If you have a regularly-occuring outside event during your school day

[razorbackmama]

Think music lessons, homeschool PE class, etc. that interrupt your normal school day somehow.

 

How do you handle your regular assignments?

 

Do you cram everything you do on the other days into less time? Do you skip something? What do you skip?

[GWOB]

Mondays, we have PE for 1-2:30, then choir from 2:45-3:45. Sometimes we get everything done before, but mostly not. We either finish when we get home or use Fridays as a catch-up day. You're using ECC, right? Since Fridays are light, maybe you could use it as a make-up day. If all else fails, just extend the day. If you are anything like me, you may have a hard time assigning school work after a certain time. I know I am slowly getting over it because I HAVE TO CHECK OFF THE LIST!!! YMMV.

[razorbackmama]

Our normal school day runs from 8:15-4ish, so extending it would be HARD.

 

You're using ECC, right? Since Fridays are light, maybe you could use it as a make-up day.

 

BUT, I really like this idea! I could just keep track of what we don't do during our ECC time and make it up on those light days (which rarely fall on Fridays here ROFLOL!).

 

Thanks for that idea!

 

(But I'm open to hear what others do too!;) )

[Karen in CO]

My dd has a ps enrichment school on Thursdays from 8:30-3:30. She does art, science, p.e., music, a unit study, Spanish and a "club". It is a full day. I just count that day as school (because it is) and don't try to fill in any other subjects. However, we actually have started doing math on Saturdays and Sundays so that even with it getting skipped on Thursday, we get 6 days of math per week.

 

The only things I would consider making up are things that are mission critical like math or writing.

[WTMCassandra]

Think music lessons, homeschool PE class, etc. that interrupt your normal school day somehow.

 

How do you handle your regular assignments?

 

Do you cram everything you do on the other days into less time? Do you skip something? What do you skip?

 

We ran into this problem this year. To make a long story short, we are now out of the home on Wednesdays from 9:15am to at least 2pm. And there were several subjects that were scheduled to "ramp up" due to the children's ages.

 

I have done a combination of the following:

 

1. Scheduling math and Latin first everyday ala LCC--making them first priority. Even on Wednesdays, they do math before we leave. (The only reason I let them off the hook on Latin that day is because we have Greek class at 10am, so they are doing something truly worthwhile instead.) Making math and Latin first everyday keeps momentum going in those subjects.

 

2. Using a "revolving" schedule for some lesser subjects. Some people on the board do this regularly, but they use a different term that I cannot remember at the moment. I also am keeping in mind Managers of Their Homes, that states you might not move as fast through something you can only fit in the schedule once a week, but you WILL make progress. Some of these subjects that I rotate include a supplemental geometry program (my math program doesn't include geometry), handwriting, a logic workbook, etc. I also scheduled Logic with Mom (Critical Thinking Book 1 and Art of Argument) for once a week even though I would really like to do it three times a week. And the MOTH adage is true--instead of giving up on having enough time, at least we are making some progress.

 

3. Carschooling. Certain subjects are scheduled for the trips into and from town on Wednesdays, such as reading aloud. They also work on their Greek homework in the car and on errands after class and inbetween piano lessons (when the sibling is having a lesson).

 

4. A detailed schedule the children helped make. When I ended up committing to this one day out a week, I was despairing about how to fit everything in. And I was worried about the children dragging their feet to boot. Sooooo, I started just making a list of what I required (e.g., 45 minutes of math, five times a week), and then I handed each of them a blank schedule sheet (down to the half-hour). I filled in some "givens" such as the lesson times, lunch, recess, etc. THEY had to figure out how everything was going to fit. It was a real eye-opener for them, and they have been pretty good about keeping to the schedule. Now they know we have a LOT to cover this year, and I have more "buy in."

[8filltheheart]

My kids train several hours/week during the school day. It was causing a lot of problems with schedule. They are now getting up at 5 and starting school work immediately. My 5th grader is getting up even on the days we aren't leaving the house b/c she is finished with her work before lunch and loving it. It has made the difference between my high schooler working until 9-10 at night on our days out of the house to finishing around 630.

 

One thing I have noticed is that they are less likely to talk or be distracted earlier in the morning. It seems to be a high focus time for them.

[Laura Corin]

Think music lessons, homeschool PE class, etc. that interrupt your normal school day somehow.

 

How do you handle your regular assignments?

 

Do you cram everything you do on the other days into less time? Do you skip something? What do you skip?

 

It's 15 minutes from home, so the drive to and fro counts as the boys' break (they read in the car). The lesson is just Calvin's regularly scheduled music for the week (in addition to his practice every day) and Hobbes and I do his logic during the half hour. We don't run errands on the way to or from the class - it's school time.

 

On Friday afternoon, Hobbes has a riding lesson at 2:30 (set at that time so that he can finish the lesson before dark, even in winter). He finishes his weekly list before then (he works from 9-5 each day and often completes his work by Thursday). If Calvin has finished his list, he goes for a walk with me during the riding lesson; if not, he stays home and finishes on his own (no computer work whilst unsupervised).

 

All other activities take place in the evenings.

 

Laura

[Mom22ns]

on Fridays. We are gone from 8:15 until almost noon. We scale back Fridays. We do math before we go, then we do whichever subjects most need our attention in the afternoon. It may be history and science, it may be we need to work on something for writing. Dd always takes a spelling test. Our normal school hours are 6-2:00 for ds 7:30-2:00 for dd. On Friday, we may run over a little, but dd has to leave for the gym at 3:00, so we can't run too late.

 

Subjects we leave out - Spanish, logic, PE, grammar, vocabulary.

Subjects we always do - Math!, reading: lit or history or both, we have 40 minutes in the car each direction.

[EKS]

I don't have any outside anything that interferes between 8-12 for the younger one and between 8-1 for the older one. This is the first year I've been firm about that and things are much better. On the days that we have outside stuff, I do assign less to be sure we get through things on time. Then the days we're home I assign more to make up for it.

[razorbackmama]

Thanks, everyone!

 

And all I have to say is BE THANKFUL your kids can read in the car without getting sick!;););)

 

At this time we only have one thing that occurs during school hours - music lessons on Tues. We are gone from 2:45-3:45. The older 3 all have a lesson at the same time (3 different teachers, but all at the same location). Looks like my best bet will be just to cut out the not absolutely necessary stuff on those days.

[PeterPan]

We skate several days a week, so I try to make sure our basics (everything but history) are done BEFORE we go. That just leaves gravy stuff that she enjoys and will do independently to the afternoon, which works out fine. It's very pleasant to read history books and do crafts after exertion, but not so much a math page, lol. On the day with our afternoon appts, well I just keep that list tighter and more to the basics. A lot of subjects have flex, so I just flex them. Math and LA get done, but history requirements are trimmed short enough that they could just as easily go to another day if necessary.

 

It helped me to make a weekly checklist and lay it all out in reasonable terms, so everyone is clear on what is expected. If it doesn't get done one day because we started early and have afternoon appts, well then it rolls over to Saturday. She likes to do things with Grandma on Saturday, so she's pretty motivated to get her work done. It's the rollover to Saturday and the weekly checklist that keep us accountable.

[Ellie]

I refused to participate in activities which took place during my "school hours," i.e., nothing before, oh, 2 in the afternoon.

 

But if I had, I'd have just continued doing our Official School Stuff in our "normal" way, without trying to cram more in. There's no deadline by when anything has to be completed, after all.

[Testimony]

This year for the music program they scheduled my older son for 10 AM and my younger son for 1:50 PM. So, it becomes incredible hard to do school because we are out all day. Then after music program through the homeschool group, we have private piano lessons. AAA!

 

We pack a back pack the night before of all the school work that we need to do. We pack our math. We pack our readings, etc. It is difficult to concentrate because there are so many children and it gets distracting. I find it to be hard. So, I have to help my younger son with math and understanding information. My children sort of do Suzuki Method and so I have to be in the class with them. It makes for an interesting day. It is only Thursdays that we have such a crazy day.

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[Mom-ninja.]

 

And all I have to say is BE THANKFUL your kids can read in the car without getting sick!;););)

 

 

 

That's what I was thinking. I knew I couldn't be the only one that has motion sickness issues. I'm the worst. I can't even look at a map while DH drives. We stick to audio books only while driving. I'm not too keen on cleaning up body fluid messes just to try and get some school work done.

 

My oldest is only 8 so I don't worry about what we miss much. However, I have started having him bring things along to work on during wait times. For example he has 30 minutes to wait while his little brother has piano lesson. He can use that time to read or something. Although,he usually helps entertain the baby. ;) I'd like to start a habit now of doing school work while out and about so when they are older it will be second nature.

[razorbackmama]

I refused to participate in activities which took place during my "school hours," i.e., nothing before, oh, 2 in the afternoon.

 

That is the goal here for sure, but unfortunately with these lessons I'm stuck. I tried to move them to 3:30 rather than 3, but one of the teachers already has another student then.:tongue_smilie:

[Tammyla]

This is what we've moved to and getting our lessons done regularly, on time without a rush is a blessing.

 

I refused to participate in activities which took place during my "school hours," i.e., nothing before, oh, 2 in the afternoon.

 

But if I had, I'd have just continued doing our Official School Stuff in our "normal" way, without trying to cram more in. There's no deadline by when anything has to be completed, after all.

[justamouse]

I am SO GLAD someone brought this up. This is KILLING school this year and there's nothing I can do about it. I'm not going to NOT let my Dd take the technical classes she wants.

 

That's what I was thinking. I knew I couldn't be the only one that has motion sickness issues.

 

This is us, completely. Dd cannot read in the car AT ALL. Ds11 can, so this is when he gets his history reading done.

 

I refused to participate in activities which took place during my "school hours," i.e., nothing before, oh, 2 in the afternoon.

 

 

 

This is nice for us in theory, but it just isn't our reality. And I can already tell my other children are going to want to take tech classes on share time so this will be the pattern for the next 10 years.

 

Right now we are 1/2 hour to 45 minutes away from Dd14's school. We try to get work done beforehand and with the little ones going later is pretty easy, but Dd14 is the one that is heaped with work. Frankly, I feel bad for her-but on the other hand, this is her choice and she knew I wasn't going to slack on the academics going into this.

 

She's up at 5, out of the house at 6:20 and I pick her up at 10. We're back home at 10:40 and the I have to walk the dogs put away coats, potty and such so we get back to work @ about 11. So, she's basically just starting her academics at 11am, and that's not counting the homework for her tech classes or just the practice she has to do to maintain her A's in those classes.

 

Hopefully, if one day we move (our house has been on the market 2 years and two months) we'll be closer to the school, but until then how do we get this all done?

 

This also just may be me, I'm overwhlemed (can you be underwhelmed?) She had emergency surgery this past month and that took weeks out of school, then I had other family drama that took time away from the littles. We're not so far behind I can't catch up, but double timing it all now is making me want to hit the bottle before noon.

[AuntPol]

We have 3 days with activities in the middle of the day.

 

Tues: Horses at 10:00 (40 minute drive there and back); Guitar at 12:30 (we drive to guitar from horses).

 

**I schedule one of our Ambleside books as a audio book and we listen to that book on Tuesdays one way. The other way, the kids do their 30 minutes of independent reading for the day. Their 30 minute recess break is done in horses on this day (the non horse child plays the whole time with other kids). Lunch is eaten during read alouds when we get home instead of separately. I work with my non-guitar student with math and logic while the other has class since she is the one that needs help.

 

Thurs: We have lego league/OM from 11:30-1 (OM is only 12-1 but the OM child plays which makes up for her missed recess on tues) and we pick up a couple kids. Again, no recess break and lunch during read alouds. Due to the carpooling and short commute (10 minutes), we don't get too much done in the car except music appreciation. We work a bit longer.

 

Fridays: We have Co-Op form 9-12 followed by a park playdate. No school gets done except some reading. I am trying to get math incorporated too but having a hard time because we usually end up with extra playdates and shopping. However, I schedule us a 4 day week. Co-OP is only 16 weeks so the other 20 Fridays are make up days and field trip days (though we may take field trip on Tuesday and school on Friday).

[MyLittleWonders]

We have PE every Wed. at 11:30, which mean we leave about 11:10. Those mornings are only math, ETC (instead of AAS as it is faster and the kids can do it mostly on their own while I prepare a "picnic" lunch), and copywork. We don't start school until about 9:30, so we have 1 1/2 hours to get things done and I don't want them to be too rushed. If they have time, they'll also do their penmenship (HWOT). We are usually gone until 2 or 2:30 (all the kids play afterwards and the moms chat :) ). When we get home, sometimes we'll do history (if we didn't get it done on M&T), and the boys still have reading (HOP) to do. Otherwise, though, our academic day is done when we leave for the park. I wish the class started at 12:30 as my mornings would not feel quite so rushed, but it doesn't, and we do love the class, so we go with it.

[Amy loves Bud]

Think music lessons, homeschool PE class, etc. that interrupt your normal school day somehow.

 

How do you handle your regular assignments?

 

Do you cram everything you do on the other days into less time? Do you skip something? What do you skip?

 

We've started with a loop schedule. You can search "loop schedule" on teh boards here and get a lot of good info, but here's a quick rundown of how we do it.

 

I basically have the subjects that require my direct teaching set up in order.

 

For example (this isn't how ours looks, I ended up getting more complicated):

Math Child 1

Math Child 2

Fun with toddler

Grammar Ghild 1

Grammar Child 2

Fun with toddler

Spelling Child 1

Spelling Child 2

History together

Fun with Toddler

Writing...you get the idea

 

We rotate through the schedule in order. When we need to stop, we do, then we pick up right where we left off when we come back to it. So we might start with Math on Monday, Writing on Tuesday, Math on Wednesday, History on Thursday....

 

Then I have a list of things the kids have to do independently. They can squeeze these in between the above subjects, in the car, or anytime before 9 p.m. These are things like handwriting/keyboarding, math drills, logic puzzles, etc.

 

I think you would have to be very content with a "do the next thing" approach for this to work for you. I don't have math scheduled out for the year - we just pick up the book and do what's next, skipping ahead when we have a good grasp, hovering in one place and pulling in extra material when we need more help in an area. If you are the type that needs to finish the entire volume of Story of the World in a 36 week school year, this might really stress you out! :D

[plimsoll]

On those days we do what we can before and after the event, along with reading in the car. We get less "scheduled" work done, but in exchange we get to do the outside event.

 

For outside events that can be flexibly scheduled, e.g., piano lessons, we try to schedule them after school hours.

[Sasha]

Think music lessons, homeschool PE class, etc. that interrupt your normal school day somehow.

 

How do you handle your regular assignments?

 

Do you cram everything you do on the other days into less time? Do you skip something? What do you skip?

 

We sure do. We run a small organic dairy and we deliver milk several times a week. One of my boys has therapy one morning and dd has dance class every afternoon but one. We just take our schoolwork with us and do it around our other activities,

[LanaTron]

You can see my dc's ages/grades and what work they are doing in my signature line.

 

On Monday we have Girl Scouts at 11, and at 1 (it is a 1/2 hour drive, so we just stay there inbetween); then we have Cub Scouts at 6:30, and Boy Scouts at 7 (at the same place, thank goodness!).

 

On Tuesday, the older two have band from 8:45 to 9:35 a.m.; again, it's a 1/2 hour drive each way.

 

Friday we all participate in a music co-op from 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. I won't even tell you how long the drive is for that, 'cos y'all will think I am nuts. :tongue_smilie::auto:

 

Plus, I work part-time, and dh and I both hold volunteer positions with Cub Scouts, and I am fall product and cookie manager for younger dd's GS troop.

 

So, we basically have a little time on Monday (they all bring work to do during Girl Scouts), Tuesday afternoons, all day Wednesday, and all day Thursday. Some weeks we can get some stuff done on Friday afternoon.

 

Add to this that the first two weeks, the kids had the flu, then I had some Cub Scout drama to deal with, then my dh's brother died unexpectedly.

 

Whew! Some of that will change in the next year or so (like my dh is supposed to get a raise in January, hopefully enough that I can quit my job!). But for various reasons, in this season, it all needs to happen.

 

So, for academics...

 

We are going to school year-round, every day that we possibly can. This means that there are days like yesterday, however, that we did no school because the house was a pit...we had a 3.5 hour "life skills" seminar!

 

During the weeks like thanksgiving and Christmas holidays where there are no meetings for any activities, I am planning on doing full days, 5 days a week; I might even bring some stuff if we go out of town. This will be true in the summer, also.

 

For the weeks when we have all the stuff to do, each day I decide how many hours of school I think we can do, some of it dependent on how much energy I have to give to school that day, and I write on a dry-erase which subjects I expect each child to do. I have a list of 11 weeks of assignments, and hope to finish that by December 31. For some subjects, we are well on our way, for others we are lagging behind. If everyone finishes math, for example, we will stop math and do more of the other subjects until we are all caught up.

 

Starting in January, we will start on our next 10 (or so) weeks of assignments. I hope to get between 36 and 40 weeks of school complete this year.

 

At least that is how I think it will go. :D

[mcconnellboys]

We try to hurry up and get the work done before we go, or after we come back, or yes, catch up the next day if we have to. By just continuing to work, we stay pretty much on track even though we do something out of the house most days.