# How Much Time Do You Spend?



## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

I'm just curious about how much time you spend each day 'homeschooling'. I'm talking about the time that you would consider more organized time where you kind of buckle down a bit. Of course, it goes on all the time, at least in our house. I know some families who designate just 2 hours a day, some less, some much more to actual "school". I'm sure age makes a difference, too. 

I'm finding that my boys (3 1/2, almost 4, and 5 1/2) really enjoy spending about an hour after breakfast 'doing school'. The younger ones color, learn shapes, colors, concepts, and things that are sort of pre-reading and pre-math activities, along with listening to music, cutting out things, playing simple games and other fun stuff to reinforce everything. I'm amazed they can sit that long, but they love it. The older one is doing kind of a fun, cheap kindergarten program, but he's learning and enjoying it. I tried this about 6 months ago, but none of them could sit still for more than a few minutes. 6 months made a huge difference. 

So, what do you do, both for younger and older grades?


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## Cheryl in SD (Apr 22, 2005)

7th graders do 5 hours and 15 minutes, 5th & 3rd graders is 3 hours, and Kindergarten is 1.5 hours. Each day will vary from that a bit and this does not count educational games, videos, activities or free reading. It also doesn't count music or art. Our goal was always to give good quality basic education, mostly in the mornings, and strive to leave plenty of time in the day for individual pursuits and exploration.


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## cindyc (Nov 12, 2005)

Cheryl in SD said:


> 7th graders do 5 hours and 15 minutes, 5th & 3rd graders is 3 hours, and Kindergarten is 1.5 hours. Each day will vary from that a bit and this does not count educational games, videos, activities or free reading. It also doesn't count music or art. Our goal was always to give good quality basic education, mostly in the mornings, and strive to leave plenty of time in the day for individual pursuits and exploration.


This sounds about comperable to us, too. 

Cindyc.


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## Happy Palace (Sep 21, 2007)

I just mapped it out yesterday in an attempt to find a saner schedule. 3 hrs. 45 min. of actual book time and then my 11 year old is off to do whatever research has her current interest. Mornings are for school, right after lunch if we need it, then chores and free time.


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## canadiangirl (Jul 25, 2004)

We do grade 5 and 6, 4-5 hours a day- 4 days a week, plus piano, sports and extras.


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## AtHomeDaughter (Jan 5, 2006)

My family only has one student left (I graduated when I was 17 in 03' and my other brother at 17 in 04')...my "baby" brother (17) spends 1 hour (little more, little less depending on day) sitting and doing a unit study with my mom, it's been this way since he was 9. HE LOVES doing school with mom. And he loves the unit study they do. He loves to learn. It was suggested recently he give up his unit study and just do life skills alone and he said, no thank you, I like how we are doing things.

When he is done with school for the day, he does his choring around our "farm" and is off making things, removing trees off the property, making bow and arrows, climbing trees, wrestling (hill billy kung fu style) with my brother, Justin (20), training his mandarin ducks, digesting tons of history books, reading God's Word, doing pullups, running laps and doing all sorts of things around our home. When out and about, he is constantly passing out gospel tracts and being gentlemanly to my mom and I (opening doors, lifting heavy bags, etc.).

To us, learning isn't just books. It's life.

When I did school I could stay all day in what I was learning and would find myself more activities and research to do. I worked on my own and used Far Above Rubies unit study in my highschool years.

Justin hated school (thanks to his first couple of years in public school) and didn't apply himself to books. What he has learned by experience (building things, working with my dad, etc.) has far exceeded what any book could of taught him. 

You do not need homeschool curriculum to learn. Homeschooling shouldn't be a scheduled event. Once the books are put away, learning shouldn't stop.

I went a bit off topic.  I think I will stick this on my blog and add a wee bit more.  www.trulythoughtprovoking.blogspot.com

Jessica


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

Oh - wow! We do much less "at the table with pencil" type school work. My 16 year old spends about 3 hours a day (four days a week) on his 3 Community College classes / then a total of 3 more hours on weekend for reading the same classes. He does take about an hour before each test to review. He also reads other material for about 2 hours a day - but thats it.

Our 10 year old has about 1 hour per day (4 days a week) of "sit down and get a pencil" work. He has about 1 hour of reading per day even on weekends. The rest of his time is spent on more active learning (like Trail Blazers nature group / outside activities / garden / library with friends / pottery and so forth)

We will sometimes take a whole week and do nothing but one subject when it comes to our attention that we need to learn some specific subject. That seems to work better for us than taking an hour a day for weeks.


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## RockyGlen (Jan 19, 2007)

preschooler - 30 minutes
kindergarten - 30 minutes
first grader - 3 hours
2, 3, and 4 graders - 3.5 hours
7th grader - 4.5 hours

Those are sitting down with the book hours - we also watch a lot of educational movies, play educational games, etc., plus they each practice piano half an hour per day and have "art" or "home ec" assignments due once a week that they work on throughout the week. 

The subjects for the 1-4 grader are: Bible, math, spelling, grammar, literature, history, science, health, and penmanship. The first grader also has phonics. The 7th grader has Bible, math, spelling, grammar, creative writing, literature, history, science, penmanship (he needs it! normally would be done with this in 5th grade).


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## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

AtHomeDaughter said:


> To us, learning isn't just books. It's life. . .
> 
> You do not need homeschool curriculum to learn. Homeschooling shouldn't be a scheduled event. Once the books are put away, learning shouldn't stop.
> 
> Jessica


I agree. We live in the bush. There's always so much to do and learn. There's definitely more to learning than just what's in books, although books are filled with a wealth of information and inspiration.

Thanks for all the replies. I enjoy hearing about the ways other families homeschool. 

Jenny
Frontier Freedom Online Magazine


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