Math Lesson Duration

A lot can depend on the student and also what is required of the curriculium.

We use MUS there are a lot of lesson pages. We do one worksheet per day (sometimes skipping some) but never finish the book in the school year. I like it though because we continue math through the summer and start the next level in the fall. It works out great!

I have a friend that took a different approach and they would do 2-3 worksheets per day to make sure they finished in the school year. It worked, but made the math lesson longer.

My kids usually take 20-30 minutes in 5th and 6th grade, but some lessons are longer and I let them know a head of time when those lessons are coming. When they were learning long division, that just takes time to work the problem. Similar to area and circumference of a circle, there are a lot of steps to those problems. During those times I keep an eye on them, if they are getting frustrated I have them take a break, or offer to check their work so far. If they get stuck instead of lettinf them get upset or distracted I offer to go through it with them. That really helps lessons move smoother because instead of getting frustrated or stuck they keep moving. Often it is something so simple, they are just focused and can’t “see” The easy solution.

My boys thrived when I would challenge them to beat a time. I do not always do it, but sometimes I will challenge them to a time, saying 30 minutes (knowing they can do the lesson quickly) and they will come back and say 25 minutes and then finish in less than 20. They get so excited to beat the time. I don’t do it all the time, and make sure to review the lesson first so I can give a good estimate time, but for my boys they really like to focus and race a clock.

I tried the 20-30 minutes & it was like opening up a window in a stuffy room for my DD.  Now, she does seem to have dyscalculia although she has not been tested.  We use the cle ( Christian Light Education) Math & she is a couple years behind her grade level.  The pressure was there to complete each lesson in a day, but that could often take 45 minutes to an hour. She was hating her math. So one day I got the timer & I set it for 20-25 minutes & that totally changed her outlook toward math. Sometimes she’ll even work longer to finish up the whole lesson now.(She still has her days where she’d rather not do math, but knowing that the lesson time is shorter has greatly helped)    I didn’t worry that she only got part way through those lessons. The next day we just continued where we left off, usually finishing the lesson. So one lesson often takes 2 days to do but it’s helped this child & I think she’s retaining it better by keeping it short. Now, if a Math curriculum would already have short lessons & she’d  get done sooner, I’d probably keep going until the 20-30 minutes were up.

I agree that it does depend on the child and the curriculum used.  You might find it to work better to have two separate math sessions of 20 minutes each, rather than one long 45 minute session.  Work on something else in between that uses a different part of the brain.  One math session could be oral mental math and story problems or a whiteboard with the new lesson material and the next math session could be review independently on paper or playing a math game.  You did not state which curriculum you use, so these are just general ideas.  The two shorter lessons rather than one long lesson really helped us.

While yes, you do need to teach the child and not the curriculum, you also need to be sure they don’t get too far behind.  Math has always been a struggle for my son and he is slower with it.  He needs the two short math lessons each day.  We are at the point of entering high school now and trying hard to get him ready for Algebra.  And I can see it possibly taking three years to get through Algebra I and II for high school graduation credits.  Just be careful to keep the future requirements in mind.  If your child needs more time in math, try two shorter lessons rather than one long lesson.

On the flip side, another child grasps math concepts quickly and is ahead and will likely complete Algebra I in 8th grade.  This is the child who is fine with one 30 minute lesson each day.  She understands math easily and can work through it quickly.