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Okay...so disclaimer: I was raised outside of the US and went to school either in the morning (8-1) or afternoon (1-6). So there was plenty of time for out of school activities.
For those of you that have kids in school, put them in outside activities (sports, etc)-- when do you study with them?
My kids usually are exhausted by the time they do their outside activities and homework...so not much time/energy for learning beyond the classroom.
It is an issue because I think they are not learning as much as they could in school. My daughter tells me the work is too easy for her...her grades agree. My son says he is bored so he zones out a lot.

I suspect the not learning much is more related to the lack of a challenging curriculum than to lack of parents working with them outside of school. My children typically didn't have huge amounts of homework in early elementary, so fitting unplayable time and after-school activities wasn't a huge challenge. As they moved up in school, one of my kids purposely chose not to do more than one after-school activity per week to leave plenty of time for homework. Another just stays up until its done (no matter how late and no matter how hard her parents try to get her to leave it for another day and no matter that her teacher would happily give her an extension!). My yngest child participates in sports every single day after school and on Saturdays - she literally has no time left over for homework except on Sundays, so that's when she does her homework for the week. She I subject accelerated in math and working a grade level ahead across the curriculum and could probably easily accelerate further if we worked with her for a few months outside of school, but sports is her thing and she's happy with her active after school life for now so we are ok with it for now too

polarbear

My DW spent some of her childhood outside the US as well, and she's also critical of the amount of time US kids spend in school... especially when you break it down and find so much of the time wasted by waiting on other kids to finish work, lining up, etc. I tend to agree with her.

We encourage our DD to finish as much homework as she can when time allows during school. So if, say, she does a math exercise in class, and finishes early, she could get started on the homework assignment.

Otherwise, any organized activities DD is involved in tend to be finished by 6:30pm, immediately followed by dinner and homework/study, as necessary. If she doesn't have an activity, that period between school and dinnertime is hers for unstructured play, usually with friends.

Not stupid at all-- this is a part of why we've stuck with a virtual school. We need the external certification to gain easier access to activities/options at an appropriate educational level, true...

but we are also not willing for "schooling" at this level to consume the 10+ hours daily that it does for most high-achieving high school students.

DD only needs about 3-4 hr a day to do her coursework. The rest of her time is spent in ways that seem appropriate and enriching to all of us. Well, opinions on relative worth of skype with friends and piano practice vary, but we all agree that community service and free reading, 4-H, etc. are good. LOL.

So, what would studying with your kids consist of?

I'm literally not sure if what happens in our house at all resembles it.

We had the same school hours but no afterschool activities and as far as I can recall no homework. That gave us reasonable free time. I find preparing for school, school, and recovering from school take the whole day though.

You mean like, afterschooling with an actual curriculum?

I don't do that anymore. I did a little with my DD at her old school (where she was very underchallenged and also had almost no homework) and with my DS last year when he was dying of boredom at preschool. DD now has too much homework and too many other activities, and DS spends a lot of time on chess and other games. I should probably do math with him, but enh.

They read a lot and we do non-book-and-paper based enrichment activities.

We are wrestling this problem ourselves because we need to keep our DD challenged and B&M school work just doesn't cut the mustard. It does, however, eat up the day.

I can see things getting a lot worse before they get better...

My ds 11 puts in a long day at school. He has a last period study hall and then off to the library for an hour or so to finish up, lots of homework. There is no library when he is doing a sport at school so sometimes he has to finish at home in the evening and some on weekends. There is not a real need for study help once he gets going, he does fine on his own.

I figure he needs some me time when he gets home and school work is done.

yes, it is frustrating... it seems like so much wasted time...