Tweaking our week....has anyone tried this?

[MelissaMom]

I have six children, 5 of whom are in school, and this is our sixth week of school (9th year ;)). My oldest is 13 and doing all BJU dvds, so although I have to check his work each day, he's not really in the mix.

 

My focus this year is to really solidify the foundation of math and language arts (using CLE Math, AAS, CLE LA & just found Wm. Henry Maxwell books for comp for 3rd & 5th grader). So I'm really giving those subjects top place in our schedule after our Bible reading. But even in our 6th week, we are still not getting to everything, esp. Geography, History and/or science. Sometimes spelling takes a hit because doing it w/ 4 kiddos takes SO long!!!

 

I wanted our Wednesdays to be open for more hands-on activities, but now I'm considering trying to squeeze all our science (God's Design for Heaven & Earth), history (MOH2) and geography (Evan Moor) into that ONE day.

 

Does this seem crazy? I would still do Bible and then just move into all those subjects. I'd maybe have the kids read on their own later in the day, and possibly some math games or something to keep that in check.

 

I'd love to hear from someone who has tried something like this. :bigear: With six children, our days are long just because of the time it takes to juggle. But I'd really like to have a week where we do all the subjects we need to.

[MelissaMom]

Bump?

 

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?:bigear:

[GoVanGogh]

Well, I only have one student and I *just* started that type of schedule last week, so I obviously don't have a lot of experience. ;)

But - my DS wanted to add in a second science program and I knew he was ready for it *now* - and I didn't know how else to get every scheduled in.

One day a week is now devoted to geography, science and Latin. I did the test run last week and it worked very well. DS is excited to be able to devote so much time to geography and science, as those are his two passions. I feel like we get so much reading and math worked into those two subjects that I'm not losing anything by not "teaching" reading and math on those days.

[MelissaMom]

Suzanne,

Thanks for sharing what you're doing. And how neat that he's so excited! Not sure how excited mine will be. Probably excited they don't have to do the usual math and language arts ;)

 

I'd love to hear from anyone else who has tried this:bigear:

[5LittleMonkeys]

Sorry your not getting people that have tried this way to advise you yet but I had a thought.

 

Are you thinking of doing this in the way a co-op would handle it? Meet on one day a week to discuss the lesson, do a project or experiment and then perhaps, for the older ones, assign a little bit of additional work to be done before the next week. Such as a short summary, outline of the lesson, or end of lesson questions to be answered? I'm not part of a co-op but isn't that essentially the way they work?

 

If that is the case, I don't know why it wouldn't work beautifully. As Cadam said, it can't hurt to try it. Even if it isn't ideal you could just do it for this year while you work on mastering those math and LA skills and then next year do these subjects with a more traditional approach.

[MelissaMom]

That's a great idea, Aime! I hadn't thought of it this way, but that is exactly what some people do--take a day for co-op. And that's the right perspective, to get the basics solid this year and then hopefully everyone will be at a better place next year. I like the idea of assigning the older girls something to do in the week between our 'family co-op'.

 

Thanks for the encouragement, Cadam!

 

It's amazing the ideas that come together when we think outside the box. Thanks for helping me flesh it out.