s/o: Worst Saturday...

[Mommyfaithe]

I never think I have ridiculous expectations of the workload for my kiddoes....BUT I have absolutely nothing to compare it to.

So, tell me...

 

What was your childs assignments this week?

Is this a fair representation of the weekly workload?

What courses are your kids doing? In what books?

What grade are they in?

Do they have "outside" commitments such as a part-time job or a sports team?

 

Just how much do you expect from them? Written work? Projects? Math lessons etc.?

 

Thanks,

Faithe

[Brilliant]

Here is my freshman's schedule, which caused him to do schoolwork for several hours yesterday:

 

German - 45 minutes/day of Rosetta Stone

Geometry - approx. 15 problems/day. This takes HOURS. I think it should take no more than 1.25 hours.

English - He is in a 1 hour class 2x a week. There is homework 4 days a week, which I think should take 45-60 minutes. Usually a chapter or two of reading, a little vocab work, or writing or revising a paragraph. (they will move into essays later, and I think the homework gets worse).

Bible - He is in a 1.5 hour class 1 day a week, plus a short daily lesson (15-20 minutes max)

Piano - He is in a 45-minute lesson 1 day a week, he also practices 5 days for 45 minutes.

Biology - he is taking this from an outside teacher. 1 day a week is a 2.5 hr class. The other 4 days is assigned homework, which I think the teacher expects to take up to an hour a day.

AP Human Geography - daily assignments (including discussion) should take 45-60 minutes per day.

 

So if I add this up - it should be about 6 hours a day, which I think is not bad. The day with the bio class will be a little longer. The biggest problem is he stretches geometry out to 2-3 hours. Then after I grade it - he spends another hour re-doing the missed problems. Argh.

 

His other activities/interests are Ham radio, Royal Rangers at church (meets every 2 weeks; not a lot of outside work has been assigned this year yet), and going to the gym.

[Greta Lea]

Both of my boys have special needs. My 16yo ds has Asperger Syndrome. This affects his attention span, but he is a great with anything in the Language Arts area. His struggle, other than focusing, is in math. He's reviewing some basic skills right now, but will begin Key To Algebra in about a month.

 

My 13yo ds has dyslexia, which seems to affect every area of school work.

 

This year I'm being more hardnosed about getting their work done for the week. Both of them have had to a bit of work on Saturday at least once over the past month (our first month of school this year).

 

Here's my 16yo son's schedule:

 

Monday/Wednesday/Friday

 

-Math: works 45 mins., then check and make corrections (about 1 hour total)

-Bible: Following Ambleside Online Year 11 reading plan & orally narrates/Friday: Awana lesson

-Writing Strands 5: He's zooming through this (and loves it too!)...works about 30 min. a day on this.

-History: AO's year 11 reading plan for 20th Century by Gilbert...reads for about 20-30 minutes...orally narrates (Written assignment about 2x a month)

-Literature: mostly 20th century lit...reads about 20-30 minutes a day...written assignment at the end of each book (no reading that day).

-Biology: Abeka...read a section, then answers 2-3 questions at the end of the section orally to me

-Driver's Ed: reads/studies 2 pages a day from the book, then takes an online quiz (will take written test last week of Oct, then begins Rosetta Stone German in this time slot)...about 20-30 minutes day

-Exercise: Couch to 5K training...30 minutes a day.

 

Tuesday/Thursday

-Same as above minus the Writing Strands, Biology and Driver's Ed.

-Homeschool PE class at local gym for 2 hours after lunch

-Volunteering with an afterschool ministry at our church from 3:30-5:30

 

13yo ds:

Monday-Thurs:

-One Year Bible for Kids: read/orally narrate

-Math: Developmental Math...usually 1 page a day

-Literature: reads/orally narrates...about 20 minutes of reading

-Megawords book 2: one page a day

-History: SOTW book 2, reads/orally narrates one section of a chapter a day...written narration periodically

-Wordsmith Apprentice: one lesson a day

-Science: Abeka...reads a sections/writes answers to specific questions I choose (he prefers to write answers for this instead of orally discussing them).

-Exercise: Cross Country or Basketball practice

 

Friday:

Same as above, except he does his Awana lesson for bible time and has no Wordsmith Apprentice or Science lesson.

-Basketball practice

 

Both boys volunteer on Wednesday night with the elem. age Awana groups from 5:30 (they feed them supper) until 7:45.

 

They also have their own Awana class on Sunday night at 4pm, then youth group supper, games, worship and sermon from 5pm-about 7:30ish.

[regentrude]

What was your childs assignments this week?

Is this a fair representation of the weekly workload?

What courses are your kids doing? In what books?

What grade are they in?

Do they have "outside" commitments such as a part-time job or a sports team?

Just how much do you expect from them? Written work? Projects? Math lessons etc.?

 

 

My 13 y/o is in 8th grade (we may call it 9th, not sure).

She takes Physics (audits an algebra based college physics class- Knight/Jones/Field as text), geometry (AoPS), history/english as Great Books (Ancients; Short History of Western Civ as text), French.

Further commitments are choir (2hours/week) and taking care of her horse/riding/barn chores (this week about 12 hours).

 

This week she spent 10 hours on physics (3 hours for lectures, 2 hours for lab, the rest reading, homework and test preparation); 3 hours on math (usually it is 5, but physics lab took the time of one math lesson);

10 hours on English/history; 2 hours on French (below average)

 

I expect her to spend a minimum of 25 hours on schoolwork each week, but she is allowed to choose her subjects. The only things that are happening on a schedule are physics (lectures are scheduled, and homework is due) and math (5 hours a week).

 

As far as assignments go: I do not give daily assignments. It depends on what we are working on.

In math, she works the problems in her chapter of Art of Problem Solving.

In physics, she attends lecture, has a weekly homework assignment which takes about 3 hours, has to do assigned reading.

In english, this week she wrote an essay about epithets in the Iliad. However, in the last few weeks she did not have a writing assignment on her books because it takes a few weeks to read enough of the Iliad before you can write something about it. She will have more writing once she has progressed further with her reading.

She will also work on some long term history project.

With the school year just being a few weeks old and her assigned reading rather difficult (Herodotus Histories, Homer Iliad), she has spent most of her time just reading and gathering material rather than producing finished work.

[regentrude]

Geometry - approx. 15 problems/day. This takes HOURS. I think it should take no more than 1.25 hours.

 

The biggest problem is he stretches geometry out to 2-3 hours. Then after I grade it - he spends another hour re-doing the missed problems. Argh.

 

 

What kinds of problems is he doing? I am asking because DD is taking geometry too, and many geometry problems can be extremely time consuming, depending on how challenging they are and how much careful construction work is required. It is not uncommon for my DD (who loves math and is good at it) to spend half and hour working on a particularly challenging geometry problem.

The level problems she does - no way she would get even close to finishing 15 problems in a day.

Have you tried doing your son's assignment to see whether it is actually doable in the amount of time you think it is?

(Just a suggestion - because I know that from looking at problems it is hard to judge how time consuming they are)

[Julie in MN]

I designed my older dd's high school schedule myself, and I'm using a pre-designed schedule for my youngest ds this year in 9th -- what a difference! It takes so much dissension out of the equation. We use the MFW schedule for almost all subjects this year, including geometry and French. The only thing I decided to do on my own was science, and that of course is where we have disagreements about expectations and such.

 

I love teaching my kids what I think is important, and I will probably always adjust anything I use for my family. But I'm finding that having a framework that tells both of us when enough is enough, is really more freeing than I realized :)

 

Julie

[Laura in CA]

I'm very pleased with the classes my 9th-grade ds13 has. I think he'll get a fantastic education this year. BUT ... it does require me being around to keep him on task. He's a hard, efficient worker, but during his breaks he can get lost in cyberspace ... usually reading the latest tech news, or "Macworld" magazine ... I was wondering if I'd drive him crazy this year, so it was *very* heartening to read the Saturday thread, esp. of kids who thank their mom later :001_smile:

 

Here's what he has:

 

AP Calc BC with PA Homeschoolers -- the biggest commitment, about 2h a day (*he* insisted on BC over AB)

AP Comp Sci -- 1h class, and a few hours a week doing the assignments

English 3 with Potter's School -- probably will be ca. 4h/wk plus 1.5h class

Lit discussion class with Adam Andrews -- 2h discussion twice a month; reading takes about 5h/wk

Greek/Roman Lit w/tutor -- 2h class, half-hour of reading a week

Chemistry labs in Berkeley (this takes most of the day, twice a month), supplemented with Spectrum labs & reading -- about 4h/wk

German 2 w/OSU -- about 2h/wk

 

I'm reading Cal Newport's book about leaving time to pursue serendipitous experiences, and I'm hoping this schedule leaves time for my son to do that. I did carefully choose courses that weren't huge time sinks. I'm stressing about the time needed for calc & Berkeley trips, but my son LOVES taking the train with his buddies ... He was invited to join an Advanced Topics class in programming (he doesn't realize what an honor that is!), and he does have time for that, so, so far, we're doing OK!

 

He also does track 3x/wk, and piano. Dropped guitar this month b/c we just couldn't fit it in. He has a lot of friends too -- which complicates things -- we still do park day once a week too ... OK, I'm stressing again! Sorry if this wasn't helpful :D

 

~Laura

 

ETA: I forgot church youth group (although that's Sundays), and math club at the local high school -- that's probably what booted guitar out ...

Edited September 19, 2010 by Laura in CA

[gingersmom]

My daughter is an ice skater and skates 6-7 days/week.

 

Monday-

math lesson (watch video and do all problems

Reading book #1-50 pages

Reading book #2-3 chapters plus 10 questions to answer

Vocabulary-1 lesson

Easy Grammar-1 lesson

Spanish-1 page

History-reading plus numerous questions

Science-reading one lesson and numerous questions

 

Tuesday-

 

Math-one lesson

Book 1 & 2 -read and questions

Easy Grammar

Vocabulary

History

Science

Spanish

 

Wed, Thurs, Friday-all similar

 

We have not begun Literature yet (Prentice Hall textbook) and she has not been given any writing assignments yet.

[AnitaMcC]

I never think I have ridiculous expectations of the workload for my kiddoes....BUT I have absolutely nothing to compare it to.

So, tell me...

 

What was your childs assignments this week?

Is this a fair representation of the weekly workload?

What courses are your kids doing? In what books?

What grade are they in?

Do they have "outside" commitments such as a part-time job or a sports team?

 

Just how much do you expect from them? Written work? Projects? Math lessons etc.?

 

Thanks,

Faithe

 

For my Ds and Dd... both 10th graders.

 

Both do...

 

1 hour a day for English Composition/Research... "Writing Clear Essays" (there are 14 chapters) We do a chapter every 3 weeks.

Read chapter and complete chapter assignments in "text" first week, do one 2-3 page essay 2nd week based on text lessons. The 3rd week they do an SAT prompt essay. The essays they do them on Monday/Tuesday, and then Wed/Thurs they correct and polish it. Friday they do the final write-up. They will have an "end of course" research paper.

 

1 hour a day plus reading time for Themed Literature.... pick 5-6 books per semester

Have three weeks to read book, do a reading journal per book as they read, and write an literary analysis the fourth week. Also will do an end of semester project.

 

1 hour a day for World History II (since 1500)... "Holt World History: The Human Journey"

One chapter a week: complete section review as homework from text, watch assigned chapter movie and keep notes, End of Chapter test. Will have five "unit essays" and a "end of course" final project.

 

Ds also doing:

1-2 hours a day for Chemistry... Zumdahl "Introductory Chemistry: A Foundation"

One chapter a week... chapter homework about 20 questions/problems (he grades). 1 lab per chapter with lab report. He has an exam about every 2-3 chapters. He also has lecture videos on line he watches. Will do an "End of Course" project.

 

1-2 hour a day for Precalculus... I forget the text we are using.

3-4 sections a week. Daily problems up to him and he checks his own work. He completes the chapter reviews as a homework grade. He does cumulative exams about every 2-3 chapters.

 

1-2 hour a day for Astronomy... Seeds, "Foundations of Astronomy"

1-2 chapters a week. Daily homework is up to him. He has Chapter tests and lab/activities. Will do an "End of Course" project.

 

1 hour a day for Spanish... "Como se dice" text, workbook, and CD's

Self Paced. He has to complete workbook for homework and do Chapter Exams.

 

Done in evenings and weekends...P.E. and Extracurricular... Kung Fu, Bowling league, Civil Air Patrol, weekly Teen Group PE session.

 

Generally his schedule is:

Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri school from 9am to 3:30pm. With a one hour lunch break.

Thursdays school from 9am to noon, Teen Group noon-3pm.

He also does school work on weekends but this is more because he is accelerating his sciences (he is doing chemistry and astronomy first semester and then wants to do physics and geology second semester) and his labs need to be done on weekends when I have more time to supervise him.

Kung Fu is Mon, Wed, Fri for 45 minute class

Civil Air patrol Thurs 6pm to 9:15pm plus occassional weekends.

 

Dd also doing:

1-2 hours a day for Integrated Science... Teaching CompanyThe Joy of Science: The Sciences: An Integrated Approach.

Complete 1 chapter every week to two weeks. Watch TT videos. Keep a learning journal (notes from lectures, vocab, text assignments). Quizzes and Exams each chapter. Lab Activities each chapter. Will do five "End of Unit" projects (physics, Geology, Astronomy, Chemistry, Biology).

 

1 hour a day for Algebra 2... I forget the text book

Do 2-3 sections a week, daily homework up to her and she checks her work, 2-3 per Chapter quizzes, Chapter exams.

 

1 hour a day for Chinese... "Integrated Chinese" level 1 part 1 and LiveMocha.com

Self paced. Has to do workbook for homework and Chapter exams.

 

10+ hours a week for Applied Music... Weekly private lessons for guitar, piano, drums, and is a member of "garage band" with practice 1-2 times a week for about 3 hour each time. Most of her music practicing is not during school hours except piano/guitar lesson is on Monday afternoon for 30 minutes.

 

1-2 hours a week for Music Fundamentals II and III... Alfred’s Essentials of Music Theory Book 2 & 3.

She completes two lessons a week. I grade her on unit (about every 4 lessons) quizzes and her music instructor quizzes her periodically.

 

1 hour a day for Music History... "Music, An Appreciation" by Roger Kamien, 1976 and "What to Listen for in Music" by Aaron Copland

She alternates... does Kamien one week, Copland the next. Homework includes keeping a learning journal that includes reading notes, vocab, answering questions from Kamien text, notes on listening to music assignments. Summary essays for each unit of Kamien text, "End of Course project" utilizing Kamien, Copland, and two+ other resources. Will add another resource for modern music (since 1976 time frame that the text was written).

 

Done in evenings and weekends... P.E....Kung Fu

 

Her schedule is typically like:

Monday school from 9am to 1:00pm, quick lunch, then off to piano/guitar lesson, and sometime chiropracter appointment, then back home by 3pm.

Tues, Wed, Friday she schools from 9am to 3:30pm, with a hour lunch break.

Thursdays school from 9am to noon, Teen Group noon-3pm.

Kung Fu Monday and Tues from 4:30pm to 9pm, Wed from about 5:30pm to 8pm, Thurs from 6pm to 9pm, Fridays from 5pm to 7pm

She doesn't go to Kung Fu on one night a week Wed-Friday if she has band practice. The practice schedule changes week to week. She also goes usually Sun for a band practice and now on Saturdays she will be going to Kung Fu in Chicago for additional training in Wu-Shu Kung Fu.

 

For both, they often do additional school work (mainly reading) earlier in day or later in day and often on weekends.

Edited September 19, 2010 by AnitaMcC

[Brindee]

What was your childs assignments this week?

Is this a fair representation of the weekly workload?

What courses are your kids doing? In what books?

What grade are they in?

Do they have "outside" commitments such as a part-time job or a sports team?

 

Just how much do you expect from them? Written work? Projects? Math lessons etc.?

We are doing MFW Ancient History & Lit. for dd13 in 9th grade, so that's Bible, History and English/Lit. We are very happy with how things are going this year! This is what dd does each day:

 

Bible-------1 hour

History-----1 hour

English-----1 hour

Biology-----1 hour

Spanish 1--45 min. (Visual Link, using their Homeschool lesson plans)

Piano------1 hour practice/day, 45 min. lesson 1/wk.

Voice------15-30 min. practice/day, 15-20 minute lesson /week

Speech----Time varies

PE---------45 min.

Algebra 1---1 hour (had problems with a certain program, so is "behind". Will probably start Algebra 2 before the year is over)

Logic-------15-30 min. (Using Fall. Det. & Think. TB for 1/2 credit of Intro. to Logic [since she has only done the Dandy Lion Series before this])

 

Volunteering at Humane Society once a week or more. Finishing up a huge community service project (She and her friend helped raise $30,000 for a special playground for Autistic children)--all the money is raised, and the playground is being built on September 26!!! Plans are in the works for these girls to possibly go on a mission trip to India to work in an orphanage for 2 weeks (which means I'd go too!). She also plays the piano for church once a month or so, is in a Youth Group that meets once a week. She does yeard work and dog watching for neighbors.

 

Fridays are lighter days as that's the volunteer day.

[Brilliant]

What kinds of problems is he doing? I am asking because DD is taking geometry too, and many geometry problems can be extremely time consuming, depending on how challenging they are and how much careful construction work is required. It is not uncommon for my DD (who loves math and is good at it) to spend half and hour working on a particularly challenging geometry problem.

The level problems she does - no way she would get even close to finishing 15 problems in a day.

Have you tried doing your son's assignment to see whether it is actually doable in the amount of time you think it is?

(Just a suggestion - because I know that from looking at problems it is hard to judge how time consuming they are)

 

I will try doing his assignment tomorrow. I sure hope it doesn't take me 3 hours. :D

[momtotkbb]

What was your childs assignments this week?

Is this a fair representation of the weekly workload?

What courses are your kids doing? In what books?

What grade are they in?

Do they have "outside" commitments such as a part-time job or a sports team?

 

Just how much do you expect from them? Written work? Projects? Math lessons etc.?

 

This past week dd (14/9th grade) had the following outside commitments which are typical for her - 16 hours of gymnastics practice (sometimes it's more) - 2 hours of volunteer work -1.5 hours church youth group.

 

For school work she completed:

LA:

2 stories and accompanying LightUnit work for CLE's Lit 1.

3 Lsns in CLE's Engl I and 4 Lsns in Queen's Lang Lsns High School I

Vocabulary review and quiz over 10 words from Cartoon Vocabulary

2 readings from D'Aulaire's Mythology w/ Narrations

1 week of handwriting practice from Queen's Pictures in Cursive (bec she likes it and wanted to use it)

3 -10 minute journal entries and 1 paper from the CLE LU topic

 

Math/Logic:

5 lessons from BJU Consumer Math (we're taking a break from regular math this year and will pick up Alg II next year - she completed Alg I & Geo in Middle School); 1 Fallacy Detective Lesson; 1 review lesson from BJU Alg I.

 

Spanish:

1 lsn from Visual Link Spanish; made notecards from the lesson and drilled w/ middle brother; worked w/ little brother on counting in Spanish

 

Physical Science:

3 sections in P-H Concepts in Action Physical Science text w/ workbook pages to accompany; experiments from Physics Solar Workshop; helped me teach a 5th/6th grade co-op science course; 2 chapters from Story of Science w/ notebook entries

 

Geography:

2 chpts from Complete Book of Marvels w/ notebook pages; 1 reading w/ narration from Seven Wonders of the World; mapping of physical features of Europe & countries and capital cities;WP notebook page for British Isles; selected readings from WP CAW (People Around the World; Material World; What the World Eats; School Like Mine; Women in the Material World - this was a light week bec of social activities - she alternates this w/ middle brother and does BJU Cultural Geography on her own)

 

Religious Studies:

Readings on Christian religion and a notebook entry

CLE Bible taught to middle brother and family Bible readings (also a lighter week)

 

Health:

AOP Lifepac for Health - she works in it twice a week for about 45 mins each time. She had an activity this past week for it and it took her a little longer one day.

 

Piano:

Lessons haven't started back yet - so she's only practicing 30-45 mins a day.

 

We do 2-3 family read alouds that she participates in too. She didn't do current events this past week (normally she has to find 3 articles from the paper for the week and writes about the even and why or why not she finds it important). School for her normally takes about 4-4.5 hours a day --unless she's really into something or drags something out then it can take up to 5.5. I try to give her more freedom though bec of her outside commitments - so I stack Mon - Thursday pretty heavy and we use Fri. for tests, catch-ups w/ writing assignments, etc.. This past week she did have to work Sat., after a 4 hour practice, on a writing assignment that she didn't have to me by Fri.

[distancia]

Daughter, age 17 1/2, a Senior in high school. Below I have listed instruction/lecture time. Additional time spent doing homework is listed at the end...

 

English Comp 2 at CC--1/2 hr drive each way 2x week; class total 3 hrs

 

Spanish 2 at Comm Coll--online course, total 4 hrs per week

 

Algebra/Geometry review at home for SAT prep--1.25 hrs daily total 7.5 week

 

Marine Biology at home--45 to 50 minutes daily--total 4.5 hrs a week

 

Chemistry at home--20 minutes a day, up to 60 after Math review 1.5 hrs wk

 

Dance (D just got hired to dance with a professional performing troupe and she will making money! practice 2x week 2 hrs each time total 4 hrs week plus performances on Friday nights

 

Zumba Class instruction--2x week each class 1 hr total 2 hrs week

 

------------

 

Basically it is comes down to D having about 7 hours of schoolwork per day, and that would include homework and travel time for her college classes. However, she cannot do a constant 7 hours 5 times for a total of 35 hours a week due to dance practice and her English class, so she is working about 6 hours a day on schoolwork 6 days a week.

 

There is a new boyfriend in the picture but she doesn't have much time for him and as nice as he is, I don't think it's going to last....he wants to spend more time with D and she just doesn't have it.

 

She has learned very quickly that time spent on Facebook and gabbing on her cell phone drags out her study time and she even came to me today and told me that she has messed up (leaving a lot of homework until Sunday) and she needs to buckle down. Plus, her best friend is a Freshman at college, already on academic probation, and is now caught in a vicious cycle of heavy partying (waking up at 4 pm every day, starting to party at sundown, and going around the clock....I am so grateful that D is learning from her friend's mistakes!

Edited September 20, 2010 by distancia

[EKS]

9th grader (he complains about his work load but I think it's on the light side):

 

Math:

1 hour per day (algebra II)

 

English:

Textbook 30 minutes

The Scarlet Letter 30 minutes reading, 15 minutes discussing

Grammar/vocabulary/writing 1 hours

 

Science:

1-1.5 hours

 

History:

1.5 hours

 

Latin:

30 minutes

 

State history:

1 hour

 

Violin:

15 minutes

[Mommyfaithe]

Thanks everyone! This is eye-opening.

 

~~Faithe