How long should my kids learn at home each day?

“How long should parents teach their kids at home each day?”. This is a question that many parents have had on their minds recently as they add the role of school teacher to the many hats they wear. Between working from home, doing house chores and wrangling your kids to do their school work each day, the very thought of a 6 hour school day seems totally daunting. You wouldn’t be alone in this train of thought either. For decades, home-schooling families have had to look at the curriculum and their home lives, and to try to find a balance that works for everyone involved. The following is some of what they’ve found on how best to teach your kids at home.

Content over Time

Rather than worrying about allocating 6 hours each day for learning, many home school families focus on the content learned. Whether that’s completing 2-4 pages of their HSIE book, filling out their times table sheet or completing a level in Typing Tournament Online; what matters is what they’re learning, rather than the time it takes to learn it. Some days may be a breeze and others may take more time to learn something trickier. For those worried about how long this takes, after looking through some blogs* a pattern did emerge. On average, many home-school families teach their primary age students for 2-3 hours. For high school students it was closer to a full school day, but by that time your kids will be able to do a greater amount of independent study. Whole Family with computing devices

Since the quality of the work is the important consideration, there are many websites that can be very useful addition in your school day. The use of Typing Tournament Online means your child will be able to increase their typing speed by 6 wpm per term and the use of Maths Invaders Online has the potential to boost a child’s maths age by 12 months per term.

Mixing it up in the classroom

When you think of the average school day, you don’t think of sitting rigid at your desk from 9am – 3pm, sitting silently, writing away. There are excursions, class reading time, art projects, sports and many other fun activities that break up the day. The same can be said for learning at home. Many parents have been finding creative ways to teach their kids at home; from looking at the maths in baking a cake, keeping a diary or even making up rhymes to remember their spelling. Finding fun ways to get your kids learning while they still have a good time can make all the difference to your school day. Space rescue home page

EdAlive Central’s websites can help you do just that. From the multiplayer fun of Space Rescue to busting slugs while learning literacy in Words Rock Online, your kids will be having so much fun, they won’t even realise how much they’re learning. There are over 40,000 students learning online every day using EdAlive Central, so your kids are also bound to enjoy it!

Want to know what other parents think though? Check out these anecdotes from the Home School Review Crew and what they had to say about EdAlive Central.

*Blogs being Home School Review Crew, Home Schooling Down Under and Embark on The Journey.

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