# How Long for a Kindergartener?



## beccachow (Nov 8, 2008)

My DD is done in about a hour, an hour and 15 minutes tops. She is 5. How long SHOULD she be going to "school?" I am trying to mix it up and keep her focused, but she loses her attention and it gets "not fun anymore ." I have tried splitting her "school day" into two, with a 15 minute "recess" in the middle of two hours, but that makes her more unhappy. I guess there is a reason for half-day kindergarten, and I am thinking they don't "learn" the whole time, either?


----------



## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

How much of that school time is sitting down time and how much is active time? Kids that young don't have a very long attention span, so it's good to have activities for them to do that are educational.


----------



## beccachow (Nov 8, 2008)

That is actual sitting down time. Too much?


----------



## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

beccachow said:


> That is actual sitting down time. Too much?


Each child is different, but if I'm not mistaken, at that age their attention span is 1 minute for every year old they are. I would suggest doing about 5 minutes sitting down time, then 5 minutes doing something more active. Make learning fun. I use to use puppets for story time with my DS. His favorite story was "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". I printed out pictures of the characters and laminated them and attached them to popcycle sticks. When that character would be introduced in the story DH when get the puppet out.

Young kids need a lot of kinesthetic type teaching. Let her test out different textures, such as playing with uncooked rice using cups and spoons etc. Water/sand tables are wonderful and actually pretty easy to make yourself. Get age appropriate puzzles. If teaching the alphabet, choose a letter a week or every couple of days and do something special for that letter. For instance, when we were on the letter "D" we went to Krispy Kreme do-nuts and watched them making them.

Get creative.


----------



## olivehill (Aug 17, 2009)

"Learning" does not have to be done sitting down and participating in focused "lessons" in the traditional sense of the word. Even an hour with a recess and then another hour is too much time in one block. Kindergarten teachers in a traditional classroom will generally spend 15-30 minutes only on any one task before moving on to the next thing. They also know how to animate lessons to make them interesting to the kids. Use your voice to exaggerate stories when you read together, incorporate songs to sing along, include fun things in the lessons -- coloring, cutting, pasting, etc. Science should be hands on, tactile "play". Etc. Kindergarteners can "stand" a full day of school without any problem whatsoever, but it's got to be structured to accommodate their physical and mental needs.


----------



## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

beccachow said:


> That is actual sitting down time. Too much?


Way too much for a 5yo.
Prayer, pledge, calandar time with weather, days of week, months of year, a story, 10min math time, walk for nature study or science, some art time, 10 min phonics/reading time, story time, and then something fun to finish the school day. Put History/SS/Sci and bible into story times. 
A 5yo shouldn't have to sit and write more than twenty minutes a day on paperwork. The rest of school time should be active and fun and change every five to ten minutes. Math can be done with games and lots of counting and adding exercises with manipulatives. Phonics and reading shouldn't last over 10-15 min or until the child is bored. You don't have to do every subject every day either except to try to do math and reading. And that is only 20-30 min tops. The rest of school should be "lite" duty and fun.


She's only 5.


----------



## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

IMO, K should be mostly fun, with a few short sessions that are challenging interspersed throughout. Don't stress about any of the extras such as history or science. Let them be some of the fun things--for example, watch a related video and talk about it or draw something from it. Emphasize the essentials of learning to read, basic math, and very easy handwriting.

You can practice writing and phonics in many different settings. My dd loved getting to take a stick out to a bare patch of ground and writing her letters "so big that people in airplanes could see them". If she could tell me the sound, she got to go draw the letter. If the weather is bad, you can pour cornmeal on a cookie sheet and let them draw the letters in that. This provides that kinesthetic input of the letters and sounds. She also liked to play games where we would compete for pennies or M&Ms, one of which was naming words that started with a particular letter sound. Half of the time she had no idea we were even doing school, but she was learning the whole time.

She and dh would play games that involved math--simple counting or occasionally double or nothing. Sometimes Daddy would be forgetful or maybe even try to cheat a little, so she had to count everything very accurately every time.

And of course, read to her all you can. Let her retell portions of the story to begin to develop reading comprehension. Ask her to change a story based on a different type of main character, perhaps a lion instead of a mouse, etc. Play fun quiz games related to listening and comprehension. My dd's all time favorite K activity was when I placed a stuffed animal (that she already owned, so not that much of a "prize" in my mind) at the farthest end of the house and then quizzed her about various story or math facts. A giant step forward if she answered correctly and a big hop back if not. I must have hopped that kid for miles around the house (could have gotten PE credit also for this!), and she absolutely loved it.

The longer we do homeschool (we are doing 7th this year), the less our schooling resembles public schooling. Each year I realize more deeply that this is okay and become more comfortable with it. Take it easy with your K level dd and give her plenty of fun learning opportunities. We did very little seat work. And it worked out well for us. Dd always got very high scores on the IOWA test in spite of our schooling being different.


----------



## beccachow (Nov 8, 2008)

OK, did some adjustment and had a great school day. Instead of "book" writing, we did a collage of words she can write from the letters she has learned, and she surprised me by being able to write at least 5 more than I thought she could. Then we did some money (I always set up a shop and she "shops" with her change, buys a piece of candy and some silly bands for a good day's work) and she learned about dimes, and grasped it completely even down to using two nickels to equal a dime. At that point, we called it a day.

I have been trying to keep it light and fun, but I see now it was just too long.

If all of her learning can be done in under an hour, why on earth do people send kids to full day kindergarten??? She would be sooooooooooo miserable in a classroom setting. She thrives on hugs, kisses and her store treat. I can see where she will be learning so much more this way.

Thank you all for your advice!


----------



## jamala (May 4, 2007)

When I taught public school first grade, I kept a journal one week of how much time I actually spent "teaching" in a day. I was shocked to find that even though we were at school from 8 am to 2:45 pm I only taught 2 to 3 hours a day on avg. . They had PE , lunch, music, snack time, bathroom breaks (which took 15-20 min. a time). Then interruptions for discipline and school presentations. And transport time to get to all these activities and then time to get the kids back "on task" when you got back to the classroom. When I started homeschooling my kids were shocked to get finished by lunch most days. But I explained to my DH that we start school at 8 am and don't take breaks till lunch for the older kids. My 4 year old we work for 5--10 min. and then do a "fun" lesson, then back to work for 5-10 min. and then another "fun" lesson. These "fun" activities can be jumping on the number pad mom calls out or baking pizza dough in letter/number shapes that we are learning that day for lunch time.


----------



## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Keep her finger busy. What can you teach with her fingers moving. Count beans, add and subtract beans, have her use measuring cups to make cookies or bread. Let her fill the 1/4 cup up and dump it into the 1 cup 4 times...she'll have a blast and will see the connection quickly later when you do address fraction. If you can, talk about pints and quarts. Let her fill up a pint with water and dump it into the quart twice. 

I took 3x5 card and cut them in 1/4 and wrote a letter on each one.  Now we can work on ABC's, vowels, spelling. Make 2 sets (you'll want extra letters later anyways) and play memory with her. 

Get a magnifying glass and go on an ant hunt. What are they doing? If we put down some bread crumbs what do they do, etc. Find books to read to her on science topics, history, social studies (Magic School Bus is great - it was about all we used for K-2nd). Find and print out coloring pages that go with the theme of the story for her to color while you read. Stop and ask her a few questions and see if she "gets it". Ask her what she thinks will happen next and why. etc.

Seatwork....at K (DS was 4) we did reading for 20 min (he often held the book and jumped up and down while he read ). He was SO READY and was reading on 2nd grade level by age 5. He would do 2-3 math worksheets a day, with me sitting beside him talking him through the process. Now these were PS worksheets, high color and had about 3-4 things to do per page. It would take about 10 min total a day. Handwriting took too long. He wasn't ready for that yet, but I didn't realize that at the time. He took 15-20 min at first. I then "re-worked" it and got it down to 5 min. I changed it to write the letter of the day 5 times and write 2 words that begin with that letter (only using letters he already learned)- I gave him the words, he just copied them. 

K seat work DS & I could do within the time DD was napping with at least 1 hour of "free play" time before she got up. DD did a much longer K as she was following her brother along. She listened to all his stories and readings. Sat through his science and history lesson and did a bit of learning to reading. She was NOT ready to read at 5, even at 6 is was rather difficult for her. She's 8 now and does fine, but she isn't confident with it and will only read to me (which makes grandparents think she can't read and something is horribly wrong in our house).


----------



## Lizza (Nov 30, 2005)

beccachow said:


> OK, did some adjustment and had a great school day. Instead of "book" writing, we did a collage of words she can write from the letters she has learned, and she surprised me by being able to write at least 5 more than I thought she could. Then we did some money (I always set up a shop and she "shops" with her change, buys a piece of candy and some silly bands for a good day's work) and she learned about dimes, and grasped it completely even down to using two nickels to equal a dime. At that point, we called it a day.
> 
> I have been trying to keep it light and fun, but I see now it was just too long.
> 
> ...


Your day sounds perfect to me. Some kids will want a little more "school" work and some kids less (one of mine ran away screaming at 5). As to the time in school, as they get older, literally even high school can be done between breakfast and lunch, 3-4 hours tops, for very academic kids. Remember too that we are doing 1-1 teaching or at the most 1 teacher for only a handful a kids, so they just don't need the time that schools put in. I read an article that said that, _on average_, elementary kids get 7 minutes of personal "instruction" by teachers, I figure I got 7 minutes covered by the time the kids are finished with breakfast, so the rest is gravy 

Reading aloud has always been a large portion of my "school" day, for the young and fidgety I like to print out coloring pages (I _try_ and find things related to my reading) or just let them build blocks while I read. My one that literally ran away at 5, I did two years of "school" on a wipe off board with manipulative's, she was/is a very hands on kid and this was the only way I could get her to sit down to do a little school work. You have the ability to completely specialize all your teaching to just this one kiddo (or a few kiddos), so don't be worried about stepping out of the box to get it done. "School" would do it too if they could, they just can't.


----------

