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Would you be willing to share your 5th grade schedule?


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We do math everyday, and between read aloud(poems and nonfiction) and a light content subject at the end we are pretty done for the morning by noon, when we all take a long break/toddler and sometimes mom naps. He watches popular mechanics then, reads, does duolingo and free play. We resume French (another daily topic) and English and any content subject we have bandwidth left for in the afternoon. Because this was our first year homeschooling, I focused on essentials, but I have big plans for the fall. Wondering how you fit it in for middle school, on a day to day basis. (I am considering 5th middle school. This because I need a ramp up period ;)). Thanks!

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we did math, grammar, writing, spelling/vocab/word roots, science, history, readers/literature, read alouds, logic workbooks, geography, Bible.  Most subjects are 4 days a week, some are 5.  We start at 9am.  Most days done by 2pm.  But can be done by lunch.  Can go as late as 4pm.  It just depends on the work level that day and if they had any tests.  I have to play around a little each year to see what subjects go best first in the day.  Usually they do some individual work first, then some work with me, and finish up with more individual work.  

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Here is my current 5th grader's schedule.  We start at 8:00 and end about 3:00 (with breaks).

 

Math

English

--Break--

Composition

Spelling Review 

--Lunch/Break--

Science (BJU online which involves watching a video and doing an assignment every day)

--Break--

Workbooks (Vocabulary, Logic, IEW Fix It, Daily Reading Comprehension, R&S Spelling)

History read aloud (we take turns reading aloud to each other)

Review Memory Work (CC, Gettysburg Address, IEW Poetry, other misc)

Lapbook (one activity per day to finish 3 x history,  2 x science, and 1x civics lapbooks per year)

Special Subject (Monday-- Art or Music, Tuesday--Geography, Wednesday--Studies Weekly Science, Thursday--Studies Weekly Social Studies)

 

Fridays are either CC or a variation of a normal day.

 

Duolingo during free time.

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My 2nd dd is finishing 5th grade now.

 

She starts at 8am with copy work and spelling.

 

Then we have family religion/Bible time and memory work review from 8:30-9:15.

 

9:15 - 10:45. Math Mammoth and First Form Latin, English grammar (independent subjects)

 

10:45-11:45. History with her brother and me

 

Lunch (reads while eating, I choose one book per month for her and she chooses once she finishes it for the rest of the month)

 

1:00-3:00. Science, Italian, writing.

On Tuesday afternoons we have Poetry Tea Time after this and on Friday afternoons we do art instead of writing.

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Hhhmmm- Doodle sleeps late. We seldom begin school before 10:30.

 

He has a folder with fasteners that contains pages of MEP math, Evan-Moor Daily Math, Evan-Moor Read and Understand Poetry, EMC's Write-In Reader, Plaid Phonics, Spelling Workout, Evan-Moor Daily Paragraph Editing, Holt Elements of Language Practice Book, and World Geography & You book 2. I don't care what he does each day as long as the folder is finished at the end of the week.

 

Each week we also work on the core subjects of math, reading, science, and social studies outside of his folder. He does Khan Academy or MathCounts Minis, reads library books, watches videos, and works in his history workbook. He also did Write at Home composition this year. This spring he has read The Sea Around You, the 2003 update, read a biography on Rachel Carson, and watched the American Experience DVD Silent Spring- Rachel Carson. He has watched some Bill Nye, Cosmos, and Through the Wormhole, How It's Made and stuff like that. Also this spring, he has watched Great Courses lectures on Ancient Greece and videos on EducationPortal. Mostly these are not things that are super scheduled.

 

He also has other stuff that we do and some other stuff that is interest led. He gets together with some friends once a week and does German. He is reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar right now. This year he has looked at economics some and looked at some math stuff. He plays with the county junior orchestra. He works on music theory. About once a month, we go to the dress rehearsal for the city symphony. We do Charlotte Mason type composer, artist/ art movement, poet studies.

 

Some days he is doing stuff I consider school work all waking hours, but more often he hops on the computer at 8 or 9 and plays for several hours. We never have a day where we say that because it is a certain time we are doing school or because it is a certain time we are not doing school. We just don't compartmentalize our day like that. I have tried, but it just doesn't work for us.

 

HTH-

Mandy

 

ETA - I forgot Write at Home, and came back to add it.

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Hhhmmm- Doodle sleeps late. We seldom begin school before 10:30.

 

He has a folder with fasteners that contains pages of MEP math, Evan-Moor Daily Math, Evan-Moor Read and Understand Poetry, EMC's Write-In Reader, Plaid Phonics, Spelling Workout, Evan-Moor Daily Paragraph Editing, Holt Elements of Language Practice Book, and World Geography & You book 2. I don't care what he does each day as long as the folder is finished at the end of the week.

 

My son is nowhere nearly as independent as this. Hope he will be more so by fall!

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Little independence here.  We do 3 blocks of work each day, for 1.5 hours each.

 

Block 1: math, mandarin, music (I work with him)

Block 2: latin, non-fiction reading,  (he does independently)

Block 3: Spelling, grammar, writing (I work with him)

 

Math: Singapore Discovering Mathematics CC

Mandarin: Learn Chinese with me

Music: ABRSM

Latin: moving to Cambridge Latin this term (was GSWL)

Non-fiction: national geographic, and narrative nonfiction from the library (this is science, history, and geography) + 1 documentary a day (currently working through modern marvels)

spelling: SWR

grammar: MCT mixed with KISS

writing: Hogwarts is here!!!  I have high hopes, and if all goes well we will drop some of the above work to make room.

 

We are also watching 2 coursera classes together: Computers101 and AstroTech

History: dad reads aloud every night from my awesome list! post 2 in this thread

 

He has lots of PE activities: soccer, gymnastics, swimming, Mt biking with friend, and drama

 

My main goal is to get him working more independently without moving into box ticking, and I am not quite sure how to achieve it.  This is me with my big thinking cap on. :hat:

 

Ruth in NZ

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Ruth, this is helpful, thank you! I had already bookmarked your other thread, but in wondering:

How do you decide where to pull from for his non fiction reading? My son read I would guess at grade level, and I've had lots of misses with mon fiction (other than the books that go with our history, etc. which are short). I am so clueless that I handed him Life of Mammals recently to read. It has since turned into a read aloud, but we already have many of those. Would love non fiction independent reading ideas!

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I just go to the library and look for books that he would like and that would be challenging.  I don't even care the topic, because my sole goal is to get his nonfiction reading up to snuff so that he can handle a textbook without difficulty by 8th grade.

 

I just found these two in the library yesterday

The mighty Mars Rovers

Space, Stars, and the Beginning of Time: what the hubble telescope saw.

 

both are narrative nonfiction, so not a textbook and not fiction and not a biography.  They are not eyewitness books with choppy text either.  I am looking for full page text with graphs or photos on every page.  Both of these books are about the science AND the scientists, which is where the narrative comes in.

 

Here is some text to give you a feel:  Steve didnt know if spirit would have time to answer his questions.  the martian winter was approaching and the rovers were not designed to survive the brutally cold and dar seasonl  No one had thought the rovers would even make it to winter.

 

The scientist in the field series is good and at a 5th grade level I think. 

 

Have you seen my thread on developing nonfiction skills?  Later on in the thread I discuss what I have done with younger kids and have some books that I was using then.  Developing advanced reading skills

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

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Little independence here. We do 3 blocks of work each day, for 1.5 hours each.

 

Block 1: math, mandarin, music (I work with him)

Block 2: latin, non-fiction reading, (he does independently)

Block 3: Spelling, grammar, writing (I work with him)

 

Math: Singapore Discovering Mathematics CC

Mandarin: Learn Chinese with me

Music: ABRSM

Latin: moving to Cambridge Latin this term (was GSWL)

Non-fiction: national geographic, and narrative nonfiction from the library (this is science, history, and geography) + 1 documentary a day (currently working through modern marvels)

spelling: SWR

grammar: MCT mixed with KISS

writing: Hogwarts is here!!! I have high hopes, and if all goes well we will drop some of the above work to make room.

 

We are also watching 2 coursera classes together: Computers101 and AstroTech

History: dad reads aloud every night from my awesome list! post 2 in this thread

 

He has lots of PE activities: soccer, gymnastics, swimming, Mt biking with friend, and drama

 

My main goal is to get him working more independently without moving into box ticking, and I am not quite sure how to achieve it. This is me with my big thinking cap on. :hat:

 

Ruth in NZ

Ruth, would you mind indicating which of those are daily and how long you spend on each subject? We are only heading into 4th, but I am planning. :)
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Ruth, would you mind indicating which of those are daily and how long you spend on each subject? We are only heading into 4th, but I am planning. :)

 

We are not very rigid around here.  I just try to keep to the 1.5 hour blocks, so if one subject goes over, another in the block is shortened.  We do every subject every day.

 

Block 1

Music 30 minutes

Math 40 minutes

Mandarin 20 minutes

 

Block 2 (independent, so I can work with older boy)

Latin 10 minutes

nonfiction Reading 30 minutes

Documentary 50 minutes (if older boy does not need me, I will read physics to him)

 

Block 3

Spelling 15 minutes

Grammar 15 minutes

Writing 1 hour

 

After dinner - history read alouds with dad 30 minutes to 1 hour 5x/week

before bed - he reads his literature books 45 minutues 7x/week

2 afternoons a week: 45minutes music class, 45 minutes mandarin class

Weekends: Coursera classes we do for fun together

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

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We are not very rigid around here. I just try to keep to the 1.5 hour blocks, so if one subject goes over, another in the block is shortened. We do every subject every day.

 

Block 1

Music 30 minutes

Math 40 minutes

Mandarin 20 minutes

 

Block 2 (independent, so I can work with older boy)

Latin 10 minutes

nonfiction Reading 30 minutes

Documentary 50 minutes (if older boy does not need me, I will read physics to him)

 

Block 3

Spelling 15 minutes

Grammar 15 minutes

Writing 1 hour

 

After dinner - history read alouds with dad 30 minutes to 1 hour 5x/week

before bed - he reads his literature books 45 minutues 7x/week

2 afternoons a week: 45minutes music class, 45 minutes mandarin class

Weekends: Coursera classes we do for fun together

 

HTH,

 

Ruth in NZ

What time do you start?

I feel like I am short of time constantly. We do 3 hours before lunch (math and language arts including independent reading) and two hours after lunch (rotating science/history + french). Add to this music practice and sports and we are barely finding time to breath. We fold all the readalouds into content subjects (science into science and history into history hour). I am very impressed by how much reading your boys are doing! . Do you feel they have plenty of extra time to unwind and play? We don't and I don't know how I am going to increase the workload when we get to logic stage in another year. Thanks so much for the insight!

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What time do you start?

I feel like I am short of time constantly. We do 3 hours before lunch (math and language arts including independent reading) and two hours after lunch (rotating science/history + french). Add to this music practice and sports and we are barely finding time to breath. We fold all the readalouds into content subjects (science into science and history into history hour). I am very impressed by how much reading your boys are doing! . Do you feel they have plenty of extra time to unwind and play? We don't and I don't know how I am going to increase the workload when we get to logic stage in another year. Thanks so much for the insight!

 

We start at 9.

 

Block 1: 9-10:30

Block 2: 10:30-noon (his independent/break time)

Block 3: noon-1:30

done

 

He eats lunch during block 2 which is his laid back block.  He has to do the reading and latin, but he can just play and eat for the rest of the time if he would rather watch the doco in the afternoon.  He just loves documentaries so this is not really work for him.  Some days he watches 2, some days none, I just encourage him to try to do 5 per week. Sometimes he just watches them all on the weekends, especially if it is raining, or his friends are all gone.

 

So he is 'free' from 1:30 to 7:30 when dad reads to them.  But even this history time is laid back.  Just enjoying time with dad. Listening, discussing, being still.  They typically do their hook rugs while dad reads.

 

During the 1:30 to 7:30 time each week day, ds has 1 or 2 activities (a bit too much since we picked up soccer, so need to sort that out)

Monday: music lessons and mandarin lessons (done at our home)

Tuesday: soccer practice

Wednesday: Drama and gymnastics back to back

Thursday: homeschool swimming and play

Friday: D&D with friends (they take the train by themselves so quite a fun outing)

Saturday: Soccer games

 

So with travel, about 1.5-3 hours taken up from the 6 hour break in the day.  So not really a problem.

 

He has weekends free, and school holidays for 2 weeks after every 10 week term.  So he has a good balance.

 

I am just not very hard core.  And perhaps I should be as this boy is not as self-driven as my older.  But I think it is ok to still give him time to mature. He is just 10.  He needs me to push him through Block 1 and 3, but he works independently on writing and maths as long as I just sit next to him and do my own work (usually physics).

 

As for reading, I do think that it is important.  And *this* boy needs me to constantly encourage him to read nonfiction, as he is my lover of stories. We are getting there slowly. In my experience, kids don't just magically starting reading difficult textbooks the moment they turn 14; you really need to help them build up to it and that takes time.

 

Happy to answer more questions.

 

Ruth in NZ

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Ruth, your schedule is extremely helpful! I can see where we are going wrong. We take 1 to 1.5 hours for lunch (takes time to cook :) ). We also play soccer and piano and I think the drive (half an hour one way) is eating up a lot of our time. I think I will try emulating your schedule around lunch time and finish early. Thanks again for sharing so much detail!

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Ruth, your schedule is extremely helpful! I can see where we are going wrong. We take 1 to 1.5 hours for lunch (takes time to cook :) ).

 

Well, lunch must be easy here.  Either frozen in containers in the frig (like lasagne) or eggs on toast with fruit.  10minutes max prep time.  My rule is, if they are working on school work I will prep lunch. Otherwise they are on their own.  We eat breakfast and dinner together, so I figure that there is no harm done if he eats lunch by himself while watching about WW2. :001_smile: I spend block 2 with my older.

 

As for music, although we sometimes do it at night, I have found that morning time is just better all the way around.

 

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As for music, although we sometimes do it at night, I have found that morning time is just better all the way around.

 

Your kids practice before 9 am? What time do they get up?

 

On days when we have soccer, we are squeezing the practice time before soccer practice (we don't get home until after 8 pm on those days). It's so very hectic.

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Remember, Block 1 is:

Math 40 min

Music 30 min

Mandarin 20 min

This is from 9 to 10:30. 

 

It *includes* music practice.  Within block 1 and 3 I expect 1.5 hours of focus, so we don't take breaks between subjects. We just stop 1 subject and start the next one with less than 30 seconds lag time.  Block 2 is his break time with 10min latin, and then just reading and docos if he wants.

 

On soccer day  (tuesday) our schedule is: 

[Games are Saturday morning 8:30-11 (including driving and warm-up)]

9 to 1:30 Three blocks of school work as listed above (block 2 includes lunch and docos if desired)

1:30- 4:30 free time

4:30-4:45 get soccer gear on, eat quick snack

4:45-5 drive (sometimes snack ends up in car)

5-6:30 soccer practice

6:30-6:45 drive home

6:45-7 shower and pjs

7 - 8:00 late dinner while dad reads to them ( I plan leftovers so dh can easily heat them up)

8:00-8:15 get ready for bed

8:15-9 ds reads in bed

9pm lights out

 

This all sounds good in practice, but in my house it is never so tidy.  But I do try!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My dd sleeps 11 hours and takes half an hour to fall asleep so she goes to bed at 7:50 and sleeps till 7-7:30 am.

 

Having free time is very important. I think a daily goal should be 3-4 hours although that might fluctuate during busier seasons. My kids get one hour in the morning, 2-3 hours in the afternoon/evening and I still think it's barely enough for them to pursue their own hobbies, relax and unwind. :)

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This year for 4th dd had two blocks: 8-11 and 12:30-3. Next fall her planned schedule for 5th is:

 

7:30 - 10

 

Latin

Math

French

Spelling

 

11:30 - 3:30

 

History

Science

Literature

Grammar/Composition

 

Art and music appreciation are on weekends. She has gymnastics nearly every afternoon.

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Mondays through Thursdays we hit the books hard, and Fridays we do Bible, Music, Geography, and Writing. Here's our schedule from M to Thu:

 

Reading

Spanish

Math

Poetry

History

English 

Penmanship

Literature

 

Fridays

 

Bible

Music

Math

Poetry Study (includes bio of the poet we are studying)

Geography

Writing

Writing

Reading

Voc/Spelling Quiz

 

 

Art - this is done by Daddy over the weekend

 

Literature at night before bed

 

We start school at around 10. We all like to sleep late.

 

ETA: DS10 also does Taekwondo 2X a week and Swimming 3x a week

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We work from about 9AM until 3PM, with a brief break for lunch.  We start with an hour+ of math every day.  I aim for about 4 hours

a day of traditional academics.  In addition to math, this includes about 30 minutes of SOTW, 30 minutes of science, and then some reading and/or writing.  Occasionally reading detective or grammar.  The other time is at least an hour of instrument practice.  Often hw for his robotics team for about 30 minutes.  Maybe some exercise.

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My son's routine this year for 5th.

 

After getting up, dressed, light morning chores we  start on math. I sit with him and then leave him to complete it on his own while I do other things. I try to get some basic lang arts and math done with my 1st grader next, and after that I'll check my ds's math. Usually he would move on to reading on his own while waiting for me to finish up with my 1st grader. Math needs to be done first each day for both my kiddos. My 1st grader is typically playing with my 3 year old while I'm getting my oldest ds's math lesson started.

 

Then I start my oldest lang arts--some grammar, spelling, writing etc. It's not the same kind of lang arts each day, all year. 

 

Then I'll do history and/or science read alouds. After different schedules I finally realized it's best if we chip away at history and science a little each day and save a couple afternoons a week for bigger activities and deeper learning. Same with my 1st grader. So we'll read and discuss, find a good documentary 1 or 2 times a week and work on a hands on project one to two times a week. Less typically  in the colder months, when we read more and do less.

 

Literature read alouds happen in late afternoon/evening when everyone is calming down. We like our afternoons to be active. 

 

I've never been good at scheduling things by the clock. We work best with weekly routines and a daily checklist of essentials. And it changes by the season. And sometimes we get so involved in one thing that we hyper focus until it's completed. 

 

Friday has always been art/nature study day.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

We go from quarter to nine to about two thirty.

 

My daughter gets up at 8am and is expected to eat breakfast, brush her teeth and hair, wash her face and hands, change into day clothes.

 

We then begin our school day.

 

We do math first and every day with Friday being a review day.

We then do English which consists of  spelling/grammar/writing/literature

We work on history/geography on MWF and science on T/H

We work on Spanish on MWF and Latin on T/H

We then do Christian studies two days a week, one day on music (she also is taking guitar lessons), one on art and one on logic.

We finish up with memory work.

We take two breaks and lunch.

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I'll have a 5th grader this year (we start Labor day week). Here's my plan...

 

Morning Meeting starting around 9 or 9:30 (1 hour) - covering Bible, art/music/poetry/Shakespeare, read aloud

 

Then move right into subjects I need to be directly involved in or review with her (30 min - 1 hour) - math, language arts, Latin, French. We'll go over lessons together then she'll do the written work during independent study time (we started doing this in 4th grade and it worked very well).

 

Independent study time - for the work that she can do independently, checking in with me as needed.

 

Then lunch, math game or French game/conversation and a bit more time to finish up independent work, if needed.

 

2 hour block of time in the afternoon for content subjects - we're going to alternate history and science by week, focusing on one subject each week. 

 

Finish the day with tea and free reading time.

 

That's the plan... we'll see how it works :)

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So in the fall we'll do Bible Subjects (daily), History (4x), Shakespeare (1x), Plutarch (1x), Art (1x), Music History (1x), and some Literature (daily) as a group. I have it scheduled that the 5th grader will do a Math and Language Arts daily and Latin and more History stuff 4x a week. However, I intend to give her a schedule for the week and let her decide how to work through her daily folders on her own. We're not doing a formal science program so I want her to have time to research topics of interest as they come up and we'll work on projects from there. I have no idea if this will be successful or a complete fail. So ask me in November how it's going. :)

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