How much is enough?  How long should they work?  It’s not always easy to know!  One mother asked me to review her school plan, wanting to know if her expectations were appropriate.

We’re off to a rough start this year due to bad attitudes (both kids and mine!).  In 10th grade, how many hours/day/subject should she be doing?  So far here’s what’s suppose to be done:

*Music – 1 hr,
*English (IEW student writing intensive B) – 30-60 min,
*History (watching Teaching Company World History and reading ancient Greek & Roman library books) – 30-60 min
*Science (Apologia’s Marine Biology, Teaching Company Chemistry videos  – are they stand alone or should they be a supplemental, and what do you recommend we use?) and possibly switching to them instead. – 30+ min
*Technology (typing) – 10-15 min
*Health (Total Health book) – 20-30 min
*Foreign Language (Rosetta Stone Spanish) – 15 min
*PE – walking or general outside time – 15-60 min

PE “class” is taking several “sanity” breaks from indoor school and getting away to the outside and swing on her swingset! She would be out there all day if she could!  I wish I could find how to combine her lessons while she was out there swinging! Also, when I schedule reading assignments, how much can I expect her to get done?  She’s a great reader but when I told her to have a 300 page book done in a week, she pitched a fit and didn’t get it done.
~Karen in Maryland

Hi Karen,
I’m so sorry it’s a rough time!  In general, high school kids might have about 6 to 8 hours of school each day.  Let’s see what you’ve got here!

Math looks good, but to be honest it usually takes an additional hour of “homework” in the evening and that’s OK.  History is good, and about the right amount of time.  Do either marine biology OR chemistry, but don’t do both.  The marine biology is a stand alone course.  The chemistry is more of a supplement.  It would be a great supplement to Apologia chemistry, but again – just don’t do both! Science should usually take about an hour each day, but be sure you aren’t doing both kinds, because that would be doubling up!

Technology is fine – is it required by your state?  Can she already type?  If so, you can drop it.  Health looks good, it’s 1/2 credit usually.  Foreign language, can you work for 1/2 hour per day?  That will allow more forward progress. You might not get a level done in one year at the reate of 15 minutes  a day.  PE is fine, but not required for everyone, or by every state.  You can consider Health to be part of your PE class, and cut down on the amount of time spent outside.  On the other hand, fitness is the #1 priority sometimes, so you know best.

It looks like your expectations of her time are just right!

Combine lessons while swinging?  She must be a kinesthetic learner!  I often suggest listening to Teaching Company lectures on audio while doing vigorous activities.  It works with aggressive boys and kinesthetic learners alike!   The Spanish would be GREAT – she would REALLY do a good job if you had her listening to Spanish out there!   Check out audio courses and audio books that she can do while swinging.  I was watching the Pride and Prejudice movie the other day, and the Jane Austen character spent a lot of time reading while swinging on a swing!

Reading varies WIDELY WIDELY WIDELY between kids.   If she is concentrating on her reading, then I asked for about 1/2-1 hour a day – it’s part of an English credit.   My kids liked reading, so they did it at night and I didn’t usually “count” the reading hours, but that’s just my kids.  Some kids only read 6-8 books in a year and others read far more.  My kids were able to read a long book (Pride & Prejudice) in about 3-4 weeks.  They might read a short book (Old Man & the Sea) in just one week.  You may be able to lighten up on that requirement, and she could end up reading more than you hoped for.  Include any reading for pleasure on her reading list, but you don’t have to “assign” reading for pleasure.

Homeschooling is NOT the same as doing schoolwork at home.  There is LOTS of freedom!  My Gold Care Club will give you all the help you need to succeed!

When did you start the Delight directed Learning?  Did you find it hard to get through a year-long school course when doing it 4 days a week?  Did you just tell the kids they could do whatever they wanted on the non-school day, or did they have certain things they always did, like going to a class in a homeschool coop?  Did you allow them to watch TV or play video games during the free day?

Dear Diane,

What a GREAT question!  When I speak to groups, I usually try to mention that we homeschooled 4 days a week, and the 5th day was for specialization – also called delight directed learning.  When my kids were young, that 5th day was the day we went skating, swimming, bowling, or to park day for fun.  When my kids got older, that was when Kevin studied chess and taught classes, and Alex studied economics and charcoal drawing.

I think that having a 4 day homeschool can help provide a much-needed “margin” to our busy American lives.  It gives kids a time to be a kid – especially if you have very academic children anyway, they need to be able to lighten-up sometimes!  I don’t think it’s necessarily for everyone, but it was GREAT for us.  I didn’t do a co-op with my children.  Once in a while we would take a class at a local group, just for fun (like “World War 2 Naval Battles” so they could meet other boys their age) but we never used co-ops for their primary courses.

During our fifth day of the week, the boys were still required to get their math and foreign language done.  Later in high school, when I would assign them a week of school at a time, they could choose to do school during that 5th day, so they could take part of Friday off instead.  But the “free day” did come with some rules and regulations.  It was meant for “margin” for “specialization” and independent study.  So there was NO TV allowed – unless it was an educational video from the library.  There was NO COMPUTER or VIDEO GAMES unless those were educational games (as determined by ME, not as determined by them!)   On our “free day,” after dad got home they day was the same as every other day, and they got their usual amount of TV and video game privileges.

My husband has written a series of articles about encouraging delight directed learning called “Raising your Own Superheroes” here:
Part 2:  Observing Passion

Part 2:  Catching Fire

Part 3:  Providing Opportunity

I also have an entire chapter in my transcript book devoted to Delight Directed Learning, and how to incorporate that into a transcript.  Check it out!

Audrey asks:
How do you balance what you feel they need to know and do with what they feel they want to know and do? There are not enough hours in the day!

This question is actually TWO questions!

Q1: How can you get more hours in your day?

To some extent, homeschoolers will ALWAYS feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day!  It’s part of parenting, and even more a part of homeschooling.  There are some things that can help.  I read the book “Managers of Their Homes” and it really helped me.  It is a book about scheduling your homeschool, so that you do the most important things FIRST.  Determine what your priorities are, and then start with priority #1.  The less important things may need to be less frequent.

A schedule will sometimes tell you what is going wrong.  Sometimes parents will tell me what they are “trying” to do each day.  When I add it up, they are trying to do too much!  I remember one mother I met with was doing nine and a half hours a DAY doing academic subjects with her 9th grader.  Maybe you are simply trying to do too much!  So prioritize, and make sure you aren’t attempting too much.

It can also help to cut back on some of the things you do outside the home: co-op classes, sports teams, and music lessons, volunteering, employments, Boy Scouts, and church.  Sometimes it’s all just too much!  Again, try to decide what you really need and what’s important to you.  Scale back your activities if you can.  I encourage you to have your teen be part of the conversation, though.  Their interests should carry a LOT of weight.

Q2: What do they need to know?

It’s important, as you say, to balance what they need to know, with what THEY want to do.  If you can focus on just the basic, core classes, with limited fluff, then even in high school you can still get their schoolwork done in a reasonable amount of time.  Math does take a long time each day, and it’s important because it builds on itself, so you can’t quickly regain math skills if you don’t keep up with it.  Other things can be handled a bit more quickly, and with less stress.

Core subjects means one hour (not more) on English, social studies, science and math.  Add some foreign language or PE or fine arts or electives.  But focus on the core classes, and let the other things be more delight-directed, so that the child hardly even realizes they are doing school.  Fine arts could be knitting and crochet.  Foreign language may be successfully learned in 15-30 minutes per day.  PE can be what they do for fun; dancing or sports.

Electives are the things you don’t assign – the things they just want to do!  Maybe that’s animal husbandry or interior design – let them decide as much as possible.  What do they need?  Core classes, and the freedom to choose the supplemental classes that will encourage their love of learning.

I hope that helps!

If you enjoy this blog, please vote for “The HomeScholar Helper” in the 2008 Homeschool Blog Awards.  Voting ends on Friday!  We need about 20 more votes to win!  Please help!

Moms are often their own worst enemy.  When my eldest was in public school, he didn’t stay on track, didn’t finish his textbooks in the year, goofed off much of the day – and other kids didn’t turn in their homework or finish the reading, yet nobody cared. (Gifted program, Top Washington State school district, 4th grade.)  If you find yourself struggling with staying on track in your homeschool, remember that even the best public school situation wouldn’t necessarily improve things.

Don’t beat yourself up, try to find a solution.  Give me a call if you’d like to talk things over (1-888-LEE-2HELP)