Do we need more time in our schedule?

[swimmermom3]

I have just finished the second week of school with ds (11). We cover grammar, spelling, math, writing, vocab., science, history/geography, literature, fine arts, philosophy, Spanish and Japanese. We work from 8am to 1pm when ds (14) comes home from ps and I start Algebra with him. Last year, school went from 8am to 2:30pm, but that was with two kids. I'm not sure why I feel so pressured this year except that I've uped the demands and the kid is kind of pokey. As a friend who is a yoga teacher put it, "He doesn't leak energy all over the place like many of us do." That allows him to be focused. Great,but it's got me tapping my watch and losing my mind all over the place.:tongue_smilie:

 

Do I have enough time in the schedule for middle school? Too many subjects? I try to cover everything 4x per week. I don't give homework because of swim practice but am wondering if I should. Any thoughts?

[Annabel Lee]

Looking at the subjects you're covering, could you assign light homework for the review of vocab words & spelling words? Could any of the reading or writing be assigned as homework?

 

I'll leave the evaluation of whether that's enough time for middle school, etc. to people who've done middle school. :) I'm just reading & learning.

[amtmcm]

I generally allow my middle schooler 30 minutes per major subject (grammar, spelling & vocab are usually lumped together). So for 10 major subjects, your day should take about 5 hours with no breaks. It sounds like 8-2 might be reasonable, allowing 30 minutes for lunch and two 15 minute breaks. Are there any subjects he can work on alone while you do Algebra with your older son from 1-2?

 

If he can handle the workload, I don't think it's too many subjects. It just depends on the child. My older DD could handle that many (and does), but my younger DD would spend the day in tears if I asked her to cover that much material.

 

When my older DD is pokey I have her set a timer for 30 minutes to complete a lesson. If it's not completed in 30 minutes then she finishes it as homework and she moves onto the next lesson.

[abbeyej]

We've just finished our second week of 6th grade. Ds appears to need a solid 6 hours a day plus reading time in the evening. Our subjects aren't exactly the same as yours, but similar overall. (History Odyssey level 2 Middle Ages; Lightning Lit 7; some additional reading; algebra 1; Latin Prep 3; Greek; logic; art; Famous Men of the Middle Ages; science; memory work...)

 

Are there some things you can assign as homework to be done while your older son is working on math with you? Could some reading be done at bedtime?

[swimmermom3]

Thank you for the feedback so far. I appreciate the fact that no one suggested I drop a subject-yet.:D I have used timers for other areas of our lives but not for school. I think I'm ready to do that. Right now, I feel as though I'm spoon-feeding him the schedule. He enjoys having my undivided attention this year. His older siblings and his dad are are calling him "Mama's Boy". :001_huh: This is not going to work if he is still swimming in high school as he will need to be very pro-active in his time management skills.

 

I'll try giving him a time limit for subjects this week. Whatever he doesn't finish will become homework for the 1-2pm time frame. He can do Spanish then and some of his reading as well. We'll probably need to continue with reading aloud in the evenings. I think part of my battle is that he is the last one home and I want to make the most of the time. However, his goals and abilities indicate a tough schedule and one that promotes independence.

[abbeyej]

Lisa, my son has a schedule for the whole year broken down weekly... It seems to be helping him with being independent regarding some subjects, though I'm still very much involved. He has daily check boxes for each subject, and down below some of those subjects are broken down by what has to be completed over the course of the week. So while I say "algebra" each day, I also show him what must be completed over the course of the week, in order for us to finish the book in the 35 weeks of school I have scheduled. (A 36th week is taken up with standardized testing.) For "reading", he must read 1 hour a day (at least) and also complete his assigned reading for the week (and if that's a light week, some of those hours can be devoted to reading whatever he chooses). There's also space to add in additional assignments on M/W/F (our Tuesdays and Thursdays are scheduled down to the minute, lol, so there's nowhere to add anything else!), and there is space down below for noting what his particular Latin and Greek assignments are for the week, any additional reading, field trips, etc.

 

Anyway, I thought maybe sharing what one of our weeks looks like might be useful?

 

 

(Oh, and the SOTW note there is for what his younger sister is doing. He isn't necessarily doing that, though if he listens in and it reinforces what he's doing for history, I consider that a bonus. I just needed a place where I could record what each was doing, in my effort to keep them both studying similar topics.)

Edited September 20, 2009 by abbeyej

[Lovedtodeath]

Lisa, my son has a schedule for the whole year broken down weekly... It seems to be helping him with being independent regarding some subjects, though I'm still very much involved. He has daily check boxes for each subject, and down below some of those subjects are broken down by what has to be completed over the course of the week. So while I say "algebra" each day, I also show him what must be completed over the course of the week, in order for us to finish the book in the 35 weeks of school I have scheduled. (A 36th week is taken up with standardized testing.) For "reading", he must read 1 hour a day (at least) and also complete his assigned reading for the week (and if that's a light week, some of those hours can be devoted to reading whatever he chooses). There's also space to add in additional assignments on M/W/F (our Tuesdays and Thursdays are scheduled down to the minute, lol, so there's nowhere to add anything else!), and there is space down below for noting what his particular Latin and Greek assignments are for the week, any additional reading, field trips, etc.

 

Anyway, I thought maybe sharing what one of our weeks looks like might be useful?

LOVE the schedule!

[swimmermom3]

Abbeyej, thank you for sharing your schedule. It really helps, especially since it meets both goals of covering a significant amount of material and fostering independence. Do you incorporate spelling and grammar into your memory work or is Lightning Lit your stand-alone Language Arts program? We supplement MCT with Lightning Lit. My ds enjoys it.

 

On Tuesday and Thursday, how long do you go? Do you feel that the three hours a week for science is enough? My guess is that it is more than enough, and perhaps we could trim our program back a little. I'm at 4-5 hours per week for science because ds loves it. I apologize for all of the questions but your schedule resonates with me. I currently have our yearly schedule by week in Excel. This is my copy where I record grades and notes. Ds gets a daily list on Word. Your physical schedule is the best of both worlds and allows for the dc to have a weekly overview.

 

Thank you for providing some much needed clarity. It is certainly making my day lighter.

[abbeyej]

Do you incorporate spelling and grammar into your memory work or is Lightning Lit your stand-alone Language Arts program?

Ds doesn't really need spelling -- it has just come very naturally to him, and any programs we've tried have been fairly superfluous. On the other hand, he has benefitted from doing vocabulary study (we've done Wordly Wise for the last two years)... This year we're just adding words and definitions to a box of index cards, with the words coming from Lightning Lit or SSAT/ISEE prep lists, etc. So not a formal program per se, but trying to continue building his vocabulary (and it doubles as preparation for spelling bee as well -- last year he did well at district, so this year he would love to go to state)... I do have "Vocabulary for the College Bound Student", and I like the looks of it a lot. We may end up using it regularly once we settle in to our other schedule a little better.

 

Our Latin and Greek also include a lot of grammar work, and we go over grammar with regard to writing assignments in history and literature as well.

 

We also have additional reading assigned beyond what's in History Odyssey and Lightning Lit -- most of it drawn from the WTM 6th grade reading list.

 

On Tuesday and Thursday, how long do you go?

The gray portion of the schedule is our co-op time with another family. The kids are divided into two groups, and the moms alternate teaching them (so I teach Latin and Greek for the older kids and my friend does Critical Thinking Book 1 with them for logic), and we do memory time and science lab or art with all of the kids together... We're scheduled from about 9am to 1:30pm together, then the older two do "study hall" together to finish up their algebra and Famous Men of the Middle Ages, etc. Ballet and soccer follow that, so there's not much time for anything else.

 

Do you feel that the three hours a week for science is enough? My guess is that it is more than enough, and perhaps we could trim our program back a little. I'm at 4-5 hours per week for science because ds loves it.

Honestly, it's probably not even that much. On Monday and Wednesday, ds does his reading and notebook assignments from "So You Really Want to Learn Science 1" from Galore Park. I think most weeks that's more like one hour total than two. On Tuesdays we do "science lab" with the other family by doing experiments from the Thames & Kosmos Core Science middle school science kit.

 

I can't really imagine doing 4-5 hours of science per week -- but it's also not the thing that really drives either of my kids. If it were, perhaps I would make the effort. ... But for us, I truly think that this is plenty.

[Lovedtodeath]

I know I should probably keep out of it, since I have a first/second grader, and I am struggling with that, :001_huh: but it occurs to me that if you spend more time on science because he loves it, and you feel like you want to lighten your schedule, maybe you should trim back on the history and use science as the center of your schooling instead?

 

Is that the longest sentence I could possibly make?:lol:

[abbeyej]

...if you spend more time on science because he loves it, and you feel like you want to lighten your schedule, maybe you should trim back on the history ...

 

Oooh, and there's always Hakim's really gorgeous, wonderful "The Story of Science" series! ;) (Like you wanted to add *more* things to your schedule, lol!)

[swimmermom3]

I know I should probably keep out of it, since I have a first/second grader, and I am struggling with that, :001_huh: but it occurs to me that if you spend more time on science because he loves it, and you feel like you want to lighten your schedule, maybe you should trim back on the history and use science as the center of your schooling instead?

 

Is that the longest sentence I could possibly make?:lol:

 

No Carmen, I could write a longer one; however, it would not make nearly as much sense as yours does.:D I could cut some of the history but he likes that too. Okay, so do I. At some points history and science are interwoven. I am using Jim Wiese's book on Ancient Science, Hakim's Story of Science and Noeo Chemistry III.

 

I've been thinking about Abbey's comment regarding spelling. I am wondering if it would be such a bad thing if we dropped it. Swimmer Dude is a natural speller and we use Caesar's English II for vocabulary. MCT provides ample opportunity for spelling challenges.

 

I am so pleased with the changes we made so far for this year in his program. Much of what we changed was based on recommendations made here. I figured I would get the same excellent help in tweaking the schedule and I'm not disappointed.

[swimmermom3]

Oooh, and there's always Hakim's really gorgeous, wonderful "The Story of Science" series! ;) (Like you wanted to add *more* things to your schedule, lol!)

 

Too funny. Ds really likes the Aristotle book.