On your scheduling...

[hsmom]

do you set blocks of time for each subject daily? Like 30 min. math and after that you move on or do you just put in math, and when it is done move on?

I have not set up a time schedule yet. Does it usually work out good that way?

I want to get a little more organized this next year, with starting RS math I think I need to make it more scheduled. I am afraid we will over do one subject more than others. How do you deal with this problem?

[Mrs. H.]

We do time blocks, more for the older dd (5th), less for the younger ds (3rd). Ds might get 30 min. for math, while dd gets 45 min. When that time is over, the math is put away. If it is not finished due to difficulty, we bring it out again later when I can help. If it is not finished due to dawdling, the child gives up free time or playing outside to finish their work later in the day.

 

With five kids, I would never get anything done if we didn't have blocks of time set for certain subjects, but they aren't as rigid as they sound.

[Trivium Academy]

It's really about figuring out what works best for you and what your child is bringing to the table.

 

Is it a discipline problem? - Then have a reasonable set time for the subject in question and have any unfinished work be 'homework', to be done after all the other subjects and I've added that I won't help with homework. (speaking of Math here). It could also be that the material is too easy or too hard, which would cause procrastination...

 

Is it a processing problem? Is your child not understanding the concept being taught? If so, you may want to reassess how you're teaching and provide more examples and one on one time with the child before expecting them to perform in a certain amount of time.

 

Math, history, science and reading can take longer than any other subjects for us because of projects, more teaching time with new concepts and because we WANT to spend more time within the subject. Of course it gets harder with multiple children, in that case you just do the best you can to schedule Mom time with each child during the day.

 

I don't know if this helps...or if I'm gibber-jabbing here! :001_huh:

[nutmeg]

No block scheduling here. We just try to complete a given amount of work in a timely manner. If they start dawdling, we might look at setting aside a certain amount of time, but so far this really hasn't been an issue for our two.

[Amy loves Bud]

I do, but mainly they are maximum times. If we finish early, we don't keep doing math, for example. But we don't go over the set time, because then it becomes miserable. If dawdling was the reason that we ran out of time, I'll assign homework but that's not usually our issue.

[chai]

When I started homeschooling, we just did the next thing. I didn't really follow a schedule. I found that my dd really needed more structure though. So now, I have blocks of time specific to each subject. She knows when one starts and finishes. If she finishes a subject early, I will let her fill it with something fun. For example, in the math slot, I decide what she should cover in her 45 minutes; if she finishes her exercises early, she can fill the time with on-line math games. It has gotten her to stop dawdling.

[OneRoomHomeSchool]

I just have 1 large school block in my day from 8:30 - 12:30

 

What we do is have meeting with mom time for each child, individually. I begin with the slowest child (dd 9) and work my way up to the quickest. During our meeting we:

1. go over corrections

2. do any speed drills, tests, spelling dictation

3. intro all new concepts

4. work a few problems together to be sure they understand

5. give assignments

 

They then just 'go to work'. Even my 6 year old does well with this. While I am meeting with 1 child, the others work on reading, instrument practice, or chores.

 

So our academics are done by 12:30, everyone gets one on one time with me and it works very well here.

 

Afternoons we spend 1 hour together doing Bible and History.

[Pensguys]

No block scheduling here. We just try to complete a given amount of work in a timely manner. If they start dawdling, we might look at setting aside a certain amount of time, but so far this really hasn't been an issue for our two.

 

This is what we do too. It mine dawdle, then that means they STILL have to complete the given amount of work or they get no priviledges until it is done AND checked and corrected.

 

They've learned not to dawdle too often.

[Lisawa]

do you set blocks of time for each subject daily? Like 30 min. math and after that you move on or do you just put in math, and when it is done move on?

I have not set up a time schedule yet. Does it usually work out good that way? I want to get a little more organized this next year, with starting RS math I think I need to make it more scheduled. I am afraid we will over do one subject more than others. How do you deal with this problem?

 

 

I tried this again.. but it just doesn’t work well this week. Some days lessons are longer in some subjects... like science. I don’t want to stop just because that allotted time is over...

 

Math... maybe they need more help on a concept... I don’t want to stop mid-lesson just to move on....

 

But then... school goes all day long! So for me its a catch 22.... I am still working this out myself.... Do I stick w/ blocks of time and later its homework... or do we do it till its done, schooling all day?

 

My goal is to start by 7:30, right now its 8:00 and finish no later than 1:30/2:00.

 

You can try and see what works and adjust to the need of your children... just a thought.....

[Jennifer in NH]

I have assignment for them to do...so many math problems or one chapter in a reader etc...when its done it is done. If they dawdle then they don't get to any fun stuff! After trial and error i have figured out about how much dd can handle in certain areas before she gets overwhelmed and nothing gets done!

 

With my kids, if I just set a time, they would just sit there until time was up! But, they are still young (7 1/2 and 5 1/2).

[Beth in Central TX]

I have a schedule in place that outlines our day, but if more time is needed on a subject, I allow the schedule to become flexible and work with us. Some days are just longer than others. However, if it's an issue of extreme lack of focus, then I do stop that subject (generally math), and that boy will finish the work after the other scheduled work is done. This rarely happens, but occasionally a change of school work is needed to jumpstart the brain again.

[Hoggirl]

I think a time allotment is workable as long as your child is a diligent worker. We do one hour for math each day and 30 minutes for Latin each day. Everything else is by completion...so it takes as long as it takes for the other subjects, though I can usually eyeball it fairly well. Oh! And ds has to read 40 minutes independently each day.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

I have our day scheduled in 30 minute blocks, but I'm not rigid with them. We try to stay within 10 minutes of our scheduled time either way. If the work that I've scheduled doesn't get done due to dawdling or is done sloppily, then they will have to complete the work during their free time. If the work isn't done because they don't understand the concept or because I've assigned too much, then I reassess and either spend some extra time working with them that day instead of doing something else; or I move the assignment to the next day and just make a note that it needs to be done one on one.

[Robin Hood]

I set our schedule out in increments. One dd has no trouble keeping it but the other does. What ever they don't finish in the time slot, they have to finish by themselves before they can play. That makes me free to go abaoaut my daily chores. I had to set it up like this because of the dd who has a hard time concentrating.

 

In addition, it keeps me from rambling on when I get excited about something. As I have continued to practice scheduling, I've gotten better at it and have refined out days out pretty well. We do less, but conquer more. I have learned to preplan up to 6 weeks at time and that helps drive me on to stick to the schedule and complete the course. We drive hard, then take a week off. That last week is a killer.

[Christine]

We don't do time blocks; however, especially if they are younger, if they are having "trouble" (either focusing or understanding) then I set a max time, and then they get anything left over as "homework". I have found that it just doesn't pay to press through a subject till they are done if they aren't focusing or understanding, and frequently, if we just stop and go back, things start "ringing more true".

[Chris in VA]

I usually aim for three to five subjects to be covered during the day. Most of the time, we cover math, phonics or spelling, and history. We've been slack on Latin and Grammar. Science is hit or miss (it was a big hit this week! lol )--you could say I unschool science, but that would do a disservice to unschoolers.

 

What I've found works best for us, regarding time and schedules, is for me just to notice Dd's behaviour and demeanor. Is she focusing? Is she getting discouraged? Is she sportin' a 'tude? Is she eager and engaged? When I see the positive stuff, we can spend longer (but not too long) on a lesson. When she is really out of sorts, we cut it short--the lesson and the school day. I'm not saying I tiptoe around her moods, but I also don't push a lot. We do one lesson a day in math--Saxon 3 takes a while, and I usually give her a break after that. Then we pull out another subject, and another--we don't stop in the middle of a lesson, we finish, but I may call it a day after that lesson, if I see the above negative stuff.

 

Now, this doesn't include reading aloud to her, or her independent free reading. She reads about 3 hours a day, easily. I read to her around 45 mins (I don't keep track, really) if our book is good, or maybe even more, less if we aren't in the middle of an engaging story. Right now it's Heidi, so the chapters are long, but we have been reading 3-4 a day, which is usually at least an hour.

 

I'm just not a clock watcher. I usually meet with ds18 around 10:30 or 11 to go over his history and any other work he has that I need to be aware of. We take an hour or so to discuss history and lit. He does math with Dad at night, and chem on his own. He just started Write At Home, so we go over those assignments during the day, too. While I'm with him, dd is either reading, doing a workbook page in phonics or spelling, copying a narration for history, doing her bible study, playing outside or doing chores. We pick back up if we need to when I'm available.

 

Whew! More than you wanted to know, huh?! We are just sort of "organic" about our day. It's a living thing, sometimes unpredictable. My favorite word is "usually," as you may notice in this post!

[Nestof3]

With my oldest, it was always "Do Saxon L. 34," "Read Ch1. 7 of _____" and so on.

 

I found this worked better than spend 30 minutes on _________ because there was no way to know for sure whether he was actually spending that 30 min working or daydreaming.

 

I was able to see, though, if I was assigning truly too much because I would see at times it taking him WAY too long. I usually tweaked things here and there for more self-designed subjects like history and science.

 

He schools independently now, whenever he can work on it.

 

With my young boys, I likewise have certain objectives, but if my first grader is having a difficult time with math, I may shorten it for the day in order not to frustrate him into hating it. With some topics, we could do more than one less a day, while others need more time. So, we complete subject objectives regardless of time.

[Nestof3]

We also do not start at the same time every day, though we do start sometime after breakfast, break for lunch, the boys listen to me read the read aloud while they finish eating, and then we finish up after lunch. For days that involve running errands, I'll usually save the reading aloud material for evening time.

[Pata]

I don't have a time schedule but I do have a plan of what I want completed in a day. I get out my books each morning and make a stack. When the stack is done, we are done. I always have our read-aloud last so there's something to look forward to at the end!

[Dayle in Guatemala]

in some cases I do put a time schedule on it because I know my ds9 will make it drag on as long as possible while he complains about how long it's taking him to do his assigned work.:glare:

 

It helps him to see a time with 30 minutes on it and a do-able number of problems so he stays focused. If he doesn't finish on time, then it becomes home work and it comes off of his free time. This is the only way I've found to keep him on task in math.

[Harriet Vane]

That sets me up for failure--we are never able to keep to a schedule. Some things get done quicker and some more slowly.

 

I do set goals for what learning/practicing we will do for any given subject. We try to go through the list, negotiating which subjects come next with the kids, but trying to do at least 3-4 subjects in a row before taking a break. If things go too long I adjust our goals.

[K&Rs Mom]

I set it by work, not by time. I'll decide which math pages need to get done today, or which books we'll read, what project we'll do, put it all in a box the night before, and when the box is empty, school is done. :) This runs really smoothly for us, and I can usually ask the kids which subject they want next, making sure the one with the project is last because that can get messy.

[mcconnellboys]

I do set up a timed schedule when I'm making out my plans. I try to break down the amount of work we will do each day such that I think it will fit into that timeframe (or take less time). Most of the time that works, but if there's a day when math takes longer than 30 minutes, then so be it. Because other subjects virtually never take as long as I plan, we still have plenty of time left to get all our work done.

 

With my older son, if he was floundering in something and I saw that it was just going to take forever to get through it, then I would sometimes split up the lesson and finish it the next day. But there's a fine line between experiencing an occasional difficulty and just stalling to prevent having to do the work, LOL, so you have to gauge that carefully....

 

Regena

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

On Monday we begin our first scheduled week. I have found after the last couple years that having subjects in a particular order encourages completion of all subjects. When I presented and posted the new calendar on Friday the kids were very receptive and motivated by it. I think it will help them to know what is happening next. We have everything marked as individual and group work. I have also not schedualed time for memorization or their IEW based writing reviews (time is set to present the lesson but revisions are not set). These, along with reading, are always available if they finish ahead of time. I know that we won't keep to perfect time but hopefully we will stay on track and all will balance out.

[Mama Lynx]

do you set blocks of time for each subject daily? Like 30 min. math and after that you move on or do you just put in math, and when it is done move on?

I have not set up a time schedule yet. Does it usually work out good that way?

I want to get a little more organized this next year, with starting RS math I think I need to make it more scheduled. I am afraid we will over do one subject more than others. How do you deal with this problem?

 

I schedule blocks of school time. For instance, I might say that from 9:30 to 11:30 am, and then again from 1-3 pm, is school time. We can do the work in any order, as long as we are working on school work during those times.

 

Every day, we do math, Latin, Greek, Classical Writing, and piano. Then if there's time, we will history, or science, or whatever. I don't "overdo" one subject because I just "do the next thing" in the curricula I have for those subjects.

 

Some people thrive on time schedules. I don't. My oldest son does not. They drive us nuts. My 2nd and 3rd sons would work happily on a time schedule. Unfortunately, they have me for a mother :)

[Raders Fan]

Well, I do make a schedule and block out a given amount of time per subject per day. I do this because we have to track our time in this state, but there is no way I'm going to track every subject, every day. I just would not survive.

 

I allot what I feel is reasonable for each subject. I expect the work--one math or grammar lesson, a page of spelling or penmanship--to be completed. If a child takes longer, it's usually because of dawdling, and that runs into his/her free time.

 

HTH,

Jennifer

[claire up north]

I write down each day in my planner what subjects we should do each day. In my head, I know about how long I'm willing to spend on each item. This knowledge is based on many variables: how hard today's activity will be, what else is going on that day, my kids' attention span with this subject, etc.

 

Then we get to work. Lots of times we finish sooner than I expected. I am learning to say that that is OK and move on to something else. My first few years of homeschooling, I would think...oh...we can do this for another 6 minutes! Ugh. I'm glad I'm approaching things differently now.

 

I also provide incentives for kids working above and beyond that day's schedule. For instance, if grammar is not on the day's schedule, but a child decides to do a page or two (it must be roughly equivalent to what I would expect during a normal grammar lesson), then I pay 10 cents. It's not much--to me or to them--but it recognizes that they have exceeded the day's expectations.

 

I have never found that sticking to a rigid time table works for us. I prefer to have a loose outline for the day and let the times work themselves out.

 

hth!

[Closeacademy]

We have a set time to start school but it is very flexible in that we follow a routine of things we do each day.

 

Sometimes school lasts 2 hours and sometimes only 1. It really depends on how quickly and how focused my dds are. I know what they are capable of doing in a given day and split up long assignments that might push them over the edge into doable bites.

 

It works well for us.