9th grade schedules/time it takes to complete question from my 9th grader

[Jennifer in MI]

My 9th grade ds would like me to ask you what your 9th graders are taking and how long each thing takes. We started school three weeks ago and we're gradually adding in all our subjects. He's starting to get overwhelmed, and we haven't even added in math yet! I think if he sees that others are taking the same kinds of things and taking the same amount of time, it'll help him. Thanks.

 

Here's what he's doing four days/week:

 

English:

Literature (1/2 hour - 45 minutes/day)

Grammar (25 min/day)

Writing (20 min/day)

 

History

40 min - 1 hour/day

 

Latin

30 min/day

 

Math

40 min/day

 

Phys Ed

30 min/day (occasionally longer - up to an hour or even 2)

 

Science

He's taking this at a local CC. It's a 2 hour class followed by a 2 hour lab two days/week. (These are the days he's most overwhelmed.) Homework so far has been minimal - maybe another 30 minutes/day. This may increase as the semester continues.

 

These classes he does twice/week:

 

Art History

20 minutes/day

 

Logic

20 minutes/day

 

 

I think that he's being unrealistic in thinking he can finish this in just 4 days/week. I only schedule 4 days and expect that there'll be some work to finish up on the weekend. He wants his weekends free. Am I being too hard on him? Is this workload unrealistic for a 9th grader?

[stephanier.1765]

Pretty close to what my 14yo is doing except he is doing Spanish for an hour and history and literature are tied together for 2 hours a day.

 

Grammar 30 - 45 min.

Writing 30-45 min.

Study Skills 30 min.

 

We also do science 2 days a week but at home. 2 hours each time.

[Jennifer in MI]

Pretty close to what my 14yo is doing except he is doing Spanish for an hour and history and literature are tied together for 2 hours a day.

 

Grammar 30 - 45 min.

Writing 30-45 min.

Study Skills 30 min.

 

We also do science 2 days a week but at home. 2 hours each time.

 

Thanks! Our history/lit is tied together too. I just split it here to see it all written out.

[Brindee]

Bible/History (done together)-2hours

Math-1 hour

Piano Practice-1 hour

English/Grammar/Lit-1 1/2 hours

Science-1 hour

Spanish-45 min.

Logic-15-20 min.

 

Science sometimes goes longer. We do science, Spanish and Logic 4x/week

Edited September 2, 2010 by Brindee

[Michelle in AL]

Geometry: 1hr 15 minutes

Biology: 45-1 hr/day plus a 1.5hr lab each week.

English: 1 hr/day

Trisms American history: 45 min

World Religions: 45 min-1 hr

Spanish: haven't added in yet. Guessing4.5 hrs/week.

[regentrude]

We don't have breakdowns for every day. Judging from the first few weeks, this is what it looks like:

Per week:

Math (Geometry) 5 hours

Physics (College class): 8-10 hours

(3 hours lecture, 3-4 hours homework, 2-3 hours assigned reading)

English/History combined (Ancients, Great Books): 10 hours

French: right now only 2 hours, will need to get more once tutor is back

Music (Choir): 2 hours

PE (horseback riding): was 3 hours of lessons; will become more now that she will be training horse

 

I am not sure whether we will count this as 9th grade for DD because technically she would still be in 8th; since she is doing highschool work, we might skip 8th and call this 9th. Will decide after the year.

[Miss Marple]

I think 9th grade is a hard time for students. They are now in high school and they are expected to take school more seriously. It takes time to develop the stamina to do a full day of school. My 10th grader told me recently that he was having a much easier time concentrating this year than he did last year. I think he's settled into a routine. My youngest, in 9th, is always getting distracted with something. He's having a hard time with the new structure and accountability. I'm thinking that this, too, shall pass. Hopefully sooner than later because he's driving me nuts!

 

And they have 6-8 hours of school scheduled per day.

[Elizabeth in WA]

My 8th and 9th graders are doing all their courses together except for one. That one is an elective, and I let each one choose their own from a list I made up of courses I thought I could find materials to reasonably teach them.

 

They have six hours of planned school each day, which is about one hour for each of their six subjects. However, our plans are pretty writing intensive this year, so it can run longer if they take longer with the writing assignments. I am handling that by having them stop working on those if it seems to be getting late and finish everything else before going back to the writing. Otherwise we could get hung up there and end up behind in everything.

 

My boys also get a detailed weekly assignment sheet from me on Friday for the next week broken down into days. They can choose to get ahead on the weekend, and I encourage my young gymnast to at least read ahead as he has four hours of gymnastics practice every weekday. They can choose the order in which they do schoolwork as long as that days work is done before they have any free time. So monitoring how much time is sinking into a writing assignment before the rest of their work is done requires me to be on top of where they are in their day fairly constantly.

 

I am, however, determined to hold line on the writing this year because I think its very important to be able to turn out short (2 page typed, double spaced) essays in a fairly short amount of time in order to prepare for later timed essay exams and college writing work loads.

[lakerks]

Jennifer,

His workload looks similar to my son's, except we'll be doing French, and we do science at home.

[sadiegirl]

This is so funny as I was just sitting down to post a question regarding 9th grader's schedule...my son is also feeling overwhelmed. I have 2 sons-8th and 9th grader and I am trying this year to require them to read certain subjects independently rather than me read aloud. I am trying to do this with Geography, History and Science(Pre-physics with Greg Landry online).

Our schedule:

History 1 hour MWF

Geography 1 hour TTH

Science 1 hour MWF(but we are needing T/TH to keep caught up!)

Vocabulary T/TH

Analytical Grammar 1hour 5 days

LL8 1 hour 5 days

PE

Writing 30 minutes 3x week

Bible/logic/independent reading 30 minutes each

Our online Algebra class hasn't even started so I'm really worried for him once that gets going as he is not a fan of math! He is finding it difficult to do the all the reading and review questions/vocabulary in time allowed and I'm wondering if I am not allowing enough time for amount of work. Do most of you schedule reading for one day and written work the next day? He is an excellent reader so I'm wondering if I am over-scheduling the history/science etc. for each day? We have always read history/geography/science aloud and I think that helped with time but I feel like if they go to ps or a private school in next year or so(which my husband wants) that they will need to do the independent reading of these subjects.

Any advice?

[regentrude]

We have always read history/geography/science aloud and I think that helped with time but I feel like if they go to ps or a private school in next year or so(which my husband wants) that they will need to do the independent reading of these subjects.

Any advice?

 

Do you really believe it saves time? It has been our experience that it takes a LOT longer to read a text aloud compared to independent silent reading. (I suggest you actually time both to see whether this is true for your children's reading speed)

My kids do all their reading on their own; we read out loud things that are meant to be spoken, such as poetry and plays - but not history texts.

 

Also, my children and I are all visual learners, and none of us would retain heard material as well as "seen" (i.e. read self) material. I can not imagine reading a science text out loud - we need to see all the formulas, graphs and diagrams.

Just a thought.

[Ailaena]

Are you continuing with the full load on the days he has the CC class? In our household, that would be OK with a 60-75 minute class, but after 4 hours, that would be steep. Especially if this is his first cc class. He may not be able to keep his 4 day schedule, especially once midterms, projects and finals come about.

 

At this point, we try to schedule dd's CC classes on the same days, and we keep schoolwork to math and reading (history, eng, whatever) Last semester she had one day where she was at the cc for 5 hours and I never expected anything else but math out of her. And just to clarify, I do schedule 90ish minutes/day for math (2h for calculus this year) and she is at gymnastics @6hrs/day.

 

Of course, since this is the path she has chosen, she was fully aware that this meant that there would be schoolwork (to include studying) 7 days/wk. Not necessarily 6 or 7 hours every day, but definitely something. And some days may be 10 hours of work, especially if she lets herself get behind.

 

 

 

 

If this message didnt make sense, it's because I have had it up here for like 30 minutes! I keep getting interrupted by random phone calls and doorbells!

[bugs]

This is the work I planned for my 9th grader - we won't start school until Sept 13th. My daughter is a little overwhelmed and hasn't started! I just let her know that if she were going to ps she'd be spending at least another 25% of her time doing homework.

 

 

English (CW, LLfLOTR, some grammar reinforcement)- 5+ hours/week

Conceptual Physics with Lab - 5 hr/wk

Modern History (keeping it minimal and with great books) - 3-4 hrs/wk

Math (Algebra 1 then Geometry) - 4+ hours/week

Spanish - 4 + hrs/wk

Logic - 4+ hrs/wk

U.S. Govt - 5 hrs/wk (1 semester)

Art and Art& Music history - 5 hrs/wk (2nd semester)

Band and Sax practice - 3.5 hrs/wk

 

Oh, yeah - PE that I'm not counting yet - about 3 hours/week.

 

Basically, I'm expecting to award 7 credits for the total year.

[1Togo]

Perhaps he is overwhelmed with so many subjects. I realize that not all of them are done every day, but there is some overlap. If he has a solid Latin program, then does he have to do grammar? I don't know the grammar you are using, but if you want to continue, is there any way he could knock out the grammar at the beginning of the year and then follow that with his Latin studies. Can you loop the literature and composition? In other words, work on a composition assignment and follow that with a lit assignment. Also, it might work better to comoplete logic, and then work on art history.

 

Our guys worked better with fewer subjects. They always had a core; i.e. math, reading, writing, etc., but liked to push through some of the required subjects and check them off the list by studying in blocks. Studying in bits and pieces may not give your son enough time to dig in.

 

Hth,

 

Bonita

Edited September 3, 2010 by 1Togo
Corrections

[Teachin'Mine]

Similar to the amount of time my dd spends too. I expect more time will be needed as the year progresses and the workload, papers, tests etc. increase. I can't give you actual time spent on each subject, because I don't want to ask my dd. She's on break 'till after Labor Day, and I'm trying not to talk school during these few days. :) But 5 to 6 hours is probably usual.

 

Maybe you can remind him that most high schoolers are in school for about 7 hours and then have another 2 or more hours of homework. That might put his time requirement into perspective. ;)

[Chris in VA]

It's been a while, but as I recall, Film Buff did

Omnibus 1

Devotions (started the day this way) using One Year Bible

Theology (skipped some of the Omnibus and subbed Paul Little's books--2 of them)

Algebra (Jacobs)

Rod and Staff grammar for the first 2 months, then Henle Latin for a semester

Apologia Bio

Writing using various things, none of them truly successful

Guitar (and music theory) with Dad--about once a week, plus a minimum practice time

 

He had at least 3 chores every day, and I wrote them right up on the white board as part of school. I would say he probably worked from 9 until 3 or so. Lots of reading in Omnibus--even though we didn't do all the secondary.

 

It was our first year homeschooling.

[EKS]

My 9th grader's schedule (includes reading and video lectures; times are averages):

 

Composition (writing, grammar, vocabulary, spelling)

1 hour per day

 

Literature

1.5 hours per day

 

Math

1 hour per day

 

History

1.5 hours per day

 

Science

1.25 hours per day

 

Latin

30 minutes per day

[ma23peas]

I have a 9th grader ds...it is overwhelming, and we make adjustments....

 

Chemistry (3.5 hour weekly class with lab..but the course is sooo fast paced...year's course in 6 months) spend 2 hours a day just on it (M-H)

 

Algebra/Geometry (1 hour 4x week)

 

Rosetta Italian (45 minutes a day)

 

Analytical Grammar (45 minutes a day)

 

Handwriting (HA! YEs, still requiring some sheets, it's helping!! 10 minutes a day)

 

Piano (30 minutes a day)

 

History (2x a week 1 hour..this has been missed the past 2 weeks...I fell off our horse and recovery is a pickle...but they've read their books for it, so not so bad)

 

Writing/Composition...(3 hours a week)

 

Here is where we are mixing it up with block scheduling...I would be bored beyond belief and a bit stressed if we kept this schedule year round...so we take 2-3 subjects and throw them out half year....Chemistry/Analytical Grammar/History get tossed our second semester, we add in Speech/Debate (this requires a lot of work, and to me is steeped in history/research) it just gives them a little mental break and spices up the year for them..we prefer block scheduling to year long monotony..

 

Tara

[Tamarind]

Here's our 10th grade schedule. My girls work from 8 to 4. We wish that we could shave a little time off chemistry, but that doesn't seem possible:

 

math

[Tamarind]

Here's our daily 10th grade schedule. My girls work from 8 to 4. We wish that we could shave a little time off chemistry, but that doesn't seem possible:

 

music, 60 min

math, 90 min

chemistry, 90 min

French, 30 min

English vocab & comp, 60 min

history, 60 min

literature, 60 min

 

We also do some fine arts & theology, but not daily.

[Julie in MN]

My youngest is just starting 9th on Tuesday, but these are my thoughts:

 

His math time is short. Another mom told my son that if he didn't need to spend an hour on math each day, then the math he was doing was too easy for him!

 

Foreign languages also usually are a bit longer and usually five days a week, in order to really learn a new language.

 

His phy ed seems long, and I definitely wouldn't do phy ed on those long science days.

 

Maybe blocking the last two electives, so you only do one of them per day? Just transitioning to new subjects takes up time each day, even if the subject is short. And you have quite a few electives on there.

 

HTH, Julie

[Kim in Appalachia]

since it's at college it's a whole year course in just 1 semester. I think subject wise, the schedule looks fine, but you might want to take one of his classes and make it a semester course, like history or English. But, if he's taking another course at the college next semester you may want to just drop one of your current full classes (such as history or English).

 

My dd is taking 2 classes at a college, and she'll take 2 more next semester. That's 4 classes, so I'm only doing 2 others, French (Rosetta Stone) and English. I'm keeping the English light with mostly study guides. I've had her do a ACT writing course before her college classes started, so she has no other writing except for a few essays in her study guides. She has writing assignments for her one class, so I didn't want to overwhelm her. My dd also has piano (1hr a day), and swimming (6 hrs a week).

 

Doing school 4 days a week is not realistic at 9th grade, so if that's his problem, then I would just make him adjust. But he may be feeling overwhelmed with his college class, so you may need to adjust for that.

[Sasharowan]

My ds14, 9th grade does:

History/Literature together

Math program+drill sheet

Grammar

Vocabulary

Writing

Poetry (To come)

Science

French

Cooking(To come)

 

This takes 8-9 hours on Mon., ~4hr.s on Tues (Out of house day), 8hrs. Wed., 5-8hrs. Thurs., 3-4 hrs. Fri.

This is when all are working diligently and there are no rabbit trails or other stuff come up. They really hate it when they are pushed past 12noon on Fri.