heartofdakota.com

HOD Tidbits:

Did you know that if you teach your children at home you gain approximately 1,480 more hours per year with your child than parents that stay home and do not homeschool? That equates to about an extra 6 ½ years with your child.

Compared to 40 hour a week working parents, you gain approximately 2,268 more hours per year with your child which works out to about an extra 18 years with your child!

(Assumptions: School Day = 8 hours, School Days per Year = 185, Awake Time per Day = 15 hours, Daycare hours per day = 9, Daycare Days per Year = 252)

I had to share this all over facebook when you posted there.

What a blessing it is to have all those extra years....and on the flip side, no wonder we homeschool mamas are going kinda crazy at times! hehe

I love, love, love this thought! Especially as my oldest ds reaches those teen years - how DID that happen BTW? My, my, my - our time with our dc is going to be like chaff in the wind, isn't it? I love the idea that I am getting the maximum time possible with them - I think we'll need (and relish, at least for sure looking back on it) every minute. Thanks for doing the math here and being such an inspiration, Mike!

In Christ,
Julie

Hi,
I shared this on another site and sort of got "blasted" for my math! If you have an extra minute in your day, (yeah, right!) would you mind sharing exactly how you came to these numbers.
Thanks,
Laura

Oh Laura - so sorry! Not nice to get blasted. I can guess where this may have happened. Mike is very mathy, and I know he'd be glad to explain it if he gets the time!

In Christ,
Julie

I don't know exactly how HOD went about it... but get a calculator out. If you say your child goes to ps 7 hours a day 5 days a week for 180 days that comes out to 1260 hours... that's just over 52 days per year total (24 hour days)... multiply that by 12 years and you get 630 days, which is about 2 years roughly. That's not counting K or Pre-K, and not counting extra hours/minutes that your child is away from you (because I just did 8-3, and I know my kids would be gone from 6:30-3:30 in elementary school, and longer in middle/high school) ....

now I'm not sure how they are getting 6.5 years. But I have to say, that even in my generous time with your children figuring, that would be 2 years of their life I'd miss. From 6-18 years old. That doesn't really seem like much, until you break it down into hours/year. To say that I'd be not the sole person influencing my child for 1260 hours over 180 days.... that's pretty sad to me. That's a little less than 1/3 of the time. And that's counting 24 hours in a day. Everyone has to sleep sometime, and even if you are just getting your child 8 hours of sleep then you are only influencing your child for 1/3 of their life during those years.

Very glad I'm fortunate enough to homeschool.

Hello Laura!

I had to go back to the spreadsheet that I did a few years back to remember how I came up with these numbers! At the time, Carrie was feeling that she was not spending enough time with our boys because she was spending so much time writing. Those days, when I would get home from work, Carrie would immediately head up to her room for the rest of the night and write. I worked these numbers up one morning in an attempt to cheer up Carrie and to try to put some perspective into our lives.

OK, here is how I calculated:

Comparing a homeschooling mom to a non-homeschooling SAHM:

#1 – 1480 hours more each year = 8 hrs./school day x’s 185 school days (8 x 185)

#2 – These hours (1480) equate to 99 days if you assume that the “awake” time per day is 15 hours (1480/15).

Now, to get a better comparison, I figured that a SAHM who sends their child to school actually spends 7 hours per day with them (15 awake hours – 8 hours of school time). Next, I divided the total number of hours per year that is gained by a homeschooling SAHM by those 7 hours per day to get an equivalent number of days which came up to 211 days (1480/7).

#3 –A child goes to school from age 6 to age 18, so if we multiply the 211 “days” by 12 years we get an additional 2,537 more “7 hour days” than a non-homeschooling SAHM.

#4 – 2,537/365 = 6.95 additional years

Comparing a homeschooling mom to a 40 hour a week career mom:

#1 – 2,268 hours more per year = 9 hrs. of daycare/school x’s 252 business days (9 x 252)

#2 – These hours (2,268) equates to 151 days assuming that the “awake” time per day is still 15 hours (2,268/15).

Using the same idea as above, but changing the “7 hour day” to a “6 hour day” since working moms need to account for getting their children to and from daycare each day, we get an equivalent number of days of 378 (2,268/6).

#3 – Assuming that the child is either in daycare or in school from birth to age 18, there are 18 years in this equation. Equivalent days over 18 years = 6,804 (378 x 18)

#4 = 6804/365 = 18.64 additional years

Not exactly a scientifically approved method I am sure, but it made Carrie feel better that day! Our boys and your children are being trained by Quantity Time as well as with Quality Time!!

Blessings,

Mike

I just PM'd another person on this board yesterday and commented that by sending our dc to school we lose so much time with them. Thank you for sharing this. It should be an incentive for all to keep on the hs journey.

Thanks, Mike! I know that took some time to explain, but it makes total sense! I am printing this and putting it on my bulletin board as a reminder of how much time I am blessed to have with our dc, and how I can truly try to make a real difference in their lives as these years go by so quickly. Thanks!!!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for doing the math, Mike!

I, too, am SO thankful for each and every one of those hours and years with my kids! They go by all too quickly!

Mike,
Do I have your permission to copy and paste your explanation? I won't copy the sentences referring to specific people and names.
Thanks,
Laura

austimr wrote: OK, here is how I calculated:

#3 –A child goes to school from age 6 to age 18, so if we multiply the 211 “days” by 12 years we get an additional 2,537 more “7 hour days” than a non-homeschooling SAHM.

#4 – 2,537/365 = 6.95 additional years

Comparing a homeschooling mom to a 40 hour a week career mom:


#3 – Assuming that the child is either in daycare or in school from birth to age 18, there are 18 years in this equation. Equivalent days over 18 years = 6,804 (378 x 18)

#4 = 6804/365 = 18.64 additional years

Blessings,

Mike

I'm confused! (not that hard to do, LOL)--but how do you end up with MORE than 18 years (18.64) with your child, when you are counting the total number of years as 18? If we have 18 (or more) years (more than working parents) with our children by staying home with them full-time, that would be assuming that we are with them all the time (true), but the working parents are with theirs ZERO of the time (for us to have 18 years MORE than them).

Is this because you are counting 365 days a year (which are 24-hr. days) as your "six" and "seven-hour" days that we have extra with our kids?

I'm just trying to figure this out, because I LOVE what you have here and the idea that we have a LOT more time with our kids, but I just wanted to make sure the numbers are right, so I know for sure! Thanks for clarifying wherever you can for me!

Laura,

Sure, you can sure it. Thanks for asking!

Heather - good question! At first glance it doesn't seem to make sense, and I think I actually made it more complicated that it needs to be. Here is maybe a better way to look at it:

As homeschooling mom you enjoy about twice the amount of time with your child each day compared to moms that do not homeschool (15 hours each day vs 6 or 7 hours each day). So, over 18 years we are getting an additional 18 years compared to the career mom who puts their child in daycare from birth to age 18. Yes, that would seem to make our child 36 years old by the time he finishes high school!! Now, tongue in cheek, we could claim that our child has the maturity of a 36 year old by the time he is 18 compared to his public school peers! Something we could maybe think to ourselves, but not say out loud. . .

Have a great Sunday!

Mike