Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

This topic has 8 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 8 months ago by RobynN.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

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August 21, 2009 at 8:13 pm
RobynN
Member
Hi,
I’m newly registered here on the forum but have been a lurker for awhile now. I have 5 children ages 13, 11, almost 9, almost 7, and almost 3.
We haven’t officially started school yet but while making our schedule, it looks like it will take us around 5 – 6 hours a day to accomplish everything. Does this sound about right or is that too long?
Thank you,
Robyn
August 21, 2009 at 8:37 pm
meagan
Participant
Hey Robyn,
It sounds like you and I are in the same boat. I have 3 kids, 14, 10, and 9. We haven’t started school either yet, and I’m interested to see what others say. I think that we are hoping to get everything done in 4 hours a day, but I’m not sure if that is cutting it too close.

Meagan
August 21, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Jodie Apple
Participant
We have 3 children, 17, 11 and 8. We start with chores around 8:30 (after breakfast) and do our schoolwork from 9 am to 3 pm with 1 hour for lunch and afternoon chores. So, it takes us about 5 hours. This doesn’t include PE type activities that we do before dinner (baseball, tennis, karate…that kind of thing). Hope you find a groove that works great for your family!!
August 21, 2009 at 9:56 pm
missingtheshire
Member
We average about 5-6 hours with the girls now 17 doing their highschool work. This includes a lot of reading that I don’t assign, just reading on subjects they are really interested in. Fridays, we ease off and spend afternoons doing art, painting, drawing, and picture study, and things like that. We might also watch movie on something historical. I don’t count PE in those hours as those things we do in the evening, swimming, running, the gym at the YMCA and equestrian dressage which one of my daughters is really into. I think schedules kind of fall into place after a while, ours did and then changed each year a little. I find that now they are doing their senior high school things, they take longer over things, study in way more depth, not because I have it scheduled that way, but because they want to do it. They may take the dog for a walk in the morning, and then that means they go longer in the afternoon as well. Sometimes, they are still reading at 10pm in bed, but that is because they want to do that – I am fine with that. They know what they need to do, and if they do extra, then that is up to them. I am sure things will fall into place for you as well. Good luck – Linda
August 21, 2009 at 11:27 pm
nerakr
Participant
I’m a newbie to homeschooling with a kindergartner and a 2yo. Here’s what our days look like: 30 min (sometimes longer) in the morning of Bible, nursery rhymes, and planned reading time (some books of my choosing, some of his, so there is some twaddle). Most of the time the rest of the morning is free play time. Usually after lunch (11:30 or 12) we finish with reading instruction, math, and handwriting. Total formal school: 45 min to 1 hr. This doesn’t include his free play time, which sometimes involves play dough, playing outside (PE), walks around the neighborhood (nature study if he can stay quiet so we can hear birds, etc.), time spent with his Cedarmont Kids videos (music), and his computer time (15 min at a time on educational games such as Starfall and Reader Rabbit).
Next year when we have more subjects I hope I can still do it in 2 hours or less of the “formal” stuff.
Karen
August 22, 2009 at 12:15 am
briedell
Member
We haven’t started this year yet, but our schedule is set to look like this.
Wake at 6:00, chores and breakfast, begin school at 7:00. Various subjects between 3 girls until 10:00, take a snack/break until 10:30, various subjects until 12:00, have lunch and clean up until 1:00. Some afternoons we’ll do a handicraft or art, but most days we’ll be done by 12:00. Wednesday afternoons is P.E. at the Y. 3:00 is tea time, and 4:30 is afternoon chores.
Years past we had a schedule of books, but not a timed agenda. I am hoping that it will help us stay on track. We’ll see. One of the girls is 4, and then I have a 1 yr old baby boy too. It may not go as planned most days:)
My 4 yr old will only have a small part of structured school time on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She’ll kind of join in with Hymns, read-alouds, picture study, and art. My 7 yr old and 11 yr old will flip flop subjects and do a lot together.
Have a great school year everyone!
In Christ, Bridget
August 22, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Misty
Participant
Our day usually begins at 8 and ends at 12. My kids all boys are 11, almost 9.5, almost 8, 5 and 3! We don’t schedule anything longer than 20 min and that’s only math and our times together for reading aloud. As my 5th grader is getting older his time is getting longer but for him it’s very imporant to have short lessons so we school full time during the school year and part time during the summer.
Now I also have a 7 mo old dd and if we can’t get to our history/science etc in the morning we’ll do it in the evening with dad. Which is really ok, because we are doing greece and he can read all those names a LOT better than I can even try to
Misty
August 22, 2009 at 10:21 pm
kimofthesavages
Participant
I have an 11 year old, 8 year old, and a 6 year old. I’ve just tweaked our schedule around. Most everything is done between 8 and noon but the new thing I’m going to start doing is getting my oldest up an hour and a half earlier than the others (she is a morning person anyway). That way I can get her math and spelling (spelling wisdom)/foreign language (rummy roots) in before the others even get up. This means my oldest will have a few “free” pockets of time during the school day that she can choose what to do (from a list of options I’ll give her) and it will make the day go alittle more smoothly because my oldest struggles with math (we are newly homeschooling and she had trouble in the public schools with it). Having to spend extra long on her math was messing up the other two’s schedules. :o)
August 24, 2009 at 12:45 pm
RobynN
Member
Thanks everyone. I think 5-6 hours a day for my family will be about right to get everything accomplished. I know I’m on the right track now.