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mommy4ever
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| Posted: April 23 2012 at 10:15am | IP Logged
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I'm trying to see how long most people's have school for. Yes, I realize that many things are opportunity's. I don't have a real homeschool philosophy, I am eclectic and do what works for us, just like parenting  styles, what I did for one, didn't work for any of the others.
But in a day, how much dedicated school work do you do?
DD8 - grade 3, does about 1 1/2 hours in the morning, then I send her outside to play when the weather is nice, or with her toys. Then we do lunch, have a 1/2 hour to tidy up and then another hour to 1 1/2 depending on her focus.
DD13 - grade 7 I have no idea, she works mostly independent, and often at night, she is a night owl. I stopped fighting it, she is typically in bed at 9, but can't sleep until about 10:30, so I tell her something quiet. She gets her assignments weekly. So she might finish all of her grammar at night, or spelling, or write notes for social studies, at night. Then has less during daytime hours. It actually works well as she is available to entertain littles during the day. I answer her questions, go over anything she isn't' grasping. I do not do lectures, she can hear those through the school board through e-live as she is doing more of a 'virtual' school, homeschool style. I imagine she does about 4 hours a day, but it's broken up. I want her a little more focussed next year.
Now, I'm planning next year, and it'll be grade 4 and grade 8... I want to anticipate how long would be reasonable for them to work, especially as there will be more project based things, so it isn't just a page and done, it's research, notes, then putting it together. It's not as clear.
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 23 2012 at 10:59am | IP Logged
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For my 2nd- and 3rd-graders, a typical day runs from 10-ish to 12-ish.
My 8th grader does approximately 5 hours' work a day, though like you, I have a hard time pinning that down, because he works on his own. He's taking a college class this semester, which has meant more reading and writing -- he stayed up till midnight both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend working on a research paper for that class. He's in class on campus two days a week; the other days, he generally begins his schoolwork later because he runs and works out in the mornings.
In general, I have found that as my kids get older and into middle and high school, their school day does increasingly approximate a "traditional" school day in terms of time, though unless they have outside classes, they don't typically also spend nights and weekends on homework.
I just wrote about both my younger kids' day and my 8th-grader's MO on my blog, so I won't go into lots of detail here. Like you, we're pretty eclectic, heavily influenced by Charlotte Mason, but also by elements of both the classical approach and unschooling. Welcome to schizophrenia -- but it seems to work for us.
Sally
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jawgee
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| Posted: April 23 2012 at 11:06am | IP Logged
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K (doing first grade work) - 1 to 1 1/2 hours
4th grader - around 3 hours
That's the formal stuff. We try to get it done in the morning before lunch so that afternoons are completely free.
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Monica
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ShannonJ
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| Posted: April 23 2012 at 12:40pm | IP Logged
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Its funny that you should ask this now, as I was wondering about daily routines as well, as I start to hammer out the new school year. For some reason I start to get curious about how others are doing things.
We have settled into a very relaxed routine here. Mornings are dedicated to outside time, exploration, and household chores. After lunch (when I do a read a loud) it is toddler nap time and that's when our school day begins.
3rd grader is edging towards independence and completes nearly everything in about two hours. This includes seat work and her reading basket and narrations. However, we don't do math everyday right now. She does literature reading during free time in the afternoon or evening. And while things like nature walks and journals are on her schedule, she does those during her free time as well.
K'er - about 45 minutes to an hour. MAYBE. VERY relaxed right now.
We gather for family read alouds during an opportune moment after Kindergarten work is done. After the toddler wakes we do picture books or magazines linked to our schedule. Another book or two before bed that has been chosen by the children.
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: April 23 2012 at 1:24pm | IP Logged
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We usually have morning basket time from about 830 to 930 and then individual work for my 8 y/o and 6 y/o for about another hour. The 8 year old might have another half an hour of work after that.
So I guess 2-2 1/2 hours of formal school time, then they play outside, do chores, read, or build things for most of the rest of the day.
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Krista
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I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 23 2012 at 1:54pm | IP Logged
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SallyT wrote:
| we're pretty eclectic, heavily influenced by Charlotte Mason, but also by elements of both the classical approach and unschooling. Welcome to schizophrenia -- but it seems to work for us. |
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Mackfam
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| Posted: April 23 2012 at 2:03pm | IP Logged
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These are guesses:
2nd grader - 1 - 1.5 hours - more if you count all the read aloud time, which I didn't in this guess
6th grader - 4.5 hours - but it could be much longer...we are diligently working on building the habit of industry. Hands-on learners are notorious dawdlers!!! 
10th grader - 5 - 6 hours - this varies a lot...some days are more project driven, some days may have more formal work. Some days this number could be as much as 7 hours, but those days are probably pretty heavy on independent reading, writing for pleasure, art projects, etc., and it's hard to separate those out of the day.
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Jen Mackintosh
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 23 2012 at 2:25pm | IP Logged
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I have no idea anymore. I've given up on formal schooling and gone back to unschooling where I feel most at home. We read a lot, do some math once in a while, watch Mythbusters or a travel video, chat a lot, get on the internet, paint or draw, work on photography... whatever. Some days dd will get inspired to add something to one of her notebooks --history, geography, nature-- based on something we've read or seen, so we do that.
Today is a rainy day so it's 11am and both kids are still in bed curled up with a book. Works for me. I have a couple of DVD's we might watch after lunch: Beethoven Lives Upstairs, and Les Miserables.
So, the answer would be...none of the above?
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Mimip
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| Posted: April 24 2012 at 9:12am | IP Logged
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We start with Morning basket as a family from 8:30-9:30. Then each of my kids does their "independent work". That is not that they are necessarily by themselves but really just the work that is divided by grade. I rotate between the two middle children and my oldest (who is in 6th grade) is on her own. My 6 year old usually works about an hour or so during this time and then goes to play with his little brother. We break around 12:30 for Lunch and quiet time and regroup together at 2:00 for "family school". Here we do our read alouds for Science and History as well as any Labs and history projects. We wrap up around 3:30.
I miss the days that we finished completely by noon but as you can see I really have a very laid back school "schedule". It more of a pin it around our day thing.
Oh and my oldest and I meet at least 3 times a week during that quiet time just to reevaluate how the week is going.
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: April 24 2012 at 10:27am | IP Logged
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My oldest is 2nd grade. We finish before lunch and spend between 1-3 hours on our lessons. The K student usually only has about 30-40 minutes of work.
Afternoons are generally free and we visit library programs, play outside, play games, etc. This is still part of our school because they are learning, getting physical education, developing social skills, and much more. I just don't count it as our core or seated subjects.
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Erin
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| Posted: April 24 2012 at 4:04pm | IP Logged
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Our formal period currently begins about 8am and we work through till about 12.30- 1pm. My teens would focus (well mostly) for this entire period but the younger children drift in and out, dependent on when I'm available for them.
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: April 25 2012 at 9:07pm | IP Logged
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My Kindergartener (really doing first grade work) is about 15 minutes per day (math or reading lesson). For first grade she'll move up to about 45-60 minutes.
My 3rd grader is set to do an hour and half; sometimes it's more like two hours depending on the whining, discipline issues, and life interruptions. My goal for 4th grade is about an hour and 45 minutes (adding fifteen minutes each school year).
Then the rest of the day is "free" more or less. That's the "unschooling" part of our eclectic homeschooling.
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: April 26 2012 at 7:44am | IP Logged
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This question has gotten me thinking - we are rather unschooly, but it's actually elementary Montessori.
My 8 year old has his work plan ("list") for the week and a general daily routine. School-wise, there are some things that must be done every single day:
piano practice
speech practice
tae-kwon-do practice
These things could take 30-45 minutes on a good day; stretched into infinity on a bad day.
But we don't really differentiate those things from the non-school things like daily chores and prayer.
And then there are the flexible school things: something with mathematics/geometry, something written, something read-aloud, something with logic/reasoning/strategy.
The other items on his work plan can be done anytime, but must be done before Friday. While he is still in the stage of needing me to work with him to choose a good balance for each day, he is taking this over more and more and I find him doing 8+ hours of school one day; and only the bare minimum of work-plan-school on another day (on those days, he has entirely followed a rabbit trail and is still "doing" school; it just doesn't get a checkmark on his work plan).
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JuliaT
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| Posted: April 26 2012 at 8:49pm | IP Logged
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I can't tell you how long my two youngest school as they drift in and out throughout the day, depending on when I can work with them. My oldest-Gr.7-does formal school for about 5--6 hours.
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Topic: How long is your formal school day
