If your homeschool is rigorous, what does a school day at your house look like?

[HappyGrace]

Always trying to improve here! And my kids (10 and 7) seem to need more meat and more challenge-that's when they're happiest! Trying to find new ways to give it to them.

Edited April 2, 2010 by HappyGrace

[sagira]

bump

[mcconnellboys]

Okay, let's see. Next Monday at my house might look something like this:

 

I call my son by 8:00 and we go into the school room and have a seat. I begin pulling written work items and handing them to him with an explanation of what we're doing next. That might not be much of anything for series that we've used for years, as he knows the drill by now. For other things, there will be short lessons. He likes to stack these up and choose which to work on first. I tend to tidy up the upstairs, get myself dressed, and do laundry chores while he's working on these things.

 

This Monday, these things will include:

 

He'll be starting his next lesson of Spelling Workout. He will do the first page exercise of that lesson on Monday. He has a page from an Outlining/Notetaking workbook to do, too. He's almost finished with the book.

 

I will go over his next math lesson in Singapore and he will do the workbook exercise that goes along with it. We are doing volume right now.

 

I will hand him his geography workbook and he'll do the next page of that.

 

I will go over our next lesson in Memoria Press Christian Studies, which on Monday will involve reading the week's lesson, going over vocabulary for the lesson, giving some background on the lesson, and perhaps talking about the verse for the week.

 

He will be given a writing assignment to do. We are working on several right now. I give some down time before having him proof and correct papers, etc., so we always have several papers in progress.

 

He just completed a literary genres workbook we've been doing on Mondays this year. We will now be reviewing a notebook of literary elements I put together last year.

 

He will be doing his next lesson of Latin or Spanish - I forget which (we're on spring break this week, LOL)..... Both of these have video lessons. For Spanish, he listens to and does the oral part of the lesson (and reading) one day, does the worksheets the next day, then does the quiz for that chapter on the third day. For Latin, if the lesson is not too long, he does the entire lesson in one day. Otherwise he might do it in two days.

 

I will go over his grammar lesson with him and give him the written exercises to do. He will be starting a new chapter on Monday. I will also introduce the topic for the week in his oral language lessons and we will go over the Monday exercise in that. At this time, I will also go over his speech therapy work with him.

 

He asks questions as he works if he needs help.

 

He will have to stop working at about 10:10 to go to his weekly piano lesson. I will pick him up from there about 11:00 and we will go to lunch. We will get home about noon or 12:30. (He generally finishes up all his written work by the time he has to go to piano.)

 

We will then have our reading time. We will take up where we left off last week with our history and literature readings. We are finishing up the Black Arrow. I have some readings on Explorers to finish up. We are finishing up with some readings regarding various native groups living in the new world. And I don't recall right now where we are headed next in our history studies. I will read about 2 1/2 hours. He will also have his own reading time sometime during the day, too, of about an hour. And because we've been out this past week, I don't recall right now what books he's finishing up at this time. He has readings related to history, lit and whatever science subject we're currently studying. We finish school at 3:30.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

My 6th grader:

starts with a chapter in the bible.

Does a page of review in math then the new daily lesson in textbook

2 pgs english (will be changing next year to more as we are switching curricula)

then she does either a geography lesson or a health lesson (depends on the day)

then she will go to science, she does a half a lesson a day (they are long) plus an experiment or assignment

then she goes to US history, monday she reads the new chapter and takes notes, tuesday I read the first half to her while she makes an outline of the important info, wednesday I read the second half to her and she continues her outline of inportant info, thursday she reads about the topic at hand in the encyclopedia and friday takes her test

She does 2 exercises in her vocabulary mon-thursday then friday she uses the words in a form of writing (sentences, poetry, a story or whatever else I come up with)

She does 2 pages from her vocabulary development through dictionary skills workbook and 1 from her editing workbook

I have her read a few chapters of a book I have chose (next year we will begin another formal reading)

then she does 3 lessons from world history (3 because they are small and have to fit 4 books in 3 years because we started a year late)

Then lastly i have her read about an explorer from an explorer fandex we have.

 

My 2nd grader

2-4 pgs of math (depending on if we are doing her singapore or Abeka)

she does her handwriting

then she does 2 pgs english

then she does her geography,map skills or health lesson (depending on the day)

then we go to science and we do about a forth of a lesson and she does some notebooking activities

Then she does her american history plus whatever assignment I have planned for the day (it varies depending on the day and the chapter)

then we do spelling power, she does her 10 step & sentences

then we go to vocabulary (2 exercises a day)

reads a chapter from the biography I have her reading from (Thomas Jefferson is who she is doing currently)

Then we do SOTW, the activity, she narrates to me and the map skill and coloring page with it. (we need to get back into the read alouds for SOTW)

 

 

So thats our day :001_smile:

[Embassy]

People have told me that I do a lot. Here is a typical day. We typically take about 6 hours for my 6 and 8 year old.

[m0mmaBuck]

I've been told we do a lot. I don't think it's that rigorous my friends who HS do. DS is a 2nd grader. This is a typical day:

 

Math: Two CLE lessons per day. We do the speed drills and flash cards. We go over any new information together. I go through the lessons and if there are areas covered that I know he has struggled with I supervise him for those problems. The rest he is responsible for on his own. He can do this when we are finished with the other subjects.

 

LA: Two CLE lessons per day. We do the review and instruction on new information as outlined in the Teacher's Guide. LA is his weakest subject so generally he needs guidance through the lessons. We also do WWE 1-2 days/wk to work on narration and summarization skills.

 

Penmanship: 1-2 CLE lessons independently.

 

Geography/Maps: 1-2 pages independently

 

Social Studies: 1 CLE lesson/day, primarily for reading comprehension.

 

Science: 2-3 days/wk loosely using WTM guidelines. We were coupling CLE Science with WTM when doing our studies of animals but currently we are studying the Solar System (DS's choice) through use of library books, videos and building a model. Notebooking involved. 60-90 mins 2-3 days/wk

 

History: 2-3 days/wk per SOTW and AG. I use history for narration, copywork, and handwriting skills as well as art. 60-90 mins 2-3 days/wk.

 

Music: piano lessons with daily practice

 

Reading: 15+ mins assigned reading on either a history or science topic and then 15+mins reading of his choice.

 

ETA: We also do readalouds and shared reading for History and Science.

Edited April 2, 2010 by m0mmaBuck
Forgot about readalouds

[Laura Corin]

The boys work from 9-5, but Hobbes often finishes early in the week. Each boy has a list of things to accomplish during the week, so they have homework at the weekend if they don't complete it. They choose what order to do things, but they need to be working consistently until they finish.

 

Our curriculum is in my siggy.

 

Laura

[branycbur]

We are not the most rigorous out there, but here is what we do (curriculum is in my siggy):

 

DD, Grade 4:

Spelling: (M-Th) Every day starts with Spelling...text on Thurdays.

Math: (M-F) 60 minutes every day, with Fridays being more of a fun or real math day.

Grammar: (M-T) Finished Jr. AG so now we are working on mad libs, also each 4th grader in Maine is supposed to do a report on our state, so we are working on that, too.

History: (M, W, F) Read aloud a chapter or two a week from SOTW, map work, encyclopedia work, add dates to time line, activity, & review questions. She writes a one page narration about what we have learned each week on Fridays, and she independently reads from suggested history books (from SOTW) for 1/2 hour every day.

Science: (Th) We do one long day of science...experiments, and then she writes down observations and outcomes.

Latin: (M, T, Th) Work from Latina Christiana, Mimimus, Book of Roots and Ludere Latine. We also read one chapter aloud from Famous Men of Rome.

Composer Study and Artist/Picture study: CM method, done once a week.

Reading: The girls reads a ridiculous number of library books each week.

Typing Tutor on Fridays.

Spanish class on Fridays.

Writing club on Tuesdays.

She also participates in a wilderness class the first Tuesday of every month.

 

Umm...I think that is it :)

[plansrme]

We use a lot of materials above grade level for rigor. We also finish the entire textbook every year. For example, my not-particularly-mathy 4th grader is finishing Singapore 5B (and all of the extras, CWP and IP) right now, and she is doing two supposedly full-year reading programs (LLATL and CLE) this year. She will do Life of Fred (not sure about fractions or decimals/percents) to finish out the math year, as I am in no hurry to start Singapore 6 with her. She is on grade level with other subjects (e.g., R&S English, SOTW 3).

 

My kindergartener is finishing Singapore 1B and just finished reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle and doing a study guide (targeted to third graders) with it. He struggled a bit at first but clearly improved as we went through the book and the guide. I did not make him write out all of his own answers, but he did all of the reading and most of the activities in the study guide. He did other reading this year that was more grade-level appropriate, but I wanted him to stretch on this one, and he rose to the challenge.

 

My 6th grader is wildly accelerated (she has finished Chalkdust Algebra II and Geometry and just started precalculus), but she's an outlier.

 

I struggle with incorporating rigorous academics while not requiring too many hours. My children are super-busy with outside activities, which have value to them and our family, so I try my best to maintain high academic standards and keep busy work to a minimum. Accelerating some subjects, doubling up on others, and completing the texts, are our strategies, for now anyway. I suppose time will tell whether we have found the right balance.

 

Terri

[Quiver0f10]

I don't consider what we do rigorous but here is my 6th grader's typical day:

 

• Bible with everyone
  
• Chalkdust Basic Math-watch DVD & 25ish problems per day
  
• R&S English 6-1 lesson
  
• IEW Medieval Writing-works throughout the week on 1 lesson
  
• SWR-M and W
  
• Apologia General Science-reads a few pages, answer any OYO and do the experiments. Right now he is doing a module per week.
  
• TOG-he reads core Th & does map, In Depth F, Lit S/S, M & T, M answers SAP pages and T answers lit pages. Wed discussion
  
• Henle-one lesson per day M-Th, per Memoria Press Guide
  

 

Edited April 2, 2010 by Quiver0f10

[PeterPan]

Happy, today it means spending the whole day sewing and finishing dd's Easter dress. :)

 

Seriously, there's an ebb and flow to life. I don't think finding your load is now means you've been a flop in the past. It just means they've had a growth spurt and are ready for more in the future. I'd just take what you had been doing and add one or two things. Are you doing any greek? Add the Greek Code Cracker. It's crazy fun and will let you know if she wants to continue further. It's something they could both do in fact, though you'd need two copies. Or take some time and work on something you've been totally skipping and flopping on lately. I intentionally plan to flop at subjects during the main part of the year, knowing I'll get to them in May Term or the summer. I let there be that ebb and flow. Maybe you'd like to do some GEMS science units (free downloads!) or do something different for history for a month. I think we're going to study China first, just because dd wants to do it before she outgrows the cute chinese dress she found at the thrift store. Then we're going to do England and read Our Island Story and do shakespeare.

 

Oops, gotta go. Ds wants an easter basket to put his egg in.

[patchfire]

Hmm. I think we'd probably be considered rigorous, though of course I always have the voice in the back of my head that says we should be doing more, or different..

 

Dd starts schoolwork at around 7 am. She does a math drill, sentences in Practice Town, and then her math lesson for the day. We eat breakfast together as a family, and then she practices piano for 30 minutes. The rest of the morning varies, especially if we have something else going on that day, but generally, she then does the following, in no particular order:

 

Latin Prep 1 (15-30 minutes)

Caesar's English (5-10 minutes)

Paragraph Town (15-45 minutes)

Building Poetry (15-30 minutes) [usually she doesn't do poetry and Paragraph Town on the same day, but occasionally there is overlap, where one is much shorter/less work than the other.]

Vision Therapy on the computer (15 minutes)

Outdoor Play (30 minutes)

Memory Work (we often do this in the car; it takes 15-20 minutes)

History or Science reading, mapwork, writing, what have you (this can take 20 minutes to more than an hour, depending on what the specific work is that day)

 

She also practices trumpet daily (30 minutes), reads daily, and has a fair number of outside activities. Oh, and right now she's finished her logic workbook, so her logic consists of 2-4 Mind Bender puzzles per week, so when she works on it depends on her. Similarly, she has pages assigned from a Key to... book, and when she does it depends on her.

[Kuovonne]

I think I'm pretty rigorous.

 

Here's what the academics for a typical day look like:

 

Skill Drill

Math drill is a multi-step word problem.

Reading drill is one lesson in the McCall Crabbs book.

Grammar drill is one sentence from MCT Practice Island

Spelling and handwriting are writing a paragraph from dictation.

Anki covers all memory work for all subjects.

 

Teaching New Skills

Language arts is whatever is next in MCT LA.

Math is whatever is next in Miquon or RightStart.

 

Content Work

Science, social studies, literature are a work in progress.

I do require DD to get a biography and a science book from the library each week. I also strew a lot of books and DD does a lot of free reading on her own. I also try to provide DD with free time to explore her own interests.

 

I think that the most rigorous aspect is that DD does a multi-step math word problem and takes dictation every single day.

 

Always trying to improve here! And my kids (10 and 7) seem to need more meat and more challenge-that's when they're happiest! Trying to find new ways to give it to them.

 

How about streamlining what you do now, and challenging them to find "more meat" themselves? For example, letting them explore a science or history topics in more depth, or coming up with an ongoing project or experiment?

Edited April 4, 2010 by Kuovonne

[Karen in CO]

My dd started to complain that school was boring this year so we did a realignment. I reduced the subjects we did and increased the depth of our studies. So now she does French for 1-2 hours 3-4 times a week instead of 20 minutes everyday. She does math for about and hour and half four days a week instead of trying to do shorter lessons. We moved to doing science in a completely different way - we're reading a much deeper science book and following a science experiment book doing experiments weekly. We slowed down our history progression to really study one short period in depth for a while instead of speeding through. We're taking time to get to know the people and issues and ideas that made the events.

 

Figure out what it is that will give more to your day - it probably isn't a new worksheet or a different schedule or a longer day.

[TXMary2]

I don't think we are really rigorous, but I have been told we do too much by some people.

 

DS13

 

Bible Study- whichever book he is currently reading, looking up scripture and discusson.

TTMath 7- One lesson per day. Various timed drills, flash cards, review sheets- depends on the day.

Science Apologia General Science- I read science aloud "lecture style" and my ds takes notes writing down key words or ideas that are going to be on the test. Before I begin the lecture for the day we do a quick review of the day before. Some days there are experiments.

English- Spelling Power 2-3 times a week, Wordly Wise 3-4 times a week, Vocabulary Vine 3 times a week, review of literary terms or an assignment related to lit terms 2-3 times a week, Writing 2-3 times a week.

Literature- He reads a few chapters of whatever novel he is currently reading, we discuss it and/or have an assignment related to the novel from some sort of literature guide....Progeny Press or Teacher Created Resources.

History- Lots of reading and notebook type activities....we are using Winter Promise Quest for the Middle Ages. I also do this subject "lecture style" at times by reading aloud from MOH Vol 2 and discussing it.

 

DS6

 

Morning Recitations- Prayer, Memory Verse, Pledge, Memory Poem, Calendar, Days of Week, Months, Phone and Address.

Math Saxon 1 - 1 workbook page per day, flashcards, a math game like Spaghetti and Math Balls or Math Rummy. Skip counting practice usually involves throwing a stuffed animal back and forth as we count.

Language Arts- Explode the Code 1-2 pages, reading practice via mini books, starfall.com, early readers depending on the day. Vowel sounds review 2-3 times a week. Reading flashcards 2-3 times a week. Daily I read aloud 1 or 2 chapters from a chapter book- currently "The Flying Flea, Callie and Me."

Handwriting- Practice sheets 3-4 times a week.

Science- Lots of reading, lapbook, mural for each habitat we study, videos from Netflix and You Tube related to our topic.

History/Social Studies- we started the year trying to tag along with big brother's Quest for the Middle Ages but it just became too much. In the fall we will begin American History and Geography when he is officially promoted to 1st grade.

[HappyGrace]

It was so much fun seeing how so many different rigorous homeschools look-very inspiring! I am confident with what we're doing and what I have planned, but I'm always looking to see how we can stretch and grow! Thanks for sharing!

[monk17]

My daughter likes to know what's planned for the day. This has led to my very complex system of writing down what we'll do for the day and then her checking it off as we've completed it. Then of course she reads to me about four thousand times a day what we've completed and asking , " isn't that good?" Here's a pretty typical day:

 

Violin, complete practice form, which since we do Suzuki is pretty standard, review all books and songs, work on working piece, do previews as assigned and other assignments from the teacher. I usually ask her to divide this in to three 20 minute sessions. (also stick 10 minutes of orchestra and fiddling practice in there)

 

Piano 30 - 40 minutes of whatever the teacher assigned.

 

Spanish - 1 or 2 days of on-line Spanish depending on the degree of difficulty. We use K12

 

Math 1 section from math-u-see, game of Muggins with Dad (we also use other math stuff)

 

Read a chapter in Real Science and Outline

 

Spelling and Latin with Latin Road, usually 5-10 words of spelling and some Latin prefixes

 

3 Pages of grammar

 

History Write a summary of yesterday's History outline

 

Read an article from the New York Times and answer questions from Dad.

 

I would say this is pretty consistent at least 4 days a week.

[kdeno]

:lurk5:

[HappyGrace]

Basically I just want to be Marva Collins. That would be my ideal homeschool!

 

Right, KDeno? ;)

[kdeno]

My *KIDS* love Marva :-) :grouphug:

[kalanamak]

I'm getting more rigorous, as kiddo is nearing 8 and getting better at getting better (and sitting still).

 

Since I school year round, after I get home from work, I try to get X done every month. This month we have no weeks off, but I still try to leave the last 4 days of the month as empty or very light, so I can "make up" anything that got passed over. We sometimes skip a day and do half the work before or after, or make up on the weekend.

 

I'm picking a week at random, and here is the schedule:

Friday: 20 mins. spelling

30-40 min. math

1/2 hour reading about science

30 minutes he reads aloud to me

Sat/Sun: 20 minutes spelling, 20 minutes grammar, 20 minutes WWE, 30-40 min. math, 30 minutes of me reading him about history. 30 minutes of him reading to me, something hands on for science, an hour of looking at and doing art, an hour of listening to classical music, as much Minimus as he is interested in.

Mon: 20 mins each grammar and WWE, 30 mins each reading about and doing narration for history and science

Tuesday: 20 minutes spelling, 30-40 minutes math, reading or review of science 30 minutes.

Wed: 20 minutes of grammar and WWE, 30-40 min. math, 30 minutes he reads to me

Thurs: 20 min spelling, 30-40 min math, 30 minutes history.

 

Kiddo also goes to museums, field trips, concerts, and homeschool gym with Papa. Hope to start piano soon.

HTH

[Halcyon]

We've been toldd our schedule is fairly rigorous for our 7 yo son. We have more of a 'routine' than a schedule, however, working about 3-4 hours daily on academics.

 

For math, we spend 20 minutes twice a day--first session is Singapore, second session is one MEP sheet. We will be finished with 2B in about 2 weeks, so we'll move to 3A. He uses Flashmaster 2-4 x a week for 10-20 minutes at a sitting. We use Family Math and do games a few times a week. Occasionally, we'll pull out CSMP for fun.

 

We do SOTW 3-4 times a week, covering between 1-2 chapters a week with narration, questions, mapwork, notebooking and coloring. We also do outside reading in History in the evenings, currently reading Famous Men of Rome and Black Ships Before Troy. Each session is about 30 minutes.

 

 

For writing, we work 4x a week from WWE2 and will incorporate Writing Strands soon. He also works on cursive 3 x a week in his HWT workbook, along with using cursive for all narration.

 

For Art, my son goes to an art class once a week, plus we do artist study and theory 1-2x a week. Each session at home is about 45 minutes, depending on if we do a project.

 

For science, we work 1-2x a week using k12 as our guide, but we are phasing out K12. We work on lapbooks, experiments, reading and such for about an hour a session. Sometimes we'll work all afternoon if it's a longer experiment or more involved project.

 

For grammar, my son is currently working on Exercises in English Level C by Loyola Press, and will be finished over the next month. We will move to Growing With Grammar Grade 4. He works on grammar lessons 3x a week for 15-20 minutes at a time.

 

For Spelling, we use Megawords A 4x a week, 15 minutes at a time. We also use McGuffey's Speller to find challenging words.

 

For Vocab, we use Vocabulary Cartoons 2x a week, usually covering 3-4 new words. I quiz him at the end of the week on all the words he's learned thus far. Megawords also incorporates some vocab.

 

For some reading comp we use Reading Comp in Varied Subject Matter but we only do this occasionally, 2x a month just to make sure he understands how to approach reading comp questions in a more 'standardized' way. I prefer to discuss books with him in general.

 

For Logic, we use Logic Countdown but I am looking for something else--something more 'detective'-like, but I haven't found what I am looking for. We do this once a week for about 20 minutes.

 

He does independent reading for about 45 minutes a day, usually something "light" like Calvin and Hobbes or Dragonlings (a current favorite). This usually takes place in the afternoon--he had been reading in bed before sleep, but he wasn't getting enough sleep so we stopped that. He also does school reading for about 20 minutes a day.

 

Non academic activities include using Scratch programming, soccer, tennis, basketball, gymnastics, above-mentioned art class, and visits to the local oceanographic center.

 

We stopped music late last year as I wasn't happy with K12's music program. We're thinking of using Classics for Kids starting in September, if we can fit it in. I'd still like to keep our school day just 4 hours, so we may start at 8:30 instead of 9 and that way end a bit earlier to allow for quiet time in the afternoon before activities.

Edited April 4, 2010 by Halcyon

[Tam101]

I don't know if it is rigorous or not, but we sure are busy!;)

 

Typical week:

 

M-PE @ the Y,American Government, FLL, WWE, Math, SOTW, SWOb,baseball practice

T-Grandma Day(better known as bible study), FLL, WWE, Math, SOTW, SWOb

W- Piano Lessons, American Government, FLL, WWE, Math, SOTW, SWOb, Library, baseball practice

TH-Cursive, Piano Workbook, American Government, Resource Classes (Chess Club, World Crafts)

F-Resource Classes (Art, Spanish, Science)

Sat-Baseball game

Sun-American Government, FLL, WWE, Math, SOTW, SWOb

 

Piano practice and independent reading everyday

 

Ok, that does sound rigorous when it's all typed out!:lol:

[DianeJM]

Happy Grace: Thanks for asking this question. Great inspiration in here for me. I would consider myself "behind" in a lot of things w/my 5th grader. But we are making progress, starting to get some stuff done again; he is progressing in many areas that he has not done well with up to now, and I'm thankful for that. I have not set a standard lately that could be considered rigorous, I'm just getting my feet back under me after several tough years personally. Ds has gotten used to doing the bare minimum; I've been inspired by everyone's posts here to press on and set the bar higher, so thanks!

 

Comments and questions:

 

To: wehomeschool: loved your youtube video of your school day.

 

To: m0mmaBuck: why do you do two lessons each day in some of your CLE subjects?

 

To: Kuovonne: I liked the way you bunch your academics. I did something similar, but I like yours better. I may tweak mine further, having seen what you do. Thanks.

 

Blessings to all,