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Scheduling Pre-K, 6th and 9th grade how much time to devote to schooling?
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I am trying to make a schedule for the next school year and not sure how long my kids days should look like. We started with the classical way of teaching and I burnt out my soon to be 6th grader. My kids days would last about 6-7 hours sometimes longer….:( I have slowly added in some CM style of teaching and love the idea of more outside time. But how do you get it all done? How long should the kids be working on school subjects each day? Just wish I could go back with my older ones and not be so school driven. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks in advance!
My soon-to-be 6th grader completes seatwork, independent readings (and narration), and family readings (and narrations) within 3-4 hours max. Most of his narrations are still oral – only 2 written per week, and those are the days we are closer to four hours. With this in mind, I’d guess by the time my eldest is at the 9th grade level you are asking about, we would be at around 4.5 – 5 hours (?)
Having said this, my second son (soon to be 5th grade) tends to dawdle more, gets distracted at times, and loves to take bathroom breaks. So although he is only 4th grade and does not yet do written narrations, he takes the same amount of time (3-4 hours) on his schoolwork as his big brother (who has a bit more work). So…it does vary based on the child and the work ethic, motivation and ability to focus of that child.
As for your question on how to get it all done? There are several CM type schedules posted – here on this site, and elsewhere on the internet. My first introduction to CM was Catherine Levison’s book, A Charlotte Mason Education. I loved the appendices at the back that showed precisely how every day/timeslot/subject gets broken down to allow school to take place between 9am and 1pm. Levison shows both a CM school schedule (Charlotte’s own schedule) and her own (Catherine’s own) schedule. This book was a great little read to get me started and to help me to embrace CM “thinking”, but the schedules at the back REALLY gave me the true picture on how a CM education looks in a day. I’ll quote briefly from the book and tell you that she cites 5-6th graders as doing 18.5 hours per WEEK of schoolwork, and 7-9th graders doing 21.5 hours, and 10th-12 graders doing 24 hours work per week.
hope this helps a bit!
Blessings, Angie
At our house school is done by lunch for everyone most days. The 7th grader sometimes has one last thing to do after lunch. Then afternoons are free for their own interests and usually are filled with art, handicrafts, some time outdoors, building, creating, or just messmaking in general. 🙂 My eight kiddos are 7th grade down to the baby.
I would recommend setting aside 30 minutes or so with your pre-ker while the older kids work on their independent studies. I do this with my preschoolers for our first bit of school each day and they love it. My older kids do better with their independent work first thing in the morning too.
My preschooler has a much better day if I spend time with him first. I will confess that I fail at this too often.
Yes, that is how I have been doing it. It does work well…thanks! How much time do you really find your kids outside or doing projects? I try for about 2 hrs. a day for my little one but my oldest kids don’t get close to that since they are stuck doing school work all day. Trying to find a happy medium. Thanks for your posts!
My kids are outside or doing their own thing 4+ hours a day mostly. Occasionally the oldest is less, but not terribly often.
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