What did your 9th grader accomplish today?

[imeverywoman]

A friend asked what is normal for a boy at this stage and I have no idea what to tell her. Her child did the following:

 

2 teaching textbook lessons in Algebra 1 (lessons 13 and 14)

 

1 Apologia lesson (reading pp 291-295) - 1 on your own question, 1 experiment, 2 vocabulary words

 

1 lesson in Wordly Wise (section a-d)

 

This took him 4 hours 15 min. I believe that this is too little work for this amount of time. Am I being unreasonable? Honestly, I do not consider this to be high school caliber work.

I have given him 3 weeks to manage his own schedule in order to see what he would do given the opportunity, and he is doing a shoddy job of it as far as I can see. (In the past he has complained of too much work, so I told him I'd let him plan his own schedule to see what he thinks is a fair amount of work. Do I renig on our bargain, pulling the parent trump card, knowing that he is setting himself farther and farther behind, or do I let him continue on this path of ignorant bliss? Right now, he feels pleased as pie at his accomplishments for the day. He has bathed, dressed and went out to shoot some basketball.

 

What do you all have to say to this poor woman?:confused:

Edited January 13, 2010 by imeverywoman

[Mad Jenny Flint]

Here's what my son did today:

 

6a.m. read 20 pages of Oedipus the King and briefly discussed.

7a.m. answered 3 short questions re: parts of speech in AG reinforcement book, did one section in vocabulary book (about 5 items), and read DK History and Grunn History and took notes for context page for Oedipus to be done tomorrow.

8a.m. started laundry, made his bed; hygiene and got dressed.

9a.m. practiced guitar briefly

9:30 rode out to a nature trail with me and sis to walk for 20 minutes.

10:30 snack, watched a Chalkdust lecture and completed half a lesson.

11:30 practiced guitar briefly

12:00 ate lunch

12:30 25 minute essay for rhetoric

1:00 read last half of biology chapter for the week

2:30 guitar lesson (instructor comes here)

3:30 teatime, current events, chat.

4:00 Spanish lesson and review of vocabulary and conjugation

5pm school day finished

 

I agree with you that the work load seems light. We have long days here.

[Jackie in NE]

5:30 rise and shine

6:15-6:45 Geometry homework

6:45:7:25 Omnibus III Primary homework

7:30-9:00 Composition Class

9:30-12:30 Geometry class and French II class at Public School

Lunch break/relax

2:00-3:30 Piano lesson (Dd walks to and from lesson. Lesson by itself is 1 hr.)

3:30-4:15 Omnibus III Secondary reading

4:30-6:00 Omnibus III Secondary class

6:25-8:00 Swim Practice

8:15 Dinner and collapse

 

This is a pretty typical day. Dd literally runs from one thing to the next. Each day is different, but packed. She likes it. She's one of those kids that thrives on pressure and a packed schedule. I worry about burnout.:001_huh:

[Quiver0f10]

My 9th grader did:

 

Bible with me, then

 

Watched a lesson of Art Reed's Saxon 1/2 math then did the lesson

 

Did a test for Apologia Physical Science

 

Read her TOG lit sections

 

One lesson in R&S English

 

Wrote and typed the last of 3 paragrahs for a lesson in IEW Medieval Writing

 

One lesson Henle-we use the guide sold my Memoria Press.

 

We started at 8 and she was finished @ 2ish with a 30ish minute break for lunch. After school she made the BEST chocolate chip cookies!

Edited January 14, 2010 by Quiver0f10

[Kalypso]

Jacobs Geometry - corrected yesterday's lesson and completed today's lesson

 

Wheelock's Latin - completed Chapter 8 workbook exercises

 

Physical Science - Section 7.2 & 7.3 read, notes, completed assessments

 

Theology -studied for test

 

English - completed vocabulary lesson, Lively Art of Writing - began essay, completed 2 reading comprehension selections

 

Humanities 1 - Class for 1 hour, completed 2 online quizzes, worked on Quarter 2 essay exam

 

Piano lesson 30 minutes and practiced 30 minutes

[lauranc]

Here's what my 9th gr. son did today:

* Latin quiz

* worked on spelling

*Geometry

*sat outside to have fresh air (read some of his book)

*Lunch/wrote something for his blog.. and messed around with his guitar

* read 1/2 chapter of physics and answered questions

* finished the prologue to the Canterbury Tales and finished answering some questions about the characters

*watched a history lecture (Teaching Company), read from his history book

 

*also: worked on the story he is currently writing, checked his email, read the news, and played a game with his younger brother and sister

 

*evening: ate quick dinner and headed out to his writer's group

 

...Laura

[Jackie in AR]

Here's what my 9th graders did today:

 

1 lesson in Algebra (1 hr.)

 

Latin 200 class online, plus Latin journal writing and reading afterwards (2 hrs.)

 

Grammar (30 min.)

 

Watched a lecture on their DIVE science CD then did the review questions (45 min.) - They alternate days with science and Traditional Logic.

 

Literature reading (1 hr.)

 

History reading/questions (1 hr.)

 

Swim practice (2 hr.)

[Faithr]

Uh, nothing. . . .

 

Hopefully tomorrow will not be repeat!

[mama25angels]

Uh, nothing. . . .

 

Hopefully tomorrow will not be repeat!

 

:lol:

[AngieW in Texas]

My 9th grader did

one lesson in Jacobs Geometry

one section in Holt Biology, including answering questions

project for OM US history

one kwo for US history-based writing lessons

two Biblical allusions (Windows to the World)

read three chapters in Jane Eyre and answered questions from Glencoe study guide

watched one video lecture from Biology the Science of Life

edited to add: we both forgot that we did discussion of The Necklace from Windows to the World

 

She started at 9am and finished around 5:30, but she did take breaks, including a 30minute break to take care of a neighbor's dogs.

 

edited to add:

It's 9:15pm now and my dd has spent the past 30 minutes watching the 2nd lecture for Philosophy of Mind. She really likes this so far. It goes right along with the kind of stuff she likes to read about.

Edited January 14, 2010 by AngieW in Texas

[Heather in VA]

Here's what my 9th grader did..

 

-One lesson in Life of Fred Geometry

-Omnibus Primary reading (Federalist Papers)

-Omnibus Secondary reading (Liberty and Tyranny - I substituted here since she'd already read the assigned book)

-Written answers to questions for Primary reading

- rough draft for essay on the pros and cons of the Bill of Rights

- Science lesson - taking notes during lecture, reading assigned reading, answering questions

- One lesson in Traditional Logic

- Latin test

- Government lesson (I'd added additional Government work to Omnibus to count it as a year Government credit)

 

 

Usually we have Classical Writing assignments as well but the new semester doesn't start until tomorrow.

 

Heather

[Nan in Mass]

This is the first week back after Christmas vacation and we are struggling. I'm distracted because my sister had a baby Tuesday and our older ones have gone home. My son does not want to go back to the school routine and isn't exactly being cooperative. We are a mess. It isn't that we aren't doing school, but that we are doing it terribly inefficiently and badly. I've given up and am having us do some of the odd things that don't fit in the normal schedule, like going to the local art museum and seeing a film on Buddhist cave paintings at the library and visiting the new baby.

 

Today my 9th grader:

Took over three hours to do one math lesson.

Spent half an hour producing a good short answer to the question: Par quels moyens la romanisation de la Gaule s'est-elle effectuee?

Spent an hour listing events in the book The Chosen, only managing to get a little way into the book and making me wonder why it is taking him so long to do this.

Went to the library and did research for a comparison paragraph on rotting versus burning. I can tell from his notes that this is not going to be a good paragraph, but I'm trying to get him to do it more independently and so I decided bite my tongue.

Picked out a book for fun.

 

Right now he is:

Playing a video game.

 

Hopefully during the rest of the day he will:

Fry up some ham and potatoes for his supper.

Do a French excersize.

Do four hours of gymnastics.

Read some of his new book.

Take another look at his math.

 

This is totally atypical for him.

 

A normal day would look like this (starting at 7):

Correcting the old lesson of math with me and read the new one

Read a page of the Latin fairy tale book

Do a spread of his French book orally with me

Do a spread of his history book orally with me

Do some sort of written work in French - either answering a question or copywork or a short project

Read great books or work on writing for an hour or so

Draw something in his nature journal

Read some natural history or work on an experiment

Work on a technical project of some sort (at the moment he is working on making molds out of sculpi, earlier he was soldering small electrical kits)

Play piano for half an hour

Play video games for an hour

Make himself supper

Go to gymnastics for three or four hours

Do the math excersize and a French excersize or study

Read for a bit before going to sleep

 

-Nan

[Storm Bay]

Since this thread was started yesterday, I'll say that yesterday my dd did only 2 subjects and swim practice. As a consequence, she's not going to swim practice today (first high school practice she's missed all season.) So far she has done German, Latin and is now doing Geometry. Today she is supposed to get all her subjects done before dark.

 

My dd is not the model of time management. This is something she has struggled with all of her life and that we're still working on. I've tried many things suggested by people to change that, but in the end she's going to have to change that herself because they haven't helped much. She's doing many courses semester style this year, so what she's supposed to do in a day is:

 

German

Geometry

Chemistry (she's finished the requisite poster course for her text, which is 12 chapters plus the lab component, though, so now is just reading through more of the book for fun)

Logic

Latin

Vocabulary

Swim practice or meet.

 

Geometry, Chemistry & Logic are semester courses, so she does twice as much per day than if she were doing it all year. Or at least she's supposed to. She often does work on the weekends or holidays in order to catch up.

 

How long it would take her to do all of her work if she sat down and worked without lollygagging, etc, is an interesting speculation at the moment since it's rare that it happens. Nevertheless, it looks like she's going to finish all of her semester subjects on time and is on track for her all year ones. However, I'm not one to measure by time but by what is covered. Some dc can work faster than others and it's not necessarily better or worse that they can.

[Rhondabee]

Here's what my son did today:

 

6a.m. read 20 pages of Oedipus the King and briefly discussed.

7a.m. answered 3 short questions re: parts of speech in AG reinforcement book, did one section in vocabulary book (about 5 items), and read DK History and Grunn History and took notes for context page for Oedipus to be done tomorrow.

8a.m. started laundry, made his bed; hygiene and got dressed.

9a.m. practiced guitar briefly

9:30 rode out to a nature trail with me and sis to walk for 20 minutes.

10:30 snack, watched a Chalkdust lecture and completed half a lesson.

11:30 practiced guitar briefly

12:00 ate lunch

12:30 25 minute essay for rhetoric

1:00 read last half of biology chapter for the week

2:30 guitar lesson (instructor comes here)

3:30 teatime, current events, chat.

4:00 Spanish lesson and review of vocabulary and conjugation

5pm school day finished

 

I agree with you that the work load seems light. We have long days here.

 

I have to go now, but really quick:

 

I would say our days run about as long, and probably include as many breaks - they're just not planned as well. They more or less happen due to day-dreaming or other children needing things.

 

In looking at your very organized day, I'm wondering what is your priority when it comes to making the assignments - the amount of the work, or the clock (or, maybe your kid is just a better worker, and always get the work done in the amount of time you've allotted :tongue_smilie:)

 

So, for example, would you insist that the 20 pages of Oedipus be read, even if that took an hour and a half? Or, would you reason that an hour is enough, and adjust the assignment for the next day?

 

(And, how did you determine "20 pages"? Or, did you just record it after they were read?)

 

Thanks for listing your schedule (again!). It always prompts me to do better!!

 

(Oh - and do you keep the same schedule every day?)

 

 

ETA: Actually, I guess it's not really hi-jacking because I think the OP's friend must be in the same tight spot I find myself in over and over again - not having the confidence or the experience to know "this" is the right amount of work. When should I adjust in mid-stream, admitting that maybe I over-reached? And when should I stick to my guns? It is a constant drain feeling like I never plan it "right". I do know that my DS would *never* be able to "plan" his own work at 15yo. He just doesn't have the big-picture perspective to handle that yet.

Edited January 14, 2010 by Rhondabee

[Faithr]

We had a better day today! Yesterday due to lots of errands and migraines we did squat but today he managed to:

 

Work on his Trisms history (worksheet and vocabulary quiz)

Read the next book in the Odyssey (Book VIII) and answer study guide questions

Do an exercise in Writeshop

Do some dictation

Watch an Earth Science lecture from the Teaching Co. (mid ocean ridges; did you know that the Mediterranean is slowly closing up?)

 

I was hoping his dad would go over his last Algebra test with him but it is getting pretty late, though they are both night owls so it could still happen.

 

He also attended a church meeting today about summer workcamp.

 

He ran a lot on our elliptical machine.

 

We tend to do things in blocks. Like Latin is usually done on the weekend and then Monday and Tuesday. And Algebra tends to block schedule itself like that too (spontaneous block scheduling!)

[Heather in VA]

Comments specific to the OP's question about what to say to the mother of this student...

 

Has she thought about what her goals are? Does she want him to graduate from high school? If so, what does she want on his transcript should he some day need to give someone an idea of what he did in high school. Does she want him to go to college or other school (vocational etc) that requires a high school diploma? I'd venture to say if that is his day he's not going to be able to convince any college that he's done enough to warrant a high school diploma.

 

She needs to give this student more guidance as to what he needs to be doing. It's fine to try to get him to take ownership of his schedule but he needs to be told what subjects are required and shown what a successful day of homeschooling looks like.

 

Heather

[choirfarm]

It looks like from the OP that the boy got math, science and vocabulary done. What about writing or literature, history, electives? This is what my 9th grade son did yesterday. Times are VERY approximate as he is very independent and just gets it done:

 

6:30- Wii Fitt

7: 30 breakfast and morning routine

8-9ish a lesson in Chalkdust Geometry

9-10ish Read half of ch 9 in Chemistry, taking notes etc.

10-12ish- worked hard on his research paper, finished TOG history questions, maps etc. He did a lesson in AG. He had no literature today as he took a big test over A Tale of two Cities yesterday and I want him to concentrate on his paper(Actually he took that test, a Chalkdust Geometry test AND his 2nd quarter Chemistry exam all yesterday!!!)

12 lunch

1ish- Worked on his research paper more, SOS Spanish

2ish- till ??? I wasn't home but was at violin with my daugher

- practiced piano, studied for his Intermediate Logic test for tomorrow, and did the experiments for ch 9 Chemistry with his father ( dh takes off Thursday afternoon to do this with him and/or go over information)

 

I also heard that they played a game of Madden on the Wii yesterday with dad... I'm guessing around 5 or so. I ran errand after violin and then went to her basketball practice, so I got home at 7 and we all ate the quesadillas he fixed.

 

His day consists of TOG, Chalkdust Geometry, AG chapter a week, a writing assignment every week, TOG literature, Intermediate Logic, SOS Spanish, Apologia Chemistry and piano.

 

Christine

[Faithr]

I do think the mom needs to be a little more organized about how to approach high school. I think she needs to figure out credit hours and how many he ought to be doing in his 9th grade if he is planning to follow the typical 4 years of high school. Instead of pulling the parent card (which is never fun and hardly ever works very well especially in reluctant teenagers!), she ought to get together with him and tell him she doesn't know what she's doing but upon further investigation she's discovered that he needs to take certain classes to get a certain number of credits. It sounds like the kid doesn't have any idea about what he needs to do either (probably taking all his cues from mama!).

 

It really is much better to get more collaborative in high school and plan together with the student. Even if the student isn't that interested (my 14 yo isn't!) but at least they feel like they know what's going on, what the end goal is (college for us) and that he is encouraged to participate and form his own high school as much as is practicable. In my experience with my own kids anyway, I really had/have no control over them in their last year of high school. They had completely taken over the reins by then and were/are doing their own thing. I'm just here as a consultant! I am not even teaching anything to my current 12th grader. He just comes to me for things like how to spell a word (he is still a terrible speller!!!!), to bounce an idea off me or to ask me to help him study something. That's it.

[Nan in Mass]

Rhondabee - I hope LOTS of people answer your question. I have never figured this out. I am completely incapable of judging how much work my children can do in a certain amount of time. I avoid the issue completely by being very school-y. We have a start and stop time (7-2) with time slots for each subject within it. We have homework to be done in the evening in the subjects that we can't learn without seeing them twice each day (math and foreign languages). This also gives me the option of saying, "We dawdled too much so now you have to finish this tonight (or this weekend)." That keeps us all (me included) working hard within the time slots. We roughly follow the public school calendar, making up any absenses for travel or whatever with extra reading every single day in the summer. (This is where some of the homeschooly enrichment reading gets done.) If we haven't finished the math book, we finish that in the summer, but everything else we abandon. We like our summers. I set up my day so that I am sitting doing school with my children (child now sniff sniff) most of the morning, and they do things they can do independently after lunch. When my older one was taking community college classes, he no longer was able to keep the 7-2 schedule, but by then he was over 16, much more self-motivated, and more focused in a this-much-to-learn-before-I'm-finished-with-my-high-school-learning way and so able to work more flexibly. I can't make homeschooling work any other way. One year we had a stack of books that we just rotated through during our 7-2 hours (so we didn't need to finish the next thing in the whole stack each day), but that was when the children were much smaller and unless you have a textbook, this doesn't work well. My current system lets us be very loose about our scheduling. We just do the next thing and I don't have to plan what the next thing is going to be until the week that we are doing it. If we have just finished reading a Shakespeare play and want to read the cool article in Nat. Geo. on the Globe Theatre that just showed up, we can do it. I keep a general eye on what we've done and what we ought to cover, but generally I don't put what we do into courses until the end of high school when I write the transcript.

 

-Nan

[Nissi]

Here is what is happening today:

7:20 - 8:30 : Read Newspaper and have breakfast

8:30 - 9:20 : Devotions

9:40 - 10:40 : Algebra II

10:50 - 12:30 : American Government & Politics

1:00 - 2:00 : Physics

2:10 -3:00 : Latin

3:00 - 3:45 : Piano

3:45 - 5:00 : Preparation for Speech and Debate Practice Tournament tomorrow

Dinner

Help out to set up for the Tournament tomorrow.

[Nissi]

A normal schedule looks more like this:

6:30 - 7:20 - Breakfast

7:20 - 8 : 00 - Devotions with Dad

8 - 9 : Algebra II

9-10:30 : American Government & Politics

11 -12 : Latin

12 -1 : Lunch

1-2 : Physics

2-3 : AP Human Geography

3 - 5 : Omnibus III Primary Reading ( No secondary readings during this school year)

5:20 -6 : Piano

Dinner

On some days during the week he works on English essays instead of Omnibus and does Omnibus Readings during the weekend. On Thurdays they are at the Speech and Debate Club all afternoon. Also the schedule is not set in stone. Sometimes they have to do catch up work in the evenings or weekends.

Edited January 15, 2010 by Nissi

[Storm Bay]

Dd managed to finish all of yesterday's school work by dark, but then was ill last night. She's working on some chool work now, but it will be lighter since she is not 100 percent.

 

Credit hours are important. I still haven't figured out or ps system, but they garner a lot more credits than I've read about on these forums.

[Kareni]

Credit hours are important. I still haven't figured out or ps system, but they garner a lot more credits than I've read about on these forums.

 

Just addressing this one point. It's quite common/usual to have a year long course, such as Chemistry, earn one high school credit. However, there are states where such a course would earn two credits (one per semester) and other states where such a course would earn ten credits. It's possible that the state you live in operates on one of these systems. It's valuable to find out so that you are not talking at cross purposes with others!

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Nan in Mass]

And here is what he managed to accomplish today (a much more typical day):

 

One lesson in math and two old problems worked on that he had trouble with, ones that included the word "show" which inevitably cause him trouble (excerisize to be done for homework)

Spread of French (a page to read and questions on theme, narrator, person, and tense answered orally with lots of help from me, not on the French but on the answers to the questions - sigh, and one to answer in writing (short paragraph) in both French and English for homework)

Read the review spread for history (this is in French, too, so it was more time consuming than it would have been in English)

Read a page of Rumplestiltzkin in Latin

Clapped a rhythm in a round

Improvised on piano for a bit

Nature journal

Wrote rough draft of his comparison paragraph (rotting and burning)

More progress on his list of the events in The Chosen, going faster now because I told him not to put in so much detail (finish this for homework)

Built a small electronics kit

(For homework, rememorize the study flashcards that he had memorized before Christmas - a mishmash of French, Latin, history, and science)

 

No gym today. He'll probably play a bunch of computer games, read some of his new library book, and build some models for the rest of today. This weekend is a three-day one, hence all the homework.

 

-Nan

[Nan in Mass]

The amount of time for that amount of work seems about right for my family (my family being ssssllllooooowwwww).

I would have two problems with this - one is the number of hours (4 might be too short for average student average college prep) and the other is the subjects covered. I think if it were I, I would wait another few weeks to see if he corrects these mistakes himself, and if not, I would add in a time or number of subjects (if he dawdles) componant to the agreement. One of the tricky parts of parenting is having the foresight not to enter into agreements that won't work, like this one. If I had to go back on the agreement, I would do it with lots of apologies and try to explain that I had looked into the requirements of high school/college some more and realized now that he needed more information about how much work he needed to accomplish, that it was more than he had been previously led to believe. I would try to still leave it up to the boy to decide, but show him how much his "competition" was doing (public school students) so he could add some more to his day. The whole conversation would be sad and difficult. I would try hard not to make him unhappy with what he was doing for himself in the first place, which is actually pretty good, if you take into account that he probably doesn't realize how much trouble it is going to be to get through four years of English if you don't do it every day.

-Nan

[JennW in SoCal]

I've never been able to schedule our homeschool in an hour by hour plan. And to see that Jenny and her son are up and reading and discussing Oedipus The King at 6am is beyond anything I could ever imagine!!! We don't do mornings in this house!

 

But I agree with Nan that Rhondabee's questions about how to decide what is enough and what is too much ought to be answered and discussed for all our benefit!

 

I plan by semester with book lists, texts and teaching company courses, then break it down into weeks. I write daily assignments on my son's calendar and he gets to choose the order in which he does his work. Some days he doesn't get everything done and he makes it up the next day or I rearrange the next week's plan. Some days he is done quickly, some days just go on for ever.

 

Some subjects are easy to plan. Logic and Geometry both have books that are designed to be completed in a full school year. Each day my ds simply does the next lesson in each. For Biology, I know from counting chapters and the weeks in the school year how much is going to have to be done each week. I break it up by chapter, with related Teaching company lectures on specific days, and related Biology coloring book pages or chapter quizes or other activities on specific days.

 

The challenge is with literature and history as I don't use a set curricula for either. I make a list of books relate to the period of history I want to cover in a year. My list is a mixture of great books and good but fluffier books. My ds has to meet with a charter school teacher each month and turn in at least one essay for literature and another writing sample for history, either another essay or context pages and maps on the historical period of the literary work. That monthly meeting gives us a deadline to meet, and a standard for the minimum amount of work he has to do. As to how many pages I assign each day -- I don't. I give him (sometimes us) so much time to get through a book and ballpark how many pages that means each day.

 

Now that I've written all of this, I think the bottom line is to set annual goals and simply work towards those, knowing that any given day could be a total waste.

[Faithr]

I determine whether a credit can be given by the Carnegie Unit method OR whether the student has completed a textbook or program already deemed to be credit worthy.

 

Here's a definition of the Carnegie Unit. When do a self-designed study you can document the number of hours spent on the subject and use that for the standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Unit_and_Student_Hour

[Storm Bay]

Just addressing this one point. It's quite common/usual to have a year long course, such as Chemistry, earn one high school credit. However, there are states where such a course would earn two credits (one per semester) and other states where such a course would earn ten credits. It's possible that the state you live in operates on one of these systems. It's valuable to find out so that you are not talking at cross purposes with others!

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

The school here does everything by semester (fewer but longer classes in one semester so they get a full year's worth) and they give more credits for an honours course than an academic course, etc. The website is being worked on, and so far I've seen nothing to explain it there. Dc need over 200 credits to graduate from this 4 year high school, but I don't remember how many it is. I think I'm going to need to learn different credit systems before we start college applications. Good thing dd is only a freshman so I don't have to have it mastered today.

[Storm Bay]

I determine whether a credit can be given by the Carnegie Unit method OR whether the student has completed a textbook or program already deemed to be credit worthy.

 

Here's a definition of the Carnegie Unit. When do a self-designed study you can document the number of hours spent on the subject and use that for the standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Unit_and_Student_Hour

 

 

Thanks. I know for sure I won't 'be going on number of hours but on finishing a course is done. Dd lollygags, but when she focuses she can be very fast. For eg, the Instructor's Guide for her Chem says that 12 chapters completed constitute a college course for liberal arts majors. That combined with her lab work will be her Chem, but I have to figure out if she gets more credit with the lab or not. The high school classes meet 83 minutes per day 5 days a week but I think dc get 3-5 credits for a full semester's class.

[Faithr]

When we were writing up our transcript when oldest dd was applying to colleges, the colleges (and she only applied to two!) wanted credit hours in Carnegie units soooo you might want to check into colleges you are thinking of applying to and see what they say. Go to their website and see if they have a page that addresses homeschoolers or call up their admissions office.

[Storm Bay]

When we were writing up our transcript when oldest dd was applying to colleges, the colleges (and she only applied to two!) wanted credit hours in Carnegie units soooo you might want to check into colleges you are thinking of applying to and see what they say. Go to their website and see if they have a page that addresses homeschoolers or call up their admissions office.

 

 

Yes, this is what I think I'll do. But I'll convert finished courses into the correct hours since my eldest is an independent learner. If it's a high school level text, she has to do the entire book, etc. If it's a college text, like the Chem, she has to complete the correct number of chapters to make that college course. She's going to finish reading the text, but she's not doing questions, quizzes, labs, etc for the last 7 chapters. I don't feel bad because it isn't designed to be completely done and she's a freshman.

 

Thanks!

[Rhondabee]

The challenge is with literature and history as I don't use a set curricula for either. I make a list of books relate to the period of history I want to cover in a year. My list is a mixture of great books and good but fluffier books. My ds has to meet with a charter school teacher each month and turn in at least one essay for literature and another writing sample for history, either another essay or context pages and maps on the historical period of the literary work. That monthly meeting gives us a deadline to meet, and a standard for the minimum amount of work he has to do. As to how many pages I assign each day -- I don't. I give him (sometimes us) so much time to get through a book and ballpark how many pages that means each day.

 

Now that I've written all of this, I think the bottom line is to set annual goals and simply work towards those, knowing that any given day could be a total waste.

 

Yes, the big challenge is history and lit. Well....and writing, too!

 

But, I see after my attempt to get an hour-by-hour schedule down on paper that I'm asking for too much formal writing in history. My thoughts are still not very congealed, but I'm very thankful you posted this "minimum" requirement. It's just something to know if we do *this* and do it really well, then I can turn off that little voice in my head that's always pushing for bigger and better, ya know?

 

thanks!

[Rhondabee]

Well, a strict "school" schedule for the 9th grader, while keeping the same routines as usual for the 6th grader and the 4yo, seemed to work really well today. And, it helped me see where I have been over-reaching a bit, and need to lighten up. =)

 

I know, it's just one day! But, my Ds was so happy that school was *done* at 5:30 (and he got to go see his girlfriend - yuck!). I did notice that he stayed more focused, and I didn't feel like a constant nag, since there were no real decisions to make, just a schedule to follow.

 

Thank you, Nan, for your thoughts.

[Nan in Mass]

You're welcome. My sons were the ones who came up with this idea, actually, and it was because they wanted to have a time when they were DONE. : )

[Guest Katia]

I don't currently have a 9th grader, but all three of my dc have at one time been a 9th grader, LOL.

 

As far as determining what can or should be done in a certain amount of time, I have to say each of my children have different abilities and have produced differing amounts of work, at different levels. all while in 9th grade.

 

With my ds, as the first of my dc to enter high school, I didn't really know what to expect of him and he was too busy learning computer programming (on his own) to want to do much 'school' work. A lot of what he did for 9th grade my girls had completed in or by 7th grade....which is sad to say but true. He still managed to get accepted into each college he applied to, managed to get good grades in college (even with transferring), and graduated with his BA.

 

I didn't make a schedule for him because he simply would.not.follow.it.

 

Dd1 was/is sloooowwww. She would work for 2 hours on an algebra lesson and manage to finish 2 or 3 problems, and we are talking working hard the entire time. She read painfully slowly and we managed to finish a one semester Literature course in one year, with only half the written papers because papers were even harder to get done. She studied Latin on her own because she loved it, and every hour of her day was filled to the brim with some type of learning/school. Even on weekends when she had time to watch a movie with us, she was knitting or crocheting at the same time. Because she worked around the clock and all summers as well on her school work, she managed a quite respectable transcript and was also accepted in every college she applied to and is now a college Sophomore. It was hard, hard work for her but she managed it. And yes, college is a struggle, but she is getting faster simply because she must. :001_smile:

 

I made many schedules for her, but they just frustrated her because even though I tried.....she could never finish what I had listed and she felt inferior/stupid. We tried letting her create her own schedule for a while, but she put more expectations on herself than she was able to do and became depressed. Her music teacher (PhD) told us that a high schooler should never be put in the position of scheduling all their work themselves, but should be allowed major input on the scheduling, so we did that and it worked very well.

 

Dd2 is fast. She reads fast and comprehends fast, so it's easy for me to determine what she can do. Basically I make a schedule by the hour and schedule a publisher's idea of a lesson in that time frame. If she gets done faster, she simply moves on to the next thing on the list. Very, very rarely does she not finish a 'lesson' in the hour permitted her. She likes that I make a schedule for her to check-off, and while we do discuss what her goals are and she has a lot of input into what classes she will take, our deal is: I plan the schedule and she does the work.

 

Dd2 likes to know that her academic day begins at 9am and will be finished at 3pm (or sooner). Oh, she's still busy the rest of the afternoon and evening with things like piano, cc classes, drama/musical rehearsals, and a job, but we like a set beginning and ending time for the academics.

[imeverywoman]

Nissi, is your child taking AP Human Geo at a school, or are you doing it independently?

[StaceyinLA]

I'll add a typical day. It's just ds and I now so our days are not as structured.

 

Aside from school, he comes to work with me (I only work a couple hours a few mornings/wk) and cleans golf carts and picks up trash on the course to earn spending money.

 

For school he does:

 

LOF Algebra 1 (usually a couple of lessons cuz it's easy for him right now)

 

Apologia Bio (with our co-op/they complete a lesson every 2 weeks so he

reads/studies accordingly)

 

Jensen's Grammar mostly for review a few days/week

 

They write a paper for co-op (relating to their history, science or geography) each week. Some more research-y, some just for fun facts, etc.

 

A Beka World Geography (with co-op also so he does lesson/map work and

vocabulary as required for class)

 

WWise (use this as a pick up and go to give him something to do in the car,

etc. - he usually does a lesson over the course of a week)

 

History - with co-op, presently doing a R&S high school history that my

friend wanted to use about the development of the Mennonites.

We've done TOG and will probably go back to that next year.

 

Spanish - had a tutor last year and is now just continuing with the materials

 

Fallacy Det/Thinking Toolbox

 

 

Our co-op is on Wednesday mornings and consists of 4 families with boys his age. They have discussions in history, geog, and bio and cover the "assignments" at home. The writing they do is shared aloud each week and is related to something studied that week.

 

He ALWAYS covers his math/grammar and, of course, co-op materials. The Spanish, WWise and logic are usually done a little more sporadically but he'll do more at a time if he isn't getting it covered in a timely manner.

 

My son also plays guitar and practices several hours/week (some days more than others).