ChristusG Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Here's what we are doing for 2nd grade...it seems to take us most of the day to do everything. I'm not sure if it's just my DD who makes it take too long, or if we are doing too much. Reading: (daily) Dancing Bears (she's not reading well at all....so I need to stick with a formal reading program). Sometimes I'll add an activity to reading time....such as reading a Dr Seuss book to me, or having her unscramble and read a sentence that I created and cut up. Then she'll write the sentence. Or she'll get a tube of letter tiles and see how many words she can create and write out of those particular letters. Or we will play the game "See Spot Spell." Writing: (daily) We do a daily journal entry (just one sentence where she randomly chooses a noun, verb, and adjective from a jar and forms a sentence from those words). We are also working on some words from vision/auditory therapy where I write them, she copies them (she writes a lot of things backwards, so that's why we need to do this). A few times during the week we do Apples & Pears (a writing program for struggling writers/readers). We also do things like writing in the sand....again, this is for her therapy but we plug it into the school day. Grammar: (daily) First Language Lessons. We do two chapters per day. Plus, we work on the poem memorization for it too. Then I'll occasionally elaborate for a few days on something like learning the days of the week and the months of the year to help her learn them better. I also have a list of vocabulary words and we go over one per day, along with our grammar lesson. Bible: (daily...one chapter per week) Positive Action Bible Curriculum. This usually consists of me reading scripture, elaborating on the scripture by telling the Bible story in kid friendly fashion. The kids are usually coloring a corresponding picture while I'm reading. Then we discuss the story, apply it to real life, and pray. Math: (daily) Abeka 2nd grade (we've been doing this book for a few months now and will move into the 3rd grade book before we are halfway finished with her 2nd grade year). We do 4-5 pages per day. Not front and back. Occasionally we'll have to pause a few days while I elaborate on a certain subject that she may not be catching onto as quickly (such as fractions). Sometimes I'll substitute using the math book for playing a game such as Money Bags or Dogopoly...those reinforce her math skills. Science: (twice a week) Right now I'm doing my own natural science with them....but in the fall we will be starting Real Science 4 Kids. Right now this could consist of us watching a documentary about animals, doing a craft type activity, reading books, doing an easy experiment, etc. History: (twice a week) We were working on SOTW for a while, got sidetracked, and I hope to begin it again in the fall. We will rotate science and history, having each twice a week. I hope to do the story, coloring, and discussion one day and the activity the second day. Map Skills/Geography: (daily) This is fairly quick during our school day. DD is learning the states. We name the states she's already learning, pointing them out on the map. She adds the sticker of any new states she's learned. And I'm about to add in a continent study too. When not studying the continents, we do 2 pages of a Map Skills book that I have. This takes like 5 minutes or less. Then I also work with my 4 year old (when I actually get around to it) on recognizing numbers, letter sounds (using ETC but I hope to move on to OPGTTR soon), and a few other preschool-ish activities. But she sits on with my 7 year old on science, Bible, grammar, and sort of listens in on history sometimes. I feel like it is taking all. day. long to do these things. Maybe it's just my DD....she's moody and cranky a lot LOL. And then I do try to give them a few breaks here and there. The girls love to play and imagine together so I want to give them time to do that. I feel like the 4 year old sort of stays to herself all day while I'm working with my 7 year old. Sometimes I feel bad about that. She's very good at playing alone though. And she has no interest in very much "school." Is this too much? Too little? Am I leaving something out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 The only thing that seems like a lot is that you're doing 2 lesson a day of FLL. Are you doing FLL1 or FLL2? If you're doing FLL2, I'd just do 3 times a week - one lesson each time. Since you're dealing with reading/vision issues, I'd be totally ok with focusing on the 3Rs for now and not worrying about history/science. Spend the time getting her up to speed with her reading, and then everything else will probably become easier. My second grader's school takes about 2.5-3 hours a day. That includes math, grammar, writing, spelling, reading, Spanish, history/science (alternating days). I do have to practically sit on him sometimes, but most of our things can be done relatively quickly, especially if it's something where I'm directly interacting with him the whole lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in MS Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 4-5 pages of math would be too much for mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 How long does it actually take you? And how long do just the 3Rs take? Somethings seem like a lot on when you write them down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopeallgoeswell Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I second the other two ladies. FLL is meant to be done 3 times per week. 2 pages of math (1 lesson) should be enough or set a timer for 15-20 minutes and complete what she can in that time. Since your dd is working on her reading, let the formal history and science go. You could just get books from the library on the history and science topic for the week and do them as read alouds. My dd completed 2nd grade the end of May. I also had a 4 yo who was learning letters and numbers and 2 yo getting into everyone's stuff. We completed school by lunch. She did HOD Bigger history, poetry, and Bible along with Singapore math(4xwk)/Abeka tests(1xwk), Apologia human anatomy and botany, SSL, WWE (4xwk), ETC 7 and 8 (4xwk), and Abeka LA3(4xwk)/PLL(1xwk). We did co-op one day per week for history and science projects. It is a real possibility for you to finish in less than 4 hours (to include a few 15 minute breaks). It might even lessen the whininess! How long does the writing take? If it takes too long, you could do copywork instead. I am not a schedule person, but having a set routine with timetables is helpful for me. Best wishes:grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I agree, too much FLL and Math.:iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 I agree with the others. That's a lot of math, and it's not necessary to do 2 grammar lessons a day. You could even drop grammar completely and start up again when she's reading better. Honestly, focus your energies on getting her to read well and do some math. Do history and science as read alouds, or do projects on the weekends when you don't do other schoolwork. That's a lot for her brain to deal with. No wonder she's cranky! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 (edited) I agree with the pp's. Not only would my kids MELT with that amount of math, I would DREAD it toO!! We set a timer! What doesn't get done in 45min will be reviewed if needed, otherwise the next day we move on to the next worksheet. As for FLL I would do what the lessons say. Keep it SIMPLE and keep it light-hearted and relaxing! My dd's LOVE FLL because of that. They like that we sit down and set the timer for 15min, what we complete in that time is it for the day..what we don't is where we pick up the next day we are doing it. Now if the timer goes off in the middle of a lesson, we finish but that's it! I wouldn't personally be adding all that you are. It's gonna turn into something HEAVY and over-done, when FLL is nearly PERFECT by itself. But that's just me. The first thing that stuck out to me was the Reading. She needs to have a GOOD strong foundation for reading. Spend more time with BUILDING words and helping her build confidence to be able to read better. Try some SAM books (they are free and start off super easy but build up to the 2nd grade level) and this allows her to gain confidence in reading. I really LOVE hooked on phonics and so does my dd8, however my dd6 can't stand it and is completely resistant to the entire curriculum. I got OPGTR for dd6 and she liked it's approach much better! However the honest truth is All About Spelling is what got her to read 100% better, I was FLOORED since it's NOT a reading program..it's for spelling. As for History and Science..I vote to CUT it out! I was REALLY hesitant last year about not doing either of them but am SO glad we didn't! We are doing them now but I have a 3rd grader and 1st grader, making it a GREAT combined set of subjects. And really they don't need anything along those lines until 3rd grade or 4th grade. So get some books from the library or do a unit study once a month if you feel like you NEED to do those subjects. Hey what's wrong with some science projects instead of doing what a book says to do? Our school days begin at 8:30am, sometimes 9am and we are done by 2pm. This includes BOTH of my dd's and my totboy. We take 30min-45min for lunch. My dd's both get a total of 45min's in breaks, they are broken into 15min's but they are able to take them when they feel overwhelmed. We have a 15min break card that I have in our school area..when they are getting too stressed they can use it. But they have to mark on their sheet they took it and when there are no more breaks that's it. However for EVERY break they didn't take they get an additional 5min added to their bedtime, so they could potentially stay up 15min LATER than usual. They get an hour and half for play-time. Then it's chores. Then they are free to play, computer, movies..ect...Bedtime is 8:30pm. Story-time begins at 8pm. :grouphug:I hope I didn't offend you and your plans. I'm just giving you a true opinion from one homeschooling mama to another. Edited July 22, 2011 by mamaofblessings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXMary2 Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 The only thing that stands out to me is the 4-5 pages of Abeka math. We use Abeka and 1 lesson (2 sides) plus the speed drill is all my 7 yo ds can handle in a day. There have been days where I have tried to "catch up" or move ahead and he usually balks at more than one lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldilocks Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I feel like we take all day too! I've thought about cutting history and science--but that's the fun stuff. What about doing the Bible reading during breakfast or lunch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Since she struggles in reading "I" would drop grammar until next year. Focus on getting her reading where it needs to be. One lesson of math is plenty. My ds starts 2nd next month. I have no intentions for it to be more than 2 1/2 hrs a day and that's with added crafts, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aludlam Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 You are going to be amazed at how your day changes when she is reading better. Her world (and yours) will change dramatically. It's tough cutting back on things like science and history and grammar. I know, b/c I'm a science person myself. But we shelved it all until dd (now 9) had improved her reading and boy was it worth it! Dd6 just got her science plans shelved for the time being. She only has so much time to give me in the day. And we need it all focused on reading, and what ever is left put on math. If she gets "behind" in other things, there is plenty of time to catch up. Homeschool is a marathon. And don't forget that if you are "doing" Bible with them, that IS history. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 If your daughter LOVES math, 5 pages is not much. My son would do page after page of math (until he got bored and wanted a bigger challenge!) But I would also cut out grammar until she is reading better. We did history and science last year, but it was all in library books from the begining reader section. They had amazing books, on a 1st-2nd grade level, on every topic we wanted to cover! For the first part of the year, we read together. He would read aloud to me. What helped him really start reading better was for us to read every other word. I would read a word, he read the next....for the whole book. He had to follow along to know what word he was on, and sound out words as we went. His speed really picked up because he wanted to be as fast as I was. Later in the year, DS would read the book and tell me about it. At that time, we started some very basic grammar (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, periods, etc). He picked it up faster because he was reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doodle Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 That would be too much for us. I have only 5 subjects per day, Monday-Thursday. Friday will be art and special projects for history, science and/or geography. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophiaH Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I agree with the others. That's a lot of math, and it's not necessary to do 2 grammar lessons a day. You could even drop grammar completely and start up again when she's reading better. Honestly, focus your energies on getting her to read well and do some math. Do history and science as read alouds, or do projects on the weekends when you don't do other schoolwork. That's a lot for her brain to deal with. No wonder she's cranky! :iagree: with everything here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) :iagree: Here's my advice: Make a few small changes (cut out FLL or go down to one lesson/day, less math unless she really loves it) & see how it goes. If it seems to be going well, leave everything else where it is. If it is still a whine-fest, cut out everything but the 3Rs (one lesson math, reading, copywork or apples/pears). Concentrate on getting her attitude fixed all day long. If there is whining, there is some sort of resulting "punishment." (This will depend on the kid. I try to tie it back into what they are whining about. You'll know best.) We're going back to focusing on the 5-fingered-whatever-you-call-it -> you know, the "1) Yes, Mom. 2) I'll obey. 3) Right away. 4) All the way. 5) The happy way." We're almost there 100% of the time on #1. Once everyone consistently has that one down, we'll work really hard on #2. (Baby steps.) Etc. .... Might take us all year, but we'll make it. :tongue_smilie: It is amazing how easy (& quick) things are when the kid is willing. One more thing: If your 4 yr old isn't interested in "doing school," don't push it. Let her be a kid & "imaginate" (what we call it here). I noticed you are due in Oct. Congrats! During those first few weeks, don't worry too much about school - but use some time to read aloud to the kids & have the older one read to you. You are already ahead in math, yes? You can informally do math facts practice orally. Read-read-read. And try to get some help in so you can sleep! Edited July 23, 2011 by RootAnn advice on 4 yr old Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I'd drop the grammar until she's reading well and make the science and history very casual and easy-going, setting yourself a timer so it doesn't go on too long. We took six years to do a rotation of SOTW with supplements, and it was a good pace. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I would do 1 lesson of FLL 3x per week and then do the Map/Geography on the other two. The FLL shouldn't take more than about 10min....we were doing WWE at the time so we skipped the copywork etc....and it only took us about 5. I would also not worry about the vocab words. If you are reading good lit. to your child for readalouds, they pick up vocab that way, and it sticks much better than a vocab list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iquilt Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Here is what I have planned for my 2nd grade dd, starting on Monday. FLL2 (3x per week), Writing Tales (daily), Horizons Math (daily), Sonlight Core C (4 days/week), Spelling Workout (daily), Explode the Code book 6 (daily), PictureSmart Bible (daily). Starting in September we will add Real Science 4 Kids Biology (2 x week) and Logic (2 x week). I'm planning the morning for her and ds6 and his first grade work. I know my fifth grade dd10 will continue her work into the afternoon but I'm hoping for her to still be done with work by 3ish so that she has free time before after school activities. We do not have anything planned for out of the house during the day at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChandlerMom Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) I agree with the "focus on 3Rs" or really just reading with a little math and handwriting for now. You can cover history/science by the books you choose for read alouds and her reading (at least for a while). I trimmed to the 3Rs while my 2nd grader focussed on creative writing and my K'r was learning to read. Now, we're excited to be able to add back more in depth on those "fun" but time consuming courses! One thing that may help is to do your schedule so that dd feels she has some control and KNOWS what is going to happen -- if it feels like it's going to be one big all-day slog she's not motivated to focus, is she? [ETA: imagine if you were working and didn't know when you'd get a break, when you'd be done for the day, what you'd be told to do next -- not exactly motivating, is it? :D ] One trick that worked well for us is to make magnets (glue index cards to freebie magnets you get in ads) and write each subject (of the 15-30min variety) on one, use a different color highlighter to color for each (I high lit the edges). On a small magnet board write "to do" on one side and "done!" on another. Each morning I put the subjects for the day on the "to do" side, she gets to move the magnet to "done" when she's completed the subject and gets the remaining time in the (30-60min) block for playing with her sister. When she started staying on task, I let her choose the order of the subjects. Anyway, it let her visually SEE what she needed to do, gave her a natural consequence of more play time the more focussed she was, and control/treat by being able to recognize something was complete. When everything was on the done side we'd review "wow, let's look at what you did today!" and play a fun game. [We started this when dd was in 1st and what was a struggle all day was suddenly being completed in 90 minutes of work, before lunch! ] Edited July 23, 2011 by ChandlerMom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RahRah Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) Here's what we are doing for 2nd grade...it seems to take us most of the day to do everything. I'm not sure if it's just my DD who makes it take too long, or if we are doing too much. Reading: (daily) Dancing Bears (she's not reading well at all....so I need to stick with a formal reading program). Sometimes I'll add an activity to reading time....such as reading a Dr Seuss book to me, or having her unscramble and read a sentence that I created and cut up. Then she'll write the sentence. Or she'll get a tube of letter tiles and see how many words she can create and write out of those particular letters. Or we will play the game "See Spot Spell." DS is now second too and we're still doing reading daily - often on weekend days too! His reading skills keep progressing and when he reaches a better level of fluency, we'll adjust the schedule accordingly. I don't think it's too much to do reading daily with emerging readers. Writing: (daily) We do a daily journal entry (just one sentence where she randomly chooses a noun, verb, and adjective from a jar and forms a sentence from those words). We are also working on some words from vision/auditory therapy where I write them, she copies them (she writes a lot of things backwards, so that's why we need to do this). A few times during the week we do Apples & Pears (a writing program for struggling writers/readers). We also do things like writing in the sand....again, this is for her therapy but we plug it into the school day.While I have writing scheduled M-F, we usually only do it 3-4 times a week since it's summer and we've lightened the load - but that's us and I really don't see a short stint for writing something daily as too much. Grammar: (daily) First Language Lessons. We do two chapters per day. Plus, we work on the poem memorization for it too. Then I'll occasionally elaborate for a few days on something like learning the days of the week and the months of the year to help her learn them better. I also have a list of vocabulary words and we go over one per day, along with our grammar lesson.Honest opinion - I'd drop grammar until reading skills improve. Bible: (daily...one chapter per week) Positive Action Bible Curriculum. This usually consists of me reading scripture, elaborating on the scripture by telling the Bible story in kid friendly fashion. The kids are usually coloring a corresponding picture while I'm reading. Then we discuss the story, apply it to real life, and pray.I'd modify this to twice a week until reading skills improve...that way you can still do a chapter a week, just a modified, shorter lesson plan on the chapter for now. Math: (daily) Abeka 2nd grade (we've been doing this book for a few months now and will move into the 3rd grade book before we are halfway finished with her 2nd grade year). We do 4-5 pages per day. Not front and back. Occasionally we'll have to pause a few days while I elaborate on a certain subject that she may not be catching onto as quickly (such as fractions). Sometimes I'll substitute using the math book for playing a game such as Money Bags or Dogopoly...those reinforce her math skills.Okay, she's way ahead here - my DS is too - for what it's worth, I reduced our math to focus on reading. We still do some math daily - a new concept a week, a page a day of problems.....but there isn't really a pressing need to keep up the pace that will have him so far ahead in years to come - to me, right now, the reading is more important than him plowing into 3rd grade math skills - so we're pacing slower right now....you may want to consider doing less math daily to have more quality time with reading skills. Science: (twice a week) Right now I'm doing my own natural science with them....but in the fall we will be starting Real Science 4 Kids. Right now this could consist of us watching a documentary about animals, doing a craft type activity, reading books, doing an easy experiment, etc. History: (twice a week) We were working on SOTW for a while, got sidetracked, and I hope to begin it again in the fall. We will rotate science and history, having each twice a week. I hope to do the story, coloring, and discussion one day and the activity the second day. Sounds like a good plan. Map Skills/Geography: (daily) This is fairly quick during our school day. DD is learning the states. We name the states she's already learning, pointing them out on the map. She adds the sticker of any new states she's learned. And I'm about to add in a continent study too. When not studying the continents, we do 2 pages of a Map Skills book that I have. This takes like 5 minutes or less.Honestly, I don't think geography at this point needs to take five days a week to do - what you could consider doing is make history/social studies three days a week (M-W-F) with one day geography and the other two your plan above, and instead of short 5-10 minute geo lesson, include it as a 15-20 minute lesson or longer if you have time. That way you have T-TH for science lessons and activities. I feel like it is taking all. day. long to do these things. Maybe it's just my DD....she's moody and cranky a lot LOL. And then I do try to give them a few breaks here and there. The girls love to play and imagine together so I want to give them time to do that. I feel like the 4 year old sort of stays to herself all day while I'm working with my 7 year old. Sometimes I feel bad about that. She's very good at playing alone though. And she has no interest in very much "school." Is this too much? Too little? Am I leaving something out? One thing I found works really well with DS is that we don't do school each day straight through from when we start to when we finish - we do a couple of things in the morning, shortly after he's had breakfast....take a break.....we'll do a bit more before lunch or after lunch.....take a break.....and then in the afternoon, we'll wrap up whatever we haven't gotten to at that point, if anything. I also have found that we can effectively use playtime for learning by incorporating much of what is in his lessons into his play stealthily - at this age that's pretty easy to do and keeps the learning in active-play instead of all seatwork. For example, when he's playing with his legos and cars, I'll often play with him and as we're building, talk about the physics of what he's doing without making too obvious that's what I'm doing. We play a lot of educational games that he doesn't know are educational. We do lots on the whiteboard, in lots of different colored markers. We use car driving time to listen to SOTW on CD rather than me read the books to him - not only does he prefer this and ask for the CD in the car, it saves us time too because we're in the car anyway and can use that time to listen to something we'd need to anyway for the lessons and well, it saves my voice too! Edited July 23, 2011 by RahRah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homeschooling6 Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Agreeing with the other posters with regards to grammar and math. I usually do more of an informal history and science study at this age. Maybe purchase the audio books for SOTW. This is what I did. My kiddos love listening to them. At one time Brent, listened to them daily for months :001_smile:. Science is a bit harder to find on audio. I used the Jonthan Park cds and I found a few at Amazon. I hear Apologia will be adding audio soon for the elementry books (can't wait):thumbup:. I have tons of science books on our shelf too with lots of pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I would downplay any other language arts activities while you focus on getting her reading up to speed (handwriting would be the exception, but that can be done in 5-10 minutes per day). Also, with math, since she is ahead *and* you are feeling like things are taking too long, I'd set the timer (either a real one or one in your head) for 30 minutes and only go as far as that amount of time will take you. One thing that I find is that even if a particular activity takes just a few minutes, changing activities takes time as well. So three 5 minute activities will take longer than one 15 minute activity. Also, breaks take longer than the time allotted. At least around here, I lose their attention when they're anticipating a break and I have to get it back after the break. We don't do breaks here because of this. One more thing--how early do you start? I find that if we start by 8, things go much more smoothly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracyomalley Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Sit down and set time limits, not "stuff limits". If your child is struggling with language arts but excells (relatively) in math, than you do want to encourage that "island of excellence" - as long as your child appreciates that they "get to move fast in math". Its really important for kids with LDs (which based upon your comments about therapy and significant differences in different subjects, I am figuring is at least a possibility here) to work on BOTH strengths and weaknesses...not just on what is tough! Does your child complain about history and science? If not, than DO NOT DROP these - they will be the learning that encourages a love of reading and study and will help them get over difficulties... trust me, I've been there! But do set it up so that you do one subject a day and have fun with it. It is not in any way important to "finish" a level of these subjects at 2nd grade - just exposure and love of learning. Art, Music and great Literature are the same. You really could do this in less than an hour a day total...and let this be the fun stuff. Play time and imagination are critical at this age - you are correct. Do you school year round? It works really well for kids with relative stuggles and whiney attitudes - school just becomes part of life - so there's less complaining, because, well, it doesn' t ever go away!!! The old CONSISTANCY thing... My kid with language based LDs did great with FLL because he is a fantastic auditory learner, and I am glad we did it. But if you do year round schooling, you could easily finish both 1 and 2 in a year without doubling up so much. Do you have a workbox, or list of daily tasks that your child can cross things off of or move so they see how much they are accomplishing? They developmentally often think it truely will go on forever at this age otherwise, and thus complain even more. It really helps my rising 2nd grader to "see" his day physically - rather than mom pulling out more and more. And all three of my kids do better with "What do I have for schoolwork today" than a mommy controlled universe...even if I make the list LOL!!! Remember its a marathon, not a sprint. I tell myself that regularly - and have relaxed more as time goes on. Not with my expectations, but with my stress...my attitude affects their whining too... Hope some of that is helpful Erin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragons in the flower bed Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Until my kids are reading well, I'd keep science and history to a bare minimum. Once a week seems like more than enough for a child who isn't a fluent reader. Since you have a four-year-old, and this is taking all day, I'd alternate weeks, doing science for one day one week, then history one day the next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 If it's taking most of the day, it's too much. Regardless of whether it's because your daughter is slow or you're doing too much or whatever the case may be. I haven't read all the replies, but some of the changes I might make are: Grammar- Do one chapter per day instead of two. Math: 4-5 pages per day is a LOT. At second grade I wouldn't do more than 1-2 pages per day. Map Skills/Geography: Seems unnecessary to me at that age. Can you drop it til third or fourth grade? Or do it on the ONE day that you aren't doing science/social studies (since you are doing each of those two days a week). Journal/Copywork- can you alternate days on these instead of doing both in one day, especially if she is a slow writer? (the journal sentence and the copying letters so she learns to not write them backwards thing). Vocab: I don't think you need to do "vocabulary" formally in second grade. When things come up in your reading that she doesn't know what it means, briefly tell her, but I don't know that you need a list and to formally go over a word each day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 Thanks everyone, for checking out our stuff for this coming year! I've taken what a lot of you have said and thought about it....here's what I think I'll do: I'll keep doing reading and writing every day. I can't really drop writing down to a few times a week because with her issues with writing backwards, etc, we really need to keep on top of it. Her vision/auditory therapist really stressed this to us. Math....I think I'll drop a few pages per day. She actually enjoys math and is great at it, but I think I'll drop it down a few pages. Science....I really don't want to drop this. Science is the subject that she actually begs to do. I don't really want to cut out something that she begs to do. Maybe I could only do it once per week, but when we do, maybe focus on it for about an hour instead of trying to squeeze it into a shorter time period. History.....I like the idea of listening to the audio CD's. We actually own them but I haven't pulled them out. Maybe I can do that and play them in the background while the girls play and color together in the sunroom. That way I won't have to actually *teach* the subject. And if there's an activity I think they'd like, I can get the stuff to do that. Grammar....we are doing FLL Level 1. The reason I'm doing 2 lessons per day is because sometimes we just barely skim over one of them. She is already familiar with some of the simple parts of speech, etc, so we just skim some of the chapters. I think I probably will cut it down to one lesson though. I can group reading, writing, and grammar together with no break in between. The vocab word we really only do probably two a week....and it literally only takes two minutes per day. I just quiz her on what the word is and ask her to use it in a sentence. No writing, no supplies, just talking. Map Skills....she asked to do this, so that's why we've included it this year. She loves learning the states and pointing them out on the map. Maybe I won't go into an in depth study of the continents right now though. Or, if I do....we just won't do science and history for a week or two while we study the continents. That may work. Bible.....I'm not willing to cut this out. It's one of the main reasons that we homeschool. However, I will admit that it's very easy to "double up" if we do miss a lesson one day. So when we do miss a lesson or run out of time, I don't sweat it with this subject....I just make it up the next day....and it doesn't take a whole lot more time to do that. What I need to learn to do is block my schedule, I guess. I have a hard time setting that up. I need to sit down and really work on that. DD also wants to learn sign language. We started with that last year and it sort of died out when we didn't have the time to include it. She keeps asking about it. Maybe I could block things where we do science on Monday, history on Tuesday, sign language on Wednesday.....and something else on Thursday. We try to only school four days per week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 If you can't do the workbox or schedule well, I'd set a timer per subject. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Redwood Mama Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 :iagree: with what some of the other parents are saying. We are starting 3rd this year and I had many of the same challenges you face. I decided to drop grammar/FLL until reading improved. Much of what is discussed is brought up in FLL Level 3. For math, we use MUS and do one lesson a week = 6 worksheets, front only, plus a test. I think you need to cut back on the math. Geography, my son learned all the states with an online game he played once a week. This is a really great blog with lots of ideas - she has the link for the geography game too - http://runofthemillfamily.blogspot.com/ Geography game - http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm We also use her suggested link for typing - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ Best of luck to you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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