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I am wondering how others schedule their classes. We are having a difficult time fitting everything in. Although we are trying to do a lot, I think the problem is not so much with the amount of work as it is the schedule and discipline. Do you schedule each subject for specific times? Do you stick to those times? Nothing seems to take the same amount of time each day. If you finish a subject early, do you start the next subject or do the kids get a break? But then I have to hunt them down again.

 

I am considering making a chart with math-5 blocks, history-4 blocks, science- 2 blocks, etc. We are having a difficult time with changing schedules and so instead of saying science is Tuesday and Thursday, we just need to do it twice per week, whenever. Has something like this worked for anyone?

 

Whatever we do, I think a large part of the problem is not having set times for school to begin, and the boys wandering off whenever they get a chance. We also don't have set times for lunch or breaks so it seems someone is always asking to get a drink, snack or go to the bathroom. Then I am hunting them down again.

 

It seems we need a whole lot more structure, which is not my nature. I could use some suggestions.

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I have a planner, from Donna Young, I think. I'll see if I can paste it here:

 

Megan’s Planner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

Tuesday

 

 

 

Wednesday

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

Friday

 

 

AWANA

q

q

q

q

q

Violin

q

q

q

q

q

Math

q

q

q

q

q

Spelling

q

q

q

q

q

Grammar

q

q

q

q

q

vocabulary

q

q

q

q

Writing

q

q

q

q

q

Latin

q

q

q

q

Tapestry of Grace

q

q

q

q

q

Violin

q

q

q

q

q

Science

q

q

q

q

Spanish

q

q

q

q

Readaloud

q

q

q

q

 

 

We always start the day with math because that is what she really needs to concentrate on right now. I write down what we do. We'll work for 45 minutes to an hour at a time, then she has a break. To be honest, it is never the same schedule with her every day. I just pile it all on the desk and she chooses, other than she has a math something to do in every block. I try to have something I read to her like science, history or readaloud with a math, and then 2 or 3 written things for each block. If we have violin lessons or doctor's appointments in the afternoon, then the all the blocks don't get filled in. It is ok. But by having this planner filled in as we go, then I can see...oh, we've done Spanish 3 times this week, we don't need to do it today. I know that people do science or history twice a week, but I just don't see how. I tend to do a little bit every day: like the Apologia Human Body..I'll read 2 pages or so to her and have her work on a little bit of her notebook...that is about 30 minutes a day 4 days a week with the co-0p on the 5th day where they do experiments.

 

I hope this helps. We tend to do Latin 3 days a week and Spanish 3 days a week and sometimes I don't do history or whatever, but seeing it all laid out on this planner helps me see what we have or haven't done and I can choose.

 

Christine

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I guess I don't really follow a strict schedule. I definitely don't block of subjects and times. We get our day's start whenever we get our start, and that varies widely depending on what's going on in a given day. I have a weekly "to do list" broken down by day for school, and we just do what's on the list.

 

When we finish something, we move on to the next thing.

 

If it seems like we need a break, or we have something else to do, we take a break.

 

If we don't finish everything on the list that day, it'll get fit in somewhere during the week.

 

It all just sort of works out, somehow! (But I wouldn't say we are trying to do "a lot"... we're not doing school all day long or anything. This might be a lot harder if we had an overly full schedule).

 

Oh and I do have usually 2-3 days a week set aside for social studies and 2 days a week for science but we don't ALWAYS get to it on the day scheduled and I'm fine with just changing days on the fly if need be.

 

I am wondering how others schedule their classes. We are having a difficult time fitting everything in. Although we are trying to do a lot, I think the problem is not so much with the amount of work as it is the schedule and discipline. Do you schedule each subject for specific times? Do you stick to those times? Nothing seems to take the same amount of time each day. If you finish a subject early, do you start the next subject or do the kids get a break? But then I have to hunt them down again.

 

I am considering making a chart with math-5 blocks, history-4 blocks, science- 2 blocks, etc. We are having a difficult time with changing schedules and so instead of saying science is Tuesday and Thursday, we just need to do it twice per week, whenever. Has something like this worked for anyone?

 

Whatever we do, I think a large part of the problem is not having set times for school to begin, and the boys wandering off whenever they get a chance. We also don't have set times for lunch or breaks so it seems someone is always asking to get a drink, snack or go to the bathroom. Then I am hunting them down again.

 

It seems we need a whole lot more structure, which is not my nature. I could use some suggestions.

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We have a rhythm to our week, our days and our school. The daily rhythm is like this:

 

morning routine

schooltime

lunch

chores/free time

outing/at home

dinner

family time

 

For our school day, the rhythm is like this:

 

I work with oldest first, reviewing yesterday's work, teaching and assigning today's work:

 

language arts--reading, composition, grammar

spelling

science & 4-H

history

math

lapbook

she works on her own

 

Then I work with my youngest:

 

she reads to me

grammar

phonics which will turn into spelling in January

main lesson (science and social studies, lapbook, read aloud & poetry)

math

she does some work on her own

 

It has been working well for us for a while. :001_smile:

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I am wondering how others schedule their classes. We are having a difficult time fitting everything in. Although we are trying to do a lot, I think the problem is not so much with the amount of work as it is the schedule and discipline. Do you schedule each subject for specific times? Do you stick to those times? Nothing seems to take the same amount of time each day. If you finish a subject early, do you start the next subject or do the kids get a break? But then I have to hunt them down again.

 

I am considering making a chart with math-5 blocks, history-4 blocks, science- 2 blocks, etc. We are having a difficult time with changing schedules and so instead of saying science is Tuesday and Thursday, we just need to do it twice per week, whenever. Has something like this worked for anyone?

 

Whatever we do, I think a large part of the problem is not having set times for school to begin, and the boys wandering off whenever they get a chance. We also don't have set times for lunch or breaks so it seems someone is always asking to get a drink, snack or go to the bathroom. Then I am hunting them down again.

 

It seems we need a whole lot more structure, which is not my nature. I could use some suggestions.

 

I am a pretty unstructured person, however my ds is not. We started homeschooling in first grade. I had an ideal of flowing through subjects, in a very ethereal way. :lol: Didn't work, started having discipline issues right away. Asked my darling dh, who has a similar personality to ds, and he immediately asked where my schedule was. :001_huh: Are you kidding? I'm homeschooling for flexibility, spontaneity, I don't need a schedule. Didn't say all this to him, but he assured me that ds needed a schedule. So I made one.

 

Life was so much better. Ds looked at the printed schedule several times a day, discipline issues slowed down and I managed.

 

So after years of tweaking this is what works for us.

 

We have a set start time. (ours is 10am, we're not morning people)

We start school with read-aloud time. It gives us some bonding time, time to shift gears.

I then schedule the subjects in order of completion. I DO NOT assign times to them. Not only is that too confining for my nature, each day that subject can take a different amount of time. The only subject I did limit time for when he was younger was math. We never let a math assignment go over 30-45 minutes. His brain was resistant after that point anyway and it was an exercise in frustration.

After two-three subjects we take a break.

It works wonders.

 

I do allow eating at the table. Ds is growing and likes to eat all the time. When he was younger I tried to limit how often we did that.

 

We are currently using a block schedule. We have block A (M, W), Block B (T, Th) and Block C (Fri). We tweak our schedule about 4-7 times a year, just because we can. :D No, usually it's because something takes longer than I anticipated or I find out doing certain subject one after another isn't a good idea.

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My boys are similar in age.

 

They each have a daily schedule I made on a spreadsheet, but I'll attach in PDF of my 11yo's. Actually we've already added Logic and Typing and I don't know why reading isn't on there, but you can see the basic layout. Some years (or even just weeks) I'll cross out some of the days so, for example, science will only be days 1 and 3 and history might be days 2 and 4. In the first box I write the assignment and starting point, then in the boxes we write what gets done. So under math I might put 4 pages/day p. 54, then under day 1, after they've done the work, I'll put p.57. I also lable Day 1-4, instead of M-F so that we can work how ever we get to it. In fact, my 14yo especially works on her week all over the place. She might do all 4 math lessons today.

 

Specific tlimes have never worked for us, especially if it meant all kids working on the same subject. I think because each subject usually takes the same amount of me, so if they were both working on a mom intensive subject I was overwhelmed and if they are both working on an idependant subject I was bored. And if I wonder off to do chores or what ever, then I've usually lost them too. :glare:

 

We do have set start and lunch times, but between we are pretty loose. I do expect them to work from 9:30- 12:30 M, W, F and that is when we get most of school done. We do come back most afternoons or evenings to do sci and history, and often get some work done T, Th mornings (but we volunteer those morings, so it depends on how busy the food pantry/pregnancy center is). During that time they are often helping with the little ones or doing thier reading so it isn't 3 hours sitting at a desk, but we can still get much done then.

Lincoln2.pdf

Lincoln2.pdf

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The key for us is to spend only 10-20 minutes on each subject. We get so much done and ds(9) retains information much better than if we spent 45min-1hr on each. Academics take less than 3 hours a day and we have afternoons free. Here's what one day typically looks like:

 

Math - 20 min.

Readaloud w/narration (readalouds are hist, geog, sci, or lit)- 20 min.

Spelling workbook - 15 min.

Poetry - 10 min.

Copywork - 15 min.

Readaloud w/narration - 20 min.

Read to me (e.g. a page from D'Aulaire's Abraham Lincoln) - 15 min.

Composer Study - 10-15 min.

Readaloud w/ (written) narration - 20 min.

Add to Book of Centuries - 10 min.

 

We take more time with nature journaling since we're outside and we like to take our time. :001_smile:

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Hi, I have 4 kids - 3rd grader, 2nd grader, K-er and 3 yro. We cover a fairly large amount of material in one day. Our schedule actually looks real similar to Abkjw01's schedule. I never spend more than 20 minutes on something. We move through subjects very quickly and I also do a "one-room schoolhouse" thing, where everybody works on the same subject at the same time. I move from one kid to the other. This is a gigantic time-saver and it also keeps the kids from wandering away to see what the others are doing. I also have the oldest 2 kids combined for History, Geography, Latin, German, Read-Alouds and Science. This makes things a lot easier.

 

Oh, and we use a lot of CLE and I think that really helps with multiple kids. The workbook is written to the student and most of the time, my kids just open the workbook and take off with it.

 

Also, another thing...the second my K-er or 2nd grader ask to stop - we stop. I've driven the 2nd grader to tears a couple of times (last year) and your schoolday's shot at that point. I also make sure we "move around" during school and we will interupt workbooks to read a story, color a picture, do Snap Circuits, etc.

 

Now that I think about it, I think the reason our schoolday takes so long is because of the 3 yro. :glare: I love the 3 yro, but she's done things like: pour an ENTIRE drink into the keyboard of the laptop, pour a Cherry Dr. Pepper on our carpet (which stained) and call Grandma with speed dial. Ah, sigh...:tongue_smilie:

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We have a pattern more than a schedule. Some days some things just take longer. Generally it works out about like this

8:00~4th grader does chores while I do math w/1st grader then switch, 4th grader does his independently after I explain the new lesson

9:00~1st grader watches PBS w/3yo and 4th grader does LA

9:30~4th grader plays w/3yo while I do phonics/LA/reading w/1st grader

10:00~snack and read aloud time

10:30 ish~4th grader does CLE reading while I do 'preschool' w/3yo

11:00ish~history

Lunch

Science, unit studies, art or co-ops happen in the afternoon

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I've resolved the food issue this year by instituting snack time. We start at 8:15 (I make allowances if I let them sleep in bc they're tired). We do math, grammar, spelling and vocab and then get a snack around 10. I try to make it muffins or biscuits...something special. We usually do memory work during snack and read a picture book for science or to point out a literary device. Then back to work for another hour and a half until lunch. Lunch varies bc we're almost done at this point and we seem to lose structure as the day progresses.

 

I did this bc the constant snacking and drinking struck me as a way to delay school work since they'd both attended ps with no snacktime and no issue! It was making me crazy last year but I have guilt over not allowing eating when a child is hungry :D so I made sure they couldn't be hungry...then no excuses and we get a needed break. Brownie

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struggling with this issue myself this year-we are in 2nd grade and in previous years,I basicly did whatever/whenever....wanted to get into a better routine this year-my friend told me about the WELL PLANNED DAY planner and I love it-really helps me see what all we need to get done in a day.....now if we could just do it all in a day! LOL slowly but surely I guess---our problem is other schedulings like dr appts and grocery store trips that HAVE to be done.....we'll find our groove.....I hope lol :tongue_smilie:

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My 15yo has a list of assignments for the week and I can trust her to just do them. Some of the things on her assignment sheet have a set time while others have a set amount.

 

My 12yo has a time-based assignment sheet and I am with her most of the time.

 

Sample schedule for Mondays:

9-9:30 free reading - 30 minutes (with a timer)

9:30-10:00 guitar practice

10:00-10:30 15 minute math (with a timer) and spelling

10:30-11:00 history

11:00-11:30 science

11:30-12:00 20 minute math (with a timer)

12:00-12:30 taking care of a neighbor's dogs

12:30-1:00 lunch

1:00-1:30 English

1:30-2:00 readaloud

 

Her schedule is pretty close to this on M/W/F. It changes up a bit on Tu/Th because I teach a physics class from 9:30-11:00, so she has independent work for that whole time.

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I am wondering how others schedule their classes. We are having a difficult time fitting everything in. Although we are trying to do a lot, I think the problem is not so much with the amount of work as it is the schedule and discipline. Do you schedule each subject for specific times? Do you stick to those times? Nothing seems to take the same amount of time each day. If you finish a subject early, do you start the next subject or do the kids get a break? But then I have to hunt them down again.

 

I am considering making a chart with math-5 blocks, history-4 blocks, science- 2 blocks, etc. We are having a difficult time with changing schedules and so instead of saying science is Tuesday and Thursday, we just need to do it twice per week, whenever. Has something like this worked for anyone?

 

Whatever we do, I think a large part of the problem is not having set times for school to begin, and the boys wandering off whenever they get a chance. We also don't have set times for lunch or breaks so it seems someone is always asking to get a drink, snack or go to the bathroom. Then I am hunting them down again.

 

It seems we need a whole lot more structure, which is not my nature. I could use some suggestions.

 

I set up a pretty complicated schedule at the beginning of the school year. It has morphed into a pretty workable situation. Basically, the subjects aren't segmented but my teaching time with each child or group of children is segmented. Here's how it plays out now.

 

1 hour with 1st grader (LA, math)

1 hour with 3rd grader (LA, math)

1 1/2 hours with 5th grader (LA, math)

1 hour for lunch

NAPTIME!!!!! (for the babies...not the rest of us. :lol:)

2 hours with 1st, 3rd, and 5th grader (history, science, bible, read-alouds and Latin at the end with 1st grader excused)

1 hour with 8th grader (check and discuss)

1 hour with 7th grader (check and discuss)

Next week I'm going to try doing 2 hours with 8th grader 2 days per week and 2 hours with 7th grader a different 2 days because that is what is really lagging for us. The younger kids schedule is working great!

 

I gather up all necessary materials and instruct my children to do the same when it's their turn and we work through everything in one sitting. No getting up, no breaks, no getting up to look for something 'cause we grabbed it all before sitting down. It helps us be efficient. And then we can get done in 50 min. instead of 60 and have time to change out the laundry or wipe up the kitchen or play with my babies.

 

It doesn't show up in my personal schedule but while I'm working one-on-one with my 1st grader for example my 3rd and 5th grader are working through their independent work. My Jr. High guys work independently all morning and into the afternoon and then I check work, discuss readings, answer questions, teach new concepts, etc.

 

I am not done til 5. The children are done as soon as they get their to-do list done. If they focus and get to work there is potential for above average amounts of free time. This isn't how it always works out though.:tongue_smilie::lol:

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I am a pretty unstructured person, however my ds is not. We started homeschooling in first grade. I had an ideal of flowing through subjects, in a very ethereal way. :lol: Didn't work, started having discipline issues right away. Asked my darling dh, who has a similar personality to ds, and he immediately asked where my schedule was. :001_huh: Are you kidding? I'm homeschooling for flexibility, spontaneity, I don't need a schedule. Didn't say all this to him, but he assured me that ds needed a schedule. So I made one.

 

Life was so much better. Ds looked at the printed schedule several times a day, discipline issues slowed down and I managed.

 

So after years of tweaking this is what works for us.

 

We have a set start time. (ours is 10am, we're not morning people)

We start school with read-aloud time. It gives us some bonding time, time to shift gears.

I then schedule the subjects in order of completion. I DO NOT assign times to them. Not only is that too confining for my nature, each day that subject can take a different amount of time. The only subject I did limit time for when he was younger was math. We never let a math assignment go over 30-45 minutes. His brain was resistant after that point anyway and it was an exercise in frustration.

After two-three subjects we take a break.

It works wonders.

 

I do allow eating at the table. Ds is growing and likes to eat all the time. When he was younger I tried to limit how often we did that.

 

We are currently using a block schedule. We have block A (M, W), Block B (T, Th) and Block C (Fri). We tweak our schedule about 4-7 times a year, just because we can. :D No, usually it's because something takes longer than I anticipated or I find out doing certain subject one after another isn't a good idea.

 

We start school at 10 too, but ds and I both need our flexible structure. No set times here either, but approximate timing. In this case, around 15 minutes per lesson. For Math, History and Science, 20.

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I have one son who will wonder off if I let him, and it's very difficult to get him back. This is why we now have a pretty strict school schedule. I have two dss (9 and 11).

 

We start school at 8:30. They both have a check list to go through. I first work with my younger son; older son works on alone items on the list. Then we switch. I do not schedule a break before lunch at all because of the wondering off. I do, of course, let them go to the bathroom or drink or eat something if necessary, but they do not take a real break until 12:00. Since we started doing this we are usually done by lunch. We spend the afternoon on reading, projects, or fieldtrips.

 

We are all happier working, basically, without break to get it done.

 

Susie

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Wow, thanks for all of the suggestions and showing how you make your schedules work for you. I am going to sit down and read through them when the boys are doing some quiet reading and see how I can make things run a little smoother. You ladies here are always so generous and I love to get a peek into other peoples homeschools. It is so helpful to see how someone else handles something when you are struggling with some difficulty.

 

Thanks again!!

Edited by AllBoys
writing too fast and not checking!
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