Jump to content

Menu

Do you ever feel like there is NEVER enough time in a day?


Recommended Posts

The guys are in 8th and 9th grades this year and so far, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with our schedule. I can't seem to get everything done in a day as in years past which is frustrating to me. We are taking two online classes which I thought would help all of us as they are science and Algebra which are my worst subjects to teach! They are taking a great deal of our time even though the classes online are only once a week. My oldest broke down the other day because he was sooo frustrated with our schedule and said that homeschool USED to be fun as we had time to play Scrabble or geography games, do art projects, online activities etc...go off the beaten path so to speak! I can't do that now! I feel like we are just going from one subject to next and our time is always never enough!

Anybody else out there feeling this way? I feel like we use our time wisely and we allow about 45 minutes to 1 hour per class(History, LL, Geography, Science, Algebra) but then we also do Vocabulary, Logic, Music, Bible and AG.

I would love some advice or just some encouragement because I gotta tell you if this is the direction we are headed for in HS...I am in desperate need of a sedative!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps you are doing too much and would value more time over more subjects. Compare what you are doing to what most 8th and 9th graders would be doing:

 

English

Math

History

Science

elective

elective

 

Each thing you are doing should fit into these categories and take approximately 50 minutes a day plus some homework...unless you choose to do extra.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I try to do just those subjects but for instance, under English I do Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Analytical Grammar, and LL8...how am I to schedule these in a week and get them all done if I do them under an hour labeled English? I try to do Grammar 4-5x a week, Vocabulary 2x if lucky and LL8 4-5x a week.

I just miss the fun of homeschooling and our life. These days I just feel like we are just on a grind and missing what all of us love and that means flexibility and time. We used to be able to miss a day if Grandma came for a visity and now I don't even feel that we can do that!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I completely understand how you're feeling. I have an 8th grader, 4th grader, 1st grader and a 3 year old who wants to "do school" like the big kids. I also babysit full-time for a 2 year old.

 

We have not even started art or music for this school year. We are about a week behind in history (doing it 3-4 days per week) and while my oldest gets science every day, I'm struggling to stay on top of it with my two middle kids (trying to just get to it 2x per week). Some days our school work goes from 8:30am until 4pm and we still don't get to everything in any given day.

 

When we're struggling to get our subjects done, I feel like I'm just piling on busy work, trying to "catch up" instead of delving deeper and following the kids' interests. I also find it hard to justify taking an afternoon off to join friends at the park, if we're not done with our schoolwork.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I guess that is how I am feeling...it is so much busy work and it does take away from us studying a topic that may pop up from another subject. I don't know how we are going to deal with it all as I am sure as time goes on, the math and science are going to get harder and more time-consuming. I want my kids to continue to enjoy learning and it is so discouraging. I wonder how kids in ps handle this load when they don't have an active parent working with them as I am?!?!? I would just like to find some balance to our day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There never seems to be enough time in the day. It bugs me. I try not to do every subject every day. I put a lot more responsibility on my oldest to do work independent of me, and I looked for curriculum that would support this. I need to spend more one-on-one time with the little sister so she can get to reading fluency. Last, I keep it as basic and minimal as possible without short changing them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perhaps there needs to be a re-evaluation of what is actually important?

I know we on here all value the academic achievements of our kids- we want them to be well educated and to be able to do well in life- but there are other things that are important too, but are less visible, less likely to give us something we can write down in a transcript or whatever.

Such as : having a happy and balanced home life, knowing when to put the work aside and go outside into the sunshine for some vitamin D, how to change a tyre or cook a meal, how to not burn out, how to enjoy what you do.....

We work until a certain time each day then the kids have other activities- ds has friends in the street, sometimes work- dd has work. We never work weekends. They have plenty of free time- more than their schooled friends.

What doesn't get done, just doesn't get done. I no longer stress about it (well, I do sometimes, but then I re-evaluate and just let it go).

I think that our society is already sick with the disease of being busy and working too hard. I do not wish to pass that on to my kids. Yes, being able to do work when needed is important, having a wholesome daily discipline is a great life habit- but its not what life shoudl be ALL about.

DH and I really value free time- I think it is an undervalued commodity.

So...maybe you could just call it quits at a certain time each day, and pick up where you left off, the next day?

Life is too short for not taking time every single day to do what you really love, for not just being able to relax and "smell the roses".

We all get the same number of hours in the day. It's how we value our time that differs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are not alone!!! I have been finding that one thing that works for us is to work first on the core subjects like Math, English, Science and History and try to get them out of the way before lunch. Once we hit lunch I feel like I quickly start loosing my 7th and 8th graders; therefor, lunch is not until at least 1:00. It is hard to get them back to the grind stone after lunch. If we are not having a great day and just need a break or something comes up that we want to do in the afternoon, at least the important stuff has been covered for the day. The rest we pick away at as we can.

 

It does seem the older they get the more intense it is but I sometimes think that it's my perception of what needs to be done that is the problem. I am so afraid I am missing something and I will screw my kids up for life!:001_smile:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hear you. I have a 9th grader, a dyslexic 10yo who is still working on reading, and an almost-8yo who IMO still needs her mom. They all play hockey. Two are possibly playing rep this year; I manage one team. I help dh who is self-employed, answering the phone, booking appointments, bookkeeping, etc. There are not enough hours in the day. I don't know that there ever will be. It is a constant tightrope, to be sure we are using our time wisely (we are very human, and often don't), but also to be sure that we have time together and individually to relax and just be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with the things Peela said- and making it happen will be a different process for each family, as we all have different priorities.

 

The thing that has been key for me this year is not to add in all the little extras to our day. We cover a lot of ground each day, and our academics are rigorous, but I have decided that each class should fit neatly in its time frame and the assignments for the class should fit our lives. So I am opting even more this year for quality over quantity. If there is a paper due, I want to make sure it has a purpose; that it is done well and with focus, and the goal for that assignment is met. We don't do busy work around here anymore.

 

The result is that we have more free time. Not tons of it, but more and better quality time. There is time for the activities the kids pursue and down time at home, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I completely understand how you're feeling. I have an 8th grader, 4th grader, 1st grader and a 3 year old who wants to "do school" like the big kids. I also babysit full-time for a 2 year old.

 

We have not even started art or music for this school year. We are about a week behind in history (doing it 3-4 days per week) and while my oldest gets science every day, I'm struggling to stay on top of it with my two middle kids (trying to just get to it 2x per week). Some days our school work goes from 8:30am until 4pm and we still don't get to everything in any given day.

 

When we're struggling to get our subjects done, I feel like I'm just piling on busy work, trying to "catch up" instead of delving deeper and following the kids' interests. I also find it hard to justify taking an afternoon off to join friends at the park, if we're not done with our schoolwork.

 

This is us almost exactly. :iagree:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I totally agree with you, Peela! In fact, up until this year, this is how we have viewed our school. We never do homework. Our school schedule is from 8:00-3:00. We take a lunch break and they always go outside for 30 minutes in morning before class and then at lunch for a short bit. We have a life and our family life after school is a priority which is not dictated by schoolwork unlike most ps kids. This year, however, I just feel like we are not keeping the pace and next year, we are considering a local Christian school for them(grades 9th and 10th then) and so I want to make sure that this year, we cover it well. I think that puts pressure on me to make sure they are up to par on everything and honestly, that is taking the fun out of school for us all and makes me a time watcher which I HATE!

thanks to all of you for encouragement and sympathy as it appears with these grades that it is a common thing to stay behind!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
I try to do just those subjects but for instance, under English I do Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Analytical Grammar, and LL8...how am I to schedule these in a week and get them all done if I do them under an hour labeled English? I try to do Grammar 4-5x a week, Vocabulary 2x if lucky and LL8 4-5x a week.

I just miss the fun of homeschooling and our life. These days I just feel like we are just on a grind and missing what all of us love and that means flexibility and time. We used to be able to miss a day if Grandma came for a visity and now I don't even feel that we can do that!

 

Sadie,

 

Are you just planning on doing the first season of AG this year? If so, why not hold off on LL* until AFTER you complete the season. You can do your lit and writing while you're doing the reinforcement pages (only 1 a week or 1 every other week, depending on what schedule you plan to implement). Don't feel you like you have to do all of LA all the time. You don't. That's why AG is set up the way it is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The guys are in 8th and 9th grades this year and so far, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with our schedule. I can't seem to get everything done in a day as in years past which is frustrating to me. We are taking two online classes which I thought would help all of us as they are science and Algebra which are my worst subjects to teach! They are taking a great deal of our time even though the classes online are only once a week. My oldest broke down the other day because he was sooo frustrated with our schedule and said that homeschool USED to be fun as we had time to play Scrabble or geography games, do art projects, online activities etc...go off the beaten path so to speak! I can't do that now! I feel like we are just going from one subject to next and our time is always never enough!

Anybody else out there feeling this way? I feel like we use our time wisely and we allow about 45 minutes to 1 hour per class(History, LL, Geography, Science, Algebra) but then we also do Vocabulary, Logic, Music, Bible and AG.

I would love some advice or just some encouragement because I gotta tell you if this is the direction we are headed for in HS...I am in desperate need of a sedative!!!

 

Right there with you. :grouphug: Were you told in advance how much outside of class time to expect for each online class? I've heard some of them can consume vast amounts of time. My daughter took a Mythology course in the spring of last school year and it took huge amounts of time. Great class but not something I'd want her doing regularly. This year, we have had a very rough last few weeks, facing some of what you are with no time and all our time taken up by school work and never getting it all done. And I thought we had a pretty streamlined schedule, but it was too many online classes. I gave it a lot of prayer, and I decided to pull my girl (8th grade) from her math and science online classes. Way too much screen time for us. I felt terrible for her. She loved the classes and the teacher was wonderful but it was just too much for our family. I figured if I was going to recreate regular school at home, I might as well send her to school because there was just something very sorry about the situation of her sitting in front of the screen so much. I really believed she'd be happier around the corner at our local Catholic high school. We were all relieved to lighten the load.

 

I think that homeschooling should be more efficient than school so I think that we should accomplish more in less time but I think we (many of us) get into this idea that we have to teach all this stuff that kids in school are never going to get anyway. My child is taking two foreign languages right now, but she loves them, so I will continue to go with it but I dropped logic to do it this year. But kids in school typically do not take two languages I don't think and I doubt they study logic in most schools. I see that you are doing history and geography. Not really necessary to do both if they are full courses. Anyway, I feel like the strengths of homeschooling are having freedom to do things with family, get out in the world and do some community service, and explore interests plus do academics in a very focused one on one environment, which should save time, not have us enslaved to what we feel are "necessary" academics and feeling like we aren't getting anything done.

 

I guess I'm realizing that academics are not the be all and end all. Not if it means my kid is glued in the house to a chair at the table all day with just me. Like I said, no formal logic this year. Also, no vocabulary right now. And now, we have dropped the time-intensive online math/science to go with something at home. I don't care if it's not "rigorous" right now. She's in 8th grade. She'll be fine. She will be happy I hope and have some free time, which to me, is much more important right now. This past month, I've learned some really valuable things about what's important and what's not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I try to do just those subjects but for instance, under English I do Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Analytical Grammar, and LL8...how am I to schedule these in a week and get them all done if I do them under an hour labeled English? I try to do Grammar 4-5x a week, Vocabulary 2x if lucky and LL8 4-5x a week.

 

 

 

We are using all of the same materials here. Maybe my plan will give you some ideas:

Fall Semester (ongoing)

Analytical Grammar, Season 3 - (25 min./day, 4 days/wk.)

Outlining and Summarizing Workbook - (25 min./day, 3 days/wk.)

Lightening Literature - (30 min./day, 4 days/wk.)

Creative Writing/NaNoWriMo (30 min./day, 4 days/wk in Oct. and Nov.)

Fall semester time 3 days/wk: 110 minutes, 1 day/wk: 85 min. (Outside of Oct. & Nov. these times decrease to 80 min. and 55 min. respectively)

 

Winter/Spring Semester (Jan-May)

Classical Roots - (15 min./day, 4 days/wk.

Composition/Elegant Essay (45 min./day, 4 days/wk.)

Lightening Literature - (30 min./day, 4 days/wk.)

Winter/Spring Semester time 90 min./day, 4 days/wk.

 

I am basically alternating programs - grammar,outlining & creative writing from 1st semester to be replaced by vocabulary and more writing demands in the second semester.

 

I don't think there's any magical amount of time students should spend on any particular subject - these estimates are on the high side - my son tends to rush through his work. Also, papers that he writes in history and science are not included in these totals.

 

How many seasons of Analytical Grammar are you trying to complete in one year?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...