How to get it all done

[Cabertmom]

We are having trouble getting everything done every day. My 15-year-old spends hours on algebra. My 13-year-old, while he seems a little more focused, also takes forever. Except for a 1-hour break to go explore the forest in the middle of the day, they are at it from 9 to about 6. To me, this seems unreasonable, but every time I go over their lists, I don't find anything to take off. It is a fairly rare day when they actually get everything done for the day. Any ideas? Does anyone else have this problem?

 

With these two (my oldest out of 5), I really only help with a few subjects at this point. Just today, I set time limits of 1 hour to work on algebra, 30 minutes for Latin, etc., with the hope that knowing that it will come to an end makes it easier to concentrate while they are working, but I am also concerned that it could mean they fall further behind.

[Susan C.]

This is very normal for their ages.

 

What subjects are they doing? You might be able to rotate a few to m-w-f and t-th so you are not doing everything every day.

[Cabertmom]

We do have the same subjects on Monday and Wednesday and then again the same subjects on Tuesday and Thursday. On Friday, we are part of a homeschool co-op with different subjects. Let's just look at my 15-year-old:

 

On Monday and Wednesday, she does:

1. Modern history.

2. Cursive (I didn't think it was important until recently, and now I'm teaching all the kids at once)

3. Algebra (Jacobs')

4. Piano

5. Analytical Grammar (nearly done with season II and loving it)

6. Typing (we'll probably cut this out soon as she's pretty speedy)

7. Writing (mostly using IEW)

8. Literature (the focus this year is on dystopic modern literature)

9. Latin

 

On Tuesday and Thursday, she has:

1. Science (after struggling through biology last year, she's doing "The Joy of Science" from the Teaching Company. I'm finding it very interesting. :-)

2. Cursive.

3. Algebra.

4. Literature.

5. Theology (We're using the Didache series, and she reads the chapter on Tuesday and answers the questions on Thursday)

6. Analytical Grammar--check the previous day's work.

7. Writing.

8. Latin.

9. Piano.

10. An SAT prep course just once a week.

 

She really doesn't like math and science, and I think she has a hard time making herself do it. She enjoys literature, grammar, Latin, and most especially piano. In fact, she intersperses it through the day as sort of a stress break with my blessing.

 

Does this seem reasonable to others who have high schoolers?

[FaithManor]

Without piano practice, I was at school from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in high school on an independent study program so the the entire day was packed with work and then took approximately 1.5 - 2 hours of homework or at least studying for exams home with me. I then practiced 3 hours per day on top of that. Sometimes I would get a little practice in before school which helped out in the evenings.

 

How independently do your students work on math and science? My 8th grader who is doing algebra 1 really needs me to sit right with him or he'd take half the day. If I'm right with him, which seems to be comforting, helps him concentrate, and means that he can ask questions instantly instead of coming to find me, we can knock it off in an hour and science in 30-45 minutes. I usually do not assign any writing that would require more than 30 minutes to knock off unless it is a research paper and then it is done incrementally, 30 minutes of research and or writing each day until the deadline for the final project. Most of my essay and creative writing assignments are pretty reasonable in length.

 

How is their reading for both speed and comprehension? I really concentrated in the late elementary and middle school years on increasing both speed and comprehension because being able to knock off a long reading assignment with decent comprehension makes upper divisional work so much less tedious.

 

Faith

[Cabertmom]

Dear Faith,

 

Well, my high school experience was pretty similar I guess, but part of the reason we homeschool is so that they can have free time to ponder the world around them, to be creative, to pursue their own interests, and to develop a contemplative mindset. All of those things require more free time than they have, unfortunately. Maybe that isn't realistic for high school without giving up to much. It's all a balancing act, isn't it?

 

What did you do to help your children become faster readers? I think that might be some of the problem for my 13-year-old, but honestly I'm not sure.

 

God bless,

Carla

[Susan C.]

Is it the math they are bogging down on?

[MommyThrice]

I can sympathize. :grouphug: I posted a similar question recently; maybe some of the answers can help you...

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=221057

[Grace is Sufficient]

It's a bit of extra work, but I've found that if I go through their texts, I can usually find stuff they can skip without losing anything that seems important. Whether or not that's a good idea depends on the student. I do it for one, not really for the other.

[JudoMom]

 

How is their reading for both speed and comprehension? I really concentrated in the late elementary and middle school years on increasing both speed and comprehension because being able to knock off a long reading assignment with decent comprehension makes upper divisional work so much less tedious.

 

Faith

 

How did you work on speed? My oldest is a painfully slow reader, and I'd love suggestions for speeding him up before we hit high school :001_smile:.

[Jenny Piaaree]

My thought would be to fold the cursive, typing, and especially the writing into the other parts of the curriculum, rather than have them as separate courses. Could she write summaries and small daily assignments in cursive, type up papers, etc.? IEW works very well incorporated with core subjects. She could write on history, science, and literature topics. My ds15 is doing Jacobs Algebra and one lesson takes about an hour. Are you assigning ALL the problems? I have my son do just the Set I and Set II problems. Set III is nearly identical to Set II, so I will only have him do those if he needs extra practice. Maybe that could help? Best wishes to you all!

[Cabertmom]

Thank you for all the responses. It is more math than anything else. Jenny, they do sets I and III and can do set IV if they choose for "extra credit." (whatever that is in homeschooling) I'm really glad to hear that that amount takes 1 hour for someone else. Yesterday, I had them spend just 1 hour on it, and they each only got through set I and a problem or two of set III, so something is amiss. Also, my mother-in-law, a retired math professor, went through the book and made notes of what things were most important and what could reasonably be skipped, which will probably help with how long it takes to finish the book but not so much with the day to day. Much of the trouble here is that my husband was working with them on algebra initially, but a major move and job change later, he no longer has time to do so, so I'm having to try to pick it up in the middle, and while I do just fine with arithmetic and am looking forward to geometry with them, I find algebra very difficult and am not much help. Jenny, can you confirm what I have heard elsewhere--that Jacobs Algebra covers pretty much everything in both Saxon Algebra I and Algebra II?

 

As for the other things, the writing is in fact incorporated into other subjects (literature and sometimes history), but I keep it as a separate slot just for ease of organizing. The typing is called Typing Master Platinum and is so fantastic and working so well that I would hesitate to cut it out until each of the children has reached a certain level of mastery. My 15-year-old is nearly there, but my 13-year-old is not. I just think it is an important skill. It's sort of like the times tables of writing. You don't want to have to think about where the letter "t" is while trying to compose an essay. The cursive is something that I really didn't think was worth worrying about until recently. It will be done soon.

 

I think some of this comes down to the whole guinea pig thing with older children. These are things that my younger children will have an easier time with because they are doing them at "the right" ages. Also, certain subjects will be falling off as they are finished, such as grammar, cursive, and typing, so that should make things a bit easier. Also, my 13-year-old son is still doing spelling as it is something he struggles with immensely. Just last year, we finally found All About Spelling, and he is finally making progress, thanks be to God.

 

I will definitely see what I find in the responses to your previous question, MommyThrice.

 

Thanks, everybody. I love this place. More than any other message board, there are thoughtful, helpful answers and good questions.

[at the beach]

Dear Faith,

 

Well, my high school experience was pretty similar I guess, but part of the reason we homeschool is so that they can have free time to ponder the world around them, to be creative, to pursue their own interests, and to develop a contemplative mindset. All of those things require more free time than they have, unfortunately. Maybe that isn't realistic for high school without giving up to much. It's all a balancing act, isn't it?

 

What did you do to help your children become faster readers? I think that might be some of the problem for my 13-year-old, but honestly I'm not sure.

 

God bless,

Carla

 

Very well said, Carla. I feel the same way. It is SO hard to figure it all out at times. I wonder myself how far to pull back with academics so that there is free time. For us, it's important to keep subjects under control as far as time spent on them. For example, I don't think history and lit (with writing) should be taking more than two and a half hours daily. Homeschooling is (or should be) so much more efficient than regular school IMO. My oldest went to regular school all the way through. In her Junior and Senior year, the kids were allowed to put their study halls at the end of the day with lunch. My child would be home by 12:45 during her Senior year just in time for Days of Our Lives.:tongue_smilie: School started at 7:25. She went for five hours of academics, actually somewhat less with the breaks between classes. I don't recall the length of those breaks were but I would imagine that they were at least six minutes, which would shave thirty minutes off of the time spent in class, bringing it down to 4.5 hours. This kid is the one that rarely spent much time on homework, was in all honors and AP classes, graduated with above a 4.0 (weighted, though) and won the largest scholarship during the day she competed for merit aid at her college. She's now in her fourth year of a six-year Pharm.D. program and doing fine. I've read How to be a High School Superstar recently and parts of it remind me of how my daughter did things. You might want to read this book if you can.

 

Best wishes in figuring things out.

[Angie in VA]

 

I think some of this comes down to the whole guinea pig thing with older children.

 

Amen to that. I have told my dd that often over the past few months. Poor girl. I think our dc turn out well because of what we do in our homeschool, and very often, in spite of it! At least in my case.

 

I pray for direction constantly!

[Kareni]

Jenny, can you confirm what I have heard elsewhere--that Jacobs Algebra covers pretty much everything in both Saxon Algebra I and Algebra II?

 

 

 

I'm not Jenny, but my understanding is that the above is NOT true. Jacobs Algebra I is a solid Algebra I course; however, a follow up course in Algebra II is necessary to cover that material.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jenny Piaaree]

I'm not Jenny, but my understanding is that the above is NOT true. Jacobs Algebra I is a solid Algebra I course; however, a follow up course in Algebra II is necessary to cover that material.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Sorry, I don't know a thing about Saxon. However, my understanding is the same as Kareni's, that Jacobs is Algebra I only.