Hey all how many hours a day do you home school. We are working on 3 hours now and she is going crazy!! HELP
She is hateing it!! and everything i have found on here seen to easy for her. she has done 8 papers reading writing and math even some art.
If it's too easy then move on to something harder Never hurts to challenge their thinking. Also try to come up with fun learning activities for days when she is really not into the bookwork. As to the length of time my five year/almost six is doing anywhere from 2-4 hours. Depending on how fast she works through it. She too admits to disliking school. But having discussed what she wants to be when she grows up I try to tell her that won't happen without education. I try to instill that understanding in both my kids by letting them see how it applies to everyday life as well. Like oh did you know we just did math, spelling etc when living everyday life. Somedays are still a struggle with her. But we are getting better with time. Give her time to adjust to the new routine and to your teaching style as well.
My rule of thumb is 30 minutes per grade level. We're doing a little 2nd and a little 3rd this year, and absolutely the max we'll work on a normal day is 2 hours (and that includes breaks). Usually it's more like 45-90 minutes. On a day that he's super motivated, he can be finished in 30 minutes.
With my 6 year old (kinder), we do about 30 minutes of "sit down and learn", with other learning all day.
I have a 5 year old too. She does about an hour. If she's finding it too easy, try looking for some 1st grade work to challenge her. I know my 5 year old would HATE it if she had to do 3 hours of work.
wow!!!! that makes me feel better i thought 3 hours wasnt enough. now i know if she goofs off it will be fine. She is likeing it so far. But it is day 1. I'll look for some 1st grade stuff tonight and see how she does. thanks ladies
My dd is 6 (1st) and we do about 2hrs a day. It stretches a bit longer on gym days, and art days she gets done when she gets done I agree- if she's flying through, it's probably not challenging enough. My dd doesn't struggle with her assignments, necessarily, but has enough new things every day to keep her interested and motivated. I also make sure we mix up HOW we deal with information- for example, we do a lot of worksheets for math, but we do a lot of talking for language arts, use a lot of media sources (vids etc) for social studies, etc etc.
I agree shorter days for younger kids, they only have a fifteen minute attention span at her age. Good job!
Have you tried doing some Charlotte Mason type stuff with her? That is what I am thinking about doing for a lot of subjects next year with my 5 year old. You read short passages of interesting books and then have her narrate back to you or draw a picture to describe what she learned. My son is already using the Draw Write Now series for handwriting and art. It is really fun and cheap on Amazon. Kindergarten should be fun and get the child to love learning for life IMHO. My son has a really long attention span for things that interest him, but definitely not for things that don't!
At age 5 I would keep worksheets to a minimum. You can do things like reading to her, exploring nature, cooking together, educational computer games or websites, doing math on the sidewalk, science experiments, etc. Three hours sitting down doing worksheets or workbooks is very different than three hours spent in active (hands-on) learning. So I would say it isn't about the correct amount of time, but what you do with the time you spend and how she responds to it.
Wow! I saw three hours about fell out of my chair!:shock: We, in no way, hit three hours! I do a little with her, along with my daycare kids and that is about 30 min. Then we do some during naptime. Depending on how long she takes it is about another hour. Sometimes less. The breaking up of time is good for her cause she doesn't like to sit that long. I was told to go by 30 min per subject. We also have the issue of flying through the work. She just ate it up! I just went last night and hunted curriculum after curriculum and decided on going up to 1st grade. The kinder work was simply too easy for her. It would have been a waste of my time and money. The only thing Delaney isn't really doing yet is writing sentences on her own. So I picked a curriculum that did not push that too much. I am excited cause she is excited and this will be more of a challenge for her. I agree on moving up if you think the work is too easy.
I have an 8 year old. The total workload for our day is about 4 1/2 hours by law. We usually do not take that long to do our work. But the part where she has to sit down and listen and work doesn't take but maybe an hour. The rest of it is where she can get up and move around. Nothing says we have to sit at a desk all day long and keep those pencils to the paper, right?
I would like to add that for Kindergarden levels you need to remember this is an age to get them excited for school, let them find it easy its not that much about learning new things and "challenging" them as much as it is getting them into the whole concept of doing school. You should be breaking up time so that its paper ( coloring counting etc) for so long ( find motor work there btw) then on to manipulative work -- creating with clay, sticky strings, legos something that will inspire color learning as well as studying shape and size without forced lessons. Reading-- this one I insist needs to be done with mom as reading first, then trade off pages, or sentences to encourage more reading... make mistakes mom and let her finish the word for you things like that will encourage the child to want to learn more reading words too! Learn to spell small words is good too once they get the three letter words down move up to four if you want that 'challenge' for the child but remember to do all of that with the same idea of "her pace" not just because we parents think our kid can do more and move them on too fast at times. I have taught three kids two are graduated one went out for highschool, I wish I had kept him home up to senior year like his sister and sent her out because he needed more help and she less. But now they are both in college and happily learning what they want to learn. Its a long process but worth it, just don't try to rush it!
When Ems was younger, I double up some of the subjects for credit. So if Ems reads her history for an hour, she got credit for reading and history or credit for two hours. After all, she was reading and doing history. If went to the store, she was learning lifeskills and math. She still worked out of her books but I made it work so she didn't have to sit for all her lessons.
Hi I remembered a quote my mom used to tell me. I tend to live by it when teaching my kiddos, but I thought I'd throw it out there, just as a reminder for me..and maybe as a guide for you. Your brain can only comprehend what your butt can endure. Meaning: As kids get older their attention span and focus ability get better. Now, ALL kids are different. My DS doesn't have the attention to sit for 30 min at a time. He is in 2nd, and we are working on it getting better. His sister, in K, can sit and color for HOURS! Take a look at your child, judge what she is capable of. Try different things. You will find what works best for HER! Don't give up!!!
