A forum member needs help meeting the requirements for the number of hours required of homeschoolers in her state.
My state law states that you must have 1080 hours (175 days, 6 hours a day) of homeschooling.Not all states have a required number of hours that must be met. But if yours does, it's really not that difficult to meet the number of hours required. Not all hours have to be sitting down in front of books. Let's see if we can't help this homeschooler out.My 8 year old son does 50-100 problems of math, 3-4 worksheets of spelling, 2 pages in science and history, money, clocks and reads 2-3 books a day. He is usually done in about 3-4 hours. Is this all we need to do or am I missing some subjects. I have tried to keep records but have down what we cover each day and attendance. I haven't really started testing him yet. We have only been homeschooling for about a month. How often should I test him. Do you keep up with grades? If he doesn't get something correct, I discuss it with him and let him redo.
Please help me get started on the right track!"
What types of activities do you count as schooling? How do you account for those activities? Share your thoughts.
Comments
There are two ways to look at the hours requirement. First, remember that schools allot times for subjects, for example, math is from 10-11am daily, etc. They still count all of that time. If they only actually DO MATH for 40 minutes, that hour is still counted.
Also, besides school-ish subjects, you should be counting PE type activities (Shooting hoops, bike riding, skateboarding), art (any crafts, model building, anything else), and chores and baking (life skills). I hope this helps add some “time” to your school hours. It’s not like you weren’t already doing these things already. Now you just need to make them count.
I agree, you can count lots of stuff as “school” that isn’t done sitting at the table and writing. 30-60 minutes per day can be considered PE, even if all they are doing is hanging off the bunk bed upside down or jumping on the sofa. Discussing books, trips to the library, reading under the covers at night all count as reading instruction. Any field trips to museums can count toward history, science, or art. Crafts and drawing/painting count toward art as well. Learning home skills like cooking, cleaning, laundry all can be put under home economics.
Be creative, the law is designed for students who spend much time traveling to/from school, getting from one class to another, goofing around, waiting… they don’t take into account homeschoolers who are much more efficient.
Does he like to read? My kids are 9 and 7, and stopped taking afternoon naps long ago, but they still spend at least an hour after lunch every day resting and reading. Sometimes we discuss what they’re reading, but most of the time we don’t. I count this time as one of our school hours. They read on their own at other times too, but I don’t try to keep up with it. We do try to keep a list of books read every month. I also count trips to the library as schooltime, however, it usually takes the place of the silent reading after lunch.
Also don’t forget to count day trips or vacation activities where learning takes place.
Ditto on the P.E. related activities … also any hobbies or creative play …never understimate the educational potential of a bucket of Legos
Schools don’t do nearly the required amount of time they are supposed to – they fudge the numbers.
I am a homeschooling parent, and also a 5 year member of our local school committee. State law in Mass requires 900 hours at the Elementary level, I know for a fact that our school doesn’t even come close when you subtract out all the time that is wasted between classes, extra recesses, assemblies to honor retiring teachers etc.
As a homeschool parent, you can call whatever time you want, homeschool hours. Does you child do independent reading? That counts. Does s/he sit and draw pictures on his or her own? Thats art class? 3 hours playing outside? Thats gym class? Brough him to a museum? thats a field trip….get the idea?
Does it require the number of days and hours in a day or is that your figure? We have to fill 1000hours a year 600 core 400 noncore. That is really not much. Educatin is everywhere. Driving in the car we ill discuss history that counts. Watching educational TV counts. Many of us think outside the box.
I wrote the hour/day requirement just like it said on our state law page. In fact it read the minimal school year is 185 days with 175(6hour) days being instructional days. I looked on our county’s board of education website and found that our county only is scheduled 173 days for students. This includes field trips, assemblys etc. And they are also allowed so many snow days that they do not have to make up. So are they trying to say that homeschoolers need more time than public school kids. I think not!!!
My son has learned more in a month of homeschooling than the 2 1/2 years of public schools. He was in first grade before I pulled him out before christmas. He is now multiplying, dividing, fractions, 2 digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. He was repeating 1st grade. I don’t remember him having any of that last year. He loves the challenge. The bigger the numbers the more excited he gets.
Those laws are written under the heavy influence of anti-homeschooling groups such as the NEA. Thankfully I live in a state where homeschooling is unregulated. But if I did, I would certainly fudge the numbers. If your son does 20 minutes of math, tack on 20 minutes of instruction and 20 minutes of review, and record it as an hour. Not to mention all the other activities that could be considered “schooling”, some of which have already been mentioned.
Trip to grocery store = life skills, math (prices), health (reading labels), home ec, reading …
Trip to park = PE, life sciences, social studies …
Talking (even arguing) with mom/family/friends = rhetoric, debate, psychology …
Playing make believe, going to movies = drama, theater, language arts …
Homeschooling is like super-concentrated laundry soap. A little goes a very long way, and there’s no way either child or mom could handle 6 hours of instruction every day. They’d either end up blowing a gasket or in puddles all over the floor.
Those laws are written under the heavy influence of anti-homeschooling groups such as the NEA. Thankfully I live in a state where homeschooling is unregulated, and most families I know do 3-4 hours of actual formal academic work a day.
But if I did, I would certainly fudge the numbers. If your son does 20 minutes of math, tack on 20 minutes of instruction and 20 minutes of review, and record it as an hour. Not to mention all the other activities that could be considered “schooling”, some of which have already been mentioned.
Trip to grocery store = life skills, math (prices), health (reading labels), home ec, reading …
Trip to park = PE, life sciences, social studies …
Talking (even arguing) with mom/family/friends = rhetoric, debate, psychology …
Playing make believe, going to movies = drama, theater, language arts …
Cooking = math, language arts, logic, home ec …
Church/prayers/doing good deeds/chores/reading stories with a good message = religion, citizenship, moral development …
Anything having to do with words has something to do with language arts. Anything with numbers is math. Any physical activity is PE. Anything having to do with people is social studies. Listening to any kind of music is music appreciation. Any kind of drawing or craft is art.
Homeschooling is like super-concentrated laundry soap. A little goes a very long way, and there’s no way either child or mom could handle 6 hours of instruction every day. They’d either end up blowing a gasket or in puddles all over the floor.
Remember that you can use all the trips to the library, field trips, museums, art galleries, going to the park, banking, shopping trips, etc. Also, try adding in typing or a foreign language. Also, don’t forget about websites like this one and teacherscorner.net that have lesson plans for special holidays and things like Presidents Day, etc. One of my favorite things is this monthly calender http://www.theteacherscorner.net/calendars/ which will give you special facts about each day (who knew there is a International Polar Bear Day?) along with teachable points for that day. It is a great resource that I tie into our school day regularly.