How to mkae time for all subjects in one day?

[LuvingLife]

I notice I am having a lot of trouble trying to schedule all my subjects or at least almost all into one day. I would like to schedule at least most of my subjects into one day, maybe 3-4 at the most. Right now I am only fitting in 2 or 3, and I am not accomplishing everything like I want to.

 

My subjects are Math, Science, History, English, Reading, Bible, Writing, and Research. Usually I just fit in math and Science, while the rest are left out in the cold. How do you plan your schedule for your children? Is it an hour or two a subject and then whatever you didn't finish is left for the next day or homework?

 

Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

When my children were younger I had a list of subjects that we would "rotate" through. Then those at the bottom of the list were eventually done.

 

Now, I pretty much set a time limit per subject. What is not done is carried over to the next day. If I see that certain subjects are not being done then those become the priority for a few days.

 

I would think that you do not have to do "writing" and "research" daily. I might choose about 3 consecutive days per month for a small project. Only do those subjects then maybe.

 

Could you shift "Reading" and "Bible" to a more informal status?

[Candid]

Do you have schedule for school work? Do you work directly with your students on everything or do you teach or assign a lesson and then they work on their own? Is it possible that the math and science programs you are using are too big? Do the other subjects not get done because they aren't the favored ones. How much time beyond school hours does your student think they should work on school related subjects?

 

One simple thing to do is to do the skipped subjects first. We did the one subject we felt we should do every day first and then did subjects we wouldn't do if we got to the end of the school day and they were still left, and then finished with subjects we liked.

[regentrude]

DD spends six hours per day on school work. That should be enough time for the five core subjects (math, science, English, history and French) and a little bit of work on electives; we losely aim for one hour per core subject per day, or five hours per subject per week. Homework for the outside French class requires more than that, chemistry labs require larger chunks of time as well, and we usually do them on weekends.

She does not work on each subject every day; she has a different schedule each day, because of her outside commitments. The work for her dual enrollment class has priority. She works on the other subjects for however long she feels like it; often larger chunks of math or history in one sitting.

At the end of the week, we see what subject got neglected, and she tries to pay more attention to that subject during the next week. It all averages out over the course of a school year.

 

The most important thing is to schedule enough time for school and to use this time as productively as possibly, without waste. We found that six hours of concentrated work are feasible, and I'd rather have her do that than spend eight hours with a lot of busy work and breaks and fluff.

It is also necessary to begin school promptly every morning at 8am, and to not allow any non-school interruptions during school time: no appointments, errands, socializing between 8am and 3pm. She takes a one hour lunch break from 12 to 1pm.

Edited January 24, 2012 by regentrude

[Mom22ns]

Ds's schedule looks something like this:

 

6:00 Algebra (60-90 min)

7:30 History (60 min)

8:30 To do list

9:30 Biology (60 min)

10:30 Finish to do list

 

He goes to band for an hour twice a week in the afternoons.

 

His to do list includes:

Health/PE: we alternate days on this and spend about 45 min/day

Language Arts: reading books from Sonlight and Wordly Wise 45-60 min every day

Japanese: 45-60 min every day

Creative Writing: 45-90 min every day

 

That adds up to 6-7 hours per day. He does often have Biology, Algebra or History homework after the time is up. For example he is doing a 5 page position paper in history right now, all the work on it is done in addition to the 60 min/day and he owes me a lab report for the lab we did at the end of the week last week. Labs usually take the full hour, so reports are done as homework. Instrument practice (he plays two) is done daily as well.

 

Just a note, ds is an earlybird. He normally gets up at 5:00 and prefers to start at 6:00 so he is done in the early afternoon.

[Mommee & Baba]

If I scheduled all our subjects for an entire day we'd spend until dinner time doing school :001_huh:

 

However I rotate spelling, science, penmanship and history. Each day we have reading, math, language arts, writing, and geography.

[Mom22ns]

If I scheduled all our subjects for an entire day we'd spend until dinner time doing school :001_huh:

 

However I rotate spelling, science, penmanship and history. Each day we have reading, math, language arts, writing, and geography.

 

You might note that her oldest is 8.5, not high school. The spelling and penmanship kind of give it away :)

[brandigirl]

Wow this thread is going to be super helpful for me. My schedule is really out of wack at the moment due to some personal reasons. I am dying to get it back on track. When my mom works my schedule looks like this.

 

10 AM-12 AM AP History

 

12 AM -1 PM Spanish 3

 

1 PM - 2 PM AP English Language

 

2 PM - 4 PM AP Chemistry

 

4 PM - 10 PM This is the time my family goes out and about eats dinner and watches a movie it is almost impossible to work so I usually bring TT Algebra 2 with me and do my 2 lessons in the car.

 

11 PM- 2AM Wrap up anything left (can you tell I am a night owl:D)

 

This schedule is a mega rough idea of what to do. Since on FEB 4 I am adding two more classes AP Biology and AP European History. So I will do AP Bio between 8-9 am and 9-10 for AP Euro. Which means I will have to get up earlier yipee :glare:. The reason I have so much time for my subjects is 1 the extreme workload and my very very short attention span. I am liable to get distracted by pencil or something :lol:.

[Mommee & Baba]

You might note that her oldest is 8.5, not high school. The spelling and penmanship kind of give it away :)

 

Can I have an insert smacks myself in the head emote?? :D

 

I didn't realize I was replying in the upper grades area. :lol:

[Julie in MN]

My subjects are Math, Science, History, English, Reading, Bible, Writing, and Research.

 

Usually reading, writing, and research are rolled into one of your other credits -- history, English, etc. Is there a way for you to do that? Or at least "look at it" that way, so you see whether you are spending way too much time on one subject?

 

The most important thing is to schedule enough time for school and to use this time as productively as possibly, without waste. We found that six hours of concentrated work are feasible, ...

It is also necessary to begin school promptly every morning at 8am, and to not allow any non-school interruptions during school time: no appointments, errands, socializing between 8am and 3pm.

 

:iagree:

 

• one hour per course during the school day

• starting at the same time each day

• trying to schedule extras after school, or at least in the afternoon

 

 

I would also say that when things extend beyond the hour timeframe, they can be done in the evening. Usually those are things like reading and doing math problems. I think that spending an hour during the day and then doing the rest in the evening works better than extending those subjects during the "school hours" and nudging out whole other classes.

 

Julie

[regentrude]

I would also say that when things extend beyond the hour timeframe, they can be done in the evening. Usually those are things like reading and doing math problems. I think that spending an hour during the day and then doing the rest in the evening works better than extending those subjects during the "school hours" and nudging out whole other classes.

 

 

I think that depends a lot on the student.

One hard math problem, or a longer physics assignment, may well take more than one hour - but for students who are not at peak performance in the evening, it may be wise to take the time to do any work that requires much concentration in the morning, even if that means that other subjects do not get done.

I find that postponing challenging math work to the evening (especially after an afternoon full of activities) is a disaster for my children; they have less concentration and make more mistakes. OTOH, they can perfectly well read some English, or listen to a music history lecture in the pm.

Other student may work well in the evening - it all depends on the kid (as always).

[Julie in MN]

I think that depends a lot on the student.

One hard math problem, or a longer physics assignment, may well take more than one hour - but for students who are not at peak performance in the evening, it may be wise to take the time to do any work that requires much concentration in the morning, even if that means that other subjects do not get done.

I find that postponing challenging math work to the evening (especially after an afternoon full of activities) is a disaster for my children; they have less concentration and make more mistakes. OTOH, they can perfectly well read some English, or listen to a music history lecture in the pm.

Other student may work well in the evening - it all depends on the kid (as always).

 

Yeah, I'm sure that can be the case.

 

But if she's only fitting in 2-3 classes during the day, it seems like she may not be one of those kids?

 

Julie

[elegantlion]

I try to schedule ds work into 4 lessons per week. I make a weekly schedule and my goal is that each lesson will take about an hour. My goal (as we haven't quite reached those yet) is that any work not completed M-F will be done on Sat.

 

I agree about an hour in each subject, sometimes we do 90 mins to 2 hours on math if he's working to get a concept.

 

I find a written schedule with boxes to check off make me (the teacher) more accountable. Ds is still building that skill.

[LuvingLife]

All of your replies have been a tremendous help and I see where I am lacking in my scheduling skills. I spend too much time on one subject, especially math and science, so if I limit those to about an 1 to an hour and a half a day, I will be able to add in more. I usually start school around 9:30am and aim to finish around 3:00pm which I can do most days. I can switch reading and writing to the afternoon, I do extra to keep my skills sharp and to prepare for the ACT test.

 

By the late evenings I am dead person, tired but hanging in there!:D Usually I take a break and accomplish any extra work that I couldn't accomplish, and then I move on to my extra curricular activities. I see now that I am trying to push too much into one day, and spreading it out over the course of the week is better.

 

Thank you all for sharing, this has been a great help to me.:001_smile:

[Julie in MN]

I usually start school around 9:30am and aim to finish around 3:00pm which I can do most days.

 

Just wondering... if you're consistently only getting in 2-3 classes per day, then can you really do a 5.5 hour day (which is likely less if you take out any breaks and/or lunch)? You might be coming up short on subjects because you aren't allowing yourself enough time for high school level work. I wonder if you could schedule in 6 hours, not including lunch? That might help. Then if you were done early, hooray :)

[tofugirl101]

I used to get up at 8 am, do little school work, procrastinate, and do the rest of school work until nighttime. But then I realized how stupid that was, and made a different schedule.

 

I get up at 4 (in the morning!), work till about 10am, then I have the rest of the day for my extracurriculars, practicing singing, relaxing, or any extra studying. I've noticed I have more energy in the early morning, and I do my school work best at those hours(weird,huh?) It's practically super quiet, so I just focus.

[LuvingLife]

Just wondering... if you're consistently only getting in 2-3 classes per day, then can you really do a 5.5 hour day (which is likely less if you take out any breaks and/or lunch)? You might be coming up short on subjects because you aren't allowing yourself enough time for high school level work. I wonder if you could schedule in 6 hours, not including lunch? That might help. Then if you were done early, hooray :)

 

I have tried, but that's really stretching it. I need to wake up earlier I think. Thank you!

 

I used to get up at 8 am, do little school work, procrastinate, and do the rest of school work until nighttime. But then I realized how stupid that was, and made a different schedule.

 

I get up at 4 (in the morning!), work till about 10am, then I have the rest of the day for my extracurriculars, practicing singing, relaxing, or any extra studying. I've noticed I have more energy in the early morning, and I do my school work best at those hours(weird,huh?) It's practically super quiet, so I just focus.

 

Funny, I have the most energy in the early hours as well, I can wake up at 5:00, then do the rest of my schoolwork and finish by 11:00. You just gave me an excellent idea!

 

Thank you all for you input!:001_smile: