The reality of high school started to set in today.

[Bee]

There were tears (from oldest dd) when she spent 30 minutes on her first Rosetta Stone lesson. I still think she doesn't believe her dad and I when we say any lesson should take at least 30 minutes at this point in her studies. She has become so accustomed to finishing her school work for the day in a few hours.

[TXMary2]

Did 7th and 8th only take her a few hours as well? I can see how she might get upset, but her only option is to accept it and do her best. Does she plan to go to college?

[AngieW in Texas]

Rosetta Stone caused tears here too, but it was because of the program. Tell Me More, Pimsleur, Easy Spanish Step-by-Step also caused tears.

 

We are using Visual Link Spanish now and it is the first program that has really worked for my dd. It starts you off with sentences that make sense right away. It doesn't have a ton of vocabulary, but you definitely learn the vocabulary that it teaches. It's on sale right now, but the sale ends tomorrow.

 

The first lesson seemed repetitive to my dd, but at the end she realized that she actually had a bunch of sentences she could say in Spanish that she could actually use. We are using it for exposure to Spanish before taking it at the cc in 11th and 12th grades for dual credit.

 

My 9th grader worked from 9am until 3-5pm doing schoolwork (with 2-3 half-hour breaks) 3-4 days/week and then was doing schoolwork from 9-1 on Fridays and some Wednesdays (we had a Wednesday afternoon commitment 2x/month).

Edited June 23, 2010 by AngieW in Texas

[LatinTea]

There were tears (from oldest dd) when she spent 30 minutes on her first Rosetta Stone lesson. I still think she doesn't believe her dad and I when we say any lesson should take at least 30 minutes at this point in her studies. She has become so accustomed to finishing her school work for the day in a few hours.

 

Thanks for posting this! I was always under the impression that each subject should take 45 - 60 minutes to count for that day. If it is a textbook, then that book has to be finished (or 3/4 of the way at least) to count for that credit. Maybe I'm wrong? That has happened a time or two. ;)

[Granny_Weatherwax]

There were tears (from oldest dd) when she spent 30 minutes on her first Rosetta Stone lesson.

 

Aw, that makes me sad for her and you.

 

I hope it gets better.

[Bee]

so it isn't running the full homeschool program the way it should be done. But I tried the first lesson (and I don't even want to learn Spanish) and got through the lesson and actually learned from it. So I'm liking it better than the Spanish we tried to use last year and I'm sure she will too once she gets used to it. The problem is, that she wouldn't take my advice on how to use the program. We've tried Latin and French programs in the past before and she gave up those after a few lessons so I'm not going to let her quit this. College is mandatory so she must take a foreign language.

 

I tried doing the subject/ scheduled time years ago and it didn't work. We'd have been finished with high school by the time she was in 6th grade. Since the elementary school years we've always had a certain amount of work assigned per day or week and when it was done, we were done. There's a different level of work that I expect from her this year. I've warned dd that we expect her to spend at least a couple of days each week doing 4-6 hours worth of schoolwork and I think she still thinks we are exagerating. If necessary, I will put her on a schedule of set times for certain subjects but that will mean I will have to stand over her to make sure she is doing the work at that time and I thought she'd have outgrown that by now.

[Pegasus]

Bee, you aren't alone in having a student who is resisting needing more time to finish schoolwork. I've been ramping up the amount of work assigned to DD13 over the last year and she does complain. However, I do not make her work for a certain amount of time of any subject - I assign a certain number of chapters in history, for example, rather than telling her to read it for 50 minutes.

 

This works for us because if I gave her an amount of TIME to do something, she'd fritter the minutes away. When I give her an amount of WORK to do, she is much more likely to concentrate and work steadily so that she can be DONE.

 

I know I'm in the minority on this board but I do NOT expect even high school level work to take DD 6 hours of focused study per day. She reads fast and picks up on concepts quickly. If she finishes the amount of work I expect, she's welcome to finish it as quickly as she can.

 

This will change in a couple of years when I expect her to start taking community college courses. Between the class time, lab time, and outside studying, the hours will definitely get longer.

 

Pegasus

[glennis_b]

What about a hs freshman and Latin? This will be our first year with a language. Which Latin course would you recommend? I'm thinking about Memoria Press, First Form Latin and working our way up to Henle for the future. I want it to be fun!

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

When I'm planning school at first, I'll time as assignment.

 

1. I'll give the assignment and set the timer for 10 minutes. Then I'll check to see how much was done in 10 minutes and expand from that. I'll usually do this the first few days of starting a new subject.

 

And,

 

2. After about 2 weeks, I'll give the assignment and time how long it takes for it to be completed. I'll check that against my estimate from #1.

 

Most high school subjects take anywhere from 20 minutes (reading a section in history for example) to 60 minutes (doing a full set of math problems).

 

Of course the time each subject takes varies from child to child, varies according to time of the year, and varies because of a hundred other factors. :) But, I'll have a good estimate to schedule by, and each student has a good idea of what each particular school day will require.

[Ester Maria]

There were tears (from oldest dd) when she spent 30 minutes on her first Rosetta Stone lesson.

Maybe your daughter has an allergic reaction to Rosetta Stone? I have it too (I would have to be paid to use Rosetta Stone, not the other way round), so if that's the case, I understand the poor kid. ;)

 

On a more serious note, I agree with Pegasus about focusing on the concrete goal for the day as opposed to on how much time it should take - it's a lot more rewarding perspective.