(vent) want to give up on "extras" like friends...

[anabelneri]

Ok, ok, I know it sounds terrible, but I really need to know how other people handle this...

 

I have a 1st grader and a toddler. I'm clearly trying to follow the WTM, because I feel pretty strongly that unschooling would be bad for my daughter. We actually only do a "full" school day 3 days a week: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Wednesday is a "light" day (we only do math, french, and piano practice) because it's homeschooling park day. Friday is a "light" day because twice a month I have volunteer commitments that take up a good chunk of the day.

 

So my problem is that I keep feeling like I ought to let my daughter see her friends more, or we ought to go outside more... there are a whole list of "ought"s that are social. But it takes my daughter most of the day on our full days to get all the work done. Part of that is having a toddler, but that doesn't explain all of it. I also feel like I'm not meeting all of the educational "ought"s by only doing school three days a week.

 

So then days like today happen. A friend was going to come over, which I tried to mentally make room for, it being a "full" school day. But the friend got sick, and now I'm stuck cleaning up the mess of an angry 1st grader who has declared that she isn't doing any more lessons because her friend isn't coming over. And just on Tuesday we had friends over (the mom needed me to watch them that time) and we got through our assignments, but only by dragging dd through them.

 

What do y'all do? Do you have friends over? How do you get stuff done? I feel like such a terrible mom when I send dd to her room because I can't cope with her terrible attitude. I feel like, right now, visits from friends are "extra" and they only lead to yelling and frustration. But she's so young! She should have lots of time to play with friends! Urg!

 

The "ought"s are gonna kill me someday. Help!

[Ritsumei]

:grouphug: I've got nothing to help with that, but hugs, cuz it sounds like such a frustrating spot to be in!!

[Jenny in GA]

I have a 1st grader and a toddler. I'm clearly trying to follow the WTM, because I feel pretty strongly that unschooling would be bad for my daughter. We actually only do a "full" school day 3 days a week: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Wednesday is a "light" day (we only do math, french, and piano practice) because it's homeschooling park day. Friday is a "light" day because twice a month I have volunteer commitments that take up a good chunk of the day.

 

What do y'all do? Do you have friends over? How do you get stuff done? I feel like such a terrible mom when I send dd to her room because I can't cope with her terrible attitude. I feel like, right now, visits from friends are "extra" and they only lead to yelling and frustration. But she's so young! She should have lots of time to play with friends! Urg!

 

The "ought"s are gonna kill me someday. Help!

 

Personally, it sounds like you are trying to do way too much "schoolwork" with kids that age. It seems like there ought to be some middle ground between "unschooling" and what you're trying to do right now. A full day of schoolwork for a first grader sounds painful, especially if you feel like it's depriving her of friend and play time.

 

I know this is not a WTM thing, but I highly recommend you check out Five in a Row. It covers SS, Science, Art, LA, and Applied Math, all through picture books. It's pretty cheap, and the website has sample lessons, so you could try it and see what you think.

 

If I were suddenly re-incarnated as the mother of a first grader and a toddler, I would spend about 20-30 minutes a day doing Five in a Row, another 30 or so minutes doing math/phonics/handwriting, 15 minutes of read-aloud time, and that would be it. So, at the very most, an hour and a half a day, and probably not even that long a lot of time.

 

And I would probably do it four days a week. The fifth day would be for things like errands, play dates, library trips, outings, cooking, whatever.

 

Good luck! I understand the feeling of having lots you want to do and not enough time to get to it all!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Take a deep breath!

 

Young kids don't need to be friends a lot but some is nice and beneficial, in my opinion. So if it is stressful to get out of the house with a toddler, you really don't have to schedule the park days/ playdates.

 

Young kids don't need a lot of formal learning. Short lessons with lots of cuddles are key. I realize though that having a toddler can make the time slot that you need to be home a longer time, due to interruptions, naptimes etc.

 

Young kids do better, in my opinion, when you think of schooling "year 'round". Just do the next thing. If you miss a day, don't sweat it. You'll eventually dot all your i's and cross all your t's.

 

I do think that it is good to go outside for some portion of the day - rain or shine. It is good for exercise, to get out the wiggles, for informal nature study and it is fun! If you can get your socializing done while at the playground for an hour, then you've done two things. (Which is to say, that kids can benefit from short play times with friends - it doesn't always have to be for a 2 or 3 hour stretch).

[hornblower]

For us what worked was to do lessons first, social time after.

For us, for years we have rarely booked anyting outside the home before 12.

 

If you have a particularly social child or just enjoy social stuff yourself, there's no reason why you can have it daily. But first, 1-2 h (at this age that's all I'd do) of lessons. Then social time, & part of social time might actually be 'hidden lessons' - nature walk, using special art supplies, small science project etc guided by you or the other mom, kwim? Instead of doing this fun thing by yourselves, she has a little friend with her to do it together.

 

Just get a routine of breakfast/lessons/other thing & things will go smoother. Oh & make your schedule and STICK to it. Things will come up, families will want you to come hither and yon on a morning, or drop their kids off or, or, or.

 

There'll be activities, field trips, sport classes blah, blah, blah.

 

Once you've got your schedule established YOU need to decide whether your schedule is worth mucking up for X activity. If it's not, then just say no.

 

Be proactive about how you choose to spend your day & organize it accordingly & learn to say NO to yourself, to your dd and to the siren call of outside activities if they interfere with your goals and your life.

[RanchGirl]

:iagree: a full day, even only 3 days a week, sounds like way too much. 1st grade should be fairly enjoyable for both of you with lots of open time for exploring and if it's not, time to make some changes! There is plenty of time later to ramp up the academics.

[Chris in VA]

I agree with the above posters. Just curious, what constitutes a "full day" for you?

This is what we did for first grade, and I'd say we followed WTM pretty closely--

Saxon 2 everyday

 

SOTW 1 with narrations and projects/maps/coloring pages from the AG 3-4 times a week

 

Kingfisher for science (but we slacked on this, to be honest)

 

Reading aloud, usually tied to SOTW, but others, too

 

Phonics Pathways with some Montessori activities and other real books

 

SWO

 

Daily devotions with Leading Little Ones to God.

 

We usually started by 9 and were done by 11:30 with a break for a snack at 10:30, and I was schooling her big brother (high school, 10th grade), too.

 

So what are you doing and how long does it take you, if you want to share? Maybe we can tweak for you.

 

:grouphug:Sorry it's frustrating.

[happyhomemaker25]

Another gentle nudge from a been there done that mom..

Slow down just a tad.

I burned my kids out on school my first year homeschooling (1st and 2nd grades).

We did everything suggested by WTM. It did not make them better students. Really.

With my next two who are in 2nd grade now we take about 1-2h a day for school three days a week and about 1 hour the other two days.

Here is what our schedule looks like

Everyday:

Math

Phonics

FLL

 

Three days

Math

Phonics

FLL

Handwriting

Science read one page and color

History read one page and color

 

We do a lot of additional read alouds but I just work those in throughout the day.

[Mama Anna]

This morning we started late with my dd6: about 9:20. By 10:20 she was just finishing her copywork. By 10:40 she was pretty much done with spelling, She finished math by 11:00 (which is just short of miraculous and probably happened because a snack was promised upon completion). Then she whipped through reviewing memory work, the grammar lesson was pretty short, and discipleship took awhile because dd7mos was on my lap "ba-ba-ba-ing" all the way through it. We finally finished around 11:45. (This didn't include Science, piano, or math review, all of which we do in the afternoon on Thursdays. For an hour or less, generally. As long as she doesn't ask too many questions, or something.:))

 

Sometimes I feel like I'm asking too much of her and not letting her just be a kid. But then she asks me if she can take a book outside to read because I won't let her come inside on lovely afternoons. She still imagines stuff and plays with her sisters, drives me crazy with the noise in the living room, and gets all sweaty and dirty while playing outside.

 

I bet I look back in 5 years and wish I'd gone more slowly with her. But then, I do that with just about everything anyway, and with parenting a firstborn . . . it seems that so many mistakes just end up being made whether everyone has warned you about them or not. I feel like I just can't see where the line is that others find so obvious in retrospect. I'm sure it will be obvious to me in retrospect, too. Meanwhile . . . I'll do my best and be willing to make a very humble apology to her when she turns 20. And learn from my mistakes for the benefit of her sisters. :D

 

I found a solution last week, you know. I had a bag of stale marshmallows that needed to be dealt with, so I gave her one after she finished each subject. Morning homeschool never went by so fast!! :lol:

 

Mama Anna

[kmacnchs]

I'm not going to be one of the ones to tell you not to do as much as you are doing (I know there are lots of those) - I've been told that before and I know how frustrating it is.

 

However, one thing we do is do school 5-6 days a week, 2 hrs/day. That way, if a friend wants to come over or we have somewhere to go or daddy takes a day off or whatever, we can skip that day. (we just skip it all together b/c mine are young and they won't get "behind" but you can skip that day and just double up the next day) just something to think about.

[anabelneri]

What are we doing.... it's changed a TON across the year, and I'm constantly cutting back. I just cut back even more this week, when it was clear dd had "hit a wall" with language arts.

 

Generally speaking, here's what dd does on a "full day":

 

Math:

• MEP (2 pages; it takes under an hour)
  
• addition flash cards

English:

• WWE1 1x/week; I've combined it with handwriting, she only copies one sentence but answers the questions about both of the week's readings. We used to do the two readings at different times of the week, but dd pushed to do them all at once (she really likes story)
  
• Sequential Spelling, one lesson per day
  
• LDTPM (poetry memorization); she loves this
  
• we were doing 2 or 3 short bits from the MCT grammar island books, but have stopped those.
  
• This isn't assigned, but she reads almost constantly when she's not doing school. This week she's reading "The Lightning Thief"; on weeks when she's not reading big books she'll read 5+ shorter books like the Rainbow Magic series or Dragon Slayer Academy books.
  

French:

• Learnables Level 2 (Grammar Enhancement), about 10 pages/day. It only takes about 10 minutes, and there isn't any writing involved.
  

Science:

• We were doing Nebel's science, but we're only doing it sporadically, when I feel like we have extra time. Lately she's been making booklets about the various subjects we covered a while back.
  

History:

• SOTW1. She had the text mostly memorized this fall from listening to the CDs. This is another area that I've let slide because I felt like we were doing too much. But last month she checked out a ton of Greek mythology books from the library and read through most of them; these past two weeks she has been working on drawing a picture of a Greek hero/god/goddess each day for a "yearbook".
  

Music:

• Piano practice, usually about 30min/day. Lessons are 1x/week.
  

Art:

• We've dropped this, though she does draw fairies and castles constantly, all over her math sheets and assignment page.
  

 

I think that's it. I know it looks like a lot, listed like that. Hopefully you can help!

 

Thanks so much!

[bookfiend]

 

The "ought"s are gonna kill me someday. Help!

 

You should read the posts from yesterday about "what I wish I knew then that I know now". Good perspective.

[Cindyg]

I have a 1st grader and a toddler. I'm clearly trying to follow the WTM, because I feel pretty strongly that unschooling would be bad for my daughter. We actually only do a "full" school day 3 days a week . . . it takes my daughter most of the day on our full days to get all the work done.

 

So then days like today happen. A friend was going to come over, which I tried to mentally make room for, it being a "full" school day. But the friend got sick, and now I'm stuck cleaning up the mess of an angry 1st grader who has declared that she isn't doing any more lessons because her friend isn't coming over . . . .

 

What do y'all do? Do you have friends over? How do you get stuff done?

 

I'm answering this from the perspective of another homeschool mom who likes a full curriculum and is frustrated by missing a day of school, even in first grade. My son is now in the 6th grade, and I do not think we over did it in first grade, and I don't regret using a full curriculum right from the start.

 

Nonetheless, yes, of course you need to make room for friends. That's easy for me to say because we live in the county and don't get a lot of drop-in friends (no next-door-neighbor kids). I try to schedule playdates for after school; and, no, certainly not every day. I try to encourage ds to finish his school day so that he's done by the time his friend arrives.

 

When my son was as young as your daughter, if a friend canceled a playdate at the last minute, that disappointment might well have derailed the entire school day. At that age, he was not flexible and did not cope well with change. Plans were very important to him. Like you, I would have tried really hard to salvage as much of the school day as I could; and like your daughter, my son would have found that outrageous. I'm not criticizing your impulse to have a serious school; I feel the same way.

 

Knowing this about yourself, you've just got to work with it. You've got to be willing to balance your need to stay on schedule with your daughter's need to have some downtime. My husband frequently suggests that I give my son a half day off (perhaps on a day that the public schools are out, and ds knows it). This drives me crazy as there is no need for us to be off on the days the public schools are out. But sometimes you have to give a little for the greater good of keeping a positive attitude towards school and keeping your daughter as a partner in your home school, not your enemy.

 

Bottom line -- I assume you're in your first or second year of homeschooling (since you have a first grader). We were half way through our second year before I found a pace and a schedule that suited all of us (me, my son, and my husband). It's just something you have to work at.

 

Remember you're the adult. That not only means that you get the final say in how much you do in school; but it also means that you're the one who can be reasonable, flexible, patient, and forgiving.

 

My son is smart, and for the most part, he's a good sport about homeschool. But it still frustrates me to death that he's not doing more, that he doesn't care as much about school as I do, that he doesn't work at it as hard as I do. I suspect you feel much the same. That's why I mentioned the adult role of being forgiving. :) You have to be able to forgive your daughter for messing up your plans from time to time. Adjust and move on.

 

Good luck working this out. You sound like a conscientious homeschool mom, and I'm sure you'll do well at this.

[LibraryLover]

Well, I will tell you.

 

I think you need to step away from hsing boards. It seems that you are stressing your child (and yourself) for no reason. Nothing good will come of this. Take a giant step back and just enjoy your young child.

 

This stress is pointless.

Edited April 23, 2010 by LibraryLover

[Tidbits of Learning]

Having read your posts, I do not think that you are overdoing it for a 1st grader. I read on here how many people tell parents of k, 1st, and even 2nd grade to slow down and smell the roses. Yes, kids need friends and they need fun. However, in brick and mortar school everything just doesn't shut down for those things. Not all of us have the same requirements (legal wise). I really wish that people thought about that more before saying someone is doing too much for a particular age. Some of us have to test our first graders. Some of us have to keep report cards proving that we are giving an education equal to or better than public school.

If you weren't going to do school b/c a friend was coming over and then the playdate got cancelled, then don't throw school back into the mix. Don't forget that there is Saturday and Sunday if you happen to not be able to school on your regularly scheduled days. Only schedule playdates after school time. I do not watch other people's kids during school time unless it is a dire emergency (hospital, death in the family, serius injury...). I have tried and it throws everything off to put another kid in the mix just to help a friend out. So unless it is seriously an emergency then I do not watch other people's kids during school.

I also agree that getting on the boards all of the time can stress you out about what you are doing. There are plenty of things that my children ought to have in life. That doesn't mean that they will get them every time they want them. That is part of growing up. Learning to deal with dissapointments such as cancelled play dates. It is how we deal with them that will teach our kids how to deal with it.

Sometimes things don't go the way they are supposed to in life. We have cancellations and things change and we have to roll with it. I consider these times to teach my child how to let things roll off their back and to make the best of the situation.

You can turn these things into learning moments. You can say ok so and so can't come over. She doesn't feel well. How about we finish school work and then you can make her a get better card. We can do xyz after that.

Edited April 23, 2010 by OpenMinded

[Amy in TX]

Two things:

 

First, ditto to everyone who said to relax. 1-2 hours per day, 4 days per week, even with a toddler slowing things down, is plenty for a first grader.

 

Secondly, about cancelled playdates derailing schoolwork. You can eliminate this problem by never scheduling playdates before school is finished. In our house, school hours are absolutely sacred. I have told my relatives and friends that I don't pick up the phone during school hours, and that I cannot babysit during school hours unless someone has a medical emergency.

 

:)

 

Edited to add: I must have posted at the same time as OpenMinded--didn't see her post, or I would have just said ditto to her. :)

Edited April 23, 2010 by Amy in TX

[Peela]

Maybe you could check out the recent thread on how we with older kids would do things differently if we could go back in time. Most people, including me, tend towards thinking that we could have spent a whole lot more time beneficially doing more fun things when they were younger, and worrying less about how important formal education was at that age.

Remember, even SWB doesnt follow TWTM completely, and she has been known to say that one couldn't possibly do it all, and that the publishers made her put the schedules in the book.

If its taking you all day now, your 1st grader may be being set up for burnout. I would say, prioritise the play time, but at the same time, let your frends- or parents of your daughter's friends- know that say, mornings are out, because thats when you do school.

[myfunnybunch]

In your shoes, in this particular situation, I'd not schedule play dates during your school hours. If you are committed to the school times, then stick to them and schedule play dates after your school hours.

 

And...homeschooling is like anything else in life. It's about balance. For this entire journey you're going to be faced with choices about how to spend your time and how flexible you're comfortable being. Piano practice or nature walks? Math enrichment or park day? Art project or get caught up on the laundry and start dinner? Head to the table or abandon the day's plans to have an adventure?

 

My long-term advice would be to think about your priorities and work your schedule from there. Make social time as much of a priority as you and your daughter need. You can always continue to evaluate as your child's social and academic needs shift, and change the ways you choose to allocate your time accordingly. And...well, I'll speak for myself here, I can tell things are out of balance when I start to feel stressed about a particular issue. Then it's time to step back and re-evaluate how we're spending our time. (For me, this year, it's been too many extra-curriculars. We're never home. Next year, fewer outside activities, closer to home.)

 

Cat

[nmoira]

Math:

 

• MEP (2 pages; it takes under an hour)

• addition flash cards

 

 

I won't comment on the rest because I don't get a sense of how much time you're spending on it, but one page of MEP per day will get you through the year in 175 days. I'd recommend cutting back to one page. Are you using the Lesson Plans? I cap math at about 20 minutes per day at that age, regardless of ability.

[5LittleMonkeys]

I don't think your doing too much based on what you posted. My 1st takes anywhere from 2 to 4 hours a day depending on if we are doing history and science which she gets very into especially if it is a project or experiment. That being said there are lots of days that she just doesn't do much more than phonics and math then I let her loose, especially if it's a gorgeous spring day. I figure it will be too hot to play outside soon enough. If a friend wants to play I let her go even if she isn't finished with her schoolwork because she doesn't often get the opportunity to play with kids outside of our family brood. We still get the work done. We do it later that day or just double up the next day (don't tell anyone but sometimes we just skip it all together :tongue_smilie:). It all works out without too much fuss at this grade level.

 

That being said, I didn't start out that way with her. I was rigid and unyielding in her schedule and was always pushing to do one more page or one more problem or drill flash cards for just 2 more minutes. Academics came before anything else. She revolted! I started hearing "I hate school" and the one that made me cringe was, " It was better in kindergarten in public school." AAACCCCKKKK! I changed my tactics quickly and now I have a sweet little lover of learning. Life happens and I let it...it's too powerful a force for me to fight against.

 

Try different schedules and different intensities of work until you find something that you are both comfortable with. Remain flexible though or you'll both burn out. :grouphug:

[anabelneri]

Thank you for all the ideas and support. I did go read the other thread about what people wish they'd done, and it's good to remember that she really will only be young for a very short period of time.

 

It's also good to hear voices supporting academics, too. We don't have testing this year to cope with, but we will have to do the tests next year. But, honestly, I think she won't have any trouble with that; the beginning-of-the-year assessment said that she's right where she should be in math and ahead of the curve in English.

 

I'm going to get to chew on what everyone said for a while, and figure out what protecting our school-time actually looks like. I may also go look at Five-In-A-Row :001_smile:.

 

Thanks again! (I'm still open to new ideas, too :D)

[nd293]

I believe we follow a pretty academic learning schedule, but first grade should not take too long, 45min per day tops for the basics. I wouldn't spend more than 25 minutes a day on maths, 20 min on English and then perhaps another 1 hr a week on Science, 1.5hrs on history (assuming this included read alouds and craft). Dd is in Grade 4 and we probably work 3-4 hrs a day.

 

She still imagines stuff and plays with her sisters, drives me crazy with the noise in the living room, and gets all sweaty and dirty while playing outside.

 

 

Absolutely normal. Dd9 is bright, on top of her maths, reads several grades ahead, and she still spends ages making up stories with her dolls, playing noisy games with her 3yr old brother, digging in the dirt and whatever. While noise and mess and lack of focus irritate me on a personal level, I wouldn't have it any other way. She's a child, and the longer she's a child, the less likely she is to become too grown up too fast. Maths skills are important, but I would never want her to think them more important than people.

 

It's tricky to find a balance, but it can be done.

 

Nikki

[woolybear]

For me, priorities at that age would look like this:

 

Basic skills (shouldn't take more than 1-2 hours for a 6yo)

Add in some fun/interesting things occasionally for school

Lots of read alouds

Lots of outside time

Once a week park or playdate

 

I would also consider one morning having one or two friends to do a small coop kind of thing, could be FIAR or something similiar. That way, she gets school and some time with friends. Allow for play time after.

 

I definitely think a CM approach is wonderful for that age. See if your library has A Charlotte Mason companion. Or check www.charlottemasonhelps.com Off the top of my head I can't think of others, but that's a good start. Also, check out Elizabeth Foss. She has a book, Real Learning which is wonderful. Her website is http://ebeth.typepad.com

 

Good luck,

Woolybear

[katilac]

One thing stands out to me: an hour for copywork? Does she struggle with it, or dawdle over it? I can't imagine copywork taking more than five to ten minutes. If she's a dawdler, she may need you sitting by her when she works.

 

I will add my voice to those saying that it sounds like too many hours of school for a first grader - - or, certainly, too many hours of indoor seat work. Looking at your list, though, the only thing that strikes me as lengthy is your math; we rarely spent more than 20 minutes or so on math at that age. I really can't figure out what else on that list is taking so long. 30 minutes is on the longish side for piano practice for a first grader, but not outrageous (and can easily be separated from "the school day"). It does not look like a lot of work, necessarily.

 

I would try to discern why a reasonable amount of work is taking so long. dd may need you at her elbow to help focus, it may be that she is struggling or not engaged with the curriculum - - only a close observation of your days and activities will yield an answer. Remember that lots of fresh air and exercise generally result in improved attention and focus!

 

One thing I know for sure is that when I'm distracted, my kids are distracted, and school takes twice as long. When school work is organized and given top priority, it's finished in a timely way. If you really can't pinpoint the issue, you might try a timed loop schedule for a while, having her work through subjects for a set amount of time with full focus (some people rotate or loop all subjects, others do reading/math daily and loop other subjects). If she knows school WON'T drag on the entire day, she might surprise you with what she can get done after a few weeks on this type of schedule.

 

What is your dd doing while you are volunteering? I think that giving up a good chunk of the day twice a month would be very difficult with a 6yrold and a toddler, and if your kids are with you, without the chance to play outside or with friends, my personal choice would probably be to give up the volunteering in order to make sure that my kids have plenty of active, outdoor playtime. I think it's THAT important, and two long afternoons at the park, zoo or nature trail would be great for the kids and you, and add a lot to her studies.

 

fwiw, I consider myself an advocate of strong academics, definitely. But I don't think long days are needed or helpful in the early years.

[texasmama]

It sounds like what you are doing is not working for either of you so feel free to change it.:001_smile: My first grader does four days a week of school. This includes reading scheduled pages from his Sonlight reader (2nd grade because his reading is advanced), a lesson from Singapore math 2A, a lesson from FLL1, a history read aloud, a literature read aloud, a short Bible lesson and a handwriting page. On other days, we do a variety of other lessons and readings, including poetry, science and health and manners. All of that takes between 1 1/2 - 2 hours, four days a week. He has plenty of time for "being a little" kid playing outside or with friends. We go to a homeschool co op on Fridays for fun classes. He does sports seasonally. We go to church on Sun. and Wed. He hangs out with his brother doing boy stuff.:tongue_smilie:

 

I know that soon enough, as the years pass, my boys will be spending much more time on studies. Right now, I prefer that they spend as much time as they can playing and having fun. That is important, too.

[PineFarmMom]

:grouphug: Honestly? I'd do my best to thoroughly enjoy the fact that my oldest is only 6 years old and I'd have friends over and play. Then if I didn't do all my lessons that day or the next I would know that it's okay because she's only 6. I'm not encouraging you to toss school at all. I just think they need a lot less school at 6 than most who are dealing with their first-born. ;) I was one of those moms and my oldest child is now in 9th and I'd like to go back and have more fun with her!!!!! I'd like to stress about it all a LOT less and enjoy her!

 

My 3rd child is 6. We spent a big portion of the day yesterday looking for bugs for an insect collection and playing games that reminded him where the head, thorax and abdomen of an insect were. We did read and do math, but most of our day was outdoors. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and I think you can take all the WTM guidance and do a great job and still get it done for a 6yo in 2 hours per day if you adjust things and combine them. JMO. Enjoy her while the school doesn't REALLY have to be that stressful. Someone gave me that advice when dd was 5 and I didn't listen to them. :(

[LibraryLover]

I'm all for strong content and great exposure, lots of reading, lots of games. I don't consider writing for 6 yrs old 'strong academics'. For most 6 yr olds, that is torture. What does the wiring accomplish that another way will not? What is your intention behind all the writing at this point?

 

I am in no way 'anti-academic'. I am anti-developmentally inappropraite. There is more than one way to get somewhere.

[Tess in the Burbs]

you have to find balance. It's easy to let the week slip by with playdates. My kids don't do well doing school in the afternoons. but if we are too rigid we may miss some great field trips offered locally. On the other hand...I have to be consistent to show them school matters. It's a balance. And it took me years to figure out and not feel stressed.

 

your child is 6. It's ok to want to do school. it's ok to do field trips/play dates. It's ok to dump the day and PLAY. Mine are 6 and 8 now and while we get everything done there are days we totally relax and have fun. I don't want them leaving home for college at 16...so I stopped worrying about my schedule. yep, we do math all summer. A lesson a day. We finish about the week before I planned to start the fall. At this point of it happening every year I am more okay with it and not worried about it. Two years ago I would have stressed.

 

Find YOUR balance. maybe get to 5 days a week but less each day so you are available to play more often. Or plan a 4 day week and have your off day rotate based on playdates. Oh, I never tell my kids we have plans. People cancel. It's hard on them. Until I know it's going to happen for sure it's on my calendar but I don't tell them. Surprise is so much more fun ;-)

[Jenny in GA]

I'm going to get to chew on what everyone said for a while, and figure out what protecting our school-time actually looks like. I may also go look at Five-In-A-Row :001_smile:.

 

Thanks again! (I'm still open to new ideas, too :D)

 

 

I was the person who suggested FIAR, and here and here and here are some blog posts with photos that show us working on various FIAR activities.

 

My younger daughter is in first grade too.

 

Jenny

[NanceXToo]

But she's so young! She should have lots of time to play with friends!

 

You said it all, right there :) She IS so young. I am one of those people who believe that six year olds should be spending a large portion of their day playing and exploring outside, being immersed in nature and physical activity, being around friends, imagining, creating, listening to stories and music etc. Curriculum stuff for a six year old? I don't ever see a reason for it to need to take up a full day, or to take more than like two hours a day tops, really, or especially not to cause frustration and stress in your household- for her OR for you. I'd ease up some.