Do you devote just a day to a particular subject?

[Mosaicmind]

I haven't decided how I want to schedule our days. I used to use MOTH to schedule then I ran a yahoo group for loop scheduling, but I am not for sure what I want to do this year. I am going to be working on that today.

 

I have been thinking of devoting Friday as our "science/foreign language day". Instead of doing these subjects everyday or even 2-3 days a week, I am wondering if it work to do these subjects just on Fridays and maybe Saturdays for experiments?

 

Has anyone done this or are you doing this? How is it working? What day(s) do you devote to this? I am considering maybe doing art/music on this day too, alternating with art one week and music the next.

 

What are your thoughts?

[Poke Salad Annie]

We're doing something similar. Our Fridays are kind of a "catch-up" day, and also a game/experiment day. We'll probably review over what we've read and discussed through the week. If this doesn't work, I think Saturdays are great days to do experiments, as you would have more time and wouldn't be so pressed for time from other work. Sounds like you've got a plan to me. :)

[Laurel]

With science, arts and music, etc. I think it sounds like a great idea, but I would NOT do that with a foreign language. With language, you need the repeated exposure to really succeed and gain any sort of fluency.

 

Our Fridays are light, fun days - math games, mad libs, nature walk, and arts and music.

[regentrude]

Depends on subject and age.

I do not think a student would be able to work a whole day on highschool level science, math or foreign language.

Art and Music- no problem. Science for little ones, no problem.

Foreign language and math- not for any age, those need continuous exposure.

[johnandtinagilbert]

For me, yes, for the dc, no. I block teach on Wed (Latin, Writing introduction, Vocab., Discussions for science and history (middle and high schoolers). Then, they have independent work for the rest of the week, so while it's a solo day for me, they have those same subjects, in small doses, the rest of the week.

 

I think with younger dc, the most I would trim to is 2 days of history and 2 days of science..in fact, I'm getting there now, with the fifth day of independent work (even some busy work, honestly) in those 2 subject areas. I'd be too afraid of poor retention otherwise.

[robsiew]

I think it just really depends on you and your kids. I have tried condensing science down into 1-2 days and it just doesn't work well here. We do much better doing a little bit each day. We reserve one day for one experiment a week. My kids want nothing to do with school on Saturday or Sunday so that just would not go over well here (plus we are usually busy on the weekends). If you're kids don't mind I'd just give it a try.... you'll probably know soon enough whether it's a good idea or not! :D I think it would work fine with art and music though (as long as the "music" you speak of is not practicing an instrument). As a pp said, I would not handle foreign language this way. 15 min. a day would be better than once a week.

[2_girls_mommy]

My oldest is only 3rd grade, but so far we have always had an afternoon subject. We do our daily work, then one day a week we do art. One day is science, one day is music, and 2 days are history. Fridays are co-op so they take classes there that overlap some of the at home things as well. And since we have only 4 days a week at home, some of the classes at home overlap too. We have to do music the same day as something else. And we don't "not" do science on other days except our science day. We may read or discuss our current topic, or finish up copying some of the work or narrations on other days. It is just that one day a week we are definitely doing science, if that makes sense. We may incorporate art into our other subjects at times, but we are definitely doing art on Mondays, kwim?

[Mosaicmind]

I don't know what I was thinking when I said foreign language, that I probably couldn't do once a week. I am just having a really hard time figuring out how to gittr done each day and still cover everything I need to.