5th grade, traditionally schooled parents...out of curiosity....

[Lisa loves Pooh]

How much time would you estimate is spent in your 5th grade students school day on academics (not including lunch, PE--but on everything else)?

How much time does (or is expected that) your student spend on homework each evening?

I'm trying to get a feel of how my homeschooled 5th grader is fairing, to see if she is in the ballpark of where she should be in how long it is taking to complete her work each day.

It seems to me that 5th grade is a BIG year--so I'm just wondering if she isn't spending more time than she should be in completing her work.


Thanks!

 

[Hannathy]

My DS is in 6th grade but his 5th grade day was the same. They are in school 7 hours. He has 35 minutes for lunch and he has 20 minutes for recess. They have PE twice a week. one day for 40 minutes the other for 30 minutes. Art once a week for 40 minutes and Music once a week for 40 minutes.

On Thursdays when he has Orchestra he does not have recess, they go to Orchestra instead of recess.

So about 5 1/2 hours a day of academics.

He averages about 2 hours of homework a night, often more like 3 hours and rarely about 1 hour. He has homework every weekend usually about 2 hours.

 

[stm61]

our schools are 6.5 to 7 hours, depending on the district. They have one related art subject (PE, music, etc) each day for 45 min. Lunch is 30 min, recess is 15-20 min. So that's 5 to 5.5 hours a day for academics. Subtract out time spent switching classes also. My kids have never had more then 20-30 min. of homework, regardless of what grade they were in, until they got into high school.

 

[mhsjax]

My DD had a great teacher in 5th grade, she has been around for quite a few years and always gets top scores in the state. So when she told the paretns how many hours are actually spent on learning and teaching I listened. She told us that our of a 6.5 hour school day, they only spend about 4.5 hours being taught. This is due to lunch, recess and just general getting the class under control during transitions form one thing to another, or from one class to another(they did physically change classes)

DD probably had about 1.5 hours of homework each night.

DD is now in 6th grade in all Pre-ap classes, they do have study hall, so when she comes home she may have some homework, or she may have finished it in school. Then all she has to do is read.

Also she is able to finish most of it, because they have block classes, kind of like college, they only go to 3 classes a day, but for longer periods, then they have study hall.

Actually for us (here in Fl, and if I remember you did live here until recently) 4th grade is the big year because of Florida writes. 5th grade for us is pretty much just normal, mostly getting them really independent for middle school,

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!

So it looks ROUGHLY, based on this small sample that it is about 6-8 hours a day on school work.

I think I will track her time to get a really good idea of what she is really spending--but it seems that she is in line with what is traditionally expected of that grade.

Thanks so much! I have a new appreciate for teachers.

 

[czycropper]

In our District 5th Graders spend 5.5 hours in academic work. My current 5th Graders spends close to an hour with homework about 2/3 times a week.

When my current 7th grader was in 5th she spent at the most 30 minutes a week on homework. They both like to go to study hall during recess to do their homework from the morning classes my current 5th grader doesn't go as much as her sister did and she also needs more help with homework.

They are both on the honor roll.

 

[mhsjax]

Exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!

So it looks ROUGHLY, based on this small sample that it is about 6-8 hours a day on school work.

I think I will track her time to get a really good idea of what she is really spending--but it seems that she is in line with what is traditionally expected of that grade.

Thanks so much! I have a new appreciate for teachers.

Keep in mind that in elementary school our teachers told us that we could home school in probably half the time. We did do it for one year and we had discussions with their teachers. They were very supportive of it. Without classroom distraction and the obligatory trouble maker, class work could be done in about 3-4 hours tops.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Actually for us (here in Fl, and if I remember you did live here until recently) 4th grade is the big year because of Florida writes. 5th grade for us is pretty much just normal, mostly getting them really independent for middle school,

Good memory!

I am not familiar with Florida writes--but due to me being so sick last year, we ditched a lot of the writing and stuck to the meat and bones. So this year the writing is bogging her down a little, but we are trucking through. But even with that, her work time is still pretty good.

I've also had to teach her study skills--which is new for us. This creates a little bit extra work (like making flash cards). I know that sounds dumb--but I never had parents who encouraged that in me, so I floundered in college. I decided to work on that with her--as it will be very valuable later on.

5th grade was the year when I began having difficulty with classroom tests b/c the teachers tested differently than in prior years. And the work is just going to get more challenging.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Keep in mind that in elementary school our teachers told us that we could home school in probably half the time. We did do it for one year and we had discussions with their teachers. They were very supportive of it. Without classroom distraction and the obligatory trouble maker, class work could be done in about 3-4 hours tops.

That is where I was going--but b/c of her writing assignments...MY job is done in 3-4 hours...it is her reading and writing that take up more time. And my child is the obligatory trouble maker in our homeschool. ADHD and all that.

 

[mhsjax]

Good memory!

I am not familiar with Florida writes--but due to me being so sick last year, we ditched a lot of the writing and stuck to the meat and bones. So this year the writing is bogging her down a little, but we are trucking through. But even with that, her work time is still pretty good.

I've also had to teach her study skills--which is new for us. This creates a little bit extra work (like making flash cards). I know that sounds dumb--but I never had parents who encouraged that in me, so I floundered in college. I decided to work on that with her--as it will be very valuable later on.

5th grade was the year when I began having difficulty with classroom tests b/c the teachers tested differently than in prior years. And the work is just going to get more challenging.

Florida writes is just a extension of the FCAT, the also do it in 8th grade. They either get and expository or narrative, they don't know until right before the test.

I know lots of people that still use flash cards. I have a friend in college right now in the nursing program and she uses them a lot.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

And I shouldn't say floundered in college as though it were all of college.

It was my first semester and after threat of losing my scholarship--I learned how to study REAL quick.


Thanks for the responses!

 

[mhsjax]

That is where I was going--but b/c of her writing assignments...MY job is done in 3-4 hours...it is her reading and writing that take up more time. And my child is the obligatory trouble maker in our homeschool. ADHD and all that.

WEll there always has to be one doesn't there. lol My youngest is off from soccer right now and usually plays flag football, i swear that kid is bouncing off the walls. Next year we will let him play flag football again during his soccer break. He has serious energy to burn.

 

[Kat77]

My DS is in 6th grade but his 5th grade day was the same. They are in school 7 hours. He has 35 minutes for lunch and he has 20 minutes for recess. They have PE twice a week. one day for 40 minutes the other for 30 minutes. Art once a week for 40 minutes and Music once a week for 40 minutes.

On Thursdays when he has Orchestra he does not have recess, they go to Orchestra instead of recess.

So about 5 1/2 hours a day of academics.

He averages about 2 hours of homework a night, often more like 3 hours and rarely about 1 hour. He has homework every weekend usually about 2 hours.

Holy Cow, that's a lot of homework! I'd have an issue with that. How do you accomplish other things during the week? Three hours is truely a full days worth of work homeschool wise.
I think 10 minutes per grade is a great standard for homework. My kids have usually less than that unless a project is due.

 

[Tinijocaro]

Exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!

So it looks ROUGHLY, based on this small sample that it is about 6-8 hours a day on school work.

I think I will track her time to get a really good idea of what she is really spending--but it seems that she is in line with what is traditionally expected of that grade.

Thanks so much! I have a new appreciate for teachers.

But shouldn't she be spending less time than a schooled child on schoolwork? That's one of the benefits of homeschooling. Unless there is a possibility of a learning disability, then that's a different issue.

 

[MoniqueU]

I am not sure what my oldest DD does as far as homework as she does it in her room and never misses an assignment and tests and performs well. My youngest DD spends far less then an hour on homework a night here in CA. She is an A-B student and doing just fine.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

But shouldn't she be spending less time than a schooled child on schoolwork? That's one of the benefits of homeschooling. Unless there is a possibility of a learning disability, then that's a different issue.

Well, I didn't disclose how much time she was taking.

She has no known LD.

But she does suffer from ADHD onset procrastination.

Her academic time is 3 hours, but it does not account for time spent writing or reading or procrastination. . That is her syllabus, 4 days per week with 1 day just 1 hour.

She also has suggested supplemens that are mentioned as options in the book list, but not incorporarates into the body of the syllabus. So those items would not be included in the time estimates. Example: History pockets which are a series of projects/learnIng activities related to the History we are studying.

So even if she took longer than suggested on 4 days, and even took as long as traditional school, she has one day where she doesn't do all that and it is still less overall.

I will take better accounting of her actual cumulative time to see how close we are to the suggested times.

 

[IDoDis]

I don't think comparing teaching a class of 20 students vs teaching a child 1:1 will give you equal time. I know for a fact that when I do a reading or math lesson with a student 1:1 it takes half the time compared to doing the same exact lesson with a class or even a small group.

So if a class has math for an hour, give it 30-40 min. for 1:1.

 

[Pixiedust34]

I don't think comparing teaching a class of 20 students vs teaching a child 1:1 will give you equal time. I know for a fact that when I do a reading or math lesson with a student 1:1 it takes half the time compared to doing the same exact lesson with a class or even a small group.

So if a class has math for an hour, give it 30-40 min. for 1:1.

This is true. I am a homeschooling mom who used to work at a public school. Teaching one student takes less time than teaching 25+ students because there are more interruptions in the classroom than at home. Logistics are different, too. We don't have class changes, locker visits, announcements, etc. We do take small breaks between subjects at home, but when we sit down to work there are no interruptions. I don't even answer the phone if I'm teaching.

My kids are in 7th and 8th grade now. When they were in 5th and 6th grade, I'd estimate that our full school day would take about 4-6 hours. Some days are longer than others, depending upon specific assignments. For example, writing haikus is not as time consuming as doing research for a paper. Some kinds of math (long division, for example) takes longer to do than when you're studying the metric system. Our days vary in length, though 4-6 hours is the usual range. This doesn't count out-of-the-house school I document, such as piano lessons for music, dance and sports for PE, etc.

 

[Buckalew11]

All I can say if get her disciplined now because HS homeschooling takes a lot of time and a lot of self discipline!
DD is up by 7:30 working until between 2:30 and 4 every day with a break for lunch and a few short breaks here and there. Of course, for her there is no "homework", it is all homework.
When she was in 5th grade at a school, she had a ton of work--5th grade was probably the year she had the most work. Lots of homework too--like Hannathy said--hours!

 

[tw1nsmom]

My kids are both in fifth grade and they do not spend anywhere near 6 hours a day on academics at school. Between lunch, recess, snack, morning routines, getting ready to go home, library time, gym, art, music, assemblies...I'd say the average is closer to 4 hours of academic time in school. Neither get much school homework (same math teacher, different classroom teachers). They probably only have about an hour a night unless they've put off some project.

DS has more homework, but that is by our design. He has a dyslexia tutor and a speech tutor here in our home three days a week and then has about an hour of computerized reading remediation a day on top of that. When he's working on reading I try to have DD work on math (no documented disability but math is a weakness). The extra work isn't required by the school though...it's our choice.

I'd say school academics, including homework, take about 5 hours.