julikins Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 I was making my ds8 schedule last night and realized that he will working about the same number of hours per day as my 6th grader. We start at 9, work until 12, take a break for lunch, start back up at 1 and end after science between 3:30-3:45. Core: all in the morning--some with me and some independent CLE Math 2 45 min. 5x/wk MCT Island 30 min. 4x/wk WWE 20 min. 4x/wk Spellwell B 15 min. 5x/wk Handwriting 15 min. 5x/wk Indep. Reading 30 min. 5x/wk This includes 2 science reading times Trail Guide to Geography10 min. 4x/wk Piano 1 lesson per week Daily practice, 10 min. Together: our afternoon together time Bible 30 min. 4x/wk History 30 min. 3x/wk Science 45 min. 4x/wk Read-Aloud 30 min. 3x/wk P.E. 30 min. 3x/wk Extra: These are fit in whenever he has an open spot in his schedule Typing 30 min. 1x/wk Reading Detective30 min. 1x/wk Vocabulary-Latin roots 10 min. 2x/wk Portuguese 60 min. 1x/wk (we live overseas so this is just the formal instruction with tutor) Arts (Music History/Mark Kistler Drawing)30 min. 2x/wk It all fits with a 10 minute recess in the morning and a snack in the afternoon, but I'm not sure if this is good or too much. I'm an overplanner but I have hacked a few things from the list already. Do you think this is doable or do I need to scale it back some more? I don't want to wear out the little guy but I do want to challenge him at the same time. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 I think it depends on the child. My dd would not handle so many hours of school and she takes many breaks however we get quite a lot done. Maybe you have overestimated the time each subject takes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 It would be too much for mine (age-wise, he's in 3rd, but academically in 4th). Our day will run more like the following: 30 minutes Math OM History and English (including vocab, grammar and writing) & Science: 90 minutes daily, longer if there is a project or experiment. Latin: 20-30 minutes daily Reading on his own: one hour Reading aloud: one hour (often in the evening or throughout the day) Musical theatre once a week Dance or walking for exercise a few times a week. Science and Music Theory coop once a week (about 2-3 hours in the afternoon) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 My dd in 3rd grade cannot do that many hours of school. We do school from about 9-1 then stop for the day. If your child can handle it, then that works as it lets you all have the same schedule. You need to just work on what works for you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 I also have a 3rd grader and it would be way too much for her, too. She spends about 1.5 hours on schoolwork (and that seems about right for her). It depends on the kid, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 My dd in 3rd grade cannot do that many hours of school. We do school from about 9-1 then stop for the day. If your child can handle it, then that works as it lets you all have the same schedule. You need to just work on what works for you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doodle Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Last year was Doodle's 3rd grade year. That would have been too much for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 The number of subjects looks reasonable (we did Latin, but didn't have "PE" or music). I wonder if you're overestimating times on any of it. We definitely didn't spend 45 minutes, 4x/week on science. And I wonder if MCT will really take you 30 minutes each day. We also probably only spent 30 minutes a day on math. My son spent about 3 hours on school last year, doing math, Latin, history (Sonlight), literature (Sonlight), grammar, writing, handwriting (cursive), spelling... We do Bible during breakfast and don't count it as "school". The kids get exercise by playing outside a lot, so I don't do "PE" (though they'll sometimes do an exercise video with me :) ). I suppose if I counted Bible and outside play time, it'd be a little more than 3 hours. :) Is your son ok with the amount of work, or is he dragging and dawdling or getting burned out? I wouldn't expect him to be working the same amount of time as the 6th grader. My oldest two are 3 grades apart also. The 4th grader works 3.5-4.5 hours. The 1st grader works about an hour. They aren't currently doing history and science "together" yet, so maybe that's the difference. This year I am getting some books at my 1st grader's level that loosely correspond to the 4th grader's history, but the 1st grader isn't sitting in for the 4th grader's readings (they'd be over his head). And science... the 1st grader watches the experiments sometimes, but the text itself would be way over his head, so I'm not combining them in that subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie4 Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 My daughter cannot handle that many hours, last year was our first year & I over scheduled her. This year I'm cutting back. Math 30 min 5x week Religion 20 min 5x week History/geography 20 min 3x week English 20 min 4x week Writing/poetry 20 min 4x week Spelling 15 min 4x week Latin 15 min 4x week Reading 45 minutes 5x Science 1x week co-op Art 1x week co-op Guitar lessons 1x week. Daily practice 15 min/ day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Another voice to say it would be too much for my boys. Also, to me, ten minutes is a quick breather, not recess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 It seems like a lot... My goal it to cap my 3rd grader at about 4 hours of school this year. If I routinely find we are going over that, I plan to drop some things. I haven't decided how to count read alouds and piano practice yet though. I will watch how the first few weeks go and adjust as needed. Or basic plan is: Math 45 min LA 1.5 hrs Bible 30 min History/science 45 min Latin/Spanish 20 min Geography and art 1x week Plus: Piano 30 Read aloud 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 It seems like quite a lot. My kids would not have been able to stay with me for that long. We were pretty much finished in 3 -3.5 hours average sometimes less. What I can remember of 3rd grade: Math, 15min break Language arts, spelling, writing start science/history lunch finish Science/History Latin Piano/Guitar practice (Art/Music/PE during Friday Co-op) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julikins Posted July 24, 2013 Author Share Posted July 24, 2013 Thank you for so unanimously confirm the lightening bolt I received last night that this seems like way too much for a little guy to handle. One thing a couple of you said is that maybe I'm overestimating times. I really don't know how much time MCT will take. I am doing history separately for him from his older sister because of the age difference. So I'm not sure that will take 30 minutes every day. He could then take a break until we start Bible. I had it that we did it together in my list just out of habit because this is the first year we're doing it separately and that's quite an adjustment to me. And science will be him participating in the experiments and then only sitting in on the readings up to a certain point then he can be done. That's why it is at the end of the day that way he'll be done and I can continue to work with his older sister. So maybe he will be having more frequent breaks that I anticipated? I'm doing math for 45 minutes because he wasn't developmentally ready to start Math in K/1st grade. We did lots of manipulatives and fun workbooks. So we started 1st grade math in 2nd grade, and he's about a quarter through 2nd grade math at the beginning of 3rd grade. So I thought I'd have him do just a time limit of 45 minutes per day. But maybe I could do that and give him a break in the middle? or would consistently doing 30 minutes per day (without dawdling) would help him get further? He does really struggle with dawdling during math and workbooks, so I'm trying not to have to many workbook activities. Please continue with your comments, I will work on giving him breaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 (edited) . Edited September 6, 2023 by SilverMoon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Smith Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 To much time for both my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 My dd9 is in third grade. I set the timer for an hour and a half. In that 90 minutes she can complete her math lesson (she does her worksheet on her own during independent time), literature, spelling, MCT, WWE, and our read aloud. At this point she gets a break of about an hour while I work with dd6. We do one more 90 minute session that covers all of our "extras": geography/history, science, Shakespeare, Spanish, character study, art (these are rotated out and covered on different days, generally covering only two or three each day). We do Bible with dd6, then she's done for the day with me. At this point she grabs her independent work and does it in about 30-45 minutes (math worksheet, cursive copywork, logic or geography worksheet, assigned independent reading). Total time doing something school related is about 4 hours with at least one hour recess in there and a lunch break as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BatmansWife Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 Do you have to keep track of times? I'm not sure what your requirements are being overseas. I've been homeschooling forever (it seems) and I have never allotted specific amounts of times for each thing each day. I have a much more general schedule...such as Monday: math, grammar, spelling, history, art. We just do the next lesson for each thing. However long each thing takes is how long it takes. Could be 10 min for something, could be 30. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 I was making my ds8 schedule last night and realized that he will working about the same number of hours per day as my 6th grader. We start at 9, work until 12, take a break for lunch, start back up at 1 and end after science between 3:30-3:45. Core: all in the morning--some with me and some independent CLE Math 2 45 min. 5x/wk MCT Island 30 min. 4x/wk WWE 20 min. 4x/wk Spellwell B 15 min. 5x/wk Handwriting 15 min. 5x/wk Indep. Reading 30 min. 5x/wk This includes 2 science reading times Trail Guide to Geography10 min. 4x/wk Piano 1 lesson per week Daily practice, 10 min. Together: our afternoon together time Bible 30 min. 4x/wk History 30 min. 3x/wk Science 45 min. 4x/wk Read-Aloud 30 min. 3x/wk P.E. 30 min. 3x/wk Extra: These are fit in whenever he has an open spot in his schedule Typing 30 min. 1x/wk Reading Detective30 min. 1x/wk Vocabulary-Latin roots 10 min. 2x/wk Portuguese 60 min. 1x/wk (we live overseas so this is just the formal instruction with tutor) Arts (Music History/Mark Kistler Drawing)30 min. 2x/wk It all fits with a 10 minute recess in the morning and a snack in the afternoon, but I'm not sure if this is good or too much. I'm an overplanner but I have hacked a few things from the list already. Do you think this is doable or do I need to scale it back some more? I don't want to wear out the little guy but I do want to challenge him at the same time. Thanks! I don't think it looks like too much. Core subjects are math, grammar, spelling, writing, reading, geography, and piano (I think handwriting can be dropped unless he really, really needs it.) Looks pretty typical to me. Then your family subjects I assume are more fun and hands-on, like most history and science is. We do more Bible and reading aloud here, so I think those look good too. And with your extras I'm assuming that if your son is burnt out you wouldn't assign those subjects that day. I think you will see what can be dropped once you begin your school year. I'm in the process of adjusting; we just started on Monday. I will say that the 10 min break doesn't seem like enough. Here is what I do with my kids: Before breakfast (before the babies wake up): 6am-7am: Latin (30 min.) & Bible (30 min.)- both with me 7am - 8am: 1 hour break for Breakfast 8 am - Noon: Core subjects: math, English (grammar & writing together), spelling, classical/geography/science (only one per day), & piano. When she finishes each subject she gets a 10 min. break. So it would be: math, 10 min., English, 10 min., spelling, 10 min., and so on. During the 10 min she can go run outside, eat a snack, make a craft, whatever. Noon-1pm: 1 hour break for Lunch 1pm - 2pm: 1 hour quiet time (she can read or nap) 2pm - 4pm: Then finish core subjects if she hasn't finished, or have free time if she has. 4pm - family memory work 4x/wk, poetry teatime 1x/wk, free write 1x/wk 7pm - family scripture reading 8pm- 9pm: I read aloud history and literature Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luthernose Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 Your schedule looks a lot like ours. I'm so thankful you posted it. We are in our second year, so I am certainly not an expert. My dd (7) and my ds (9) spend about the same amount of time doing their work. I do think it would be good to build in more break time. Last year I feel like I drove them on and on without breaks trying to get through everything and they got burned out and discouraged (so did I). It's more important that you have a good relationship with them and they feel a love of learning than to check all the things off the list. This year I'm going to try giving them 30 minutes each to use breaks throughout the morning whenever they need them (they can break up the 30 min however they like). Someone else I know has had success with this. Time is precious in our house too, I know. I have a part-time job that starts at 4 pm each Mon-Thur, which makes things more pressured. Are you following TWTM? If so, I have heard often that it's only an ideal guide and probably not practical to really do all of that every day. So, you'll have to see what works for your family and prioritize what's most important for those days you just can't do it all. I feel like we are interrupted often and sometimes they just need a break. Don't forget plenty of outdoor time. :) God's blessings on your year! :hurray: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessj Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 My daughter would have killed me last year if we did all that every day. She would probably kill me if we did all that this year for 4th as well! Math and Lang arts are what they are. They are the focus for the first years. You're not going to want to cut anything out there. We did all those Lang Arts topics, but we didn't do them every day. Handwriting was every day, but writing, grammar, and spelling rotated. Generally we would do only 1-2 of them a day. Usually grammar and spelling were together because they were typically shorter time wise. But it probably also depends on what cirric you're using. We did WWE2, FLL3, & AAS. For us, we did either science, OR history. We never did both in a day. It was too much. Generally speaking we would do 2-3 of history and 2 of science. I would also possibly rethink the extras. I feel like it's more appropriate to start adding those in around 5th grade. If he's stressed or bored or antsy, drop them. Let him play! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted July 25, 2013 Share Posted July 25, 2013 I am in your shoes. We started in July and it takes us forever to get through school, so your hours don't look that unreasonable to me. I don't know if I picked time intensive curriculum, or we are inefficient, but we are lucky to have math and language arts (including 30 minutes reading) done in three hours. Usually it takes us 3.5 hours at least. We also break for lunch and then we get back to French and science/history (science and history are on rotating schedule, so it's either one or another). I am so curious to know how anybody can accomplish anything meaningful in foreign language in 20 minutes. By the time we review vocab, drill verbs, practice reading, learn new words and write our daily sentence, it's been an hour. Same with history or science. We read, we experiment (or color if its history), write narrations into lesson books and voila, it's been an hour. I admire those who can run their homeschools efficiently. Did I make you feel better? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julikins Posted July 26, 2013 Author Share Posted July 26, 2013 Thanks for your great comments and encouragements, ladies. I certainly want to give my son time to enjoy life and enjoy school and don't want to push him so hard that he loses his joy of learning. He loves science, therefore the science program we bought plus science reading, which will replace 2 days of his independent reading. If I see that it is too much for him, i.e. he's grumbling or dawdling, etc., I will cut it down. Someone mentioned cutting the extras. I agree that they have little value to be pushed, BUT, they are what he looks forward to, they are like his reward for a job well done. He loves typing and drawing. And I would like for him to have at least a little familiarity with composers and types of music. That's what we'll be working on this year 1/2 hour per week. The reason I'm including P.E. is because he tends to be a quiet, play with my legos alone in my room, kind of guy. But he needs some exercise (he's very skinny) and he needs to be able to at least kick a ball and catch a ball, do stuff like that. It's very hot where we live, so we can only kick him outside to play in the late afternoon. So I thought that having hubby regularly do these ball-type activities with him as "part of school" would make it something that actually gets done. Otherwise, he'd rather just stay inside and play with his toys or read a old science textbook, even outside. So, I've decided, because of your great comments, to make sure he has plenty of breaks, to watch his level of tiredness/dawdling/whininess, and to try to combine some of his subjects--handwriting/WWE, and maybe Geography and History. I'm still going to work that one out in my mind. Our Bible curriculum is homemade, but it's very important to me as we will be reading through the New Testament with the Victor Journey through the Bible, working on Bible Memory, learning new hymns and occasionally doing a New Testament Lapbook section. Some days it will be 1/2 hour but most probably not. We'll see how things go. I'm thinking about starting out slow with a few daily subjects to get into our groove with those. Then adding in MCT and content subjects, then after those are settled seeing if the extras fit. We're not going charge full on into the year and have difficult days at the beginning but going to ease into the year a few subjects at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.