How much face-to-face work do you with your middle schooler?

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

We don't start school for another week or so, so I'm still in the planning stage. I'm trying to map our days to best advantage, and I'm wondering how much time people tend to spend working directly with their middle schoolers--7th/8th graders in particular. We don't read aloud anymore (oldest DD doesn't enjoy it and doesn't absorb much that way, so I let it go), so that's not a factor for us. I'm thinking more in terms of direct math instruction, history/lit discussion, overseeing of science work, going over grammar work done independently, etc. 

 

If there's already a thread about this, feel free to point me to it. Thanks!

[HomeAgain]

I don't have one anymore, :)  but it was quite a bit of time each day.

 

Writing - instruction/going over completed work

Math & Science - working together every day

History - discussion/instruction/going over completed work

Literature - discussion

 

On his own 80% or more of the time- grammar, foreign language, logic, and computer.

 

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

I don't have one anymore, :)  but it was quite a bit of time each day.

 

Writing - instruction/going over completed work

Math & Science - working together every day

History - discussion/instruction/going over completed work

Literature - discussion

 

On his own 80% or more of the time- grammar, foreign language, logic, and computer.

 

Thanks! Can you estimate how much time you spent on the direct instruction, discussion, etc. each day? I have 2.5 hours scheduled right now, but I'm not entirely sure that's enough. It has been in the past, but I've slacked on things like science and logic (well, she did independent logic stuff), and now we're full steam ahead on Spanish.

 

I have my schedule broken down into half-hour increments, just to see where everything will fit, and...it doesn't all fit! I'm stressing a little *sigh*

[deerforest]

DD is in 6th and is an only child. She truly prefers to interact with me, and well, one of the reasons we homeschool is so I can teach her. We love discussions. So, we have 1:1 interactions for all subjects. However, she then also has her own independent work. Total time spent doing school work is about 60% with me and 40% on own. For us that is about 3 hours working together and 2 hours working on her own.

[HomeAgain]

Thanks! Can you estimate how much time you spent on the direct instruction, discussion, etc. each day? I have 2.5 hours scheduled right now, but I'm not entirely sure that's enough. It has been in the past, but I've slacked on things like science and logic (well, she did independent logic stuff), and now we're full steam ahead on Spanish.

 

I have my schedule broken down into half-hour increments, just to see where everything will fit, and...it doesn't all fit! I'm stressing a little *sigh*

 

Our shortest days were from 8am-2pm.  Those were the years we really started using primary sources in history and delving deeper into literature.  BUT, it's really going to depend on what you use.  The year we used AoPS, it took an hour and a half for math each day.  Science alternated between two very long periods (about 1-2 hours) and 2-3 short ones each week (about half an hour) depending on whether it was an instruction day, study day, or lab day.  Writing was our shortest, or at least it felt that way to me, because it would take a few minutes of instruction, examples, and making sure he understood, then he'd work on his own and we'd go over it later together.

[historically accurate]

My 8th grader does the following with me:

 

• Spelling - AAS - 15ish minutes daily
• Literature - read-aloud (if we have a current one) 20ish minutes & 20 min discussion daily
• Writing - we're using Jump In & she also writes for History - 45 minutes to 1 hour daily
• Science Lab - 1 -  2 hour weekly
• Cornell Notes - she's just getting started with notetaking, so with me at this point - 15ish minutes daily
• Math - she does it independently for the most part, but likes me to sit with her - 1 hour daily
• Art - as family - 2 hours(ish) weekly
• Poetry - as family - 15-30 mins daily

She is working on shoring up her writing and spelling skills, so those are with me. She does all reading in science & history independently and does Latin and logic independently. For the most part, I'm not teaching math, but she likes me there. We're about half and half with literature being read-aloud and read independently. 

[Momling]

I spend about an hour for math reviewing and explaining and checking. And maybe an hour or so for other subjects? It's hard to say because often I'll watch the same documentary or I'll be reading her essay while she's working on science. Or I'll be reading a book I assigned her while she's finishing up on math.

[Ali in OR]

I spend more time with her than she spends on her own. We're just barely starting here and we do a slow ramp up to a full schedule until my disabled dd is back in school. Math instruction time takes a big jump up this year (based on my experience with her sister). We do history together, will do Spanish together (new this year), will do writing together. On her own she does grammar, vocab, math homework, reading/Lightning Lit. Science is at the public school. I think working together nets better results with this kid and since she is the last one left at home we have time to do it.

[MinivanMom]

On a typical day dd does about 5 hrs of schoolwork. I am directly involved for about 1 hour of that time. That hour would include math instruction, discussing literature, going over her writing with her, checking finished work, and discussing history and science readings. She likes working independently at this point. I make a weekly checklist for her so she knows what to do each day, and most of her curriculum is easy for her to do independently.

 

She isn't off on her own, though. I am always at the same table with her while I work with younger kids, so I'm right there if she has a question or needs me to look at something.

[Farrar]

About half our school time is still face to face going into 6th grade. It's tricky to define. One of my ds really wants me right there still, whether he needs me or not, whether I do anything or not. In general, I spend nearly all my time working with someone, but I have two, so I estimate about half for each.

 

I think writing, in particular, needs a lot of partnership at this age and stage still. When I was teaching school - it was a small school, but still, I spent a lot of one on one time with kids working on writing primarily. They needed it. Even the "best" writers needed to sit down with me and really go through their writing.

[Penelope]

For 7th-8th, it depends? Not helpful, right?

 

Grammar- I check, we go over a concept if it needs going over, takes a few minutes.

Writing-- While we use a directed curriculum (WWS) for most of the assignments, this still requires focused time with me. Choosing topics and focus, discussion, and the most time is spent going over the completed assignment, working on editing and improvements.

Math-- we've used self-directed books here, too (AoPS). Some weeks we go over work together most weeks, work some harder problems together, sometimes he needs more direct explanation or help, and some weeks he doesn't need me directly at all.

 

Literature and History- we get together a couple of times per week to discuss books and what he is learning. We always have something we read together, usually once a week, usually Shakespeare or other plays, and poetry.

 

Science- it varies through the year. I do some direct teaching, some discussion, we do some of the end of chapter questions orally and go over his answers to problem sets with him. I am involved in some of the more involved labs.

 

I am unsure of time. I have younger children as well and we have to be flexible. Today, there were some things we needed to address in several areas, and we spent over four hours off and on at the table together, but that isn't routine. This year I am trying something new and actually scheduling specific times (3 days per week for about 2 hours) so I can plan and work round his outside classes. I am available for questions any time and there will be other times spent together, but these times will have specific areas of focus.

[RootAnn]

Most of our discussion time is in the evenings.

 

My oldest had very little time with me on a daily basis as I'd gotten to the check-in-at-the-start-and-end-of-the-day level with her by 7th grade. We had face time for subjects I taught specifically that required discussion, for our "get started" or "check to see what you got done today" sessions, and our memory work time (about 15 min). 

 

DD#2 isn't transitioned to that yet and spends the majority of her day with me at-elbow. I directly teach most of her stuff - say 3 1/2 out of her roughly 5 hours of school time.

 

I admit to cheating a bit since I'm teaching dd#3 the same stuff at the same time. I have five and combine as best as works. Despite the age difference, the last couple of years have gone fairly smoothly with keeping them together. Not sure it'll work to combine dd#2 & dd#3 after this year. This is the year I'm supposed to transition dd#2 to more independence. I believe dd#3 will fight me to also go independent next year. (Unless she has a huge growth in maturity, she's not going to be ready for that level of autonomy. We'll see.)

 

So, we take it kid by kid. Also, the face time depends on the subjects the kids are doing. 

[MerryAtHope]

When my kids were this age, we were transferring more work to independence, and using more of a "tutoring time" model. I would check their work, and then we would spend about 30-45 minutes going over corrections, and then discussing various subjects (history one day, science the next, reader the next, that sort of thing). Lighter correction days left us more time for discussions. One of mine had 2 one on one times at this age rather than one. The other still liked me to read history aloud. Both also had direct teaching for spelling--so about 1-1.5 hours total.

 

That doesn't include our evening read-aloud time, which we still do. 

[Targhee]

8th grader

Morning Basket (all of us) 1 hr

Language Arts/Lit/Writing 1 hr

Touching base on Sci/Hist/For Lang/Math ~15 min

 

Also we have project time on Friday afternoons for a few hours working together. And once a week sci lab for an hour.

 

5th grader

Morning Basket 1 hr

Language arts/lit/writing 1 hr

Math 30 min

Set up/touch base on Latin/Sci/History ~20 min

 

Weekly lab and project time (~2 hr) and lab (1 hr)

[J&JMom]

My time is pretty evenly divided between my 7th and 5th graders. My 5th needs more direct assistance while my 7th can do more independent work. So, if I am pressed for time, I have no problem saying "read this", "do that" with minimal direction from me. I spent about 1.5 hours a day with joint topics (read aloud, art, CNN, etc.).

 

Between the two, I am at my table 7 hours a day with a 30 minute lunch working with somebody.  My schedule is in my blog: https://kidblog.org/class/ZeyAcademy/posts/5x8yw7vivuquzvjxf3mj0me0t

[Chrysalis Academy]

It does vary in individual subjects, but my dd typically works independently all morning while I'm working with my younger. Right now she does her math, spanish, ongoing writing projects/BW assignment, Metacognition/study skills, independent history/science reading, and assigned lit reading.  Then after lunch, we work together for usually a couple of hours - this is when we do read aloud, discussions and TC course watching together for science/history, discuss lit, do any English skill work and do rhetoric studies or talk about her essays/writing projects. She usually has an hour of wrap-up after that which she does independently. So I'd say about 2 hours a day right now? Could go up to 3.

[Truscifi]

I was all set to say so far (we just started our first middle school year) not that much because we have outsourced writing and science. But when I stopped to think about it I realized we still have face time for history reading discussion, science class discussion, some math instruction, and reviewing work in math, logic, and Latin. I think it is actually at least an hour a day, more on days we're covering a harder math topic.

[SilverMoon]

For us this has been more dependent on personality than age.

 

Breaking it down....

 

Grammar: DS/7th is independent unless he's stuck (AG), but the teens did R&S orally with me (15-20 min)

Writing: DS/7th needs a lot of input here, one teen preferred being left alone until grading, another needed a bit of nudging at the beginning of projects

Literature: discussions flow into the day, I'm not sure how to time these

Science: DC#1 = constant! DC#2 = totally independent. DC#3: mixture of on his own and heavy discussion, STEM kid that loves to talk about it

History: work done mostly independently, discussion woven into the day

Language: nudging, grading, helping with vocab memory drill occasionally

Math: See science.

 

Even when we're not in face to face DS/7th and I are nearly always in the same room together while he's working, or occasionally he's in the next room that's open to the one I'm in. We're discussion heavy and it just flows into the holes of our day.

 

For structure of the day I do a bottom-up approach, and DS7th is 4th from the bottom. When the kindergartner is done and the 2nd grader is mostly done (1.5 hours tops?), I jump feet first into DD/5th and DS/7th work. (DD/5th is precocious and right on DS/7th's heels. They have similar subjects and levels.) They should have been working independently while I was working with the little ones, so I start by going over that with whichever one is most available. Then we head to the more mom-involved subjects and I go back and forth between them for the rest of the morning, as needed. The teens check in occasionally, and I turn my attention fully to them after lunch. The middle two can wrap up anything not completed and interject politely as the teens did during their blocks.

[happypamama]

A fair amount for my eighth grader, up to a couple of hours a day.  Most days, I go over math with her (it's Algebra 1, and so far, it's super easy, so occasionally, she looks at it to see if she understands it first), and I go through her WWS lesson with her.  Two days a week, I also do Latin with her, and I will start doing Spanish with her later in the year on two other days a week (right now, she is working through DuoLingo, and then we will do GSWSpanish together).  I also go over anything she doesn't understand about history or whatever; right now, she is working through a sentence diagramming book on her own, and I check it and discuss it with her if she is stuck.  I also spend some time discussing writing, literature, and history with her.  And there is some group work time where I am working with all of them at once, reading or facilitating science or picture study or whatever.

[Garga]

A lot. We school for 6.5 hours a day. I have an 8th grader and 5th grader. Each subject is one hour. Some subjects are daily and some are only a few times a week.

 

Language arts: with me, 20 min. alone 40.

Writing: with me 30 min, alone 30

Math: a new lesson takes an hour to teach, then the next two lessons he works problems alone

Science: with me 60 min

History: with me 60 min

Reading: with me 30, alone 30

Art: with me 40, alone 20

Music: with me 60

Logic: with me 30, alone 30

 

Computer, bible, and typing are each only 20 minutes. 2 are with me, 2 are alone.

 

More time is with me actively teaching than alone at this point. It's about a 65/35 split.

[ondreeuh]

Where we are now (8th grade) looks much different than it looked in 6th or even the beginning of 7th. He is much more independent now, and is a self-starter. I am running to catch up to him, and have resorted to doing my reading the night before so he doesn't have to wait on me.

 

I do this history and literature reading the night before, and science if I get to it. Then during the day he does a math minute, writing, math, and science independently. He has extra lit he can read if he has a wait. I correct his work, and then we discuss. Especially for science, I make sure we discuss the main points even if he got the answers right on his assignment. History right now is all discussion based (with Bookshark) as is our short story literature unit. Some days we do a science activity or lab, and we cook together for home ec.

 

If I just had him to educate, I would still be pretty busy between reading, correcting, and discussing. At least at this point I don't have to do the direct instruction for math or science anymore, but I did have to in 6th grade. He watches videos for math and writing instruction. I definitely feel like I am doing 8th grade over again, but is time around the materials are far better than I got in school. :)

 

To answer your question, basically I am working or available from 8-2, but the face-to-face time is spread out as he finishes things and as my younger one is taking breaks.

[My3girls]

My 8th grader works 9-5 most days including an hour for lunch and 30 minutes for flute practice.  I am available most if not all of that time for questions.  I don't really do any direct instruction.  She has 2 online courses, and everything else is written to her.  I do go over completed work and discuss this with her.  I think total I spend 1-2 hours working directly with her.

[Laurel-in-CA]

An hour or two a day; more on Mondays. On Monday we go over the plan for the week, review WWS instructions (we won't need to do this as much when she gets into it), quiz new latin vocabulary and schedule those exercises for the week. I watch the MUS DVD with her and am available while she does the first page of the new unit. The rest of the week she grades her own math and reports it to me so I can see if she needs extra practice. 

 

We're starting off lit this year with As You Like It (MP study guide), so two days a week we read aloud and discuss; the other two days she does the SG and we correct together. When we move to our other study guides I don't think she'll need the read-aloud step but we will still correct the SG together; we're really working toward more complete short answers instead of a phrase here, a phrase there. I also look at her history outlines and we mutually decide on a topic for further exploration.

 

I try to correct science and latin, english and logic every other day, with latin vocab. drill daily if we can. We also read a chapter of the bible together every morning....usually....when we get up in a timely fashion.

[Soror]

My oldest is 11 fwiw, if he was an only or I had fewer children we'd probably be together for 80%+, I enjoy working with him, he has difficulty staying focused and he enjoys the time together as well. As it is I have 3 other kids, technically he is only on my schedule for 1 hrish or so but it always ends up being at least double that. My 8 yr old on the other hand is little miss independent and I can forsee that I will work with her much less, already I work less with her than ds!

[Mommy22alyns]

Maybe half or 60 with/40 independent.  They get planners with assignments, but of course the work gets checked and corrections discussed.  I watch the DIVE videos with my 7th grader and she sometimes does math in the same room just in case.  She gets a little more face to face on history reading and discussion.  I view this as helping her transition to higher level work and more independence in high school.