How many hours per day?

[2mama]

We have been homeschooling since the beginging of this "school year" and are just wondering if what dd is doing is similar to what others her age do.
I really don't know how much time we put into it a day as we are pretty electic and would like to concider all of her personal reading time as learning as prior to HSing she was not an avid reader and that has changed significantly. :

Do you all do the amount per day recommended/ required by the state you reside in? Do you count free reading time? I know it probably varies widely. I know this is working for us right now, but I just need some reassurance I guess..

Thanks in advance!

[LilyGrace]

We don't have any requirements for hours/days per year, but I'd say we average about 3-4 hours a day. If it was just bookwork it would be an hour or so, but with the hands on projects and other stuff..it just adds up.

I don't count free reading time, computer time, or anything outside of the plan.

[ohiomommy1122]

my son is 8 and we do about 4-5 hours but that does not included educational shows , computer games that are educational or free reading

when he was is k and 1 more like 1-3 hours not including other things mentioned above

[elizawill]

my dd is 7. we do 1-2 hours a day tops. my son will be 5. i don't even considered him homeschooled yet. hth.

[Lillian J]

We belonged to a little public school "homeschooling" program when we first began. In those days, they weren't in the least intrusive except for asking that four hours a day of educational activities were going on. So I kept a loose journal where I commented on all the reading I did aloud for him, all his time spent looking at books or looking things up, our nature walks, all our support group park days (hey, that was about learning to socialize and play in group settings, etc.), all our little field trips, the cub scout meetings, the 4H meetings, and all the time spent working on the projects from both of those things.

It also included whatever time we spent messing around with math and science experiment exploration. Time spent walking in nature, of course, was part of it. And I included time spent listening to audio stories.

I included all time spent playing games, whether they were ordinarily considered "educational" ones or not, because I think all games are educational in various ways. And his time in aikido classes was educational time. Time spent on computer games was also included.

I included time spent watching TV shows he got some sort of learning from, and those included some old sit coms and cartoons that inspired his delighted observations about the details of how humor is presented by professionals. Time spent building with legos and such was included.

In other words, I made comments about his whole life, because there wasn't just one separated part of it that was educational. The "teachers" and administrator at the program loved the write-ups and the photos I sometimes included of games and other activities. Lillian

[Mallory]

My school age boys are 3rd and 2nd, and last year I had my 6th grade sister as well.

When I plan, I try to limit school work to about 1/2 hour to an hour per grade. Up to a total of say 4-5 hours a day.

So my plans for my 2nd grader are about 1 hour per day, and my 3rd grader does more like 2 1/2 hours per day. For my sis last year she had about 4 hours of work and maybe another hour of reading. If I find that they are regularly spending more time then my upper limits, then I change what I have planned.

We also do another hour or two a day of read alouds.

And of course spend lots of time doing all those other things Lillian mentioned.

[scheelimama]

DD is 5, almost 6 and in K. We do 1-2 hours of planned schoolwork each day. That may or may not be bookwork, but it is planned/scheduled work for the day. That does not include educational videos, computer time, random life learning experiences, or read alouds (although I will count that time next year, as of now, read alouds are not scheduled curriculum, just done for fun, next year they will be scheduled curriculum work). She spends 30-60 min. per day playing mostly educational computer games.

[moominmamma]

Sit-down academics: 0-45 minutes per day
Music practice: 1-2 hours a day
Bedtime readaloud: ~ 1 hour
Documentaries, activities, hobbies, life: variable

My kids at home are 6, 10 and 12.

Miranda

[theretohere]

DD 1 is almost 5.
She does daily:
-20-30 mins of phonics. We stop when she wants to stop
-10 mins of so of catechism

The rest is guided by her. If she doesn't want to do anything but pretend to be an astronaut princess then that's fine- or if she wants to build something messy or do science experiments or workbooks- that's fine, too.

[Whistler]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

In other words, I made comments about his whole life, because there wasn't just one separated part of it that was educational.

I love this!!! I was thinking to myself....uhm... we spend most of the non-sleeping hours on learning.

It is hard to separate out the "schooly" subjects because DD will be "playing on the computer" at the same time she is "learning to read". Or she'll be "building a lincoln log house with her little brother" and at the same time "practicing singing her violin song" at the top of her lungs.

Depending how you look at it, we spend almost no time "doing school" and yet we spend oodles of time "learning". Happily in my state I don't have to prove that to anyone in any written form. I suppose I could if I had to though.

[ohiomommy1122]

wow maybe I need to ease up on school

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by ohiomommy1122

wow maybe I need to ease up on school

Are your kids happy? Are you? Then you have the right balance, IMO.

[ancoda]

Most days we do about 2-3 hours a day. Though there are the days like today that I ask him to do an assignment that should take 45 minutes tops and 4 hours later he is still sitting at the table rolling his pencils around, and anything else he can think of not to have to do writing assignments. So some days up to 6 hours, but only because he doesn't feel like working at all that day, but this happens too many days a week lately to be willing to just take off a day every time he wants to do this.

[annettemarie]

It's hard to peg down because so much of "school" is integrated into life. But, we start around 8:45 and are done around 11 or 11:30, then start again around 1 and are done by 2 or 2:30. This is for a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old.

[Patchfire]

Most days dd can do any seated, written work in 1.5 to 3 hours. That's very much dependent on how much daydreaming she does. I know that she can, when motivated, do it in 1.5 hours! Then she reads 'assigned' reading for 1-2 hours, depending on the week. She also reads a lot on her own. She's in third grade by age, above "grade level" significantly in some areas and significantly below "grade level" in others.

[Lillian J]

In regard to writing, when my son was almost 7, he started 1st grade in a small private school, and they did very little writing that year - a few lines here and there. After that year, we homeschooled, and he did very little writing at all. When he did write a little more at around age 9, it wasn't much, and he had a little electronic spell-checker for looking up words he wasn't sure of. I began to realize, though, that it was too much to do the handwriting, the composition, and the composition all at once - they're all separate things. He enjoyed learning italic writing, but that was a separate thing.

When he was 11, I wondered if he'd ever have an interest in writing, and friends who's children were older told me he'd write when he had something he wanted to write about. I thought that was easy enough for them to say, because they'd found out that their children did write later - but it was no help to my anxiety. And then when he was 13, he started writing (on the computer) in a big creative burst in response to a friend's request for him to contribute an article to a homeschooling newsletter - and he never stopped writing. He and his friends even used to write long, creative essay emails to one another, and did their IMs in rhymes for a while - they were all readers, and they enjoyed seeing how creative they could be. They learned to be good spellers, too, from using their spell checkers and noticing what errors came up each time. And for some time, his focus in college was writing.

Many little boys find writing almost physically painful, but there's really no hurry - they'll quickly learn to write later when it becomes a lot more of a pleasure. - Lillian