Homeschooling and Efficiency
Normally I post a baking recipe on Wednesdays, but today I wanted to address a question that came up in the comments on yesterday's post.
Erika was the first one to ask, but lots of other people wondered the same thing. Here's Erika's question.
Just out of curiosity (I'm not familiar with how homeschooling works), but is it common for homeschooled children to only do schoolwork for 2 hours a day? I see on your schedule that school started at 9 and stopped at 11. I think my elementry school day (back in the day!) went from 9-3. Just curious, please don't take this as any sort of criticism – clearly you are doing a great job raising your family!
Before I talk about homeschooling and efficiency, I want to say a few things.
-I really appreciate the spirit of this question.
Thanks for not assuming that I'm raising a crop of illiterate, uneducated people. 😉 All of you were very gracious in your questions about this topic yesterday (save one, whose comment I chose not to publish), and I am grateful for that.
I should also tell you that when we first started homeschooling our children, my husband (who went to public school) was a little bit nervous about how quickly we got our work done, so you are not alone in wondering about this! Of course, he's come around now that he understands more about how homeschooling works and now that he's seen how well it's working for our kids.
-I didn't include every detail of our school day in yesterday's post.
Just like I didn't talk about everything that my husband did yesterday, I also didn't talk about all the school work that got done...I just mentioned the work that I was involved with. Joshua and Lisey do the vast majority of their schoolwork independently. So, Joshua started his schoolwork before 9:00 that day...I just didn't get around to starting with Sonia until 9:00.
-The number of hours we spend doing school each day varies.
Some days we do more, some days we do less. Some days we are really efficient and focused and we get our work done fast. Other days, either the kids are I are more distracted, and we take longer to finish.
-As several other commenters pointed out, learning doesn't only take place while we are doing formal schooling.
For example, Joshua and Lisey set their alarm last night to go off at 3:00 am because they wanted to watch the meteor shower. As another example, when we watch condensation form on our cups of water in warm weather, we talk about why that happens.
And often, when my kids ask me something I don't know, we look up the answer. We listen to a variety of music at breakfast and lunch, and we talk about the music and the composer, often looking on the globe to find out where the composer lived and worked.
Also, we read books (fiction and non-fiction) from the library in our free time, and I think that reading good books is one of the best and most enjoyable ways to learn.
These are just a few examples of the way that learning spills over into our "non-school" hours.
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Ok! Now, to answer your question, yes, it is very common for homeschoolers to spend significantly less time doing formal schoolwork than their counterparts at traditional school. The reason for this is that homeschooling is very time-efficient.
There are a number of reasons for this. First, doing anything with one child is simpler than doing it with 15-20 (or even doing it with 10!). It takes time to get a group of children to even sit down altogether, let alone to get them busy doing work. This is not to besmirch the skills of school teachers, as I know I wouldn't be half as efficient if I had to walk 10 children through a year of school.
Secondly, a child working by himself can move at exactly his own pace. This means that if Joshua comes across a concept in a subject that he grasps easily, he can finish his assignment quickly and move on to the next subject. In a traditional school setting, a child that finishes an assignment early still has to wait for the period to be over or for the rest of the class to be done.
Incidentally, I think that being able to finish early by working efficiently is a wonderful benefit to a child. I know that when I was being homeschooler, it was very motivating to know that if I buckled down and got my work done, I would have more free time to play.
Thirdly, homeschoolers can get all their academics done back-to-back. As I mentioned above, my children can go straight from subject to subject, which saves them a lot of time. They also are able to avoid some of the not-so-educational things that eat up time in a traditional school. In most schools, children don't actually spend every minute from 9:00-3:00 doing schoolwork, so it's not quite fair to compare a 6-hour day at school to our days at home.
At school, there are lunch breaks and recesses and gym class and bus time and time spent moving between classes. My children don't have to travel at all, of course (unless you count walking from the breakfast table to a desk!), and they can do most of their work in one place. We do have lunch (if you count that, my children were "doing school" for more than two hours in yesterday's post) and of course my children run around outside to play, but these things are usually done after we are all done with our formal schooling.
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I hope that answers the questions you all had about this topic, but if you're still left wondering something, do feel free to leave a comment, and I'll try to clear up any confusion.
My question about homeschooling is what happens when the child enters 10th, 11th or 12th grades. Surely, the parent cannot teach all subjects ranging from Chemistry to Literature to Math to the child? How do homeschooling parents handle it when the subject matter they have to teach is beyond what they themselves may understand? I know that I do not have nearly enough knowledge to teach 12th grade math, physics or chemistry to my children!
Let's all remember the purpose of this blog and be thankful that "The Frugal Girl" has been gracious enough to invite us into her life. The purpose of this blog is not to question methods of homeschooling or express doubt in the process. The purpose of the blog is to share in ideas of living a frugal, yet enriching life. Kudos to you Frugal Girl for having the ambition and organization of not only home schooling one child but multiple grades at a time. I think you handle everything including some not so justified comments with true grace.
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Kristen here-thanks for that comment, Sarah. I just want to make sure that everyone understands that I don't at ALL mind questions as long as they are not framed in a derisive and insulting way. The vast majority of my readers pose their questions in a way that is not at all offensive, and I am grateful for that!
I loved your explanation. We homeschool and I get asked that a lot. Plus, there is no standing in line for water breaks and bathroom breaks, or standing in line waiting for lunch or standing in line waiting to go to music, gym or art, no standing in line to go back to your class after those activities...
Thanks for explaining, Kristen. I was thinking about this last night, and when you remove homeroom, snack/lunch, gym from the schedule of an elementary school student, it easily knocks out a chunk of time.
I'm just so fascinated by the concept of homeschooling and kids doing work independently versus having a teacher interact with them (versus a parent who isn't formally trained as a teacher.). I'll say everyone I ever met or interacted with who was homeschooled were very well educated and benefitted from a culturally rich education. Sounds like you're doing a great job thus far!
Kristen, Thanks so much for the explanation. My husband and I have started discussing the possibility of having children so I've been thinking about home schooling a lot lately. Are there any websites that you recommend to get more information about home schooling? I'm most concerned about how to get started, state requirements, etc.
@Jenny
That's my big question also. Observing my circle of homeschoolers hasn't answered it. My niblings are mostly great people (one is still suffering a stong case of being a 22 year old young man 🙂 but they never studied a foreign language, didn't get much in the way of science lab, and stopped math at trig. (To be fair, this is true of some school-schoolers as well, depending on the school & public district.)
I know that some homeschoolers hire tutors to teach a group of students, essentially recreating a school. Some teach their specialities. I have one friend who *is* a rocket scientist and parent of homeschooled, so he teaches some physics and astro-physics.
My other question is about the lack of group interaction in the classroom. Without multiple people discussing a topic, you don't get one thought leading to another that leads to new insights. Thoughts?
And I wish to register a quibble. Kids who go to school can have out-of-school learning experiences also. If you count it as part of a homeschooling day, gotta count it as part of a school-schooling day too.
And a funny line. I went to private schools and (in my - ahem - humble opinion) got a great education. Once when I was talking with my SIL about homeschooling, she pointed out that if her homeschooling budget was as big as my private school tuition, she'd have a kick-a$$ science lab also!
I had the same question about high school. Will you have tutors then or how will you approach it? For different reasons, my granddaughter never really attended a regular high school. She had some home schooling in a residential setting from age 15-16, then took basic writing and math classes at community colleges and with tutors until she had the credits to go full time. She's now a junior at a 4 year college. In addition, she is dyslexic and learning has never been easy for her. So, I know it can be done...just curious about your approach with teens.
I went to public school and when I got bored there, the state of Massachusetts paid for me to go to community college during my senior year in high school. I'm wondering if that is an option for home-schoolers.
Hi Kristen (and everyone else!),
I've been reading your blog for awhile and always enjoy the posts that are specifically related to household budget issues. I don't know much about homeschooling, but I've been learning a lot through your posts on that topic. I also have the same question that others have mentioned. How do you teach the complicated topics that are taught to advanced high schoolers in public or private schools? I mean, I've gone through a lot of education myself, but I don't think I'd be able to teach Shakespeare, just to give one example.
Another homeschooling question I had: how do homeschoolers apply to and get accepted into college/university? I assume homeschoolers don't have GPAs...
I loved this post! I would also like to know some other resources where I could get more information(how to get started, requirements, etc) for future reference.
Thanks everyone for your questions...I'll throw those into some Monday Q&A posts. Just didn't want you to think I was ignoring them!
"And I wish to register a quibble. Kids who go to school can have out-of-school learning experiences also. If you count it as part of a homeschooling day, gotta count it as part of a school-schooling day too."
William, I would agree with you there. It's just that there is far less time at home for that sort of thing. By the time children ride the bus home, do homework, eat dinner, there's often not a lot of free time left before they need to head to bed in order to get up in time for school.
My main point about "counting" is that a 9-3 school day includes things like lunch and recess. If my children eat lunch and then run around outside, it would be fair to add that into our total hours.
I'm really not too worried about counting hours, though. What matters is not the number of hours we spend doing work but how much we're learning.
I went to a community college to take chemistry and physics during my sophomore and junior years of high school. My Father is a math professor so he taught me through pre-calculus and then had me take calculus 1, 2, 3 and DiffyQ at a local college during my junior and senior years of high school. My Mom is an English professor and I was also involved in a writing club that met once a week to read and discuss papers and books we read and wrote.
I have four younger siblings and three of them have done the same thing as me. They took their sciences at a community college and some maths. They aren't as math oriented as I am. I am an engineer, my sister is an accountant, my third sister has her paralegal degree and is working on a nursing degree, and my brother just started his senior year of high school and is taking micro-economics and chemistry.
One great thing I loved about home schooling was getting to spend time with people that were different ages than I was. I love hanging out with my siblings and I loved talking to adults about all sorts of things. As long as the parents are willing to be involved in their childrens' lives I think home schooling is a great idea. There are definitely some people that should not home school and some people that have jobs that won't allow them to. It isn't for everyone, but I am so glad my parents choose to home school me!
I forgot to answer this one. I took the SATs, but since I had college credits from taking classes during my sophomore, junior, and senior years in high school I never needed to really show them. I put them on college applications, but all they wanted to see were my transcripts from the community college and to see how well I had done. Once you are accepted into one college, most other colleges will accept you as a transfer since you have proven yourself worthy of college.
Oh, and some home school mothers I know are rigid about grading and giving their children test scores and a GPA. I've seen them submit that to get into college, but I think taking the SAT and getting community college credits are both easier ways to get into college. I ended up getting my bachelors and masters from a top twenty engineering school. So home schooling can take you pretty far, if you have the right teachers.
I know several good homeschoolers in my area - one has a son who was immediately accepted into college, easily based on SAT scored, and is an M.D. now. Also one who has a son getting his Masters currently. It is not difficult for a home schooled kid to get into college by any stretch. Assuming, of course, that the home schooling was actual home schooling and not the farce that has been made famous by talk show hosts. Also, at least here, there are home school sports teams for the kids and they have PLENTY of interaction with people, their peers and others. I have great respect for home schoolers - way to go guys! I wish I could have joined forces but life circumstances prevented it.
As a contra example, one of my niblings needed a letter from his senator (US Senate, not state) to prove to the military that his home schooling graduation was equivalent to a school-schooling graduation. It took months to get all the pieces lined up for that.
Wow! Lots of good discussion....we are homeschooling 4 kids and our oldest is in 10th grade and it has been so fun and exciting to actually go back and learn the subjects they "kind of" taught my husband and I in our High School years. We do have a few tutors for Chemistry, Latin and Spanish 3. But at the pace my girl is going she will be taking online classes from the local Christian college next year. To make it even more crazy, my husband is a teacher in a public school and has been for 20 years! Our biggest JOY of homeschooling these past few months is bringing in a new sibling, through adoption, to our family and seeing our kids daily 24/7 take in this little one and learn, teach and love as family. You can't learn that in public school. 🙂 I also encourage anyone thinking of jumping into homeschooling to just trust yourselves! God chose you to be the perfect parent to these little ones. You will know what to do and when.
We homeschool as well., I was having a panic once about the fact we 'only' spent a couple of hours at the table working through workbooks. Then I sat and did the maths.
By the time I took our registration, 2 play times and lunch time. Took out assemblies, toilet times, queuing, waiting turns, waiting for the teacher to discpline the kids who were messing around, it worked out something like 9 minutes PER WEEK of one on one time given in a class room of 24 kids.
So a couple of hours a day is a fine amount of time LOL!
Like Kristen says, as with ANY child, home educated or not, learning takes place ALL the time; it's not just about text books and exams. LIFE is the education ...
I am a public school teacher with 16 years of experience in the state of California. My children attend the local Christian school, not the public school system that I teach in. I want to encourage those who are homeschooling to keep up the good work. Most homeschool families give their children a much better education than I ever could. In my class of 34 5th grade students I have 4 with severe learning disabilities, 2 non-English speakers, 16 who speak English but feel more comfortable in their home language, 2 gifted students, and the rest are average. On any given day it is very difficult to meet the needs of each learner. So, home school parents ~ keep up the great work!!
That is so lovely of you to say! I've encountered some teachers who take the decision to homeschool as a personal affront. Thank you for being so nice. 🙂
i agree. i feel i get the nose up when we say "homeschooler" i know a few that shouldn't have been homeschooled. but i know my friend is a dental hygentist & her brother a PA & one an accountant.they all are very, very self disciplined and went to college even before they were done with high school.
Just chiming in one more time: I think the plurality and diversity of different learning styles and language backgrounds makes public school classrooms a *more* enriching experience for each student.
and that's your opinion! and i think sitting w/ some druggies, rebellious, and obnoxious disrespectful kids are usually among those "diversities" that some would prefer their children not to spend MOST of their days with.
Kristen this is the way learning, not just homeschooling, should take place. If all of us would take an active interest in the curiosity of a child, we'd find sweetness in everyday life.
I happened to be at a library yesterday and caught a tutoring session. The teacher was obviously disinterested and the pupil frustrated.
It made my heart hurt!
Thanks for the great job of raising children you do!
@WilliamB How difficult it is to get into college depends on the method the parents use to keep track of records. We are part of an umbrella group that keeps high school records. Some parents are part of a tutorial, which keeps high school records. I suppose the difficulty depends to some degree on the college's particular requirements as well.
Jeanne-Yes, that's exactly it. I give public school teachers all the credit in the world, but you all are up against many challenges that make it difficult to give a great education to each child.
Inge-Families with more than one child have a fair amount of diversity in learning styles just in their homes. 😉 And Mary from Owlhaven has children from several different countries in her homeschool.
In Jeanne's case above, the "diversity" in her classroom is making it very difficult for her to meet the needs of each of her students (I personally don't understand how anyone could expect one person to teach 34 fifth graders, even if they all had the same needs!). One could argue that her students may learn some unselfishness through all of that, but I would maintain that there are ways to learn unselfishness that don't come at the cost of education. And perhaps the children's in Jeanne's class will learn to appreciate other cultures, but it's entirely possible for homeschooled children to do the same thing, while at the same time receiving a good education.
I think that a common misconception about homeschoolers is that we hide out in our houses 24/7 and that our children never see anyone outside of our family. Maybe some homeschoolers operate that way, but the majority of us do venture outside of our homes, and we do socialize with and talk to people (we even talk to non-homeschoolers! lol).
i love your sweet replys. as my horns are poking out at some people & then i defensively reply, i read your gentle replys & feel guilty. you are a good example. i have heard it said " correct me on marriage...i'll take your critizism, but correct me on parenting...YIKES! watch out for the big guns!"
I realized something late yesterday afternoon while visiting my parents' home. My 16 year old brother got home from school about 3:45 yesterday. He started his homework shortly after and it took him almost 2 hours before he was finished. Even then he still needed to study for a chemistry test. He has about 8 hours spent at school, gets home and continues school.
I also found out that they have this thing at school called "Warrior period".(school mascot is the warrior) He said that the first 30 minutes of school is a time where you spend in clubs. The students were given a chance to sign up at the beginning of the year for something that interests them. Well my brother found nothing that interests him (he plays soccer and enjoys art) and so did not sign up for anything. Now he sits in a classroom during this period and does NOTHING! What is wrong with this picture?!
I have three children, ages 20, 18 & 17, next month. I taught all three of them to read at age four, at home. We did not have the option of private school, so I homeschooled for several years, during elementary grades. They each entered public school, not only "up-to-par" but actually ahead of each of their grade levels, by at least two years! We did plenty outside of home such as; attending museum exhibits, participating in local homeschool support groups (which I even taught a semester long Drama group), attending ethnic festivals, hosted by the great city of Charlotte, NC, they played soccer, basketball, football and did Scouting, boy & girl. Not to mention the "un-traditional" school schedule, which allowed us to visit relatives & friends who lived out of state, for extended stays, during their early childhood experience, exposing them to people of all ages & benefiting from their own, personal heritage. We even hosted a Japanese foreign exchange student for a year in our home, exposing them, first hand, to world culture. Our oldest is now in the US Army in intelligence, and declined an appointment to the US Air Force Academy, in favor of serving as an enlisted. He had AP classes in high school, marching band, Air Force ROTC for four years, and high SAT scores. My 18 year old is not academically inclined, but is a beastly talented guitar player, and is looking into the NC School of the Arts, and our daughter is in her Jr. year of the same high school her brothers attended, taking honors classes as well as Spanish 3 and Foods 2. They are about as diverse as siblings can be, yet closer than most siblings I've met. All of the boys friends, from middle & high school, still come visit us, even though they've gone to college now. We were "The House" for them and their friends, (although we disagreed with the amount of gaming they did back then, and still now! lol) and we have enjoyed the variety of experiences they have each contributed to our lives, and hopefully, in a positive way, to theirs. One even got an Internship at WOW (Blizzard Entertainment) in Hollywood over the summer...PAID! Guess gaming paid off for him! The Army encourages gaming! We are living in a global world, people! Homeschooling is not only a viable option, it is accepted worldwide! Have you checked college application requirements lately? They have specific directions for homeschoolers! It is accepted across our country. All I say, is we experienced both homeschool & public school, and our children had benefits from both. Don't live in a glass house! The way to understand issues is to discuss them with an open mind, which I applaud Kristin for doing by blogging about all of her experiences. I love your blog, girl! Keep up the great work!
Hi Kristen,
In your follow-up to the folow-up post, I'd be curious to hear why you and your husband made the decision to homeschool? I know it was probably a natual choice for you, given your background, but one of the posts references discussions between you and your husband. Sounds like this topic is very interesting to people, so maybe others would like to hear about those discussions, too?
I'll end with a quibble, to borrow WilliamB's term. I know some may see it as just a matter of punctuation, but putting quotes around diversity in your reply makes a very big statement. A classroom with children of varying learning abilities and cultural backgrounds is diverse, by definition. Using scare quotes shows either that you don't understand what diversity is, or makes a big 'ole value judgement that you do not think diversity is worthwhile.
I don't mean to offend, (so please don't take my comment that way!), but I found the quotes objectionable, and wanted to point them out in case your intent in using them was different.
Nope, I didn't mean anything funky by it. I meant it more as a straight quote and not as a slur against diversity. 🙂 Just like if I quoted something from your reply, like so:
Anyazs, I didn't mean to "make a value judgment".
I understand that it came off sort of weird because it was just one word, though! And I wasn't consistent in putting quotes around the word either, so that was confusing. Sorry! I was typing that reply while my children were awake, which means that distraction was at a high. lol Note to self: formulate comments on possibly divisive issues while the children are sleeping.
As a side note, I should say that online communication is a tricky beast, first because few of us know each other as well as we know people in real life, and second, because we don't get to hear tone and see facial expressions. I'm usually not a confrontational, rude person in real life, but online it's hard to avoid coming off that way.
I would take the quotes out now, but then that would make your comment and mine confusing for any readers, so I'll probably just leave them.
And I do indeed feel that diversity is important. It's actually one of my favorite things about the internet, because it connects people who'd never cross paths in real life. One of my very good online friends (the one who made my header) is my complete opposite as far as religious beliefs go, and I doubt we'd ever have met in real life. But, we have lots of things in common, and I count her one of my best online friends.
This is getting very long, so I will stop pontificating now. lol
Oh, nuts. I forgot to say that yes, I'd be happy to explain why we decided to homeschool. I'll add that to my pile of questions for the Monday Q&A feature.
Cool, thanks for verifying the non-scariness of the quotes. I'm glad I asked!
When I was in elementary school I slept through half of my classes and the other half was filled with mindless busy work to shut us up so the teacher could grade the other papers. Given the poor quality of elementary school teachers these days (based on my experience with seeing a lot of them in college) I'd be surprised if they could teach anything in 24 hours, let alone the standard 6 hours (including lunch) that I went through.
Of course, I was an independent learner so I may be the exception that I would go learn on my own.
I work in the school system and I home school my son. Much of a typical day in the school system is not all about learning. In the school I work in they started off in October and did nothing but Holiday arts and crafts as well as stories about the Holidays starting with Halloween and ending with Christmas so three months of the school year has been devoted to the Holidays. They went Trick Or Treating in the different classrooms, had a Thanksgiving meal the day before Thanksgiving and barely did anything the weeks leading up to Christmas. Now how much of this could be done at home?
In addition they watched movies about the Holidays (calling it social skills even though they aren't allowed to socialize during the movie)
Also they have had half days and days off as well as a week off in October, Thanksgiving break in November and two weeks off in December for Winter Break.
Now I am not saying this is bad but how much learning is actually taking place? All of these activities can be done at home! Meanwhile my son started his school in the middle of September and has already finished 12 courses of study and has passed 10 exams! He is a straight A student as well! In between we have shopped for gifts, ate our turkey dinner had guest over and have enjoyed other activities. Sometimes teachers in the school system are bogged down with paper work, parent meetings, in service days , and other meetings that they just don't have time to teach!!!
I'm so glad I came across this.. You have really helped with my
Descision to home school my son Joshua, he is 12 and really doesn't like the school environment he never has (the complete opposite to his sister) he has Health problems so misses a lot of school I've been pondering the idea for about 6 months wondering if I could do it if he would grow up happy which is what I'm most worried about.
After reading your blogs I've decided well 99% sure I want to give this a go I am 100% committed to making it work and so is josh I just hope I'm doing the right thing for him:-/ it's an exciting thought though:)
This is an older post but I was re reading some, of them and this is one of my favorites.I think home schooling is just the most exciting and fruitful thing a family can do together! I did not home school my son.He's all grown up now.. I really wish I had.. YOUR DAY with your children and they multiple ways they get to learn is just so much more awesome than a classroom, hard chairs, programmed recess, bus time,etc. and all that distraction!!!!!!!
I hope more families decide to live frugally, in a manner that allows them to home school.. and be home during their kids formative years. I was a SAHM and wow..would never have given that up for ALL the money in the world!!!!!
You are awesome!!
Hello,
in my country, we do not have homeschooling, so this has always been fascinating to me. I wonder, you do look over your childrens work, when
they are finished and - so I read it - discuss it with them, answer questions
and whatever comes up. Do you give your children the topics they are to do
(I mean the two older kids/teens) on the end of schooltime or in the morning? Some you will, like repeating topics, that proved difficult, but in general? Do you say: tomorrow you look into Algorithms for math, photosynthesis for science, tenses for Grammar? Or do you tell them in the morning, before they start?
Your post, by the way, was the best explanation of how a homeschoolday would/could work I have found so far. And I do agree with you, the actual learning time per individual kid varies. It even varies from topic to topic. For instance: I was quick with history, german, english, french, religion, but slow with maths, geography, science (biology, chemisty, physics).
Oh, another question, do you do history? And is it world history or "just" American history?
Thanks a lot!
I admire your home schooling sooo much! If I could change ONE THING about how I raised our son, it's that I would have totally kept him out of the school system.
AS you point out, learning does not take place mostly in a chair at a desk.Kids learn MORE about MANY REAL THINGS, from life itself and parental guidance!
Baking= learning how to measure, how chemistry works , nutrition, ALL AT ONCE!
Building a cabinet in the garage:Measuring, planning, wood, tree history, social time with one's mentor ,socializing (Dad, Mom, a neighbor who knows woodworking..)
NATURE: For instance, a nice morning hike= PRICE LESS in the learning and also the lift of SPIRIT that goes with being able to be out on a trail on a quiet Monday morning..
I could go on and on but I am preaching to the choir!!
Schools provide distractions,very bad foods in their cafeterias! unsavory influences at times (both through students AND teacher who may not be very nice!!) I had to role play how to avoid drugs, how to deal with bullies, how to figure our algebra with a teacher who was sub par,etc.. it took SO MUCH AWAY from true learning..
Hurray for you! Your children are lucky!!!!
Thank you so much for this posting about homeschool. I have been homeschooling my now 6th grader on and off since 2010. This is because my husband lives in Ecuador and cannot immigrate at this time to the U.S. due to the way the law is written. Anyway, my son loves going to school so when we are in the U.S. I always enroll him in the same school he has always gone to but when we are abroad, as we are now, I homeschool him. I have always just tried to go from the curriculum that his school district has for what ever grade applies at the time. He is often done with his work in just a couple of hours and when I review with him he has retained the information, but your post make me feel better that the time he takes to complete his work is normal and he is not just rushing through to get done. Thanks again!