More Middle School Workload Questions

[Maria327]

When considering your middle school student's workload (maybe using the general guideline of an hour of school work per grade), do you count musical instrument practice? What about family read-alouds and lighter "morning time" subjects (poetry, hymn singing, etc.) that don't require a lot of focused effort from your child but still take up some time? 

After academic work, music practice (if that applies to your child), chores, meal times, any exercise, and whatever outside activities, how much self-directed free time does your middle schooler have?

[SilverMoon]

Our musical talent is making a bussin' playlist on Spotify. 🙃 If its bigger than an elective course would be I'd likely treat it like an extracurricular. 

The only school anything mine share this year is a Broadway elective, but they're doing the work independently through the week and we watch the musicals as a family on the weekends. We don't do morning/basket time. Both boys strongly prefer to start their days by reading their literature and being left alone. (Me too!) I'm really not a fan of little subjects though. This year poetry is random units put in English for one and in world geography for the other.

Counts for who or what though? 🤷‍♀️ I'm more focused on doing a day's worth of each subject and not trying to fill a specific amount of time. That weekend musical definitely "counts" even though it's not taking focused effort. 

My current 7th grader is a more motivated student than most of his older siblings were. He has a good work ethic and makes sure that he has spare time for games and a shower before dance. He works quicker than his older siblings did but easily covers more. He's at his dance studio at least five days a week, taking 1-3 classes each day. His spare time at home depends on when he wakes up and how well he stayed focused. When he comes home he eats and has more time with older siblings or to do what he pleases. He has enough downtime to be centered and not feeling like his life is just school and dance. 

Edited October 3, 2023 by SilverMoon

[LauraClark]

I count instrument practice for my 7th grader because it is not something he would do himself. I don't count family reading time-he doesn't have to sit through those, but it is his favorite thing to do, I think. My goal is around 5.5 hours of work (he lengthens it out to 7 and I'm working on seeing what I can combine or get rid of). So, probably 5 hours of undirected time?

[madteaparty]

Well if it helps at all my kid in brick and mortar school has very little undirected time, and she plays no instrument. Any free time she would play Fortnite with her dad so it’s no great loss 😉 

[lmrich]

I would not - they would still need to practice if they went  to school in  a building.  

I also would  not  'count' the morning  meeting or  singing time either. But then again, I did not count hours, I 'counted' getting through the assignment with understanding.  Some days  were long and some were shorter. Sometimes work  spilled into the weekend...

[8filltheheart]

When I say approx number of hrs/grade level, it truly means approx.  🙂  I do not count her music practice as part of her school day, but equally, on the day she has her violin lesson and orchestra, I give her a lighter day in some subjects bc she is going until late at night.  My objective is ensuring my kids receive a quality education.

This is my 8th grader's approx daily schedule (though she is taking a full high school load) is something along the lines of 1.5 hrs math, 1 hr history, 1 hr science, 45mins -1 hr Russian, 1 hr lit, 30 mins religion, 30-45 mins writing/grammar.   Some days are longer.  Some days are shorter.  

FWIW, she had been practicing violin only 30ish mins per day. Sometime this summer she upped it to 45 mins to an hr.  She is currently prepping for All State orchestra auditions and she has upped her practice to 2-3 hrs per day.  (The pieces are very challenging.)  She is also taking piano this yr.  On top of these, she is also taking private voice lessons and sings in choir (also preparing for All State choir auditions.)  All of these are 100% her.  I have never required my kids to learn to play an instrument or participate in the arts.  If they want to, sure.  But it isn't a *have to.*

 

[wendyroo]

I've always approached this from the other direction and decided how much free time was healthy for each individual child.

My current 9th grader has some interesting, very worthwhile hobbies (art, Dungeons and Dragons, robotics), but he would NEVER willingly spend free time on anything more productive than texted meme wars with his friends, so I tend to limit his truly free time to 2 hours or less per day. It's not that he doesn't want to spend time on his hobbies, but he has autism, ADHD and anxiety, and mustering the executive function to choose and implement a hobby is much harder for him than just sitting down and letting his phone mindlessly entertain him.

So for him I mentally categorize some activities as "recreational", meaning they are structured and organized rather than free-choice, but they are activities that he enjoys once I prop him into it.

Therefore, to create a schedule for him, I start with an empty week and then mark out sleep, meals, hygiene, chores, free time and recreational activities that I am insisting on. Then I fill the rest with "school", making sure to leave plenty of margin for filling his water bottle or checking the mail box about every 30 minutes. 😏 That means he ends up with quite a bit of "school" time, but it is certainly not endless desks and textbooks. That "school" is a mix of really horrible things (writing) and fairly enjoyable things (Great Courses Lectures) that add up to a well rounded education.

Also of note, our lives and schedules don't lend themselves at all to a neat breakdown of daily subjects. My kids spend one whole day in a Spanish immersion program, so they accomplish very little other school that day. They also spend one full day at a pubic school shared-time program taking in-person electives, so again, very little other school gets done. Add in music lessons, gymnastics, dual enrollment, therapy appointments for everyone and three kids' worth of extracurriculars, and every day looks different - I aim for their lives to be well rounded at the week and month levels, not at the day level. I am thankful my state has almost no regulation, and that I don't have to make meaningless distinctions about what "counts".

[Nm.]

Wow!! Wendy that is awesome… thank you!  Is this a time schedule like MOTH?

Edited October 3, 2023 by Nm.

[wendyroo]

5 minutes ago, Nm. said:

Wow!! Wendy that is awesome… thank you!  Is this a time schedule like MOTH?

MOTH? Is that Managers of their Home?

I don't have any experience with that.

Once my kids are in upper elementary we make their schedules together...and expect to tweak them multiple times until they work well for us.

We start by marking all the sleep, meals, hygiene, chores, and scheduled activities on a weekly calendar.
Then we make a list of all the "school" activities and how long we expect them to take: Math (30 minutes) x 6 sessions, etc.
Then we start plugging "school" into the weekly schedule.
If we run out of empty time long before we run out of school stuff, then we have to majorly re-evaluate.
More commonly, we run out of empty time with just a couple school activities left, and we have to make a couple choices like dropping from 4 spelling sessions to 3, etc.

The most important step is then seeing how the schedule works for the next couple weeks. Did we try to pack too much into Monday morning before piano? Are spelling sessions regularly taking longer than allotted; should we allow more time or split up the lessons into smaller bites?, etc.

[Nm.]

Yes it sounds similar.  So you have a specific time schedule though, not just a routine?

[wendyroo]

1 hour ago, Nm. said:

Yes it sounds similar.  So you have a specific time schedule though, not just a routine?

Well, we have specific time sign posts based on where we need to go each day. 

My public schooler needs to be on the bus at 7:30, so that dictates when we all get up and eat breakfast. 

Then, for example, two days a week I need to leave at 10:30 to take my oldest to dual enrollment. So we all have goals for what subjects will be accomplished by then. I try to have the last subject in the block be something like reading or typing that can expand or contact to fill the remaining time depending on how long the previous subjects took. Then 10:30 is the end of that block, I jump in the car with the youngest and the oldest, and leave the 10 year old home (DH works from home) to practice piano until we get home. When we get home we eat lunch and then head to back to back therapy for the 7 and 10 year olds where each gets 30 minutes of independent work time and 30 minutes of one on one time with me while their sibling is with the therapist.

So that is how our days go. I think of each different block or work location separately and plan what we hope to accomplish. Days have 0 to 3 separate work blocks, and I am always taking note of which ones run smoothly, which ones cause stress, which ones get finished too early, etc. 

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

We have never considered chores or outside activities part of school, & stopped counting instrument practice as school this year in 5th grade. 

I do still count read-alouds & assigned reading, as one of the skills DS is actively developing is how to pace himself - which includes balancing simpler & more taxing work - but we don’t incorporate much “little stuff”. He does better with fewer subjects at a depth he can really dig into. 

He is involved in a number of extracurricular activities (8hrs / week, excluding monthly campouts) & practices his instrument 45min/day. He still has ample free time - minimum 2hrs daily, longer on Mondays, Fridays, & the weekend. Sometimes we participate in additional activities or social gatherings during that time, but that’s by choice - he’s very extroverted. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Shoes+Ships+SealingWax