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I have a friend who is 37 and has 5 kids, all homeschooled. His wife is the primary teacher. I forget the name of the curriculum they are using but it covers first through 12th grade.

He tells me they spend about three to fours hours a day in school. I asked him about the difference between the time they spend and the six to seven hours in public school. He explained that the public schools ‘waste’ a lot of time with morning announcements, disciplining students, etc. That’s time they don’t have to spend with their kids.

There’s also what he calls ‘pass down’ where a kid learning on a sixth grade level hears his mother teaching his sister on a seventh grade level. When the sixth grader moves on to seventh grade, he already has some knowledge of what he’s going to learn. More time saved.

He has a daughter who is very bright, learns quickly and finished 12th grade almost two years early. She plans to start college this fall. She applied to and was accepted by five colleges and universities.

He’s rightly proud of his kids. All are sharp as a tack.

Thanks for the excellent insights! Yes, what you said all sounds plausible and rational.

The amount of time wasted in school echoes the incredible economic waste we see in all government institutions. There is a fixed amount of time to fill, based on teacher contracts for “hours” to earn their living, and they will fill it with something, usually some empty activity.

I can remember when in the sixth grade in the ‘70’s, we were force-bused across town to another ethnic area to attend school for the year. The amount of time needed to get up earlier for the bus trek to school was enormous when you added it all up. It probably added a couple of extra hours every week that were not spent learning or spending it in family time, hours that would not have been lost if I had at least been allowed to attend my neighborhood school with was a couple of blocks away. Forced “diversity” is always expensive, and the dividends, if any, are meager.

And I can understand the “pass down” concept very well. My sister took up violin early in school, and before I knew it, my mother was playing it too. We’d play “school” in our spare time with the older siblings “showing off” their newfound knowledge to the younger ones. it was very challenging and motivating.

The pass down is real. My wife used to complain that 7th grade math to my daughter, the four year old was playing with his Buzz Lightyear action figure and answering the questions.

Buzz Lightyear inspired him to become an aerospace engineer and join the space program and yea, he’s a little geeked this week.