How much help do you give your HSers in pacing themselves?

[Daria]

As a new homeschooler, I'm curious.  

 

If you have a goal of getting through X amount of curriculum for the year, how much help do you give your kids to divide it up into manageable chunks, and what structures do you use to help your kids organize and keep track?  

[sdobis]

I give daily assignments. I know there are many whose children have a lot more free reign with their school schedules, but both my son and I prefer our set schedule.

[Daria]

I give daily assignments. I know there are many whose children have a lot more free reign with their school schedules, but both my son and I prefer our set schedule.

 

Thanks!  

 

That's kind of what we've been doing, but I was worried I was being too "helicopter mom".  It's good to know that more experienced homeschool moms do the same thing!

 

About how many hours does he spend on his list?

[Sunnybuddy]

I tell my daughter what she needs to have accomplished for the week. Then she divides up how she wants to do her subjects everyday to get them done by the end of the week, in her "assignment book", which I just picked up at Walmart. This is just so I can make sure she is thinking her week through and not procrastinating like she has a tendency to do.

[sdobis]

It takes him about 5 hours to get through his daily list. 

[Daria]

Thanks!

 

Sorry to be so nosey, but this is super helpful.  When you say 5 hours, does that include arts, and exercise (PE) and electives, or just assignments in core academic subjects?

 

Any chance you'd tell me what was on his list for today, so I can get a sense?

[SilverMoon]

In the summer I make weekly syllabi for each subject for my high schoolers. They fill their individual planners out a week in advance using the syllabi as we go through the year.

[MysteryJen]

I give out a syllabus at the beginning of the year with weekly assignments. I also let them get behind. Usually Christmas break of ninth grade is spent making up school work.

 

And June of sophomore year.

 

And weekends of junior year.

 

Sigh.

 

But they do start to figure it out. No class is complete until all the work is done.

[Penguin]

SilverMoon,  how detailed are the syllabi that you make in the summer?  Do you ever have to adjust midstream?

 

To me, your method sounds heavenly...but daunting !

 

ETA:  I just saw Mystery Jen's post, too.  Would love to know more about how you put this together and know that you have planned for the right amount of work.

[SilverMoon]

Have you seen the US History schedule on the FundaFunda site? Mine look very similar. Occasionally I'll add notes, essay options, etc.

 

http://fundafunda.com/blog/in-depth-us-history-course-for-high-schoolers.html

[dirty ethel rackham]

I give as much help as they need and teach them the skill of managing their time, not just toss them in and let them flounder.  For the subjects we do at home, they have a good idea of what we will accomplish during the year, but I give weekly assignments.   Most of their outside classes worked similarly - you knew each week what is do when.  We sit down each week and go through the work and break it down into daily plans.  Since they are involved in extracurricular activities, we planned more work on the less busy days and less work on the more busy days.  As they get later on in high school, they are able to do more and more of that on their own. 

 

Since dd is taking classes at our high school part-time, they do not work like this at all.  Dd does not know from day to day what her work load will be (other than knowing when quizzes and tests are planned.)  This is frustrating because she may get a long assignment due the next day on a day when she has much less time for schoolwork. 

[katilac]

I give them quite a bit of help - I figure there's a reason most teacher editions include a pacing guide! If teachers are getting advice on how long assignments are likely to take, it's only reasonable that it get passed on to the students. 

 

One bit of advice regarding weekly schedules: many high school texts are NOT designed to be divided up evenly, so you can't just take the number of weeks and divide it by the number of chapters, or assign a math lesson for each day. The lesson might be planned for one day or two days, and trying to do 2 days of high school math in one day is only going to lead to frustration.

 

The uneven pacing has held true for every math and science book we have used for two students over 9th, 10th, and 11th grades. The pacing guides have only been in the teacher edition, not in the student text or solution guides. They're not perfect but they're very helpful. 

 

Every high school I'm aware of breaks work into chunks for students. Projects and long papers might have weekly or bi-weekly due dates, and of course there are daily assignments in class itself.  Universities also give assignments with due dates, and often a complete planned syllabus for the semester. I wouldn't worry a bit about using daily assignments if that works for you and your student.  

 

[katilac]

I give out a syllabus at the beginning of the year with weekly assignments. I also let them get behind. Usually Christmas break of ninth grade is spent making up school work.

 

And June of sophomore year.

 

And weekends of junior year.

 

Sigh.

 

But they do start to figure it out. No class is complete until all the work is done.

 

 

MJ, are you aware at the time that they are behind - that is, are you grading their work (roughly) as they go along? 

 

I don't have a problem with letting them make the mistake of getting behind due to laziness or lack of planning, but it does trouble me when the parents aren't even aware until Christmas break or summer. That can only happen if no one is checking or discussing their work with them, which isn't ideal imo.

 

A lack of understanding can snowball and be very difficult to overcome. It also seems to be the reason some kids get behind in the first place. 

 

But if it's a case of not completing that long paper by the due date, and being a week behind in math because you didn't work consistently, then working over break can be valuable. 

[MysteryJen]

First, by the time they are in 8th grade, I have a pretty good idea about reading ability and speed with math. For assigned reading, they have study questions and/or summaries to do for chapters/assigned bits. Math everyday. It is easy for me to see when things are trending late. And, I can see when the problem is not understanding or merely procrastination or dislike of the subject. I am aware when they are behind and I let them be on a case by case basis. And, yes, I have let them fail an exam. And given a C to ds1 several times on his transcript. Well deserved. Points taken off for lateness. And the solid threat of summer school.

My goal is for them to read the requirements of the class, fill in a calendar with due dates and stay on top of work that does not have daily assignments. That is the goal-a functional college student. But it does take a while to learn that. Procrastination, never "getting to" a disliked subject, forgetting that textbooks are no fun to read for hours on end is normal. So eventually they learn their own tricks to getting things done. My 9th grader had to catch up on history readings and complete a paper. My junior had to read literature and write a paper. They had a lab to do together and they discussed a plan for staying closer to the syllabus.

My junior took her first cc class this fall. She did very well, but let some at home subjects fall behind. She also travels frequently and trains 20+ hours a week. Time management is a critical skill for her to learn. I can provide support, but she has to find what works for her and she has to understand the consequences.

It is always a fine line to know how much to let kids stumble. I oversee and recommend courses of action, but ultimately they have to find what works for them. They work about 5 to 6 hours a day. Some days are very productive, other days involved much gazing out the window. But I work like that as well.

[LisaKinVA]

For some things, I set weekly assignments -- must be done by X date (or consequences...which is usually a weekend of school on top of chores, and no extras the following week).  Other things, I set daily assignments. I am hoping that by their Jr/Sr years they can plan out most of their school schedule themselves.  I'm kinda tired of it.