Required hours per subject?

Email of the Day:
Are there a required number of hours per subject the kids are mandated to do a day/week/year?? I just ordered grade 5 CLE for my 8yo and grade 3 CLE for my 6yo because in the next 30 days they will have done all of grades 4 and 2 respectively. I know we still have just shy of 100 days left for the year (we started Aug 1st in another state and moved here 30 days ago).

Can we say we are good and back off of those subjects (math and LA) do we have to keep chugging along? What can we do?

Answer:
Between the ages of 8 and 18 (when you’re legally homeschooling — before that, your kidlets are educationally free). you need to cover 1,000 hours each year (between 15 September of this year and 14 September next year, the day before your next DofI is due).

There have been 2,288 waking hours since you started. There will have been 2,768 30 days from now in which to cover the 1,000 hours you need to satisfy the law. I say all of that to say this: I’m not the least bit surprised that you’re nearly done with your curriculum and still have 4,304 hours left of your 5,840 hours to cover your 1,000 hours under the law.

Some people decide to move on to the next grade when they hit this point, some people decide to do more experiential things. Totally up to you.

Keep in mind that our law specifies that “all decisions relating to philosophy or doctrine, selection of books, teaching materials and curriculum, and methods, timing and place in the provision or evaluation of home-based instruction shall be the responsibility of the parent” and “the legislature recognizes that home-based instruction is less structured and more experiential than the instruction normally provided in a classroom. Therefore, the provisions relating to the nature and quantity of instructional and related educational activities shall be liberally construed.”

~Jen