I know there have been posts on this before but I can't seem to find them.. I'm wondering how long is long enough for my kids. The second grader doesn't take long.. I'm about short lessons with her.. But what about 6,8,and 9th grades?? It seems like my kids are rushing through their lessons and not really absorbing anything.. I don't know how to get them to slow down.. Not to just do their work to say it's done but to REALLY do it to LEARN. I'm wondering if I shouldn't make a schedule for them.. Suggestions?
I make a schedule for my older two (15, 13) but they tend not to get it all done. I still try! I think if I lower my expectations then they'll think they don't really have to try, kwim? As for length of the school day, my younger goes for about 3 hours or so. My 13 year old goes about 5-6 hrs and my oldest goes about 7-8 hours. My older one is with a charter school and they really lay on the work so thats why her day is longer. If you feel like they're rushing through their lessons, try reviewing the lessons the next day. It doesn't have to take a lot of time. Also, what I do is try to find a clip on You Tube, Discovery Streaming or Khan Academy to let them watch based on what they're studying. Hope this helps...
I don't know if this helps you, but I'll share. My 2nd grader does about 2-2.5 hrs. My ds (who has significantly more work) 4th also does his in 2hrs. ACK. It has given me a bit of heartburn from time to time, but honestly he's just extremely efficient. If I thought it would take me 5-10mins to explain something, he's got it in 2. If I thought it would take him 20mins to do his math, he's done in 10. He hates review, hates fluff, hates busywork. He retains what he is doing, so the only way I could really lengthen his day is to add more practice he doesn't need, or pad it with subjects I don't think need to be taught right now (floor scrubbing 101, doodling with ease 101, daydreaming and timewasting are only available in the spring :wink. It was taking us 2 hrs when we started this year. I've now added all the extras I wanted to add, and it's STILL taking us just 2hrs. And that's with lots of good discussions and laughter. For now, I'm just going with it.
We usually finish around 3:00. I'm making a list for Phillip and Faythe, and they're not done until they've showed me everything on their list checked off. (Or they've explained to my satisfaction why it isn't done, and what (and when) they plan to do about it!)
Our time in school is about 5.5 hours plus some dedicated time to exercise/PE. If they haven't tried a schedule before I might try it. If rushing means they aren't absorbing the lessons I might assess comprehension and have them redo it or have them learn the information from another angle. Or as previously suggested you could possibly add in related DVDs or Youtube videos.
We normally do 5-6.5hrs a day with my 3rd grader (5 days of work in 4 days). When sd was in high school she was doing work all the time. We would sit down together for about 2 - 3 hrs a day to go over material and then she would have to do the work on her own. It should have taken her less time but her time management skills were lacking. It took us a good 3 years to come up with a plan for time management that really worked for her but she was not consistent in implementing it.
Depends on the kid. But, my 5th grader typically works about 3 or 4 hours. My 7th grader about the same on the work I assign. She also has work from a few outside classes that depending on the day can take another hour or so...althought SHE is really good at pacing herself and working out a plan on her own. My 1st grader has MAYBE 1 hour of seat work, all the rest is reading and experiential type learning.
Whatever we can fit in but I try to make sure we cover everything during the week that I have put in my lesson planning. So on average we do four to five hours four days a week. And one day off or less if we need to finish.
From the time they get up until the time they go to bed But I'm guessing you weren't looking for a unschoolery answer. (I just made that up, unschoolery-that's a nice word, don't you think?) But honestly, I don't think it's about time, I think it's about you kids making progress. Some kids will struggle with a concept and it will take them 3 times as long to learn it, other will whiz right through most lessons. Some kids need the clock, some need lists, some just need goals. Everybody is different.
Very nice word, Sonita. UNSCHOOLERY. Wonder if you could get Webster to add it to his dictionary? And very true words, too!
My older guy spends a max of 3 hrs... usually 1.5 hrs. My little guy spends about 15-20 minutes (not daily).
Well, we spent about 5 hours today on our school.. YIKES. I have to say this is the LONGEST day we have ever had.. But We got a LOT accomplished!! I'm adding more in soon so most likely it will get a little bit longer for the older ones.. My youngest took about 3.5 hours to do her work today because she was dragging her feet.. She didn't want to do the math and didn't want to read and on and on.. UGH!! Ds13 never did finish his schoolwork. He was in a horrible mood today. I pushed and he pushed back. He got most of the basics done so I guess we can call it productive in that aspect, but I seriously doubt he absorbed any of it because of his attitude.. (((sigh)))Well, tomorrow IS a new day..
We have been doing school till anywhere from noon to three lately. But since we had PE some days ( baseball games take 4 hours in fall) we have added in Drama ( ds is in two productions) it evens out. High school is taking longer cause there is so very much more to do. Some days we seem to slip through the work and I remind ds that the hard stuff will come again and to enjoy some down time, or go ahead for those days that it takes longer. As for a schedule, I made one up but we have reverted to index cards with the daily plan written out by me pretty much once a week but more often lately once a day.
I'm with mom_2_3 - give them other goodies to reinforce the learning. I'm also an instructional designer for corporate training and that's a big thing we do for grownups. Two-dimensional bookwork only goes so far. Hands-on and experiential reinforcements really cause the learning to solidify. Daughter and I go to the mall often just to meander about. We count things, notice shapes and colors everywhere and use the whole entire place as school. I can't stand staying at home because there's only a limited amount of stuff to experience, because we have a limited amount of space.
I can now say my school days will be much shorter now that I am homeschooling one who is mostly independent. I still see a long day but not like it was. Maybe 8-1 will be our hours.
That is what I expected but we have so much drama going on in the house that he does not stay focused and when I turn my back so to speak to run someone over to the college or to work he slacks. Of course he admitted it to me and told me he needs me to stay there so he will be accountable. lol But we have this week done school from 9am ish to 4-5 ish, on days. We tried to change up things, that was really not working with switching breaks to inside the school day instead of after. I want to be able to allow him to work in the same room as I am working, I have my deadlines too and if the older two would take care of themselves for a couple more weeks we could do this! Thank you homeschooler because you have encouraged me! We can do this!
My 4th grader usually spends about 2 hrs on subjects and it takes about 30 minutes to do work with my DD, a kindergartner. We go to the Y to work out, and my son reads a lot on top of that. Sometimes I think he goes too quickly, so we review what he learned. usually he needs review on Science and History, since those have more reading, but he does great with math, even though he's going quickly, I know he's getting it because he does great on tests. HTH
okay starting tomorrow I am making sure ds is up at 7 again. The plan is he will eat and get started on school while I am writing. Then as he needs assistance I will stop writing and do Teaching Stuff, I have to get these books done so I am working to get to it , I do my best work late at night or early in the am.
We are eclectic homeschoolers. Mondays and Thursdays we usually do a solid 4- 4 1/2 for the 9yrold (plus running practice). The just turned 6yr old usually goes for about 2-3 hours. Tuesdays we do 2 hours in the morning and then the 6yr old has gymnastics for an hour. While she is there the 9yr old works on grammar, history or reading. Then we come home and have 2 hours before girls scouts (they belong to a troop of all homeschooled girls). I try to get us to re-group and focus for an hour but alot of times we just read and count that as time. Wednesdays my girls attend a co-op that takes the place of our lessons that day. Fridays it depends DH has everyother Friday off so we do Field Trips, Family road trips and on the Fridays he is working we take a more unschooled approach. More self directed. Or we'll do a messy experiment or really involved history project.
