Scheduling Extra Curricular Activities

[Candid]

This is puzzling me and I guess I'd like to know if I'm a nut or not. :D

 

It's the beginning of the school year and I'm seeing a lot of announcements for clubs and field trips. I am astounded by how many are any the morning that could just as easily be afternoon events.

 

For instance, a field trip to a zip line course in town at 10:00 AM instead of 1:00 PM (this one struck me because there is a 10 year old minimum age limit to go).

 

And then today the speech and debate group is going to meet from 10:00 - 1:00 every week.

 

Now, some field trips, I get that you are going to spend all day, or have to drive, or have mostly younger kids who might need afternoon naps (or their siblings). But high school speech and debate?

 

With a middle and high school student, I want our morning study time to be pretty sacrosanct. We need that time to do school work. Math that needs to be done, etc.

 

I may end up having to knock our schedule around for somethings, but I am curious if I am the only one who wants their mornings left alone.

[LanaTron]

No. You're not the only one. {sigh} This year we're getting up earlier than I'd like so we can get a few hours of schoolwork in before the classes, co-ops, etc. And dc will have work to do after, as well. It's their choice, though, as I would be happy to sit at home and do school all day. ;-) But I do wish more of these homeschool things would start later in the day.

[Dmmetler]

I'm hitting this here as well, and I don't even have a high school student yet. If we don't get school done in the morning, it's about 3x as hard to do it later. My boss put a whole bunch of homeschool music classes on the schedule this year-and every single one of them starts at 9:00 AM. I'm not expecting many people to sign up, somehow!

[regentrude]

I understand that many homeschoolers prefer mornings, especially with children younger than high school age, and if the mothers are home. Morning field trips are probably less crowded, children are less tired, etc.

We can never participate in anything before noon, because I work.

I would see no problem with my 12 y/o attending a morning activity (other than my unavailability) for maybe one morning a week, and we do attend a weekly playgroup from noon to 3pm. But for my high schooler, I would have to carefully evaluate the educational value of the activity and would, in most cases, conclude that it is not worth the interruption of her school time. She is much more effective if she starts at 8am and works.

[Murphy101]

I think the biggest issue with the debate class is that it has lunch right smack in the middle of it. It would have to be very important personally to one of my kids to mess with meal time and mornings. It would require the additional effort of either packing food, eating out, or having a huge gap between breakfast and lunch.

 

The occasional field trip to a museum, zoo or fluff activity like zip line in the am could be okay maybe once a month if it works in our schedule.

 

Mostly tho I just say no and move on.

[BeckyFL]

This is puzzling me and I guess I'd like to know if I'm a nut or not. :D

 

It's the beginning of the school year and I'm seeing a lot of announcements for clubs and field trips. I am astounded by how many are any the morning that could just as easily be afternoon events.

 

For instance, a field trip to a zip line course in town at 10:00 AM instead of 1:00 PM (this one struck me because there is a 10 year old minimum age limit to go).

 

And then today the speech and debate group is going to meet from 10:00 - 1:00 every week.

 

Now, some field trips, I get that you are going to spend all day, or have to drive, or have mostly younger kids who might need afternoon naps (or their siblings). But high school speech and debate?

 

With a middle and high school student, I want our morning study time to be pretty sacrosanct. We need that time to do school work. Math that needs to be done, etc.

 

I may end up having to knock our schedule around for somethings, but I am curious if I am the only one who wants their mornings left alone.

I would go even further and say that I would love them to be as late as 2 or 3 pm. We really have to get our core studies done before we can run around zip-lining.

[Candid]

This is good to hear! I start to think there must be something seriously wrong with me, or us, or something.

 

I'm okay with writing off a day for a field trip that relates to our studies. We are doing ancients this year and we'll be driving to a museum to see a mummies exhibition, but the zip lining makes no sense to me (nor the laser tag from another person).

 

The debate team is frustrating because I suspect my ninth grader would enjoy it, but he's not sure and he's my sensible guy so he sees the problem with the time as well.

[Janice H]

...but the zip lining makes no sense to me (nor the laser tag from another person).

 

 

 

Cheaper during off-hours? Maybe not applicable to most families, but my part of the country is famous for its traffic. So good event times are in between standard office commuting times. (You want classes to end before 3:30 PM. :auto:)

[angela in ohio]

Are you in an area where homeschoolers can participate in public school sports or activities? I know we were in a group a few years ago that did things during the day, because many students had sports practices during "after school" hours.

 

I know we need to do some things during the day on one day (art and flute,) because our later afternoon hours are busy most days (orchestra, soccer, robotics, etc.) We work our school schedule around it (we school Saturdays and year round.) And 10:00 wouldn't bother me too much, because we'd already have at least two hours of school work done by then.

 

I would assume that the speech and debate team just couldn't find an afternoon that was free for everyone, with so many other activities out there. A morning is a time when everyone is free.

 

We wouldn't go ziplining during school time, but we also couldn't go if it was most afternoons/evenings.

[SkateLeft]

I think it comes down to your personal approach to homeschooling. I prefer our mornings to be left alone also.

 

Some families put a great deal more weight on field trips and outside classes than others. My unschooling friends spend far more time doing outside stuff during the day than we do.

 

My family already has a handful of interruptions to our day, between skating practices, taking my oldest to and from college classes, and my youngest son's various therapies, so we do very few mid-day field trips and classes. I think the only mid-day extra-curriculars we have planned this year are a few trips to Orchestra Hall for the school concerts. More than that just doesn't fit our educational approach or our schedule.

 

When we do plan a field trip though, honestly, I prefer to do it during the day, because then we're not dealing with the regular school kids.

[Jenny in Florida]

Well, we likely wouldn't even be going to the zip line thing. That sounds like fun, but I wouldn't consider it a "field trip."

 

It sounds like we're odd, but I would prefer that academic activities -- like debate -- be scheduled during the school day. My son is very active with extracurriculars that take up most of his afternoons and many evenings. These are primarily classes and groups that include students who attend school. So, they are all scheduled after the normal school day ends. If my son is going to participate in anything else, it has to happen during the day.

 

Around here, weather is also a concern. In Florida our best chance to enjoy an outdoor activity is earlier in the day before it gets either hot or rainy.

 

And there is also much to be said for being out and about enjoying the world while museums and parks and other facilities are less likely to be crowded.

[Book Nut]

This is puzzling me and I guess I'd like to know if I'm a nut or not. :D

 

It's the beginning of the school year and I'm seeing a lot of announcements for clubs and field trips. I am astounded by how many are any the morning that could just as easily be afternoon events.

 

For instance, a field trip to a zip line course in town at 10:00 AM instead of 1:00 PM (this one struck me because there is a 10 year old minimum age limit to go).

 

And then today the speech and debate group is going to meet from 10:00 - 1:00 every week.

 

Now, some field trips, I get that you are going to spend all day, or have to drive, or have mostly younger kids who might need afternoon naps (or their siblings). But high school speech and debate?

 

With a middle and high school student, I want our morning study time to be pretty sacrosanct. We need that time to do school work. Math that needs to be done, etc.

 

I may end up having to knock our schedule around for somethings, but I am curious if I am the only one who wants their mornings left alone.

 

I haven't read through all the responses so forgive me if I'm repeating what everyone else has said, but I TOTALLY agree! I could not do a regularly scheduled activity in the morning. Theorectically, we could come home & start other work after the activity, but I know it just would not happen. We need our mornings and early afternoons to do "school".

Edited August 24, 2011 by Book Nut
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[bugs]

I am relieved I am not the only one who prefers not to interrupt the mornings with field trips! OTOH, when I schedule family-only field trips (rarely) I do prefer them to be earlier in the day rather than later because most often I will be driving to a "big city" and have to deal with traffic in the later afternoon (I hate traffic).

[homeschoolmom97]

Yes, I'm repeating what everyone else is saying, but - I'm right there with you. We have a hard time getting started in the morning (9 is about as early as we can get school started...my dd is hugely low energy), and if we don't do school in the a.m., we might as well forget it. The later in the day it gets, the longer it takes to do ANYTHING. I REALLY like my mornings left alone!!!