Why are we not getting everything done? What would you address here?

[melissel]

I'm so frustrated. We started school a week ago (late due to traveling, and then even later due to illness). I planned carefully, I made schedules, I made lesson plans, I thought I had ample time for everything I wanted to do each day, but we're STILL not getting science or history in.

 

This is the schedule for our longest day.

 

Math: 1 hour

Science: 1 hour

History: 45 minutes

Grammar: 15 minutes

Vocabulary: 15 minutes

WWE: 30 minutes

Cursive: 15 minutes

Latin: 45 minutes

 

By my calculations, that's under 5 hours. DD6's solo work takes a maximum of 45 minutes. Even with our "learning lunch" break (they watch a documentary for an hour while I prepare lunch and they eat, and I do some administrative work), we should be done with all of that between 9 and 4. We're regularly working until 4 p.m., but we're still losing two key subjects every day.

 

LfC's intro says that a Latin lesson should take 30 minutes, but I don't see how I can teach to understanding in just 30 minutes a day. The same thing with math--a RightStart C (we're wrapping up leftover work) lesson takes us an hour. I would love to trim those two down, but I don't see how I can. I could probably cut vocabulary altogether, but DD9 really enjoys it, and it takes so little time.

 

I would love to hear thoughts on this. WWYD? Have you faced this issue and managed to bring your days under control?

 

TIA if you even got this far :tongue_smilie:

[boscopup]

I'd do science and history on different days. If you're doing SOTW, you can usually get the whole book done in a year if you do one section per day, 3 days per week. It also shouldn't take an hour every day. Reading that one section out loud will take 5-10 minutes? Then narrate. Mapwork can be done independently (or with reading help for the 6 year old if necessary). Library books can be in a book basket, and just pull them out as you get time. Pick one activity to do during the week, and also be flexible enough to let go of the activities if you have a busy week (I actually can't remember the last time we did an activity :tongue_smilie:).

 

I don't know how you could shorten Rightstart. That's just a program where the lessons take a while. Some math programs take a shorter time, but if Rightstart is working for you in general, I wouldn't switch it. I'd try to cut somewhere else.

 

I'd also probably drop Latin if you're not having time for the main core subjects. The world won't end if you wait another year or two to do Latin.

 

All that said... I don't think 4 hours 45 minutes is that unreasonable for a 4th grader. The first grader shouldn't take nearly that long, of course.

 

Also, if dawdling is happening at all, you could try starting earlier. I've found that my son can't focus on school at all if we start after 9am, but if we start at 8am, he gets everything done super quick. He just needs to start working immediately after breakfast. So play around with start times and see what works best for your kids.

[Halcyon]

What worked for us was making Friday our "fun content" day. We do Science, History and any projects on that day, and nothing else except a brief Latin review and a 40 minute quiz on the week's learning. So from about 10 am until 3 pm or later, we are doing just Science and History. That leaves the core content subjects for the other days. We usually end up doing quite a bit of Science and History reading on the other days, but I don't feel compelled to if we don't have time. Our other days usually go like this:

 

8am to 9am: reading

9 am to 10:30: math

10:30 to 11:30 Latin

11:30 to 12:30 grammar, logic, vocab, spelling, geography (not all every day, however)

12:30 lunch for 30 minutes

1 pm to 1:30 piano practice

1:30 to 2:15 writing with ease and/or bravewriter

On afternoons when we finish earlier than expected, we study Mythology in anticipation of the NME next year.

 

It has worked out really well for us. Check out my blog if you want more deets. :)

Edited October 8, 2011 by Halcyon

[3peasinapod]

I like all the recommendations so far, and wanted to add that in our house history and science are the fun subjects. We do them on the weekend if we didn't finish up during the week. There are never any complaints, as we don't do math or LA on the weekends. Also, we do a lot of our reading at night before bed, usually an hour's worth. It's warm and cozy and everyone is captive.

[foxbridgeacademy]

I would try to combine subjects, like do vocab words in cursive. Also Try History on Mon/Wed, Science on Tues/Thurs or vice versa, and keep Friday for catch up or fun projects. I would either cut math short (30-45 min total) or break it up into 30 minute increments. You might find you get more done due to better attention span. Depending on the programs you're using for Science/History you can count the documetaries toward science and history. Or another option during lunch prep time have 1 child come in at a time and do the WWE lesson. As long as you pre- read the lesson I think it might work. You can always set time limits on everything. What doesn't get done today goes to tomorrow. I know as an over planner this is hard for me, I just want to push through and get everything checked off.

[cdrumm4448]

There are a few things I've been tweaking in order to fit in everything we want to get done. First, I get up at 5 am so I can have quiet alone time, clean, organize and pre-read lessons for the day. Second, I get my kids up by 7 am. We do science and history every day (that's what they want to do), so we need to get a jump on the day. We also leave the house by 4 on most days for activities, and by the time we get home, they're cooked, so it's important to get it done as early as possible. Third, I utilize techology to a certain degree. They listen to SOTW on audio before they go to bed, they drill math on the computer, they play CC drill games with each other to reinforce CC material. They work on their independent lists while I work with the other child. I like to try to be as efficient as possible. It's always a work in progress!

 

DS just spent quite a bit of time teaching DD her WWE lesson for the day. Then, they were on to her science experiment. I washed the windows inside. I'm seeing a whole new world open up!

[melissel]

Thanks everyone, you've given me some good ideas (I can definitely do WWE with DD9 while I prep lunch) and reminded me of a few things I'd forgotten (like our SOTW CDs and getting up early to make sure all the pieces are in place before we sit down to work).

 

I don't think the time is too long, but I definitely think it's too long to spend without getting our key subjects in! Science is actually only scheduled two days a week (my example above was for our longest day, which included science), but I do have history scheduled for four days. Maybe I can squeeze it into three instead--I'll reevaluate that. They love history, but I start to lose their attention if we go on too long, so I was trying to spread it out over more days but spend less time on it.

 

I'll rededicate myself to being more efficient. I just rejiggered our daily schedule to include everything we have to do, including learning lunches and incorporating DD6's schedule on the same page. That should help me stay on track.

 

Thanks again for helping me think this through!

[Tracy]

We do WWE and spelling in cursive, so there is no separate cursive program. Dd learned cursive in about a month during the summer so we wouldn't have to make cursive a separate subject during the school year.

[silliness7]

I'm so frustrated. We started school a week ago (late due to traveling, and then even later due to illness). I planned carefully, I made schedules, I made lesson plans, I thought I had ample time for everything I wanted to do each day, but we're STILL not getting science or history in.

 

This is the schedule for our longest day.

 

Math: 1 hour

Science: 1 hour

History: 45 minutes

Grammar: 15 minutes

Vocabulary: 15 minutes

WWE: 30 minutes

Cursive: 15 minutes

Latin: 45 minutes

 

By my calculations, that's under 5 hours. DD6's solo work takes a maximum of 45 minutes. Even with our "learning lunch" break (they watch a documentary for an hour while I prepare lunch and they eat, and I do some administrative work), we should be done with all of that between 9 and 4. We're regularly working until 4 p.m., but we're still losing two key subjects every day.

 

LfC's intro says that a Latin lesson should take 30 minutes, but I don't see how I can teach to understanding in just 30 minutes a day. The same thing with math--a RightStart C (we're wrapping up leftover work) lesson takes us an hour. I would love to trim those two down, but I don't see how I can. I could probably cut vocabulary altogether, but DD9 really enjoys it, and it takes so little time.

 

I would love to hear thoughts on this. WWYD? Have you faced this issue and managed to bring your days under control?

 

TIA if you even got this far :tongue_smilie:

 

The only way I could get my days under control was to put math at 8-9, not math at 1 hour. That way when 9 rolled around you could see that it was time to move on. When you are trying to get done by 9 instead of in one hour it's more motivating to buckle down and get 'er done. If you can't get it done in 1 hour give it more time. It needs to be comfortable. You'll have to adjust as you experiment with it. If you consistently get done too late then you need more time and vice versa. Although it's nice to get done early some days and have little bit of a break. Also it's not horrible if you have a little left over every once in a while. I tell my kids to set it aside and do it either when they have a little free time from another subject or do it for "homework" at the end of the day.

 

I don't know if that made any sense. I'm rambly tonight.

[acurtis75]

This is our lfc schedule:

Mon we watch DVD and practice chant

Tue we practice chant to 1st page of worksheet from student book

Wed chant & another worksheet page

Thur & Fri we do the activity booklet pages.

 

We don't usually spend more than 30 min on Monday...the rest of the week it's only 10 or 20 minutes.

 

I consider Latin vocabulary so I don't use an additional program for that. For language arts I rotate & don't do everything everyday. We do history & science 2 or 3 times per week but almost never on the same day.

 

We rarely spend 4 or more hours on formal lessons per day. Looking at your schedule it seems your trying to fit a lot in everyday. We do all the things you have listed (minus vocab) plus bible & Greek but we don't ever do all subjects everyday.

[acurtis75]

I meant you're trying to do a lot:)

[2squared]

The same thing with math--a RightStart C (we're wrapping up leftover work) lesson takes us an hour. I would love to trim those two down, but I don't see how I can.

 

Well, you don't have to finish a lesson every day. When my oldest was in Level C, she/we worked for 30 minutes/day. My goal was 30 minutes of solid math teaching and learning. I didn't worry if we completed an entire lesson, half a lesson, or multiple lessons during that time.

 

I know a lot of people teach math by lesson rather than time, but some concepts are going to take longer than one day to teach and learn and some are going to go much quicker. Dividing math into daily lessons seems somewhat artificial to me. I just don't see math as a subject that can have a predetermined pace.

[MelissaMinNC]

First - :grouphug: . We started school 10 weeks ago, and this was the first week we were able to get all our subjects done. I changed our schedule about 3 times to find something that would work. The biggest change for us was to do geography (no history currently, we're doing MFW ECC) 3 days a week and science 2 days a week, no matter what it says in the TM. So, we alternate and do geo M, W, F and science Tues, Th. Would that help?

 

Also, give it a little time, because maybe it was just 1st week transitioning that made everything go longer.

 

 

 

I'm so frustrated. We started school a week ago (late due to traveling, and then even later due to illness). I planned carefully, I made schedules, I made lesson plans, I thought I had ample time for everything I wanted to do each day, but we're STILL not getting science or history in.

 

This is the schedule for our longest day.

 

Math: 1 hour

Science: 1 hour

History: 45 minutes

Grammar: 15 minutes

Vocabulary: 15 minutes

WWE: 30 minutes

Cursive: 15 minutes

Latin: 45 minutes

 

By my calculations, that's under 5 hours. DD6's solo work takes a maximum of 45 minutes. Even with our "learning lunch" break (they watch a documentary for an hour while I prepare lunch and they eat, and I do some administrative work), we should be done with all of that between 9 and 4. We're regularly working until 4 p.m., but we're still losing two key subjects every day.

 

LfC's intro says that a Latin lesson should take 30 minutes, but I don't see how I can teach to understanding in just 30 minutes a day. The same thing with math--a RightStart C (we're wrapping up leftover work) lesson takes us an hour. I would love to trim those two down, but I don't see how I can. I could probably cut vocabulary altogether, but DD9 really enjoys it, and it takes so little time.

 

I would love to hear thoughts on this. WWYD? Have you faced this issue and managed to bring your days under control?

 

TIA if you even got this far :tongue_smilie:

[melissel]

We don't usually spend more than 30 min on Monday...the rest of the week it's only 10 or 20 minutes.

 

I consider Latin vocabulary so I don't use an additional program for that. For language arts I rotate & don't do everything everyday. We do history & science 2 or 3 times per week but almost never on the same day.

 

See, why is LfC taking us so long?! Maybe because it's new to me? Maybe because DD9 never seems to stop talking? :001_huh: We do it on a 4-day schedule--the fifth day is just the quiz at the end. I didn't even get to make the flash cards this week--I was hoping to avoid spending any more money on this school year, but maybe I'll just go buy the dang clash cards!

 

We tried doing history twice a week, but they don't have much attention span beyond reading the section, narrating and doing the mapwork, and then maybe a short readaloud, so adding in any projects/putting things on our timeline/reading the UILE pages all have to be done on other days, which is how it ends up being 4 days. I could try to squeeze all that into two days, but then it's just more time on those days. Do HSers who do history two days a week just not do any of the extra stuff?

 

Well, you don't have to finish a lesson every day. When my oldest was in Level C, she/we worked for 30 minutes/day.

 

I know, I know *groan* This is partly my neurosis. I feel like we are so far behind--so many kids are done with D already at this age, and we still have 20 lessons to go in C :banghead: I meant to say that on my other thread where you responded. I feel a burning need to keep us on track so we don't get any farther behind. And this kid is 9. Shouldn't she be able to handle a full lesson? How old was your DD when she was doing 30-minute level C lessons? Maybe my expectations are skewed. I'm also starting to wonder if RightStart is no longer the right approach for her, if maybe changing it up would benefit everyone.

 

First - :grouphug: . We started school 10 weeks ago, and this was the first week we were able to get all our subjects done. I changed our schedule about 3 times to find something that would work. The biggest change for us was to do geography (no history currently, we're doing MFW ECC) 3 days a week and science 2 days a week, no matter what it says in the TM. So, we alternate and do geo M, W, F and science Tues, Th. Would that help?

 

Also, give it a little time, because maybe it was just 1st week transitioning that made everything go longer.

 

Thank you. I'm very much hoping this is the case, and that if I can get myself to be more efficient, that will shave some time off too. I spent some time undoing my file folders and moving things into single subject binders today. That worked really well for a few subjects last year, so I'm going to give it a shot this year for everything.

 

Right now we do geography M-T-W and I have science scheduled on Saturdays and Sundays (Thursdays and Fridays are our "weekends" here). Our geography is very light though--Evan-Moor Daily Geography Practice, which literally takes about 5 minutes of DD9's time on each of those days. I could compress other subjects into fewer days each week, but I'm thinking that unless I actually cut things, I'm just swapping times.

 

I really hope it's a "beginning of the year" thing! Thanks for your ideas :)

[2squared]

I know, I know *groan* This is partly my neurosis. I feel like we are so far behind--so many kids are done with D already at this age, and we still have 20 lessons to go in C :banghead: I meant to say that on my other thread where you responded. I feel a burning need to keep us on track so we don't get any farther behind. And this kid is 9. Shouldn't she be able to handle a full lesson? How old was your DD when she was doing 30-minute level C lessons? Maybe my expectations are skewed. I'm also starting to wonder if RightStart is no longer the right approach for her, if maybe changing it up would benefit everyone.

 

Uh....she was 9. We finished Level C in August. We started schooling Aug 1, and she still had 10-15 lessons in C to finish. We are about 20 lessons into D now, and those lessons are going very quickly. I still have her doing 30 minutes of RightStart, but it's about 15 minutes of instruction and 15 minutes of independently completing the daily worksheets. She does regularly get through a Level D lesson in 30 minutes.

 

I don't feel that we are behind at all. Maybe some people are in E now, but so what? Have you looked at your long-term path? Finishing E next year certainly doesn't put us in any kind of math danger. :D For my dd, I think we are on the right time schedule for her. She's sharp, but she's not a natural with numbers. Now, my 7yo would be behind if he was in D at this same age. He is breezing through all the levels, but he has a completely different math mind.

 

I think your 9yo can handle a full math lesson, but how do you know the lessons are paced correctly for her?

[boscopup]

I don't feel that we are behind at all. Maybe some people are in E now, but so what? Have you looked at your long-term path? Finishing E next year certainly doesn't put us in any kind of math danger. :D

 

:iagree: Looking at the RS site, after doing E, you do their Intermediate Math (which I guess is pre-algebra?), then go on to Algebra. So finishing E in 4th grade would have you doing Algebra in 6th, woudn't it? :confused: I don't think that's a goal you need to have with a child you think is "behind". It sounds like you have plenty of time! I didn't realize RS "finished" that early.

 

I think a reasonable math goal for the average student is Algebra in 8th or 9th grade. So even if you do D in 4th grade, E in 5th grade, Intermediate Math in 6th grade, you'd still hit Algebra in 7th grade! Take your time. :)

[Sevilla]

You need to have two categories of subjects:

 

1. Every.single.day subjects (math, language arts - though you could consider alternating days for some of those subjects).

 

2. Block scheduled subjects (Latin, Science, History). Do Latin 3 days per week, do Science 2 days and history 2 days (or something like that).

[chenicole]

Agree with Sevila! That's how we are working now. We are, after all, multi-tasking every single day! Some can stick to the schedule, but I am guessing most of us have to move things around here and there on some of the days.

I was like you in the beginning. I was a mess, I cried several times when no one was around. Not being able to finish the lessons planned was just unacceptable to me at that time. I felt like a failure. After talking to my home school friends in my area, I realized that it is actually not unusual. You will have some good days and some frantic days. Now, everything runs smoothly for us and we even have time to go back to review previous lessons. We are ahead of schedule, especially math. :-)

Most of the time, we only have 2~3 hours a day. I assign homework and projects everyday. She reads a lot so I don't need to do much except to know what she is reading, discussion and book report. We do science, history and geography 2 hours each subject per week; math and LA everyday for 1 hour each every day. On Fridays, we will go out with friends or museum or just quiz for the week's learning. I do have to tell you though, we are doing "6 days" week. We do lessons on the fly as well, I might be playing with my 2 yr old on the floor, or driving to piano lessons, or grocery store and having class at the same time. Sometimes, we even have class on Sunday if we feel like it. She doesn't mind at all. She specifically loves pop quiz when I am cooking because that earns her bonus points. I don't think children need that much play time during school period(3 months). That makes vacation time(the following month) much more precious to them and they will use the play time wisely.;-) That's for us so far. I know there will be some bumps in the future, we might need to adjust accordingly again. But that's life, isn't it? I have a lot of curriculum and books I wanted to work in still sitting on the shelves staring at me. I will get to it eventually, I told myself. So, good luck, be flexible and you will figure it out.