To help with setting up your daily school schedule Kolbe has provided suggested amounts of time to spend on each subject; however, each child is unique and their ability to stay focused and on task will depend on a variety of things such as the amount of sleep they got the night before, how they’re feeling physically and emotionally, if they’re hungry or too full, and perhaps most importantly, how interested they are in the subject. 

Age-Appropriate Expectations

Childhood development experts generally say that a reasonable attention span to expect of a child is two to three minutes per year of their age. That is the period of time for which a typical child can maintain focus on a given task. It's worth noting that some developmental researchers put the upper limit at five minutes per year of a child's age, meaning a 2-year-old could be able to focus on a task for up to 10 minutes at a time. Of course, these are only generalizations. 

Average attention spans work out like this: 

• 2 years old: four to six minutes 

• 4 years old: eight to 12 minutes 

• 6 years old: 12 to 18 minutes 

• 8 years old: 16 to 24 minutes 

• 10 years old: 20 to 30 minutes 

• 12 years old: 24 to 36 minutes 

Kolbe course plans for grades 1-5 use the traditional 36-week school year divided into 4 quarters of 9 weeks each and are based on a 4-day week, with the 5th day set aside for field trips, science experiments, testing, catch-up work, etc. (a 180-day school year). In grades 6-8 the school year is divided into two semesters of 18 weeks each. Please check your state’s minimum day requirements when planning your school year. 

The following is a suggested schedule that will cover all recommended areas of study. The total estimated hours per day includes review and examination weeks, but does not include breaks, Art, Music, and PE: