The children are VERY relaxed. Getting ready for school used to be a cocktail of frantic anxiety, frustration, feelings of helplessness, and even sadness. Waking up at 6:15s to be to school by 7:30a...everyone trying to get ready simultaneously...intermittent screams of "HURRY UP!! We're going to be LATE!!" is just not a peaceful way to being EACH day!
Now the kids sleep until 9:30a, 5 days a week; sometimes as late as 11a. I'm convinced the ability to rest their bodies is for effective in preventing illness than the annual flu vaccine. On school days, the kids wake at 8a, so they can be at school by 9a.
They come home with assignments and can opt to split the work into homework and short subsequent "home-school day" or relax afterschool and wake up ready to work the next morning.
For Hana, the homeschool day consists of math, handwriting, and reading. Total time spent doing this is MAYBE 2 hours. Ian's schedule is similar, except he spends less time doing more subjects (math, language arts, spelling test, history/social studies, and some life-science).
Haley has had the most dramatic improvement. She is a much better manager of her time. She is more self-determining, and actually is vigilant in identifying assignments and completing them on time. I help her organize her weekly schedule (and allow her to do it on her own about once every 5-6 weeks).
Haley will wake about 10am, and ready to work (after breakfast and morning routine activities) about 10:30a. She does math first and finishes up about 12p. Then she typically will do Language Arts. That takes her about 30 minutes. Then she takes a break.
About 1pm she does History. 2pm she's ready to move on to Life Science. Life science has been difficult/detailed this semester - thus has required my supplemental teaching. What I've managed to do is teach her how to take notes and pick out the most important points in the reading (i.e. how to highlight, how to outline, etc). I am so proud that she seems to have learned this skill - which is far more important than the actual life-science material at this point!!
By 4pm she's ready for a break.
About 4:30p she does Spanish. She actually enjoys Spanish (videos, flash-cards, etc) and does it until about 5pm.
So her homeschool day is about 6.5 hours (with breaks built-in). And then she either moves on to her extracurricular music practice, or takes a "break" and does the music after dinner.
Not everyday is a 6.5 hour day. And actually, when she's focused, she can finish up the math in 45 minutes, the history in 30, the Life-science in 45, and the Language in 30 for a total of 2.5 hours. But, I don't push her, and she takes frequent "mini-mental breaks" during the day...and that adds time. And pushing her to work more quickly, frustrates her. It seems to add a layer of expectation for no real reason. So I tend to avoid that - unless we have something to do!!
Harp teacher comes to the house mid-day on Wednesday. And she has piano lessons on Wednesday evening. Ian started guitar lessons on Monday afternoon which Haley watches. But nonetheless, her days aren't longer (as she works more efficiently on the academic portion on those days).
If you think about it, Haley would be in school from 7:30a until 3p. Home by 3:30p. Then homework from 4p-6p. Extracurricular piano (sports or whatever) would add an additonal 2 hours. So the child isn't "done" with her day until 8p (and this is before dinner, and if homework is "only" 2 hours). With the necessity to wake up at 6am, going to bed by 10p would be ideal. After showers, dinner, and a few minutes of "family time" the day is gone!!
The way it is now, Haley is done with work by 6:30pm (on a long day, AFTER her 2 hours music practice, and/or additional music instruction). She doesn't have to go to bed until midnight (which works for her internal rhythm) so that leaves 6 hours to do what she wants to do.
The increased productivity, combined with the removal of non-essential activities, allows the child to enjoy life outside of the classroom.
For us, this has been HUGE. And a "successful" home-school hybrid situation.
