Please take a look at my schedule for this year

[LatinTea]

My 15 yo dd’s schedule for 9th or 10th grade (long story, but I may add a year to her high school; she technically has done 9th). Here’s what I have lined up:

 

Algebra 2 (1.50)

Biology w/lab (1.00)

English all components including lit time (1.50)

History not including lit time (1.00)

French (.75)

Bible (.50)

Piano (.75)

Logic two texts to complete over the year (.75)

Exercise (½ hour 3 evenings a week, time not figured in)

Art (1 ½ hours each Friday, time not figured in)

Total 7.75 hours

 

Something has to give here. I know there is extra time for English, but with all the reading, I don’t see how there can be less. Math takes a long time around here, but maybe she should just have one hour to do what she can, leaving the rest for homework in the evening. When do your students do their writing? My dd loves to take hours and hours just to write. Do I discourage this or just let that creativity flow?

 

I’m terrible at managing my time so any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

[Leanna Tomlinson]

Just some thoughts....

 

Algebra - I find that my dc become less efficient after an hour of math....especially those who don't like it. I would see how much you can accomplish in an hour and either be happy with that, or give some time in the evening for "homework". Even my son, who LOVES math and is about to start Calculus, did better when I set a schedule for him and made him change activities every 50 minutes.

 

English- Yes, high school lit. along with writing assignments can take up to 1.5 hours per day. Possibly consider some audio books when time is short. She can listen while she exercises. Also, just for perspective. I started my dd's senior year with a goal of 18 modern works for lit. We had to decrease that to 13; there is only just so much time in a day. As for writing, I do try to teach my students to be efficient writers by requiring some timed essays. I tell my classes that their goal for sophomore/junior year is to realize that an essay response paper CAN be written in a couple of hours and does not necessarily need to become a major all-consuming project. Many of my female students spend way too much time agonizing over their writing....we're working on that using IEW's advanced writing program.

 

Logic - we used Memoria Press. My dc could accomplish this in 4 days per week.

 

My dd thrived with this plan:

Every morning do Bible and Music practice and then 50 minutes each in 3 academic subjects. Every afternoon (or evening on days with activities) she spent more concentrated time on two academics. We rotated what happened when, but this method kept her from coming down to lunch only having accomplished her Lit, or Writing, or Biology Lab. Accomplishing Bible, Music, and at least starting three subjects by noon kept her from being discouraged.

 

HTH,

[MommyThrice]

Just some thoughts....

 

Algebra - I find that my dc become less efficient after an hour of math....especially those who don't like it.

 

My dd thrived with this plan:

Every morning do Bible and Music practice and then 50 minutes each in 3 academic subjects... but this method kept her from coming down to lunch only having accomplished her Lit, or Writing, or Biology Lab.

HTH,

 

Yes, we have the same situation in my house. Math can drag on for 2-3 hours if I don't set a deadline.

 

I'm pretty sure my son did not spend that much time on Biology. The lab (at an outside class) took time, but I don't think he spent more than 30 minutes a day reading, taking notes, and studying - and he made an A.

 

Also, I'm wondering if history should take that much time since you are not including literature. I don't think we spend over 30-45 minutes on history spine, maps and timeline. Literature is where most of our time goes.

 

Can you schedule SOME writing time after lunch - maybe after three core subjects have been completed - then back to the rest of school assignments before she can spend her spare time on more writing or something else? We had to do that with debate. Ds could work on it for a limited time, then not again until the rest of his work was completed. He usually spend his evenings researching. Certainly not how I wold choose to spend MY time! :tongue_smilie:

[Susan C.]

My 15 yo dd’s schedule for 9th or 10th grade (long story, but I may add a year to her high school; she technically has done 9th). Here’s what I have lined up:

 

Algebra 2 (1.50)

Biology w/lab (1.00)

English all components including lit time (1.50)

History not including lit time (1.00)

French (.75)

Bible (.50)

Piano (.75)

Logic two texts to complete over the year (.75)

Exercise (½ hour 3 evenings a week, time not figured in)

Art (1 ½ hours each Friday, time not figured in)

Total 7.75 hours

 

Something has to give here. I know there is extra time for English, but with all the reading, I don’t see how there can be less. Math takes a long time around here, but maybe she should just have one hour to do what she can, leaving the rest for homework in the evening. When do your students do their writing? My dd loves to take hours and hours just to write. Do I discourage this or just let that creativity flow?

 

I’m terrible at managing my time so any help would be greatly appreciated! :)

 

Your schedule looks a lot like our dd's. It always takes her 1 1/2 hrs. to do math, 45 min. to watch the video, then 45-60 min. to do the homework. Biology was the same, 1 hour online class three times a week plus hour hour every day plus a 2 hour lab day (then the lab report, another hour). I did "writing blocks" for her, she likes to take her time for writing projects. This past year (10th grade), we finished school 1 1/2 weeks early, and she just wrote. She also did writing on the weekends. Doing it during the school schedule would sometimes push out half a day of work, not good!

 

Some ideas that may or may not work: Do French three times a week for an hour, then two days a week, do the Bible for an hour (these two would take the same time slot). Or do the French M-W, Bible T-Th, then Art on Friday. Or, one Bible day, two French days, 1 piano day, 1 art day. You want to take the partial credits and evenly do them throughout the week. Dd found that doing some prereading of assignments on Sunday nights helped her a lot as well.

 

The whole schedule looks very normal to me, HTH! High school is a lot of work!

[AngieW in Texas]

1.5 hours is a very long time for math. If she really needs that much time, I would chop it up into two sessions. My dd does algebra II for 45 minutes/day. I know she didn't average 1 hr/day on biology. I think that took her maybe 45 minutes/day.

[LatinTea]

Thank you everyone, for your comments! They helped me understand a few things better. :)

 

Algebra ~ This is taking her too long. I know that after an hour, her brain is tired. She even looks tired and tells me she can't think anymore! I will limit the lessons to an hour. Then, if not enough is done, she will have to finish before bed. If I don't give that stipulation, I can see her getting only a few done during the allotted time. Also, do NOT do Algebra right away in the morning. It exhausts her (and me) before anything else is accomplished.

 

Logic ~ Do this in 4 days each week. I'm using Memoria Press too so that should work.

 

Writing ~ Make the week-ends her time to devote to writing. Do only what needs to be done during 'class time' and the rest as homework.

 

Literature ~ Do as many audio books as possible. She has an MP3 player so that should help. Don't expect the moon when figuring in what books to read. Concentrate on the main ones and let her pick up what she can IF she has extra time.

 

Time management ~ Set a time limit of 50 minutes for most subjects. I really like that! I can tell her right off that she will only have to work on something for 50 minutes. I think she will even want to set a timer. BUT, again, she has to show me that the work has been done satisfactorily or I will bump the time up to an hour. That should be incentive for her. ;)

 

Bible ~ We are doing a study alongside history this year, with an Old and New Testament survey. I'm thinking of just rolling this up into the history time, but still limit the time to 30 minutes for bible and 50 for history.

 

Thanks again and if anyone else has something else to add, I'm very interested to hear it! :bigear:

Edited August 3, 2010 by LatinTea