For those of you who have done a 4 day curriculum

[DawnM]

at what age do you implement and feel it necessary to do all 5 day?

 

End of middle school?

Not until High School?

 

We currently do a 4 day schedule. It often spills into 5 days because we don't always get things done and their math and LA are on a 5 day schedule anyway.

 

I am looking towards next year. Oldest will most likely be 8th grade next year even though he is ready for 9th grade age wise.

 

Thoughts?

 

Dawn

[Lily_Grace]

We are using a 4 day curriculum this year and I have no regrets with slimming down from 5 days. I don't honestly think it makes much difference as long as the information is still retained.

[SebastianCat]

I think it depends on your curriculum. We start math and English early in the school year (1st week in July for math, and mid-July for English) so we can finish with our other subjects and not drag those subject into our summer break. And we use Sonlight for literature & history, which comes with a 4-day schedule. When we get to SL's Core F, I don't know that we'll be able to continue doing only 4 days - the workload may get to a point where it requires 5. Until then, we do what works best......we do a co-op twice a month, then use our other 2 free Fridays for field trips or just a day off.

[morosophe]

And remember, when they hit college, even the bigger classes may only be three days a week... but there's way more homework!

 

Also, my five-day-a-week classes were forty-five minutes long (at the most) in high school. If you do an hour and a half three days a week for a particular class, you're still ahead of that. (In fact, many of my teachers were never quite able to finish their lessons in one session. I remember a science teacher complaining about it.)

[Mommy22alyns]

:bigear:

 

I'm hoping to continue with MFW, and they seem to be mostly a 4-day schedule, sometimes with a lighter 5th day. We do co-op once a week, but whenever the time comes that we need a full 5 days to do our work, we'll drop the co-op.

[DragonFaerie]

We did 4 days per week last year (2nd and 3rd) but this year, we've had to go to 4 1/2 because I've increased their curriculum/ workload. I foresee an increase again next year when we add Spanish, though I still hope to keep Fridays light.

[heart'sjoy]

I'm seeing that my current 6th grader will soon need many 5 day weeks. We're pretty close to 4 and 1/2 now.

 

I'm also guessing that as I add another one writing papers, making my total papers to teach and grade each week 3, Me, Mommy, will have to spread it out over 5 days. Consequently, I get more done if everyone is on a "school" schedule all 5 days.

 

I was also looking at our 7th grade science. The goals for the seventh grader, besides content, involve note taking, test taking, and lab reports. These skills will take time to develop. Probably science will go from twice a week to 3-4 times a week.

 

This was also our first semester to try a couple of outsourced classes at Landry Academy. They were a good fit and worth the 3+ hours of extra time each week, but it did change some of our 4 day weeks to 5.

 

Major factors in increasing our school hours: Number of kids being taught, Number of time intensive subjects (science, writing), Number of live online classes

[lewelma]

7th grade. We are doing 4 days for 6th right now. But we have put all his logic into the weekend, and he does most of his science reading in the weekend. So I think that we are about to give up our Fridays.

 

Ruth in NZ