Poll: How many hours?

[Brittany1116]

We aren't newbies but workload has naturally increased here and I am curious how many hours of work your kids in grades 6/7/8 are doing each day. Feel free to add your homeschool style or any other pertinent information. 

Edited August 16, 2022 by Brittany1116

[Clemsondana]

State law requires 4 hours/day, but at those ages we weren't usually doing 4 hours of seat work each day.  Maybe in 4th-5th grade it was that much, but not before then.  In the early grades, no more than 2 hours/day of traditional school work.  We had a normal math program, and the other subjects with output were usually vocabulary, spelling, handwriting, and maybe the occasional reading comprehension workbook or grammar/editing workbook, although I think that was more late-elementary.  We didn't do all of those language arts things every day - vocab might be M/W and handwriting on T/Th, for instance, or vocab might be a part of spelling, depending on what I chose to do.  

We also did little/no output for things like lit, poetry, science and history, and music/art appreciation.  We did history, science, and the appreciation subjects as units that lasted 2-6 weeks each, so we didn't lose time to switching gears to cover multiple subjects.  We did MCT language arts in late elementary, but it was usually done orally, while lounging on the couch. 

I worried some because it didn't feel like it would be enough, and if we had needed to do remediation/extra practice at something like phonics or math facts then we would have needed more time.  But, looking at where my kids are now (in middle and high), more seat time doing traditional school would not have made their educations better.  After completing their 2-3 hours of work in elementary, I made sure that they had constructive play options - play doh, legos, craft supplies, army men (one of my kids loved studying history and re-enacting battles, building an armada out of boxes and staffing it with army men) and time outside. 

[wendyroo]

My oldest is going into 8th; I think his 8th grade schedule will look very similar to his 7th grade.

My kiddos are special needs which for us means 1) they need a lot of practice in social settings, 2) they do better with more structure to our days and weeks, and 3) academics come easily.

So DS is "busy" about 40 hours a week...but only about 15 hours of that is sit down academics that he would opt out of if given the choice. He spends 6 hours a week in fun immersion Spanish classes, being a teaching assistant in one of the younger classes, or with a Spanish tutor - so, clearly, "academic", but he doesn't see it that way. He spends 4 hours a week in nature class, 2 hours in different gym classes, 2 hours in different art classes, and 3 hours in chess/logic/escape room type classes. Add to that 3 hours a week of semi-directed literature reading, and 10+ hours of free reading, and it can seem like "school" is a full time job...except that so much of "school" is wake boarding, chess, and playing with hatchets and fire.

If we were to drop all the activities, then DS could get a very rigorous, advanced education in about 24 hours a week...but he would just stare into space and pick paint off the walls for the rest of the time, so that is not the path we choose. 😉

[caffeineandbooks]

We are about to take a jump up for 6th, I think.  Moving up to middle school math, WWS for writing (after no formal program for more than a semester), formally discussing lit, assigning a formal WTM style reading list AND adding a foreign language all in the same year means I'll probably be spending about the same amount of time with this kiddo, but his independent work will increase to a couple of hours each day on top of morning time, family style history and science and some kind of regular meeting with me.

[8filltheheart]

6th-8th graders in our home spend anywhere between 6-8 hrs on school.  They have zero expected work outside of our scheduled school days, so that is for approx 172 days per yr.  

For example, my 7th grader this yr is taking geometry, Russian (this is her 3rd yr), literature, writing/spelling/grammar, history, science, religion, and typing (she does not know how to type, but this is just 2 days per week right now.).  She is also taking violin (advanced) and piano (beginner).  (I don't normally count her practicing in our school hrs, but violin is really starting to take more time. So, for me when thinking in terms of outside commitments, I do have to mentally factor it in.)  My 6th grader's yr is lighter bc there is no foreign language and math is 6th grade math, so she is more like 5-5 1/2 hrs.

[LauraClark]

6th grade for my easily distracted son is about 6-7 hrs (5 if he works diligently). Our daily list is:

Reading, grammar (but we will only do this daily for 10 wks), spelling, writing (2 days of writing strands and 2 days of working on a report of some kind-science/history/book rpt), math, logic, science/history (we alternate and I don't require much outside of listening to me read/discuss), Greek/Latin (we alternate), piano practice, geography.  We also as a family do Bible time, composer study, and art sketching. It sounds like a lot, but some of these are passive listening and some only take 5 min (like art sketching).

Our Fridays are different. School only takes 3-4 hours and a lot of it is done as a family.

[AlexandraMN]

This is my 12 year old's day: 1.5 hours of table time with family (history, bible, nature science/ journaling, art/ music appreciation), 1 hr of math, 1 hr (Visual Latin, Fix-It Grammar, Copywork/ poetry memorization), 1 hour afternoon lunch break, 1 hr independent reading& written narrations (30 minutes lit/ 30 biography or science), 20 minutes of Jump-In Middle School Writing.  This should all be done by 2:30 at the latest.  At least 4 days a week he has to do piano for 30 minutes (we use Hoffman Academy).  Four nights a week we read aloud for 45 min as a family from children's literary classics. 

[EKS]

Back in the day we did between four and six hours.  No breaks except for lunch.  That's not including outside classes or music practice.

[Momto6inIN]

Usually around 5ish hours/day and that includes 45 min of assigned reading. That doesn't include piano practice though. We do 3 hours in the morning, then take a big 2 hour break at lunch and then do school again in the afternoon til it's done.

[freesia]

I would say 7th and 8th is around 6 hours.  It's hard to tell because our days look different bc we have a twice a month co-op, so those weeks the other days are heavier as she often loses the afternoon going to a friend's house.. I don't really count--I just notice how long the day takes.  I don't count music practice into that. My present middle schooler is not taking lessons this year but does play guitar in the co-op worship team and sometimes at church.  I don't count PE bc she does travel soccer. She does a lot of art on her own but it ebbs and flows so, while I count it for art in the year as a whole, I only count the co-op lessons for the purpose of this post.So I guess its 6 hours of straight academics, but that also includes art at co-op.

[MeaganS]

My guess is 5 hours? DD11 is in 6th grade.

[keirin]

Our work load varies from day to day. We do more three days a week and less two to make room for homeschool PE, a co op, and field trips.

On longer days my 6th graders work about 6 hours. On shorter days maybe just 2-3.