My kids average 3 to 4 hours of homework a night ( sometimes 5 ) and they have had up to 18 hours of homework on a weekend, but usually more like 5 -10.
My one daughter was REALLY angry that I wouldn’t let her get a job until I said “What happens if you have too work from 4 til 9 on a night you have 5 hours of homework?”
So, we had to figure something out… Basically I pay her $8 an hour for all chores she chooses to do, beyond feeding the dogs. We have been at this 4 weeks now, and the most I ever paid was $32 a week… So, I asked her why she doesn’t do more chores to make more money…
“I’m too busy with homework”… LOL
But seriously, I don’t know how AP kids can handle jobs during the week.
Our younger son (HS junior) has a part-time job where he’s scheduled for about 10 hours a week. Two days after school and on Saturdays. He manages it by doing homework and studying ahead of the time, but occasionally it happens that all the teachers give him something that’s due the next day, so he may be up till 11pm.
I have told him that if the job interferes with his studies, then he’ll need to quit. I think this incents him to plan ahead.
He is taking four AP classes (APUSH, AP Calc, AP Computer Science, AP Lang, ) plus Chemistry, Jazz Band and Spanish 3.
DS is a freshman and is taking AP Calc BC, AP Comp Sci and AP Physics 1 but has very little homework. His grade in each class is a very high A. Our worry is that he will get an A in the classes but will not do well on the AP exam so he supplements each subject a fair bit. Luckily he has a decent background in these three subjects.
He plays JV soccer and that takes about 12-15 hours each week but he does not have a job.
My Jr daughter has 4 AP classes, and works 12-13 hours on the weekend. She has good grades. Personally, I think there’s so much to learn on a job and she’s saving money for college. We’ll be looking for as much aid as possible, and having her contribute financially makes her more invested in her future. She’s learning how to budget, manage her ATM card, and transfer money to savings, all good habits that I think should occur before she leaves for college, as she under 18 I can see her account, so I can advise when I think there’s too much Starbucks going on. I know she will be a work-study student, so she needs to get used to managing a part time job while keeping the grades up, why not get used to it now.
My son (HS junior) hasn’t shown that he has the time management skills - he has some days where he’ll do 6 hours of homework and some days where he won’t do any - he won’t do something if it’s not due the next day. Drives me crazy!
He only has 2 APs this year (plus three days of after-school rehearsals for music ensembles). If his grades are good after the first semester, I might encourage him to look for something that’s in the 10-12 hour per week range.
My oldest worked a seasonal job that ran March - October, which meant for most of the school year she didn’t have problems with it. However, there was one week in September in which she had to work every night (special circumstances) and honestly, I don’t know how she managed. She also had to work during the week in the month leading up to APs (approximately 12-16 hours/week). She got really good at time management and being efficient in her homework. She did not update FB, post on Insta, or do any of those time sucks when she was working.
My son is a junior, has a different job and we are going to make him quit at the end of October. He’s involved in some other ECs that are very demanding of his time, and we’ve decided the job has to go. He is not happy about it as he actually likes his job. But we’ve taken away the phone the minute he walks into the house and he’s still not getting enough sleep. It doesn’t help that his job is over a 20 minute drive away, so he loses about 45 minutes each day he works just on the commute.
The daughter of a friend has a job working only 2 4hour shifts/week at a local place and that seems to be working well for her with her AP classes. I think something like that might work better for a student taking AP classes, as you can usually schedule ahead and work around those two shifts.
My S took APs; and worked a job year round Jr. Yr & Sr Yr. It was fine for him; but he cut way back on hours during swim team season. My D took APs and only worked in the summers. It was their choice. DS had a larger bank balance than DD when graduating. good luck making decisions! it can work both ways.
Depends on the kid and the job. My oldest worked doing computer programming. He was taking several easy for him AP courses concurrently. (Calc or post AP math, science APs, AP Econ. senior year.) Younger son made earrings and sold them to local galleries. He could do the work when he wanted.
My kids worked summer jobs while in high school. I’ve always viewed being a student as their job - and they took several APs each, played varsity sports, did Model UN and other activities that also ate up time - on top of a lengthy commute to get to their school. It paid off in the end in the form of academic scholarships.
In college I asked they not work the first year until they got used to the routine of college. D did do some tutoring second semester freshman year - but she could set her hours for that. Both kids have ended up working for their school’s rec departments. I respect that they want to earn their own money - but still, academics have to come first.
Both my daughters worked in high school. The jobs did not affect their academic performance. One had a lower GPA than the other, but I think that would have been the case even if she hadn’t worked. Both of them worked throughout college because they had to (work study) and both did very well academically.
My kids didn’t have jobs during the school year in HS – between academics and ECs, no time. They got a small allowance, and money gifts from grandparents for holidays. I’d occasionally pay for help with jobs around the house (like splitting day lillies - ick). But they weren’t big spenders. I did insist that both get paying jobs the summer before starting college – wanted them to have work experience for someone besides me. Also, both were responsible for covering their own books & spending money in college, and for covering any unpaid internship living expenses, so that summer’s earnings were a good nest egg going in.
My daughter didn’t have one junior year, but she did 3 Varsity sports and couldn’t find a job that would work with her schedule anyway. She got a job this past summer and can continue this school year on weekends only, so that will be great since she doesn’t have a lot of weekend games.
My son had one Jr. year that he quit before finals. It didn’t hurt his grades but he did not take ACT review classes that he should have due to work and AP homework and didn’t study as much as he should have for his AP exams. That was also an AWFUL year emotionally for him. His Sr. year he worked three days a week at a vet clinic but was not paid. It was part of a class and he volunteered at a hospice twice a week. We decided that was enough. He always worked in the summer and made good money and saved it. He also played polo which was an hour and a half away twice a week and all day most Saturdays during that season.
My 11th grader does not work during the school year. She did work some over the summer. All she has done since school started was one training evening and one short Saturday shift. She needs regular sleep and tends to feel she needs to over study to keep stress at bay. We don’t foresee her working during next school year either with the full load of classes that she will likely choose, in addition to the ECs that she enjoys.
If she cut out ECs, she could probably work a little instead, but it doesn’t seem a good trade since she is doing ECs that fit her very well.
Son has 4 AP this year. He’s a senior and working 25 hours a week.So far it’s going ok but we are keeping an eye on it. He said he’d like to scale back his hours so he probably is starting to feel the pinch. He took 1 AP freshman, 4 Soph, 5 junior and 4 senior but this year is the first year he worked since he’s 16. While the money he earns will be great to help pay for college next year, if grades start to suffer he’ll have to make some decisions.
One daughter did have a job her senior year. It was never a problem. The other one did not have a job, but did play a sport which took up more time than a job would have. The sport paid off with a scholarship!
My daughter did not have a typical minimum wage job in high school. She was part of a jazz/pop duo with one of her music teachers and gigged in clubs about once a month during her junior and senior years. She made between 200 and 300 bucks per gig. Her father did have to go hang out when she played because she was under 18 and alcohol was being sold. She also rarely did homework at home unless she had a project requiring her to make something, though she did practice musical instruments for several hours everyday so wouldn’t actually have had time for a more typical teen job.