ecosystems in your region? Science.

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, Kela said:

... Also, what is the difference between language arts and reading? My child is not reading independently yet, does being read to count? Would Bible count as reading? Their program includes me reading a Bible story while they color a corresponding picture, then having comprehension questions as well as a Bible verse.

Yes, read-alouds DO count!  😄 Language Arts is "the study of grammar, composition [writing], spelling, and (sometimes) public speaking, typically taught as a single subject in elementary and middle school". Especially in pre-school/kinder/early elementary, LA also includes solo reading, learning to read, read-alouds, etc. In middle school/high school, reading becomes the more formal study of "Literature", and overall, "Language Arts" becomes "English" (focus on Literature & Writing).

Language Arts in the elementary grades includes:
- Read-alouds - including listening to audiobooks (and listening while coloring or other fidget/busy hands activity)
- Reading - solo (including just looking at books, wordless books, etc.); reading encouragement program such as Library summer reading, or the during the school year Book-It program
- Reading - instruction, comprehension, etc.
- Reading support/supplemental - computer software /website games or activities; educational board/card game; any game involving reading
- Phonics - worksheets, computer software/website games or instructional; educational board/card games
- Handwriting/Penmanship
- Oral Narration
- Writing - includes thank you to grandma, vacation post cards to friends, blog entries, real-life writing, etc.
- Spelling
- Grammar
- Vocabulary

 

1 hour ago, Kela said:

... How would I log field trips? Library trips, etc? 

I'd call those "Educational Support Activities", or maybe "Supplemental Educational Activities". If it easily breaks down into sub categories, then go for it. But if it's a wonky activity that is difficult to categorize as "history" or "LA", just list the activity under the general heading and log the hours.

If there are frequent activities, then create a sub-category for it and log hours. Example: Library -- and you can note if it was for a library program, or to browse, or whatever. Or for Field Trips, list the individual trip (zoo; park; science museum; history monument; etc.) and log hours.

ETA -- PS
Also, don't forget to count any Occupational Therapy hours -- both those done with a therapist, as well as any at-home exercises/therapies. OT is a critical educational support activity.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Lori D.

[Janeway]

On 9/14/2021 at 7:41 PM, Kela said:

My daughter is in K5/1st grade. My state requires so many hours per school year. Today we did about 45 minutes for Bible, 1.5 hours for math (I know that's a lot but she was loving it and I actually had to make her stop.) About 45 minutes for reading and probably 1/2 hour for science. In order to fulfill the requirements we need to do 5.5 hours per day. Our day was still only 3.5 hours of actual instruction time. According to HSLDA, this is not units of study or chapters but actual instruction time. I am doing activities with them such as games and manipulatives in addition to seat work. What else can I add?

You do not just count actual instruction time. In the public school, you would count recess, lunch, bathroom breaks, down time, free time, etc. 

[Expatabroad]

I was a Missouri homeschooler before we moved overseas.  I knew lots of homeschool families, and I have never heard of anyone asking for records or enforcement.  Missouri is a no-notification, very low regulation state.  It is incredibly homeschool friendly.  I would not stress about getting your hours exact.  I would set up a model week of 28 hours a week for 36 weeks or 25 hours a week for 40 weeks.  (8 hours of reading/ELA, 5 hours of math, 5 hours of science/social studies, 5 hours of Bible, 5 hours of art/PE/music for example).  Then daily or weekly, check off that you have covered those time blocks (approximately!!! it will even out in the end).  And everything counts!  Readalouds, board games, Sunday School, recess, nature walks, soccer practice, library trips, etc.  Really, think about a typical day and most everything you do will be educational for a 6 year old.  

 

For evaluations, take some pictures/video early in the year of reading ability, math skills, public speaking, and memory work.  Then take some pictures at the end of the year to compare.  Along the way, video/take pictures of any science experiments, field trips, soccer games, pile of books you read.  Seesaw is a great app to record all this.  Don't go crazy with this!!  A lot of people don't keep any records at all in Missouri.  

 

[NorthernBeth]

Just chiming in on your question about language arts:  listening to a story and being able to retell it, ask questions, state an opinion, etc are definitely part of language arts and would be part of oral comprehension.  Essentially you are role-modelling the way to think about what you read.  

Also part of language arts:

grammar

printing

copywork

creative writing

creative story-telling

letter work

phonics 

reading

following oral directions

talking to peers

explaining a project/ artwork, etc. ( speaking skills) 

vocabulary

word  usage

retelling a story through puppets, or acting or a cartoon script.

and in my area, media literacy is also included so creating a poster, using a paint program on your computer, taking a photograph, watching and discussing a TV show, looking a ads in magazines or online, etc.

Language arts is so wide open.