Scheduling Core 5

[mazakaal]

I tried asking this at the Sonlight forums, but I'm not getting any answers.

 

I'm trying to plan next year's schedule and I need to know how long it will take each day to do Core 5 on a 4-day schedule. I'll only be doing the history, readers, and read-alouds. How much of my time will be required and how much time will ds be working independently?

 

Thanks.

[LillianinAL]

I can't help you, Megan, but I do have Core 5 (History, Read-Alouds, and Readers) plus Science on order. We are anxiously awaiting our boxes. Does anyone have ideas/ suggestions for us?

Thanks, Lillian

[Deece in MN]

Well, we are using Core 5 5-day schedule. We do just the history, readers and read-a-louds. My dd didn't like the EHE when we first started, so now I sit and work through it with them (I have 2 dc).

 

This has actually worked out better for us as we have had more discussion than before because I am there for them to ask questions or I toss something out from what we have read. When they were doing it on their own, it seemed they tried to work through it as quickly as possible just to get done. So if they had a rabbit trail type question, they wouldn't necessarily ask because that would take more time.

 

I don't track the time it takes them to read the readers. So working through the history and read-a-louds takes us anywhere from 1-2 hours a day depending on how many questions are assigned in the EHE and how much discussion we get into.

 

You can have your child do the EHE on their own (I think most people do it this way), but it works better for us to do it together.

 

I hope this helps some. We have enjoyed this core and my dd has developed an interest in Africa (which we are going to continue studying) because of this core.

[Jenny in Atl]

We did a 5 day schedule and I would say it took no more than 3 hrs (including readers). I'm not sure how that would translate to a 4 day schedule. This did not include math, science, languages, etc... just history EHE, readers, and read alouds. Our overall day was about 6 hours (and hour of which was reading).

 

hths!

[mazakaal]

Thanks, ladies. That gives me a good idea of what to expect.

 

Megan

[choirfarm]

Well, it can take as long as you want. No one answered you probably because it depends on so many factors: what books you are using, how quickly your children work, etc. Let me just share how I did Core 5 with my boys who were in 4th and 6th grades at the time. I organized the books by country/region. We NEVER went by the schedule. My boys read VERY fast. I also checked out extra books at the library. I had a history I read aloud at snack time in the middle of the morning. They generally had a history text they read on their own as well. I read the actual readaloud during lunch. A few of these I switched around making readalouds readers and readers readalouds. The one that comes to mind is Around the World in Eighty Days. I read that one aloud and we traced the journey on a map and had a blast. They had 30 minutes of reading every day and it was more than enough to get their readers and history readings done. Once again, we didn't worry about the schedule. They just read. This is how I handled EHE. They each had a 30 minute block. They would work on it for 30 minutes at a time until they were done. I ommitted some pages for my 4th grader like the timeline ones. I told them not to worry about finding each answer in order. If they couldn't find it quickly, skip it. Then once they showed me that they were finished, they took a day or two to compare answers with each other. Did their answers agree? It was funny because they often had skipped different questions and could show each other where it was though sometimes neither could find the answers. Then I spent a day or several days depending on the length of going over the answers with them and discussing them while they graded their work. IT worked well. We enjoyed Core 5.

 

Christine

[mazakaal]

It's great to hear how different people make use of the same materials. Your response was a big help. Thanks.