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I have started my son on a 4 day a week schedule. I figured that I would need him to do 180 days but I am starting to think that may not be the case for every subject.

 

Writing we started on day 1. We will finish his program on day 52. Even if the next level is a bit longer, that wouldn't be 180 days worth.

Grammar we started on day 1 as well. We will finish with this semester with that on day 62. Still, not 180 days in that with all things being equal. 

Latin we are finishing up from last year. We will finish with that on day 28. I looked and the next latin is 32 weeks long. Even with 2 weeks of review of this latin we finish the next latin on day 156. That leaves over a month for review. 

 

 Am I missing something?

 

I am fine if we are going to end early. He would likely like the 2 month break rather then the 1 month, but I am just trying to figure out how to do it. 

 

I live in NJ I am not counting days per say. I am just doing it for my own enjoyment and ease. 

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From your signature, it looks like you are using Writing and Rhetoric, which I also use. W&R seems like a short program, but each book is supposed to be used for one semester and then it is also meant to be alternated weekly with a grammar program. So, a week of W&R then a week of grammar. Following that pattern, you should finish two books of W&R and at least one book of grammar each year and your child won't have to do both writing and grammar on the same day. The introduction to teachers in one of the books explains why they set up the program to alternate with a grammar program.

 

I think it's OK to schedule subjects so they end early. Then your schedule tapers off naturally at the end of the year when kids are losing steam, anyway.

 

I hope that helps.  :thumbup1:

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For books that will not last us an entire year I alternate them one week on and one off (currently grammar one week spelling the next) or do that particular subject only 1-2 days per week (geography and handwriting here).

That makes the individual days less cluttered and streamlined while pacing the curricula to last for hopefully the entire year.

Some years we just decide to do 2-3 years worth of a curricula by working daily though but generally I pace it.

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We school 180 days ish. We do NOT do every subject each day.

 

Find out how many lessons are in that level and divide by the number of weeks. So 108 lessons in 36 weeks is 3 lessons per week.

 

And like with your Latin being only so many weeks long, either stretch it out, or stop early. Or do some fun review games.

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From your signature, it looks like you are using Writing and Rhetoric, which I also use. W&R seems like a short program, but each book is supposed to be used for one semester and then it is also meant to be alternated weekly with a grammar program. So, a week of W&R then a week of grammar. Following that pattern, you should finish two books of W&R and at least one book of grammar each year and your child won't have to do both writing and grammar on the same day. The introduction to teachers in one of the books explains why they set up the program to alternate with a grammar program.

 

I think it's OK to schedule subjects so they end early. Then your schedule tapers off naturally at the end of the year when kids are losing steam, anyway.

 

I hope that helps.  :thumbup1:

They don't line up that way though. That is unless I were to do 1 lesson of grammar in 1 week. I think I would be more frustrated that way instead of taking the 2 weeks to do a lesson. 

 

We will be likely doing fun things in June and so it will all be good at the end of the day.

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We school 180 days ish. We do NOT do every subject each day.

 

Find out how many lessons are in that level and divide by the number of weeks. So 108 lessons in 36 weeks is 3 lessons per week.

 

And like with your Latin being only so many weeks long, either stretch it out, or stop early. Or do some fun review games.

I buy my books as I need them. I like it this way as sometimes you get half way through a program then discover it isn't a good fit. However the flip side of that is you don't always see the whole picture. 

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A long time ago I stopped planning to align with my 180 days. We just do the work. If DD finished Prima Latina before the end of the school year, then she started Latina Christiana and we kept going, stopping for summer and picking it up again in the fall. I do plan, but things totally get in the way. Like yesterday. I had hoped to get done with school before we went to our homeschool group meeting, but nobody got history done and DS didn't finish science, either. Part of me is a little irritated because we're "behind" now, but I'm really just working on saying, "that's ok, we just keep plodding ahead. I will not try to cram stuff in to catch up". So, today we do yesterday's history, I'll give DS an extra day with science because he does struggle and I'm not going to worry about my plans. And by the end of the year, things are just kind of dribbling along because I'm a finisher. We don't have a "last day of school". We have a "you're going to do math through the summer until it 's done" and we just keep doing school until everyone has finished what they need to do. Now, in the case of dd, who is ahead in Latin and actually math as well, I just set an arbitrary "end of the year" date for those subjects for her, and she puts them down for the summer and resumes when we start school again in August.

Edited by KrissiK
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Another thing to remember about writing instruction: you can always spend as much time as will help the student on any one lesson. A student may find something difficult, and need to work a few more days on that lesson. I've had lessons where one or both of the boys became so interested in a tangent discovered during the lesson that they wanted to explore that place a little longer. Think of it a a hike: you can go straight through on the trail, and stop for nothing, or you can take the trail, stop to explore an interesting wildflower area, take a break for lunch at a scenic vista, go take a dip in creek and look for crawdads, spend time trying to identify the funny fungus growing on the fallen stump.

So it isn't always about linear progression, particularly with grammar and composition.

 

ETA: Practically speaking, this means adding an extra day to two days per lesson in the planning schedule.

Edited by Critterfixer
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