NotAVampireLvr Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 (edited) How do you squeeze it all in? There is so much to study, and between my goals and DS(7)'s goals, in addition to having two little ones coming up shortly, I'm overwhelmed with the shear amount of what I want to have covered, without suffocating DS's interests. Our school day is not overly long, but as concepts get more difficult I imagine it will get to that point. Our current list: Bob Jones English 2 Bob Jones Spelling 2 Handwriting Without Tears 1 (remedial handwriting for my poor guy) Singapore Math 3a and Possibly supplementing with MEP & Living Books Story of the World Ancients (over the course of 18 months) U.S. Presidents - we study about one for about 2 weeks, and move on - DS's idea Science - as outlined in WTM Bible - Read and Share bible along with misc. activities related Holidays - all three are obsessed with the calendar and holidays and all that... My MIL is also doing unit studies with all three kids. Currently we're doing Plants (which will take about 6 months as its incorporating gardening) Senses, and a unit on Transportation. It seems like so much, but really a lot of it is just straight reading. I'm good about finding level-appropriate non-fiction so that it can double as reading comprehension. I wasn't even going to do WTM-outlined science since MIL is doing stuff with them, but he loves non-fiction and the science, along with math are his favorite part of the day. Does this seem like too much? DS has not pushed back much. Our days are leisurely... we probably spend about 4 hours officially doing school, and maybe an hour or so more reading. All spread throughout the day. My biggest concern is information overload. eta: That spelling, bible and history only happen about 2-3 times a week, and much of it (science and history for example) is just done by reading and then at the end of a topic we do a narration, poster... or sometimes just a small list of facts to keep a record in his notebook (again his idea) Edited March 7, 2012 by NotAVampireLvr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 It looks like what we do with our 7 yr olds here. We don't have an extra presidents study going on regularly, but occasionally we stop to really learn one (recently Teddy Roosevelt was very popular around here :)) and we are working on memorizing them and the states. We do it during our history time, like the first 5 min or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAS in LA Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Are you doing all of these every day? Maybe some subjects/projects could be done weekly or twice-weekly instead of every day. Four hours is more than I do with DS8; giving children time for "digesting" and for personal interests is important to me. If your DS is enjoying the work, seems to be retaining it, and nobody's getting burnt out, I would think it'd be fine to continue. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotAVampireLvr Posted March 7, 2012 Author Share Posted March 7, 2012 Are you doing all of these every day? Maybe some subjects/projects could be done weekly or twice-weekly instead of every day. Four hours is more than I do with DS8; giving children time for "digesting" and for personal interests is important to me. If your DS is enjoying the work, seems to be retaining it, and nobody's getting burnt out, I would think it'd be fine to continue. HTH! oh no - I should clarify that some of these are only done 2-3 times a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
---- Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Our current list: Bob Jones English 2 Bob Jones Spelling 2 Handwriting Without Tears 1 (remedial handwriting for my poor guy) Singapore Math 3a and Possibly supplementing with MEP & Living Books Story of the World Ancients (over the course of 18 months) U.S. Presidents - we study about one for about 2 weeks, and move on - DS's idea Science - as outlined in WTM Bible - Read and Share bible along with misc. activities related Holidays - all three are obsessed with the calendar and holidays and all that... My MIL is also doing unit studies with all three kids. Currently we're doing Plants (which will take about 6 months as its incorporating gardening) Senses, and a unit on Transportation. It seems like so much, but really a lot of it is just straight reading. I'm good about finding level-appropriate non-fiction so that it can double as reading comprehension. I wasn't even going to do WTM-outlined science since MIL is doing stuff with them, but he loves non-fiction and the science, along with math are his favorite part of the day. Does this seem like too much? DS has not pushed back much. Our days are leisurely... we probably spend about 4 hours officially doing school, and maybe an hour or so more reading. All spread throughout the day. My biggest concern is information overload. eta: That spelling, bible and history only happen about 2-3 times a week, and much of it (science and history for example) is just done by reading and then at the end of a topic we do a narration, poster... or sometimes just a small list of facts to keep a record in his notebook (again his idea) I wouldn't think it's to much for right now, especially since he doesn't seem to mind. I was like that as a kid, loved to learn and read everything... still am actually. As mine have gotten older we have dropped a lot of non-essentials in favor of "activities". We do Co-op for Science, Art, and a few other odds and ends (Chess). I try to pack everything into 3 days of "seatwork" and 2 days of activity style learning. The seatwork includes; Daily(5X per week) Reading-(30 minutes) 3X per week Math(about 1-1 1/2 hrs) Spelling(15 minutes) Writing (30 minutes) History (1+ hrs) 1X per week Grammar(30 minutes) Literature (30 minutes) Logic(15-30 minutes) What makes it go so quickly is that I have finally found curriculum that we like (or at least don't hate). Also they no longer "lollygag" through the lessons. They have finally realized that the sooner we finish the sooner they can go play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracy Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 That doesn't seem like a lot--it is about what I want to do with my dd turning 7yo this month. But she has a creative mind and an active imagination. I love what she does with her time--most of the time she chooses to forgo computer time in favor of imaginitive or creative play. Dh is a science teacher, and dd loves history, so we end up doing a lot of science and history that is outside of what I have planned. Consequently, what I have planned often goes out the window. Furthermore, dd is very bright but so very slow. Everything she does takes forever. The result is that we always do spelling, math and WWE. I also plan history, science and art. We do most of the history. We do very little formal science, but it is such a part of our lives that she still learns some sort of science, even if it was not what I had planned. I plan art, but we rarely get to it. That is my fault. I don't like doing it very much, and it is hard for me to pull her away from pretending she is Laura Ingalls to make a mess painting. Anyway, I hear you. It has really helped me to read the Little House on the Prairie series with dd and see what children of this age used to spend their days doing. I realize that kids this age really weren't meant to be "studying" much of anything. So we do what we comfortably can, and anything that causes undue stress gets shelved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NittanyJen Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 When we started feeling too... 'gotta get it done' my kids suggested a rotating schedule: history/language focus week and math/science focus week. They ontinue reading their history related literature during math/science week, and they still do math 3x/week during history/language week. This gives us more time to either focus on one deep topic in a say, stay focused though a week, or spend some time in the sun if needed without halting progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 I spend about 4.5 hours per day doing academic work with a 1st grader and a 3rd grader. They work hard for about 1 hour, then the kids have a 30 minute break, and so on for the first 3 hours of work. During this time we always do our math, English, Spelling, writing, reading, and reading comprehension/vocab/handwriting workbooks. During the last 1.5 hours of school, we do all of our other subjects, many only once per week (history, science, geography, art, music, civics/government, memory work, lapbooks). If something has to get dropped for lack of time, it will be something in the last section, though we get through all of it on most days. The kids are used to this schedule and are happy. My kids' schedule is actually quite a bit easier than their public school friends' schedules since they have more breaks and no homework. My kids have all of the time after school and on weekends for playtime, playdates, sports, etc. Even though doing 4.5 hours of work per day sounds like a lot, it really isn't so much IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.