I've actually been wrestling with just this question, Sara -- whether or not to allow my eldest to get up later than the rest! I have made basically the same decision as you and your husband have, to let her sleep until a later-than-the-others-but-still-not-noon kind of hour. She does her schoolwork just fine either way so it seems like a good idea to make this compromise.
Funny that you've been grappling with this specific thing too! I think after years of needing to keep many small children moving through the day as a group just to maintain my own sanity, making this change probably felt scarier than was warranted, ha.
This is fascinating- and I guess, one of the perks of the flexibilites of homeschooling. I remember being a teen (and into my early twenties) and really feeling awful in the mornings, beyond anything I felt I had reasonable control over. I'm in my 30s now and still not a morning person, but mornings are totally manageable for me now rather than pure torture. There are schools here in England who have trialled a later start time for teens, to great effect.
While reading the post I thought you were going to trial something more like a 1am-10am bedtime/rising time for your son, so 11pm-8am seems very very reasonable! (And still pretty accurate for the "real" world).
I had made that same decision with my high schooler (who graduated last spring). 100% agree. Some fights are not worth it, and since he is not bound by an external schedule the same way as those of us who had, ahem, zero period Calculus at 7:15am (!!!), let him sleep in and function at his optimal hours. And, again, such a small price to pay for both his well-being and family peace.
Three of mine were comatose until about midday (one was an early riser when he was younger) & I really wondered how on earth they would ever cope when they finished their education at home. I'm amazed at how quickly they adapted to getting up really early! I could have saved myself some angst.
I've actually been wrestling with just this question, Sara -- whether or not to allow my eldest to get up later than the rest! I have made basically the same decision as you and your husband have, to let her sleep until a later-than-the-others-but-still-not-noon kind of hour. She does her schoolwork just fine either way so it seems like a good idea to make this compromise.
Funny that you've been grappling with this specific thing too! I think after years of needing to keep many small children moving through the day as a group just to maintain my own sanity, making this change probably felt scarier than was warranted, ha.
This is fascinating- and I guess, one of the perks of the flexibilites of homeschooling. I remember being a teen (and into my early twenties) and really feeling awful in the mornings, beyond anything I felt I had reasonable control over. I'm in my 30s now and still not a morning person, but mornings are totally manageable for me now rather than pure torture. There are schools here in England who have trialled a later start time for teens, to great effect.
While reading the post I thought you were going to trial something more like a 1am-10am bedtime/rising time for your son, so 11pm-8am seems very very reasonable! (And still pretty accurate for the "real" world).
Ha, everyone else in the family are such early risers right now that I guess it has somewhat skewed my sense of what counts as sleeping in "late"!
I had made that same decision with my high schooler (who graduated last spring). 100% agree. Some fights are not worth it, and since he is not bound by an external schedule the same way as those of us who had, ahem, zero period Calculus at 7:15am (!!!), let him sleep in and function at his optimal hours. And, again, such a small price to pay for both his well-being and family peace.
I assume your son manages to get himself up when needed in the morning now, right? My husband will find that very reassuring!
Yes!
Three of mine were comatose until about midday (one was an early riser when he was younger) & I really wondered how on earth they would ever cope when they finished their education at home. I'm amazed at how quickly they adapted to getting up really early! I could have saved myself some angst.