How long would you say an 8 year old should spend on math each day for a traditional/classical style homeschool? How long would his peers be spending in public/private classrooms (including homework)? I'm just trying to figure out if I'm asking too much or too little of him, since he hates math and would spend all day looking out the window, playing with his toes, if I'd let him. :roll: Scratch that. He doesn't hate math. He hates being challenged, and math for him is a challenge.
Earlier this week a friend told me that her 8 year old spent 1 hour on math at school and had 30 minutes of homework in grade 3. Now that she is homeschooling, she said it was taking 30 minutes and she is using the same math program.
When 8yo DGS is having a great day, he's done with one math lesson - doing it, having it checked, correcting any mistakes - in about 45 minutes. Lately, I've discovered, though, that Pa-pa has been skipping the mental math exercises (skip counting, usually, flash cards, or whatever else) and has been doing the speed drills, but not having DGS graphing the results like he's supposed to, so maybe a few more minutes.
Ok, so I'm not crazy. I "assign" about 30-45 minutes of math, but sometimes it takes him all day to finish, and sometimes he lets it pile up for 2-3 days at a time so that it carries over into weekend homework. There are days when he finishes quickly, so I was assuming motivation was the problem, not the assignments. Seems I was probably right. He just needs to get his booty in gear!
30-45 minutes sounds reasonable to me for 3rd grade. My 7yo spends about 30 minutes, while my 9yo takes closer to an hour. I sit with them during math time, so they don't have the opportunity to drag it out any longer.
Ever since I switched to Life of Fred math series, I have since given in to a more laissez-faire approach about clocking math. My kids WANT to read the books! My youngest reads them in her spare time for fun! I recommend them to anyone & everyone for their children. I can't say enough good things about it. My youngest is 8 & my older is 10.
I've had my kids do about 45-60 minutes at that age, but I've needed to sit beside them for most of that time.
What I found worked well with dragging out. Set the timer for a half hour (or whatever), and tell him that math is done when the timer goes off. Any math not done will be finished at 6:00 (or whatever time his favorite TV show, etc. comes on). He needs to understand that he will be taking his TV/Computer/Play time to finish his math. There was one time when Rachael realized that she had soccer practice at that time. I looked at her and said, "Then I guess you'll have to call Coach and explain why you won't be at practice tonight...." Boy, did she get it done quickly!!! Now there are times when a kid is really working hard, and it takes longer than expected. You need to give grace at those times. But if a kid is playing around, they need to understand that they are CHOSING to give up their "free" time!
Yes, Jackie... that's exactly what we're doing. I'm also beside him while he's working (my office desk and his school desk are literally inches apart along the same wall of a bedroom). He has been diagnosed with ADD, but I don't really agree with the diagnosis. I think he should've been diagnosed with "typical little boy syndrome". :lol: He has the ability to stay on task for hours when it's something that interests him!
LOL! Oh, I hear that!!! Faythe was the same way. If she had been in school, they would have been pushing medication, and I'd have been fighting them with all I had! She'd have been the kid who would work very diligently for five minutes, then would get up to sharpen her pencil, then looking out the windows, then maybe another five minutes working, then listening to what was happening in the reading group, then a drink of water, then throwing away some trash, working again until her pencil broke and then up to sharpen it again.... By the time most of the class had finished, she'd be lucky to have her first row done, and they would tell her she needed to work through recess.... But at 17, she has matured out of (most) of it!
Have you examined if the program you are using may be the issue and not necessarily HIM? I have a 6 and 7 year old. I pulled them from PS 2 weeks ago and started them on RightStart for math because they were both HATING math. Saying "It's too hard, I don't get it!" etc every day. After basically starting over and giving them a new WAY to do math, they both are LOVING it--even asking to do multiple lessons in a row in the morning. That said, each lesson now takes about 30 minutes. I LOVE that there isn't a ton of worksheets and busy work.
Yeah, we've been through a zillion math programs before finding the one he loves (Life of Fred). We're working on a few skills in IXL right now, though. There are some parts of math that he gets easily and some that he needs extra practice on. We use IXL for practice. He doesn't do worksheets for math.
