How much time do you spend on each subject?

[Michelle T]

I'd love to hear how much time you spend on each school subject with your LD or ADHD kids. Sometimes my eyes bug out when I read on the General Board how much time people spend per subject! 45 - 60 minutes just on math! My raging ADHD'er would explode! For us, math is around 20 minutes per day, and that includes review and a lesson.

 

My guy is 11.5, and we only spend around 10-20 minutes per subject, other than reading, which is 30 minutes of my reading to him, 30 minutes of him reading to himself. Many days, our entire school day is only a couple hours.

 

I often feel a bit panicky when I see how much time others spend on lessons. I can't even imagine 45 minutes on a grammar lesson, but so many do that. I start to worry that I'm shortchanging DS, and that if we spent more time, he wouldn't be so far behind.

 

Okay, either tell me you also do really short lessons, or give me a kick in the pants and tell me I need longer lessons! ;)

Michelle T

[mcconnellboys]

I think you're doing the right thing for your child. I kept lessons short a long time with my older son, too.

 

Regena

[Stacy in NJ]

ds10's attention span. Every year lessons have gotten a bit longer by 5 to 15minutes. Last year (4th grade) he probably spent 30 minutes on his math, this years it's closer to 45 minutes. I'd try to extend his time on topic very gradually on just one or two subjects.

[AngieW in Texas]

My 9.5yo 4th grader:

 

math lesson and workbook - 15-45 minutes, depends on what her math is for the day, usually closer to 20 minutes

math review - 3-5 minutes, one problem each of addition/subtraction/multiplication/division

 

silent reading at independent level - 30 minutes

out loud reading to me at instructional level - 25 minutes

fluency drill - 3 minutes (reads instructional level book for 1 minute, then backs up and repeats 2 more times)

reading game - 3 minutes (words that she couldn't figure out from instructional level book)

nonsense words - 5 minutes

Sequential Spelling - 5-7 minutes orally

Megawords - 5-7 minutes

Flashkids LA3 - 5-7 minutes

writing - 10-20 minutes, using IEW methodology

 

vision builder - 5-7 minutes, to make sure she doesn't lose visual efficiency skills from VT

 

science - 10-15 minutes

 

history - 15-20 minutes

 

SL readaloud (me reading to her) - 20-30 minutes

 

Everything is daily except:

spelling, writing - 4 days/week

reading game, science - 3 days/week

nonsense words - 2 days/week

[Claire]

We spent 20 minutes at a time on lessons for many years. I think it's really hard to accomplish anything meaningful in 10 minutes, so I would try to extend that out by 1 minute a week if you can (using a timer).

 

20 minutes on math was not enough for my dd in elementary grades. I got around that by doing two 20-minute sessions per day on math, ideally with different materials.

 

With some children, it helps to have them get in some physical exercise before each session, or to incorporate physical exercise into the lesson. Can't remember the details, but some parents have their children walk up and down stairs for math facts practice, for example.

[EKS]

My son is also 11.5. He has dyslexia and was diagnosed then undiagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's.

 

When we first started homeschooling when he was 7 our lessons were very short and focused on math and reading. By the time he turned 8 we were doing maybe 1.5 hours of school per day. I was constantly needing to keep him on task.

 

I gradually upped the amount of time spent on lessons. I believe that attention can be trained. Up until this year, I had to be sitting at his side the whole time to make sure he was actually focusing. Every few minutes (sometimes seconds) I had to redirect his attention. I insisted that he do a "normal" amount of work for his grade in each subject starting in 4th grade. Unfortunately, with all his spacing out, it took him about twice as long to complete the work as it should have.

 

We don't do subjects by amount of time, but by how much is accomplished. If one lesson is the normal amount of work to be done in a sitting, then that is what we do, whether it takes 5 minutes (in the case of spelling) or 2 hours (on a really bad day for math).

 

He generally works for between 4-5 hours on any given day. I am no longer sitting next to him when he works. He has been getting much better with his ability to focus recently.

[Holly S/NC]

of 10 minutes per grade per subject.

 

So, for 2nd grade, we used about 20 minutes of math, 20 minutes of reading, etc.

 

We have made it to 5th grade now! :) We do roughly 45 minutes per hard, sit-at-the-desk subjects (math & grammar) and about one hour for history and science (which includes read alouds and projects and writing up one paragraph summary).

 

This was a very gradual process. And we still take lots of breaks as needed (for jumping jacks or shooting baskets or free reading). We school from 8 until 11:30ish most days.

 

I have warned him for 6th grade, the day will get much longer...

 

Holly S

[DianeJM]

When doing oral math drills he runs from one wall of the room to the opposite wall while shouting out the answer. Sometimes between subjects he does 30 jumping jacks. When the weather is good I have him take a few laps around the cul-de-sac in front of our house (he likes to be timed, lol). It helps his attitude I'll tell you, not that he's real negative, but sometimes he gets bogged down. It's easy to tell when he needs activity, sometimes I realize too late that I've forgotten. But I struggle too with whether I'm spending enough time on a subject, especially the 3 R's. Well, I'll just keep trying. All I can do is my best. I've got interruption city over here as well with other kids going here and there during the school day, sheesh.

[AngieW in Texas]

My 9yo has a pair of moon shoes. When it's time for spelling, we go outside and she runs/bounces while shouting out how to spell each of her words.

[Quiver0f10]

My 8 yo who has speech and reading issues:

 

Math: 30 minutes

Reading/Spelling ( SWR, ETC, his phonics reader) 45 minutes( this isn't all at one sitting though. I'd say 20 minutes SWR then we take a break and 25 minutes for ETC and his reader)

Writing: Copies 1 sentence from his phonics book, so @ 5-10 minutes

History/Science is done each twice a week for @ 30 minutes

 

We usualy reread the same phonics page that we read in the AM again in the afternoon.

[Jenstet]

I have a 9 year old daughter that has been diagnosed ADHD and Bi-polar. We don't medicate for the Bi-Polar but she has a very hard time functioning in the PS setting which is why we homeschool. She can spend 20 minutes to 1 hour on math but I sometimes have to break up the lesson into pieces. I use Growing with Grammar so that only takes 10 minutes or less a page, Sequential Speller which takes less than 10 minutes, Wordly Wise a lesson will take us easily a whole week. My point is that I try for 20 minutes or less per subject but if she isn't focused or is having a "bad day" I break it up or leave it for another day. She likes History and Science because I make it very hands on and she likes to color and draw. Those subjects she will stay interested in for at least an hour.

 

I just try to keep in mind that when she was in PS she really was getting very little because the staff had to spend most of the day "managing" her. I can't compare her to other kids because she is different but I do my best as I am sure you do to. Some things we use are weighted blankets, ankle weights and wiggle seats. Those can buy right at wal-mart or target. She also likes to sit on exercise balls sometimes. We even have an inflatable bounce house we blow up in the livingroom for those days she just needs to go go go.