Homeschooling: Average hours mom puts in?

Question

How many hours on average does a homeschooling mom put in per week for 4 kids: 1x 4th grade, 1x 5th grade, 2x7th grade?

No outings, just real work, like teaching and correcting papers.

Do most homeschooling moms put in 40 hrs/week?

Answer 1

Doubtful. Homeschooling takes MUCH less time than public school teachers because we don't have to spend as much time in instructing 20 to 30 kids, in grading, in discipline. Most studies (even those done by school districts) have shown that parents can provide the same or higher level of education in approximately three hours per day. In our family it was far less, we completed an entire year's worth of curriculum for five kids in less than four months, working three hours a day.

More kids doesn't mean more time. They can learn the same topics at different levels, although my kindergardener was able and willing to study the same thing her fifth grade brother was doing.

We now unschool, which takes much less work but much more time. I am their facilitator in all they do, and in all they learn, so I'm always researching their interests, finding subtopics etc.

Answer 2

Homeschooling is 24/7. ;)

More seriously, 4th grade, looking at just basic academics and no extra stuff, probably about 3 hours of student work time; by 7th grade, you might be looking at 4-4.5 hours. It'll depend a bit on the child. Correcting and prepping depend on how you go about it--will have have a prepackaged program? Will you correct while they work? Will you have time each day to prepare yourself for the next day? I doubt most homeschooling moms spend 8 hours a day on instruction and correction. Actually, about 50% of the homeschooling moms I know are unschoolers, so... I think the ones I know who spend the most time are the ones who follow very closely a very thorough curriculum like Sonlight or our provincial distance learning program. They may very well spend close to 40 hours a week. Somebody using Robinson Curriculum would have only the corrections to do. Typically, though, maybe add an extra hour to the above work times.

Answer 3

There are programs such as ABEKA that allow the parents to do little more than proctor and grade tests. Basically the kids watch taped classes and can correspond via e-mail with questions.

http://www.abeka.com/

However if you plan to teach your children, it will probably match that of your regular school teachers.

Answer 4

It will depend so much on what curriculum you use, how you organize it, and how independently your children work.

If you buy pre-packaged (i.e., expensive) curriculum, most of the planning work will already be done for you.  If you make your own curriculum, you'll have to do all the extra work of planning out what the lessons will be and such (assuming that you aren't having the children direct their own education--which is an option that some choose).  The planning can take a little time or a lot, depending on the methods you are using and such.

It will also depend on how you organize things.  Personally, for the 3 grades that you list, I'd work on one set of social studies/history/geography lessons for all the kids.  And one set of science lessons for all four kids.  I might use a lot of unit studies, so that they are all working on the same topics, though I might require more in-depth or more advanced work of the older child.  Math is a subject that usually has to be geared to the individual level of the children, though you might sometimes use an older child to teach a concept to a younger child (and at the same time the older child will get a firmer grip on the concept, so it isn't wasted time for him either.)  Anyway, I'd combine things as much as possible, to keep your sanity intact.

By the time the kids are this old, they should be able to work fairly independently in a lot of areas. I like to give them a sheet listing the work I'd like them to do that day (or week) and then let them go to it and come to me with questions as needed.  This means some planning ahead of time, but it means that during the day I can go about my own chores and such with just occasional interruptions.  It also teaches the children to plan their own time, to be self-starters, to not have to have a teacher hovering over them in order for them to learn.  You still have to check their work periodically and plan, but the amount of time spent is nowhere near 40 hours a week.  More like 8 to 10, I'd guess, though it will depend on your children and the materials you're using, too.

Answer 5

Homeschool moms are busy people, but I would hardly say they put in 40 hours a week. It just doesn't take the kind of time it would take a public school teacher. There just isn't as much to do. You don't have 30 kids or more to look after. You don't have to grade in the sense that public school teachers do since you will know if your kids are learning or not. You don't have the distractions and class disruptions you'd have in a public school. You don't have to teach to a test for a certain number of weeks and still worry about getting the REAL stuff in. You don't have IEP's to go over or parent teacher conferences or notes home or any of that. It will take work, but not the same kind of work. We don't have as many kids as you do. I'm the only one, and I'm in 11th/12th grade, graduating this winter. We don't use an online program or anything, and I am blind so mom and I have the added task of adapting things like labs and experiments and developing hands on lessons for the more visual subjects like math, but even still I think my mom only really has to put in about two hours a day, sometimes  not even that much.

Answer 6

It really depends on the curriculum you use. For example...my kids use http://www.aleks.com for math. This program uses artificial intelligence and I don't have to grade anything (look for thier free one month trial for homeschoolers)

I also use http://www.sonlight.com  This is all planned out for you and they have a 4 and a 5 day option. The kids can look at the reading that they have to do and you will have discussion input.

There are also some read alouds that you can all do together. I highly recommend Sonlight because it's easy on moms while still being a great way to learn. Check on their forums for more advice.

And then some people opt for online virtual school that requires little parental input. (k12 Homeschool)

I do have friends that plan everything from scratch and spend about 30-40 hours a week. I just haven't chosen to do that because there are so many great resources available.

Best of Luck!

jana

http://www.purehomeschooling.com