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How do you feel about this work load for an 8th grader.

 

Physical Science- GA Virtual School

German- GA Virtual School

Social Studies- Intelligo World Geography, 20 min reading of living book, OUP World

in Ancient Times

Math- AOPS/Alcumus Pre-Algebra

English- 30 min reading, AG Season 3, Vocab from Classical Roots, Figuratively

Speaking, Killgallon Paragraphs

 

Extra Currculars- Archery, Cross Country, Band

 

We're having a hard time getting everything done each day. I don't think it's the workload but the student. I just thought I would get opinions, though, to be sure. The GA Virtual School states that their classes should take 1-1.5 hrs. each per day. Thanks!

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Here is what I think I see in your schedule:

Science - 1 hour

German - 1 hour

Math - 1 hour

Social Studies - 1 hour

English - 1 hour

 

That seems totally reasonable.  Now, if any one of the subjects is taking way more than an hour, I'd consider rotating through the items rather than trying to do them all every day - for Social Studies, you could do Geography twice a week and OUP twice or 3 times a week, along with the reading. It may be too much to get all of those things done in an hour.  For English, similarly, you could do Grammar 2x a week and Vocab 2x a week, or something like that.

 

FWIW, I don't count my dd's assigned lit reading as part of the English hour. That's her "homework" - she does it while she's eating, or before or after school.

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I think it is a pretty heavy load for an 8th grader.

 

I'm not familiar with many of the things you listed, but I'm wondering if you are trying to schedule two full social studies programs (OUP & Intelligo?)?

 

I agree w/Rose that the reading isn't counted as part of my kid's day usually. They do it on their own.

 

Fig Speaking/AG/Vocab/Killgallon should be rotated through so she's only doing a max of two per day (1 hour TOTAL). We did Fig Speaking once per week, but you can't get through the whole book at that pace. I'm not familiar enough with AG to know how often you have to do lessons or how long they take.  If she has to do more than two a day, perhaps you are asking too much of her.

 

AOPS is notorious for taking a long time (easily 1 1/2 hrs/day). It would help to know if she's having to spend more time than what you think on certain subjects.

 

Is band everyday?

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It does not look heavy to me. Sturdy, but not heavy. Four solid core subjects and a language, math, language, and science probably taking more than an hour. So what, 6-6.5 hours of work? That should be easily doable for an average 8th grader. FWIW, the beginning of the year with a new workload always seems worse than when you're two months in and accustomed to the expectations.

 

The first thing that stood out to me was the lack of composition. A Killgallon book barely lasts a month if you're doing it daily.

 

I *do* schedule reading time for high quality literature, but we don't do separate vocabulary study. In our planners literature gets its own block and writing and grammar go together in the English block.

 

If the geography course is full and meaty on it's own I'd drop the OUP book. If it needs to be more meaty I'd attach extra reading to the geography instead. Deep instead of wide.

 

Physical Science- GA Virtual School
German- GA Virtual School
Social Studies- Intelligo World Geography, 20 min reading of living book, OUP World
in Ancient Times
Math- AOPS/Alcumus Pre-Algebra
English- 30 min reading, AG Season 3, Vocab from Classical Roots, Figuratively
Speaking, Killgallon Paragraphs

Extra Currculars- Archery, Cross Country, Band

 

 

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Rose, that is how I am doing it. Geography 2x a week, OUP 3x a week, vocab 1x a week, Figuratively Speaking 2x a week, etc...

 

I had to be away from home Friday so Dad monitored. She got everything done in the alotted time so this appears to be a taking advantage of Mom thing. I see next week going a lot different. <rolleyes>

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Rose, that is how I am doing it. Geography 2x a week, OUP 3x a week, vocab 1x a week, Figuratively Speaking 2x a week, etc...

 

I had to be away from home Friday so Dad monitored. She got everything done in the alotted time so this appears to be a taking advantage of Mom thing. I see next week going a lot different. <rolleyes>

 

well, there you go! Good luck next week.

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I'm not terribly familiar with all of those programs, but I can tell you what my target goals are for my own eighth grader.

 

Math -- 45-60 minutes daily (She's at the start of Algebra 1, so it's very easy and quick; I expect it to increase to an hour later in the year.)

Assigned literature reading -- 40 minutes daily (not the fastest reader)

Writing -- 40 minutes daily

Foreign language -- 20 minutes daily (but she memorized quickly, so she doesn't need a lot of practice; she often voluntarily bumps up her Spanish time to practice her translation skills)

History -- 40 minutes daily

Geography (separate from history) -- 20 minutes daily

General skills (rotating list of small stuff to hit grammar, health, poetry, logic) -- 20 minutes daily

Bible -- 20 minutes twice a week

Self-directed science -- 30 minutes twice a week

Typing -- 10 minutes daily

Independent fine arts study -- 20 minutes daily

Discussion of history and literature -- 20 minutes daily

Music practice -- 20 minutes daily (She generally spends a lot more than that, but 20 is my minimum requirement.)

Extracurriculars -- guitar and keyboard (which she is self teaching), martial arts class weekly (plus 10 minutes or so of daily practice)

Group work (art, poetry, readalouds, art and composer study, vocabulary discussion, Mom-directed science, Bible, etc.) -- 40 minutes daily

 

So, roughly an hour for math, an hour and a half for language arts, a little less than an hour for science and history. I target that her work, including group work and music and martial arts practice, should take her a little over six hours a day. More than that, and she gets frustrated and stops trying, and tbh, I'm not sure what else I'd push.

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Part of the answer revolves around whether the online courses are Synchronous or Asynchronous.  There is a huge difference in the scheduling required by Synchronous courses.  The workload is probably doable, and is preparation for High School.  DD will need 26 credits for her High School Diploma from TTUISD. That's 6 1/2 credits per school year. I suggested she plan for 7 credits each school year. That will be preparation for university, which is a much heavier workload...  GL

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It sounds doable... but two outside deadline classes that could take up to three hours a day sounds like a heavy load to me and one that you can't readjust as needed, which is possibly going to be tricky.

 

Yes, these are deadline classes but should be about 1-1.5 hrs a day not 3.  Prior planning and keeping up is a must, but I don't think it should be too much of a problem.

 

This week is going much better.  I have given her a very explicit schedule to follow and am reminding her of deadlines (feel like I'm nagging).  I thought she wouldn't like to be monitored so closely, but apparently, I was wrong.  This is going very well and even her attitude has improved.  I guess she's not quite ready for the independence, I was giving her.   

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Yes, these are deadline classes but should be about 1-1.5 hrs a day not 3.  Prior planning and keeping up is a must, but I don't think it should be too much of a problem.

 

This week is going much better.  I have given her a very explicit schedule to follow and am reminding her of deadlines (feel like I'm nagging).  I thought she wouldn't like to be monitored so closely, but apparently, I was wrong.  This is going very well and even her attitude has improved.  I guess she's not quite ready for the independence, I was giving her.   

 

But you said each, so I meant all together. For us, that would be a huge chunk of our school day that was out of my control. It would be a big adjustment for me to have to plan for that, but it may not be for you.

 

I'm glad it's going better. Explicit is good. :)

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It doesn't like too much for an 8th grader to me.  My 8th graders work anywhere from 6-8 hours every day.  They also do their subjects every day.

 

My 8th grader this yr is taking

 

Latin

alg 1

science 

history

literature (we are doing a LOTR study)

comp and grammar (she is tagging along with her 11th grader sister.  We are using a college comp book.)

 

She is writing a novel and spends hours writing it for pleasure.

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