I feel like I must be doing something wrong: done by lunch

[annettemarie]

We shook up the routine a bit. Now we start with devotions and do our together stuff right off the bat. Usually this means a little bit of Story of the World, maybe an art or cooking project, listening to a Classical Kids podcast, playing a game, whatever we do together.

The the older two do workboxes while I have circle with the littles, then it's Nick's main lesson and he's off to workboxes, then Katie Grace's main lesson, then Michael's. Usually I'm done with main lessons by 11:30 and I even have a little time to spend with the toddler!

After lunch we clean and have read aloud, and whoever goes to orchestra that week goes. Theoretically, if they had any work left to finish they would do it in the afternoon, but they've been getting everything done.

I'm just feeling like I must be missing something. How could we possibly be getting everything finished in 3 1/2 hours?!??!

[luv-my-boys]

Sometimes I feel that way as well. But then DH has to remind me that I dont have 20 other children needing to learn the same thing at the same time. Plus we dont have endless "fluff" like attendence,lining up or recess, if you think about what it takes just to manage a classroom that actually kills a lot of time.

[kewb]

I often feel that way. But I realized that when we sit down to do lessons we work straight through with the occasional 5 to 10 minute break. Some things they get right away and we are done in 15 minutes. Some things take longer. On average we are done by lunch.

[MamaMonica]

We only do about two hours a day most day we're home, some days they get into a project and work all day.

[moominmamma]

We do about 90 minutes. My kids are 6, 11 and 13. Whatever you're doing wrong we must be doing twice as wrong. Oh well, it seems to be working out okay for us.

Miranda

[annettemarie]

OK, well it's good to touch base with other homeschoolers and know we're not out of the ordinary.

[Calidris]

yep, clearly you are doing it wrong.

Go back and do it over! And this time quit having so much fun, then at least it will seem like forever.

[Ruthla]

IMO, if you're spending 3.5 hours a day on "schoolwork", then you're spending an awful lot of time at it, and doing it in a much more structured way than I ever did! It's supposed to be half the time of "classroom school", or maybe even less.

I suppose this is taking you a whole 3.5 hours because you have several children, at several different levels, so you do need to do some of the time-juggling that classroom teachers need to do (the 1:1 time with one child while the others do independent work.)

[annettemarie]

Well, they're not chained to desks.

[CariOfOz]

Ur doing it Wrong Seriously, 3.5 hours for multiple kids is great THey still get heaps of time to just BE kids and that's important! I'm trying to get myself psyched up for starting in a week or so and I want to have a bit more of a routine to our days/weeks. I WISH I could be that organized.. the kids would like it, me .. not so much We'll start around 11am I think, mainly because most days if the kids don't get outside time in early in the day, it's too stinkin hot to later!

[annettemarie]

Also, "independent work" for the older kids includes things like practicing cello, drums, etc, sewing, drawing, making a snack, reading to a younger sibling, art, doing a Wii Fit workout etc. If I let them run wild while I'm working with the others, they find themselves at loose ends and get in or cause trouble. For the younger kids, work is pretty much play.

[Ruthla]

And what do you have against chains?

[tanyalynn]

That sounds like a really nice routine. My kids are younger, so anything that could be called structured is much, much less for us, but someday I think that could be us, and it would be nice (if the kids don't completely overturn all my current expectations first).

[annettemarie]

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez

That sounds like a really nice routine. My kids are younger, so anything that could be called structured is much, much less for us, but someday I think that could be us, and it would be nice (if the kids don't completely overturn all my current expectations first).

Oh, they will. But you'll find a rhythm and a routine that works for you all.

[cappuccinosmom]

I get the same feeling. "What, we're done already???" And often that is with more than the minimum required (since we're doing cyber school).

But my kids obviously aren't suffereing academically, and the rest of the day is for all the good stuff that they need as well, "Gym" (Wii or hiking or sledding or...), arts and crafts, reading aloud time with grandpa, discussions with anyone who's willing to listen , learning some new skill they want to learn, reading books, using their imaginations with lego building....

[prairiebird]

Hee! I feel that way too sometimes. And I'm only working with two plus a preschooler that wants to join in all the time!


What I need to work on now though is having a bunch things pre-ready for them when one is done with their work before the other. Though they are playing with a castle right now, so I guess that's something.

[phathui5]

I thought being able to only work for half the day was the whole point, AM. Remember, homeschooling is more efficient than school, where kids need to be in the building all day. We get our work done in the morning, and spend the afternoon at the library, or the YMCA or doing errands.

[lynsage]

Like you, I was somewhat alarmed at how little time we seem to spend actively "schooling" as compared to the amount of time she had been spending at school...but the other posters are right on; the out-of-home school day contains a lot of filler time, and we just skip the filler and work on what she wants to work on while she is ready and has the attention to give to her chosen subject. So of course it doesn't take hours on end!

[ILoveMyBabyBird]

Originally Posted by phathui5

I thought being able to only work for half the day was the whole point, AM. Remember, homeschooling is more efficient than school, where kids need to be in the building all day. We get our work done in the morning, and spend the afternoon at the library, or the YMCA or doing errands.

anyone have a break down of a typical public school day, particularily in k-3 or so? I am curious how much time is actually spent on sit-down schooling time there.

While my ds is only 3.5, our 'schooling' doesn't last long throughout the day. I say we spend 2-3 hours at school, but that could also include, lunch, snacks, playing games, etc, so it's not like i am drilling my preschooler for 3 hours straight, lol! Sometimes when he isn't feeling in to it, we break it up through out the day, other days we do the work in on cluster 2-3 hours with lunch only being the break...

[bdavis337]

I can't give you a specific breakdown, but we pulled my 3rd grader this Nov from parochial school and his day went from 8:15-3:15. Roughly like this:

8:15-8:30 - get ready for the day
8:30-8:50 - religion and odds and ends stuff
9am was always math
on each day they had either 40 minutes in music, PE, library or the computer lab, so make that a full hour b/c of the hallway time, going to the restroom, etc.
An hour for lunch and recess with another 20 minute recess or break sometime in the day as well
One mid-session restroom break in the morning and afternoon separate from everything else.
The last 15 minutes were always about getting packed up and ready to leave.

See where it all adds up quickly? In 2nd grade they had THREE recesses, which was fantastic, but do the math on that and that's over an hour of non-academic time, not including lunch and hallway travel.

I am amazed at how much you're getting done! I'm still figuring us out, so we are never done in less than 3 hours right now, and that's just my son and I working from 9-12 every morning. My 2 year old is in there though, and probably takes a half hour of my time away from the older one, at least. Plus we're often doing something small when the younger boys are napping after lunch, like a spelling quiz, reading a chaper in Greek mythology or he's on the computer playing math games.