Can we talk about "homework"?

[JennifersLost]

My oldest ds is entering grade 11 next fall and I'm putting together his curriculum now.

 

As it stands:

 

Math: TT`s geometry and Algebra 2

Science: Glencoe Chemistry plus MicroChem kit labs

English: Great American Bestsellers lectures

Reading books from that lecture series and WTM list for 11th grade

Writing about these books

Social Studies: A combination of several lecture series from Teaching Co. covering Renn to 1850

Reading books from this period

Writing about them

Philosophy: Another lecture series tied into history. We`ll do some debate and writing

Latin: Oxford Latin year 3

Programming: porting an existing computer game to Flash

Phys ed

Driver`s ed

Music (Guitar, violin, orchestra)

Art

 

My ds also will work 8 hours per week

 

Until now he has NEVER had to do schoolwork on weekends, etc. Programming is his passion and I schedule that in with his schoolwork as an elective course. I don`t see any way to do this schedule without major evening and weekend work.

 

My question is: how do your kids schedule their time? Have they reached the point where they can no longer accomplish their work faster than their "schooled" peers? How much "homework" do they do on evenings/weekends?

[Susan C.]

Jennifer,

I have always struggled with the balance of giving too much work, and not giving enough. Most kids in schools have quite a bit of homework by 11th grade, and I don't feel it is right because I homeschool to give a lighter load of schoolwork. I do see a double load of math (??), chemistry, Latin, etc. and I definitely think some of the work will spill over to evenings and weekends. I try not to have my daughter (my son has graduated) always doing school, but she is slower paced, so it kind of ends up that way. It does help to have exact expectations with deadlines, with a requirement that right before it is due is a little late to say its too much work, or she doesn't understand :). What is great about homeschooling is that you can have a little control over when the extra work happens.

[Robin in DFW]

kids in school don't get a whole lot done during class time. If I remember correctly, we usually had about 15-20 minutes of attendance-taking, talking, disciplining, finally settling down, etc. and then corrected the previous day's work, went over any issues, had an explanation of the new work, did a couple of problems and the bell rang! The rest was completed at home.

 

Homeschooling allows me to grade the work the evening before. The next day, dd corrects, goes over lesson and does the work...right then...no need to wait because the bell rang!

 

I just think most homeschooled kids utilize their time better than a school does and if they can get their work done without having homework, then great!

 

As a side note...my oldest went all the way through graduation in ps...she very rarely had much homework and she was in all AP classes making very good grades. I don't think going to school 8 hours a day and then having 3 hours of homework is necessary.

 

hth,

Robin

[ccroft]

My dd will be doing 10th grade work this yr. We too try to balance work & activities. She'll be 14 soon so is a bit ahead of the game. What has helped us is combining English-Lit/History/Geography/Art so what she reads/writes,... is using her time efficiently. We'll be finishing Apologia Biology for the 1st few months this yr & move on to CHem. We do debate/speech every other Mon. with a co-op. Art is once a month---usually a big project tied with the historical time we're in. She has about 1.5 months worth till she's done with Geometry which we didn't finish then to Algebra 2. She also has been studying Mandarin since 9 yrs.old & will continue. We love memorizing poems--just about 10 mins every day. And she practices her piano & harp about 2hrs/day. She dances & does tae kwon do 2 days a week.

So, I too feel we push so much. She does do some work in the car as we travel to activities but always takes weekends off.

Hope this helps,:)

Cindi

[TravelingChris]

My dd is doing work on weekends and in evenings. SHe has to since she has medical issues and needs to be catching up and also can't always do the work. (She had a seven month long nonstop headache which put us behind in math and science). SHe is diving, competing in diving, attending a summer program in the mornings, and simply doesn't get much free time. If she is getting two hours a day right now, she is lucky. I remember my 11th and 12 grades being almost non stop work. I did get fantastic scholarships to go to a very good college. My older son also worked in weekends and evenings in late high school. While I think we can do more in less time than kids in school, I still think that having a full or more than full course, working, doing activities, and studying for SATS or checjking out colleges will take the majority of time for our older highschoolers.

[Cedarmom]

Between school and debate, my son stays pretty busy . He is also taking one Community College Class and he had tons of homework for that. For the CC class he worked an hour a day outside of class plus about 4 hours over the weekend. He probably works about 6 hours a day (including debate research) and then has about 7 hours of homework during the weekend(that includes the CC class)Honestly, I just think it takes the time.

[Michelle in AL]

My dd as a 9th grader had AP bio which took up a lot of time plus an online computer assisted design class. She worked at least 6 hrs/day and studied for AP bio about 5 hrs each weekend. Some weekends had 1-2 hrs comp design work. She enjoyed the classes and really didn't complain. I think in 11th grade it's a good way to learn time/study management before they go to college.

[JennifersLost]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies so far.

 

It would be a lot easier if ds wasn't constantly wishing he could unschool and saying he's never going to college anyway.

 

I'm feeling worn down.

 

Btw - the "double up" on math is because he fell behind. I want him to get through precalculus before he graduates.

[Robin in DFW]

I don't want anyone to think we do the bare minimum and leave it at that!!!

 

My currently homeschooled dd16 is extremely busy. I guess I was thinking ONLY of "school" work...not extras.

 

In addition to her regular "school" work, which is about 6 hours of hard core work each day, she also has club soccer practice, homeschool soccer practice, performance training, guitar practice/lessons and does plenty around the house to help out. She probably has around 10 hours of "work" to do each day.

 

I just don't usually count the extra stuff as part of our school day. It's just life!

 

And, older dd that attended PS was also busy with outside commitments...a part-time job, played soccer, etc.

 

Just wanted to clarify.

 

And again, hth,

Robin

[ValRN]

I think that if your dc are college-bound then assigning homework is necessary to teach them the habit of doing work during "non-class" time. I don't think you have to assign much hw. The important part is to get them into the habit of doing work on their time.

[ValRN]

thus far, I have NOT assigned homework. My oldest will be in 9th next year he's taking several online classes and a couple of co-op classes, so I figure there will be some work he'll have to do outside of class....during the evenings and on the weekends.

[TravelingChris]

I am not really sure what "homework" means in homeschool anyway? DO any of you do all of schoolwork with all of your children? I mean, we don't have anything like 9-10 math in classroom, 10-11, literature in classroom or anything like that especially when you are talking about high schoolers. MY day with my daughter who is a high schooler normally looks like I talk with her during her breakfast or soon after and discuss what the day holds. She may go off and work on math or foreign langauge (neither with me). At some point she comes down and goes over the chemistry lesson with me but often has additional problems to work on her own. Literature is either her reading a book (in her room or somewhere else) or writing a paper (on her computer). I talk to her about the book she is reading after she has read it usually and discuss the paper and send back for rewrites after she has written it. Everything is homework except the chemistry part that I teach. Next year, everything will be homework except her field geology, her bio lab, and her government and econ part of her class that she does in co-op. I would wager that 90% of her time is spent on homework, if that means work she does on her own after being assigned it.

[AnitaMcC]

I am not really sure what "homework" means in homeschool anyway? DO any of you do all of schoolwork with all of your children?

 

I would wager that 90% of her time is spent on homework, if that means work she does on her own after being assigned it.

 

 

This is how we are doing it. As we are officially started homeschooling yesterday for the school year... I will keep you all informed to how it goes...

 

I have a syllabus for each course kept in a binder. It is outline form in order of what they are completing for the course. All the directions for project, papers are included. I list the homework for each section and any projects, quizes, and exams. They just refer to this to find out what they are to do specifically.

 

I also have a semester schedule by the week. I list the weeks worth of work (like saying, Chapter 1 section 1, 2, 3 in the block for Week 1 July 13- 17). They can look at this schedule to know overall what they are to cover for all their courses with just a glance. They look at the syllabus for details. The schedule also shows when I expect them to take quizes, exams, and have their projects, papers completed by.

 

The kids have to write in their agenda book of how they plan to complete the work for that week. Then they just do it. If they have questions or reach the point of the "discussion" parts they come to me. I check their work at the end of the day. But for some I expect them to check their daily "homework" (like math... the answers are available for them). I just mainly check that they completed it and did a good job on it. For work that needs feed back, I give it back to them the next morning.

 

Anyway, this is how we are doing it. I do not assign class times and give lectures on anything. I am trying for them to teach themselves. I am right there to help them and figure for to start I will be needed often and then as time goes on they will be more independent. At least I hope this works-LOL.

[JennifersLost]

To clarify:

 

I don't schedule "times" or do much schoolwork with them, either (outside of listening to lectures which we do together while we clean up from meals)

 

I think my problem stems from two things:

 

1. My kids got used to getting done in less than a school day - i.e., less than six hours. They did their work around other classes and activities, so they might have done some work in the evenings, but it didn't add up to longer than a normal school day. When I look at next year's schedule I see more than six hours a day, without counting music lessons, practice, jobs, chores, etc. So - I think my son is going to need to do work on weekends. Thus "homework", lol.

 

2. I let an attitude creep in of there being something more important they could be doing. Like, I'm torturing my son for making him do all of this. We just need to push past this. The truth is, he's not doing six hours of solid work per day. He just isn't. He's wasting a lot of time and then getting himself in a dither about not having enough time to do his work.

 

Maybe my question would have been more clear if I'd simply asked how many hours per day your 11th grader is spending on school!

[LoriM]

Oh, that's a different kettle...my girls usually spent 6 hours "in school" and another 3 hours reading/writing in the evening, after activities. I didn't count music lessons or sports teams as part of their "school day" although of course they received appropriate credit for music study and PE. When I count "school" I count the reading/writing/thinking parts. GRIN.

 

OTOH, I do think 6-7 hours of academic work (good! work) is plenty, particularly when you start adding other activities. So, if you have too much on your plate, something will fall off. In the past, even at my house, I've found it could be math...the least favorite, tedious thing to do. (For your student, maybe it's history. Who knows?)

 

If you have a "least favorite" then push that one to be done first. Touch base often. Grade work. Give feedback. Check progress.

 

But if you've *scheduled* 8 hours of work each day, then you probably should drop something. My scheduled 6 hours always looked like 9 when my kids did it.