SparrowsNest Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 To review, I am bringing my ds10/5th grade ps'er home next year for what will be a trial year of hsing. I've scaled down my ambition for what could reasonably be crammed in one year's time. ;) Here's what I'm looking at... Working With Mom ~3h45m/day 45m Latin 45m Math 1hr Writing M-Th/1hr Science on F 45m French 30m Elective (Book Discussion on M, Art on Tue, Poetry on Wed, Music on Th) Afternoons free on Friday for a brief topical presentation for the family Daily Independent work ~1h30m/day 30m History plus 1 reading selection per week 45m Bible/Catechism copywork/Scripture memorization 15m Violin So that's something like 5h15m per day, plus his reading. Do I need to scale down more? Could it be beefed up? Also, I am having trouble conceptualizing how this actually works out. I have no idea how long it will actually take us to work through a lesson. For example, is math over once he 'gets' the concept, or should we move on to the next lesson if we still have time? ~Marcia, Mom to 6 Amazing Kids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 We do about 15 min. of Latin every day (30 min. if it is a harder lesson). We do Latina Christiana I. Only about 5 min. of this a day is with me. The rest is independent. Math - we do 30 - 45 min. a day. If he is done with his math assignment - he's done - even if it only took him 5 min. to do. About 5 - 10 min. of a new topic is with me. The rest is independent. I'm around - just not standing over him. 1 hour writing? We do 15 min. of Rod & Staff Grammar. We also do writing as part of history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimnactmom Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 I try not to get to stuck on a formal schedule. For example, some days I spend 20 minutes on our math lesson and other days it takes us 1 hour. I'd rather complete a lesson then cut it off because of a time limit, or try to fill up extra time by beginning a lesson that I won't have time to finish. We will work on an extra book of fun logic problems or do extra reading if we need to fill up time in our day(our state has a minimum time requirement for the school day.) Some of our days are longer than others. When I first started home schooling I made up a schedule on a big index card with each class being a period with a certain amount of time. The schedule looked great on that index card but it didn't work in real life. Now I just focus on what needs to get done lesson by lesson. You should probably start with some idea of a schedule but be flexible. After a while you will fall into a routine that works for the both of you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragons in the flower bed Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 Also, I am having trouble conceptualizing how this actually works out. I have no idea how long it will actually take us to work through a lesson. For example, is math over once he 'gets' the concept, or should we move on to the next lesson if we still have time? It is hard to conceptualize before you do it. I'd recommend doing it for a day or three before you nail down a definite schedule. As for the math, I'd vote for it to be over once he gets the concept. It's motivating to end with a win, if you know what I mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 My experience is like the others. On a lot of the things you have listed, my dd gets started with me and finishes independently. I don't know what curricula you've picked out for everything, but you might want to plan for that. It makes them feel self-motivated and independent. My dd likes having a checklist so she can go through her assignments herself, in whatever location she feels most comfy (couch, reading nest, on her bike, outside, wherever), and come to me when she needs help. I write on the list Mommy teach side one, do side two independently, that sort of thing. I don't think a 5th grader would want his Mom driving everything, kwim? And it makes me cringe to say this, but he might not like Mom teaching him music either, not if that hasn't been the norm in your house. They just seem to have their own internal sense of what is babyish, what they like, where they want to be more independent, etc. You'll want to feel that out for yourself, or maybe you won't even find it an issue, who knows. Classes can be a good thing, a few outside co-op classes or whatever one day a week. It takes the pressure off you, gives him a welcome social break, and lets him do some things with someone else that he might not take well from you. So definitely think about the independence thing. Even if he's not the most self-driven at the beginning of the year, it's certainly something you want to work toward with him. Also, and this is just a suggestion, what are his favorite subjects or particular interests? Is he already studying latin and french or does he want to do both? A lot of kids really enjoy either history, science, or both, and they bring a lot of pleasure to the day. (You get your math and writing done so you can do the fun stuff!) When you trim that latin time estimate, which seems high to me too, you would have more time to increase a fun subject that interests him, say science or history. You could talk with him and see what his preferences are. My dd is crazy into history and reads it by the hour, does projects, etc., but kids are all different. Some kids like robotics or something totally different. I'd suggest making some time for something like that that interests him, scheduling it into your homeschool budget, etc. Gotta have the fun stuff! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparrowsNest Posted March 7, 2008 Author Share Posted March 7, 2008 VERY helpful replies, thank you all! It's funny because I was looking at some of the lesson plans (such as Latina Christiana) and thinking "um, doing the vocabulary isn't going to take 10 minutes!" but then I figured, hey, what do I know? So I allowed more time. ;) For outside activities, he will be taking violin lessons and 'Perfectly Polished,' which is a social graces class, as well as continuing 4H. He also wants to take karate again. I really haven't started looking into what co-ops, etc are available here. Some of it is that I am viewing this as a test year, to see if hsing is a good fit for me/him/our family. If it is, I will probably pull my two little ones (currently pre-K and 2nd) out the following year. THEN I will really hit the hsing scene! If it isn't, I want to be able to extricate myself as easily as possible. ;) As for the independence issue, I was concerned that giving him too much independent work was sort of, hmmm, lazy on my part? I don't know. The music thing was mostly his idea! He wants to do a segment on opera and the great composers, so we'll do 9 weekly lessons on that and two other semester studies on the ballet and folk music. We have talked about the schedule and he is excited to learn Latin (his older brother is taking this at his private school) and French. Math is non-negotiable, of course. He is very interested in writing as well and I think that will be a hit, but yeah, it probably won't take him an hour, even doing some grammar alongside. The thing he is most interested in, and I have given him a lot of input on this, is the weekly presentation/unit study. I've let him choose the topic for about half the weeks, and I have to say that is where he will really dig in! And if the math and Latin take more like 20-30 minutes, are we going to have school finished in ~2.5-3 'mom' (i.e., half hour each math, Latin, French, Writing, elective) hours a day, plus his independent bible, history, and reading? Our tentative choices are... Latina Christiana I First Start French Singapore Math Classical Writing w/ R&S Grammar alongside for History he will be outlining the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (which he read as soon as it hit the mailbox!). I also want to find some time to do a SOTW or possibly the Christine Miller "Story of ___" series read-alouds. Maybe since we won't be doing as much as I think, we can squeeze that in! :) I suppose I will look back at all this planning and laugh. I'm sure we will find our groove come fall! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I think this looks good. I am still going to allow just 30 minutes next year for most of these things, rather than 45. I think we can still get them done in that time. I think it's good to allow for this, but you may be able to finish it sooner than you think. I go through my math book, etc. and break down the lessons, pages, etc. to see how much I think we'll have to do per day for the year in order to get it finished. I'm using Singapore, and we just do one lesson a day, plus the workbook exercise(s) that go with it. On the days when there are practice pages or reviews, we do only those. I don't see grammar or spelling, but maybe you're not doing those or they are rolled into your writing program. If the hour covers all your language arts, I think that's fine. If you're doing an entire hour for just writing, perhaps that is a little much; I think it depends on the child. No logic? Not that you must absolutely do that; I think WTM just mentions starting it in fifth, so I was wondering..... We do about 6 hours total of school here per day and always have, so I think this looks fine. Some folks will faint over that much, but then when you talk to them you find out they're not counting their reading time in that mix, just "written" work, and they really end up having just as much as us when absolutely everything is added in...... Regena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparrowsNest Posted March 8, 2008 Author Share Posted March 8, 2008 I don't see grammar or spelling, but maybe you're not doing those or they are rolled into your writing program. If the hour covers all your language arts, I think that's fine. If you're doing an entire hour for just writing, perhaps that is a little much; I think it depends on the child. No logic? Not that you must absolutely do that; I think WTM just mentions starting it in fifth, so I was wondering..... We do about 6 hours total of school here per day and always have, so I think this looks fine. Thank you Regena! That was a wonderfully encouraging post. :) As for spelling, he's a natural speller. All his basic words are set, and he will be reinforcing spelling with his vocabularly program (Vocabulary for the College Bound Student). And yes, I was planning on doing 1hr of grammar (pretty casually though, mostly oral discussion of the grammar lesson in either R&S or the Michael Clay Thomas grammar; I've ordered both! ;) ). I've debated over logic, and while I had originally planned to do the recommended Mind Benders exercises with him, I reconsidered that decision after reading LCC. That being said, I may add them in if we need to this year, and we will definitely begin logic the following year if he wants to stay home. On the other hand, if I find that this is too much, we may drop the vocabulary and Kingfisher History outlining project, figuring that Latin will cover the vocab and our read-aloud will hit the history well-enough. Working w/ Mama 1hr math/latin (break, violin) 1hr grammar/writing 1hr read aloud (History)/French (lunch) 45m fun subject (M, Science; Tu, Art; W, Poetry; Th, Music; F, Prepare Topical Presentation) Daily Independent work 30m Bible reading/copywork 15m vocabulary work 30m History reading/outlining and reading (1 novel per week, and for weekly topical study) That all comes out to about 6 hours total, 1hr of which is independent reading and 30m of which is being read to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 45 minutes of Latin a day is more than we do. We probably do that much for Mandarin, but Latin is lighter. I didn't start Latin until I was twelve, and was still reading original texts at sixteen, so I'm not in a hurry for Calvin. I usually do about as much science as history. For us, that usually means 45 minutes of history on Monday and Wednesday and 45 minutes of science on Tuesday and Thursday. I naturally incline towards arts and humanities, so I try to hold onto that balance. It's my role on these boards to say, 'PE?' You may well have that planned but just didn't include it. My aim is for my boys to have one hour of pink-in-the-face exercise each school day, as recommended by the American Heart Association. In addition to the health benefits, I find that my boys work better if they exercise regularly, as do I (although I'm not a natural athlete at all). As for how it works - different people have different methods. Some people keep doing maths until they have finished what they think is needed for the day. Other people go by time block - sometimes they get through more in the book, sometimes less, but it evens out. You'll find your own method... Best wishes Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 I think this sounds terrific! I still do a lot of our grammar orally, too, and my son seems to prefer that. (Whoever thought that *I* would enjoy discussing grammar, LOL?) Have fun with your year, Regena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2boys Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Quick tip - you mentioned possibly wanting to add in SOTW. Did you know this is available on cd? You can easily add it in to your week by listening to it in the car. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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