There's something that's been bothering me lately about homeschooling. Maybe some of my homeschool mom friends can clear this up for me. My question is this:
How much time does it take to homeschool a kindergartener?
The typical answer that is given online is 30-60 minutes/day (taken from various homeschool websites). I'm sorry, but surely this cannot be true practically. Sometimes it takes Austin 20 minutes or more to complete one homework page (writing/math), which is very reasonable considering he is new at this whole writing thing. That being said, I can't imagine that a homeschooler could be finished with all his or her subjects in less than an hour.
If a homeschooler is only spending 30-60 minutes/day on his or her studies, is that really enough time to get it all done? Maybe a better question is this: Should a homeschooler get all his or her work done in 30-60 minutes? What are they doing with the rest of their day that is more beneficial than what they would be doing at school?
Granted, I know kids in school spend a lot of time standing in line, changing classes, etc., but is that always a bad thing? I have seen more growth and maturity in Austin in the past three weeks than I ever would have expected. He is learning how to write his letters and numbers (which could easily be done at home), but he has also learned how to stand in line, wait his turn and walk to the gym by himself when I drop him off in the morning. He gets to play outside every day, he goes to gym class twice a week, he gets music and art class, and he has Chinese class three times per week. I couldn't possibly pay for extracurricular activities like that! I also realized the other day that Austin hadn't watched TV for several days in a row. That's a good thing!
This all being said, I have a lot of homeschooling friends, and I seriously doubt they get all their homeschooling done in half an hour, which is a huge relief to me.
I welcome any comments you may have, especially those from homeschool moms. How much time do you spend homeschooling your child(ren) each day? Can it really be done in less than an hour?
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