Do you spread all courses out over a year or compact what can be compacted?

[Hunter's Moon]

What I mean by this is, say your child is taking Health class at home with a textbook or workbook or whatever (or any course that would be worth 1/2 credit).

 

Do you spread the class out over the whole year or do you compact it to 1 semester like most Public Schools do?

 

Just curious. :D

[Elizabeth in WA]

It depends...

 

I tend to spread half credit Health and/or PE over the course of the year. But, if I give them 1 credit worth of elective(s) to select for themselves and they select two half credit courses, then we do each for 1/2 of the year. I want to limit the total number of courses to be dealt with each week, but I also want to limit the time spent on things like Health and PE each week. (If they are spending a ton of time on a sport, like my gymnast with 20+ hours/week practice, that is extracurricular, not PE in our house.)

[OLG]

We do it at the pace of the student, regardless of the suggested time and that is usually quicker too ;) A course that is just a half-credit would definitely be done in one semester.

[MamaT]

I left the choice to my son. He has a 1/2 credit Economics course and a 1/2 credit Philosophy course this year. He chose to spread them both out over the year.

[Teachin'Mine]

Some are done in a semester and others take longer. It's at the student's discretion - and the mom's urging to get it over and done with. :tongue_smilie::lol:

[regentrude]

Depends on subject.

One year of choir participation earns a half credit.

I award at maximum a half credit for PE per year - physical activity happens throughout the year.

Some credits are cumulative over several school years - the computer credit for instance consists of several smaller chunks (this school year a quarter credit for web design).

Some electives DD will accomplish over the summer, so VERY compacted.

I could see them doing "check-the-box" subjects such as health in one compact block as fast as possible.

[Aquinas Academy]

We spread them out because I dislike doing subjects on a semester system. I don't want to do logic for a couple months, then take a nine month break, and then start logic again having forgotten everything I learnt. I'd far rather spend a bit of time working on logic (or any other subject) each week.

[AngieW in Texas]

I've also had my kids do electives over the summer, especially if they are electives that are on the more fun side.

[J-rap]

We change things around. I used to always spread things out, but sometimes now, we'll concentrate on one subject at a time for awhile. For example, my daughter took 7 months to do 1/2 of her Algebra 2 text, and 1 month to do the second half. She did every question, and did just as well on the second half as the first half of the book... we just concentrated on it above everything else. I don't know if there are long-term retention issues with this or not. I'd be interested in finding out...

[LauraQ]

We usually either do certain subjects only on certain days of the week (2-3 days per week instead of 5 days per week) OR we do intensive studies of a unit of work over a short period of time (1.5 hours a day for 2 weeks to cover what would otherwise take a couple of months) rather than do small bits from many subjects each day.

 

Some subjects, like math, are best done daily. Many of their electives are seasonal, and some subjects benefit from being done in intensive studies so they can use their momentum to get through LOTS of work in way less time than it would have taken if they had to start and stop and work only in short bursts every single day.

[Hyzenthlay in Pa.]

This year:

compacted -health, government,geology, astronomy

spread out, algebra, italian, composition, literature, history

 

If I can compact , I do.