How LONG should school take for different age levels?

[Shelly in MD]

I have a range of ages here - from 1st grade through 7th grade. 7th grade dd is REALLY pushing for both less schoolwork and for the fun :confused: of riding the bus to public school.

We "do" school from 9-12, break for about an hour for lunch/outside time, then work from 1-2, then the kids can read independently or work on a project, draw, etc. until 3 or 3:30. Honestly, I think her schedule is not rigorous enough at this age, but she is insistent that *all* her hs friends are done with schoolwork in 2-3 hours (yes, I know this is a 13yo saying this!).

Just curious... I know this has been asked before. I guess I need someone to tell me to crack the whip and have that child sitting in a desk from 8-5. Haha!

Thanks!

Shelly

[Beth in Central TX]

I don't advocate working at school from 8-5pm. However, public school counterparts will go to school from 8-3pm and then have additional homework on top of that. I have a friend with very intelligent children on the AP track at our local high school who stay up until 11pm doing work. It's not just all fun and games. They are very serious about their work, and it's very competitive.

My 5th & 6th grader have the same schedule that your 7th grader does. I don't plan to add much more time to my soon-to-be 7th grader's schedule next year, but I do expect more from him in each subject. He may not finish school early quite as often as he does this year. To me, it's not about how long he's in school, but is he learning and achieving the goals I have set for him this year.

[Lisawa]

A general guide I have tried to use ( not always faithfully) is 30-45 minutes per grade level. So for 7th grade its just around 5 hours....depending on what you use and do... it could be between 4-5....

my 6th grader does school right now from 8-1:30/2:00 with 30 minutes for lunch.... sometimes we eat and have continue school at the same time... something about food and conversation just works for us.. *Ü*

HTH~

[GVA]

And also what's included in the 2-3 hours. There is no way that 2-3 hours is covering very many subjects in much depth. I can easily spend 2-3 hours on just the 3 R's with my logic-stage child.

That said, there are indeed homeschooled kids who have done about that amount of work all through high school. I've had them in the college class I teach, and they typically are totally overwhelmed and don't do at all well. Unless a family doing 2-3 hours a day with a 13 y.o. really, really picks up the pace, trade school or college are going to be a very difficult adjustment indeed.

[Laura Corin]

According to my current plan, my sixth grader will be working from 9 to 4 each day. This includes his musical instrument, Chinese lessons and also an hour of PE a day. The only thing excluded is assigned reading.

I've no idea if this is what he 'should' be doing. It's still about ten fewer hours than he would be doing in private school in the UK, once you take into account homework and a longer school day. It's also probably more exercise than he would get at school. For now, it seems like an okay balance.

Best wishes

Laura

[Lori D.]

(nt)

[mchel210]

We get late starts each morning. We work from about 10-12 then daddy comes home for lunch. I cant work when he is here. Then we start back from about 1-3 or so. I usually try and get my 12 yo working alone with a schedule and sit down for a good 2 hours with my 7 yo. My 5 yo cant sit still long...so she works on and off all day whenever I can catch her. She is known to be doing books at 5 before dinner...or talking about history before bed.

We seem to get a ton done. T-Th we try and do history and science.

[AngieW in Texas]

I expect a pretty solid 5 hours by 7th grade.

My 7th grader starts with me at 9am while the 4th grader is doing silent reading for 30 minutes. Then my 7th grader works on her own until 2nd breakfast at 10:15am. After a 15 minute food break, I do our readaloud (about 30 minutes, relates to history). Then she starts back on her independent work by 11am and works until about 1pm. We break for lunch for about 30 minutes and then she goes back to work on her own until about 2:30pm. Then I do history with my 7th and 4th graders together (20-30 minutes). After that, my 7th grader is usually done. So she generally works from 9am-3pm with a 15 minute break and a 30 minute break.

My 4th grader starts at 9am and works until 2nd breakfast break at 10:15am. She gets a 15 minute food break and then I do our readaloud for the next 30 minutes or so (relates to history). After readaloud, I give her 2-3 things to do that take no more than 5 minutes each while I go work with my 9th grader for 45 minutes, so she gets at least 30 minutes of break here. I get back to my 4th grader about 11:45am and we work until about 1pm and then break for lunch for 30 minutes. After lunch, she usually gets 10-15 minutes extra for a break while I help the 7th grader with anything she's been holding to work on with me. I usually finish up with my 4th grader from about 1:45-2:30 and then do history with my 4th and 7th graders together (20-30 minutes). She generally starts and finishes about the same time as my 7th grader, but she takes more breaks and they're longer, so she puts in about 4.5 hours.

I have no idea how long it takes my 9th grader to do school. She is doing most of her schoolwork independently. I work with her from 11-11:45am, but the rest of her day is pretty independent. She gets up later than the rest of us and finishes much later too, but she doesn't follow the same schedule at all.

[Ann in IA]

First off, I don't have a 7th grader so I'm not speaking from experience....but I really think it depends on the child. I wouldn't make my 7th grader do 5 hrs solid if he/she didn't learn well that way KWIM?
There might be different times of the year that we are more time intensive on a unit study or specific subject but other times more lax and do just the 3 Rs.

One of the benefits of hsing is the flexibility and "timing" schoolwork or having a set timeframe for the sake of being rigorous doesn't sound like the best way for a child to learn.

So sit down and talk with your child about what they want to learn and what you expect them to learn. She's old enough now to have a good idea of what is needed but also to take responsibility for getting things done in her own time. If you see that she's not able to get her work done then you can sit down and talk again. Independent thinking and problem solving are wonderful skills hsers learn better than others in school in many cases, give her a chance to show you what she's learned so far :)
Good luck

[EKS]

This year for 6th, my son is doing a solid 5 hours. This does not include the time he reads for pleasure (another hour) or practices violin or goes to outside classes. I'm anticipating that he will be working about the same amount of time, or possibly slightly more, next year in 7th. We start at 7:45, he works until around noon, has a break for lunch and mayhem until maybe 1:00, and then finishes his work.

My K'er does 1.5-2 hours (about an hour of LA and math and maybe another 45 min of history and science). Again, this doesn't include reading for pleasure time, violin, or outside classes. I work with him when the older one is working independently, usually from about 9:00-11:00.

[hsmom]

We usually do 5 hours a day, sometimes less. We also school every month but July.

[Mrs. H.]

My dd (5th) does about 4 hours per day. She usually sits down and does math, grammar, latin, and greek in one big block, because she works well that way. Then after lunch she does history and/or science, and we try to squeeze in art and music once per week. She doesn't take any outside lessons or play sports. She reads constantly outside of school time, and does things like knit, sew, embroider, etc. during her free time, or helps me in the garden.

My ds (3rd) does about 3 hours per day, but his is more spread out, because he needs more breaks between subjects to keep his focus.