For those who schedule by the hour...

[Berta]

I have a five day schedule, but we don't just work M-F, so my planner just says "day 1" or "day 2" and so on. I also don't schedule by the hour. For those that schedule say Math from 9-10am, Reading from 10-10:30am, if your child finishes before the allotted time, are they allowed to have free time or do they go to the next subject? What happens if the time is up, but they are not done with their work? I am wondering if adding a time allotment will help organize our day a bit more, or if it will push me further behind.

[rocketgirl]

Hi! My schedule has time slots just so I can plan & imagine how we can stop for lunch, be done by 2 (because we'll head out for volleyball practice soon after) and get things done that I want us to. But our times are estimates. I don't schedule reading because we do that before bed & that can be short or long depending on them. But for example, for my oldest, I have planned 1 hour of math, that includes time for logic problems too, but I know we still won't take an entire hour, that gives her (and me) some break time before our next thing. Plus sometimes it will take more or less time than the day before... So I have planned our schedule by hour increments, but then I erase the times on the schedule I print out for each day except for the start and end time. That way I'm not pressured to hurry & finish something that we need more time with, but I know realistically what we can get done, etc...

 

p.s. I have to be careful what I tell my kids when we finish... if I say free time, they'll think they have hours to build a fort or something when really its 15 minutes...so I'll either tell them they have time for a quick break, free time, or activity time... since my oldest needs 1 hour of math and is not independent at that yet, my others have 1 hour of open ended time - so I'll have 1/2 of that be an activity (like Brain Pop, painting, magic school bus video, etc & the other 1/2 be play time)

Edited July 29, 2011 by rocketgirl

[mcconnellboys]

I tentatively schedule by the hour just to give myself a framework. I try to make certain I'm not including more work than can be completed within that time period. If the work does get done faster, we move on and get more reading done. There's never enough time for all the reading to be done, LOL!

[Pixjen]

I used to schedule by the hour, but now I just list the subjects in the order I want them accomplished. I know in my head approximately how long each one should take to either 1) be finished or 2) when DS hits his mental overload for that subject.

 

This year I'm adding in structured breaks though. He complains that 15 mins isn't "long enough" if he gets wrapped up playing on his breaks. So instead I'm going to have him do some physical activities, like riding his bike or scooter, jumping on the mini-tramp, etc. I'm hoping that this will help keep him fresh and motivated to finish up without too much complaining or dragging of feet. :001_smile: