How do you keep boundaries about school-free days?

[sahm99]

I am struggeling about defining school-time/days and "free" days...

 

We are regularly working during week-ends, "just to finish this and that"...and it is wearing me out...:tongue_smilie:

I am realizing that I will need to be much stricter about enforcing more regular school-times.

We are currently doing full days (8-4) Mo, Tu, Th, Fr and a lighter Wednesday (8-1).

Saturdays are officially our "Science-days"... This is in an ideal world:lol:.

 

Defacto we usually spend Saturdays playing catch-up (Saxon-test, Latin-Quiz, etc.)...and Sundays turn out to be "crazy, hurried, frustrated, half-done-somewhat-days"... Not good!

 

 

How do you schedule your work-/off-days? Are you successfull? How good are you about keeping week-ends "free"?

 

Thanks!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Let's say for an instance that you and the kids did not do any other activities or play time until all the school for that day was completed? How many hours a day would that be? Do you let them go without it being done because you have an outside activity? Because you're tired? Why?

[Mom2J112903]

We school on days DH works, so if that means he works a weekend, we school on the weekend.

 

I only have one child but we are busy with appts, so sometimes I just plan a lighter day. We *always* do Math, Reading, Handwritting however. Other days are more full ;) We also school year around, otherwise we would be two very stressed out people because since August we have only accomplished 32 school days.

[Murphy101]

Why isn't the work getting done during the week seems to be the root of the problem?

 

I harsh about our school hours being respected. No, or very few, interruptions, do not disturb sign in door, ringers off, computer, tv and other electronics not allowed. I rarely schedule activities during that schooling dedicated time.

 

I grade and go over their work every day, one kid at a time, so they don't get to Friday and have a weeks worth of corrections to make.

 

If they have Saturday work, and the older ones often do, then it is usually corrections, or finishing up a project or essay.

 

I tell them Sunday is forbidden for work, so they are no permitted to use that as a day to make up. They know this, so if it isn't done on Saturday, then it is their own fault if it hurts their grade because they didn't get it done for Monday. I think this is a good training policy for high school and college classes, as well as employment.

[JennW in SoCal]

Honestly?

 

By making them school-free days. Period. Especially with younger kids. Only in high school if they sometimes have an essay or project to finish would they work on the weekends, and it was usually their choice to finish over the weekend.

 

Homeschooling isn't about finishing the worksheets and curricula. It is about instilling a love of learning and equipping your kids with the skills they need to continue learning through life. Do math for a certain amount of time each day then close the book, and leave it closed until the next school day. Same thing with grammar or any other "program".

 

Learning was something we've always done everyday -- but it was never called "school". It is just how we live. We share books every day, watch interesting documentaries and good movies, read the newspaper, go to museums, study the birds and wildlife in our area.

 

So by all means make family time a priority. Work through your curricula each school day but remember slow and steady wins the race, right? Enjoy your weekends, savor your family time. They grow up and move away before you know it, and trust me, you will want to have memories of fun family times to look back on rather than completed curricula.

Edited October 2, 2010 by JennW in SoCal
WBC...writing before coffee.

[LibraryLover]

:hurray:

Honestly?

 

By making them school-free days. Period. Especially with younger kids. Only in high school if they sometimes hae an essay or project to finish would they work on the weekends, and it was usually their choice to finish over the weekend.

 

Homeschooling isn't about finishing the worksheets and curricula. It is about instilling a love of learning and equipping your kids with the skills they need to continue learning through life. Do math for a certain amount of time each day then close the book, and leave it closed until the next school day. Same thing with grammar or any other "program".

 

Learning was something we've always done everyday -- but it was never called "school". It is just how we live. We share books every day, watch interesting documentaries and good movies, read the newspaper, go to museums, study the birds and wildlife in our area.

 

So by all means make family time a priority. Working through your curricula each school day but remember slow and steady wins the race, right? Enjoy your weekends, savor your family time. They grow up and move away before you know it, and trust me, you will want to have memories of fun family times to look back on rather than completed curricula.

[Sputterduck]

8-4? That's longer than traditionally schooled kids spend in school!

[MamaT]

Why isn't the work getting done during the week seems to be the root of the problem?

 

I harsh about our school hours being respected. No, or very few, interruptions, do not disturb sign in door, ringers off, computer, tv and other electronics not allowed. I rarely schedule activities during that schooling dedicated time.

 

I grade and go over their work every day, one kid at a time, so they don't get to Friday and have a weeks worth of corrections to make.

 

If they have Saturday work, and the older ones often do, then it is usually corrections, or finishing up a project or essay.

 

I tell them Sunday is forbidden for work, so they are no permitted to use that as a day to make up. They know this, so if it isn't done on Saturday, then it is their own fault if it hurts their grade because they didn't get it done for Monday. I think this is a good training policy for high school and college classes, as well as employment.

 

:iagree: I do it the same way as Martha!

[Jean in Newcastle]

8-4? That's longer than traditionally schooled kids spend in school!

 

:iagree: Looking at your signature, I think there are ways you could lighten your school load.

[TechWife]

Oh, my. This is making me laugh because I have the opposite problem. I can't convince ds that he should spend time on Saturday completing work that he didn't do during the week. He is older though, and I don't think Saturday "homework" is totally avoidable with extracurricular activities and outside classes. But, I do expect him to do his Saturday work independently. Again, he can do that because he's older than your kiddos.

[Pink Fairy]

At our house all work must be completed by the end of the day. We don't do school on weekends. If you choose to dawdle, your work takes longer and you get done later. If you work hard, and get up early, you can be done by lunch. I don't give my kids enough school work so that even working hard they couldn't finish by 4pm. My 13yo generally finishes around 2pm, and starts at 7:30am. She never dawdles. My 8yo, 10yo, and 11yo usually start at 9am are finished by 1:30pm (again, unless they dawdle).

 

I'm wondering why your kids are doing school from 8am to 4pm. Unless they are wasting a lot of time, I think you may want to take a look at their workload. That's a very long school day for a 1st and 3rd grader, and I know I would burn out pretty fast on your schedule.

[regentrude]

Honestly, with that many hours spent on school work, the kids should be able to finish everything during the week.

In our family, I require my 8th grader to work 25 hours, my 6th grader to work 20 hours on academic subjects each week (self-selected reading, music and PE are extra). Those hours have to happen between Monday and Friday.

 

Weekends are free. We may go for a nature hike or field trip or museum - but no sit down work. We want and need the time to do something as a family, the kids want to do something with their friends - and they get back to work on Monday with more energy when they had an actual break.

 

DH and I always - since our college days- made sure that at least one weekend day is completely free of work, so we could go hiking or climbing, even if it was right before important exams. This habit has served us well and prevented us from becoming stressed and frazzled from the demands of work life.

Our motto is: Work hard - and play hard.

 

(I want to add: I see no reason to have my children spend more time on school work than they would have to sit in public school. Homeschooling is more effective, they get a lot more done in the time, they can work on more challenging material - so I see no need to keep them doing work for that many hours)

Edited October 2, 2010 by regentrude

[TammyinTN]

Honestly, the only thing that I allow to change my school schedule is a sickness or dental appointment. On Friday 3pm...we are done! I have interest and he has things he wants to do, so Friday at 3pm everything must be checked off the sheet for the week.

[Wildiris]

Our clock broke last week. It is an unusual clock from a Russian submarine. I doubt that I will be able to get it fixed. Right now and forever after, or until I do get the clock fixed, the time in our house reads 7:05.

 

Since the clock broke we are less obsessed with time and school. Yes, I do map out what I would like the girls to accomplish in a day, but suddenly we no longer have a set time to complete when school gets done. We are no longer carrying the ball & chain of time.

 

I'm not advocating that you break your clock, just don't be a slave to time. Over-scheduling, trying to cram too much school into a 24 hr. day does not encourage learning. I am always baffled by those who have long lists of topics or books they cover in their signature. Do they really do all that stuff? And how do some people spend so much time here on this board adding post after post. Do they really home school? Yikes! I want to go outside and play too.

 

Rather than enforcing regular school time, why not encourage goal setting and project completion.

 

I'm out to swing on the rope swing. :001_smile:

[Samiam]

Wondering why it has to be "done" ie playing catch-up?

 

Are you using a virtual school or some other curriculum that REQUIRES you to be at a certain spot in the curriculum by such-n-such date?

 

If not, then what's the rush? Why can't it get worked on the next official school day?

 

We don't do school work on Saturdays. Not only is it a break for my children, but it is a break for ME.

 

We do work on Sundays, because typically we are home and we take a day off in the mid-week so might as well work on Sunday.

 

Although some of the curriculum we use, is a five day work week, it is not uncommon for those days to run into the next week. We are rarely working a Sun-Fri time frame. But no worries, because I know some weeks we are really on it, and we'll get back on track to complete the one week of lesson in one REAL week. But also if that doesn't happen, so be it. It will all get done by our projected end of year date.

 

I don't see why it has to be this of "Getting it all done, playing catch-up". It sounds pretty tiring and stressful, with not even one day off of schedule school work. For both your children and you!

[Dayle in Guatemala]

Honestly?

 

By making them school-free days. Period. Especially with younger kids. Only in high school if they sometimes have an essay or project to finish would they work on the weekends, and it was usually their choice to finish over the weekend.

 

Homeschooling isn't about finishing the worksheets and curricula. It is about instilling a love of learning and equipping your kids with the skills they need to continue learning through life. Do math for a certain amount of time each day then close the book, and leave it closed until the next school day. Same thing with grammar or any other "program".

 

Learning was something we've always done everyday -- but it was never called "school". It is just how we live. We share books every day, watch interesting documentaries and good movies, read the newspaper, go to museums, study the birds and wildlife in our area.

 

So by all means make family time a priority. Work through your curricula each school day but remember slow and steady wins the race, right? Enjoy your weekends, savor your family time. They grow up and move away before you know it, and trust me, you will want to have memories of fun family times to look back on rather than completed curricula.

 

 

I absolutely agree. It all comes down to the "why" of your homeschooling. We are super strict about our homeschool time and school week. NOTHING else happens in our house before 4 pm as far as TV, video games, computer fun, etc. That is so that if school is taking a little longer than expected because of a project or something, there isn't the temptation to finish it quickly so they can move on to something else. You have until 4 pm. After that, mom is off duty as teacher, and is wife and mom only.

 

Also, we start strictly at 9 am (my oldest starts before that so she can finish everything if she feels she needs to).

 

Weekends are NOT for school. They are family time, friend time, fun time, chore time (they have chores on the weekdays too, but, this is for deeper cleaning).

 

I've fought hard for these boundaries to be respected by others, and I'm not willing to lighten up on any of it. It just makes things more relaxed.

[Ellie]

I never pick up school work on the weekend. Not ever. If we didn't finish it during the week, we finish it next week. Seems to work out. :-)

[lovemyboys]

8-4? That's longer than traditionally schooled kids spend in school!

 

That's what I was thinking, especially when the oldest is just 5th grade.

 

There may be too much or overlap that you could look at reducing somewhat. Sure the occasional lab, project or craft might take all afternoon. But expecting everyday to go til 4pm? Seems like long days.

 

I talk with mine about focussed activity, so we concentrate and get through subjects and have regular breaks. For instance, they don't take an hour to do math probs. or (shorter) writing. That's just unrealistic -- they wouldn't be allowed that kind of time in any other situation, so why allow it to derail our schedule? (I haven't read a reply post, so this may not be what's happening for you.)

 

The other thing that works better for us is if I stay disciplined about my time on the computer or phone. ; )

 

Hope you find a "groove" that works for your family.

[Farrar]

We do school on the weekend, but as a pp mentioned, my dh works on the weekend, so there's no concept around here that the weekend should be "family time." We also only do 1-2 hours of proper school (that's excluding classes, park days, co-ops, sports, field trips and other fun things that are definitely part of our larger idea of "school" but don't involve any sitting and writing or the same type of concentration) on any day. We take breaks when things are harried for other reasons and when we feel like it. However, if school was creeping in and not letting us take breaks, I would make the breaks routine and wouldn't let the school encroach. Breaks are important.

[5wolfcubs]

Now that I have 2 doing high school course work, I do use weekends to catch up with them -- individual time, when I'm fresh. Meaning NOT after 8pm. :lol:

 

However, with the others (10 and under), there is no school on the weekend because if you do not finish your assigned schoolwork you do not get to get up and play on the computer at 6am on Saturday morning.

 

I just went back & read your signature. Three SL Cores and a new baby? That is a lot! Could you do just SWO/FLL/WWE OR R&S/CW?

 

:grouphug: