Can you give me an idea of what your ninth grader does in a day?

[Based on Faith Academy]

My son is just starting high school next year. I am worried about missing out on doing things with him that need to be done. I just found out that critical thinking should be being heavily taught. Do you incorporate it in your schooling with other subjects? I've been doing it from what I can tell but not in the aspects that his ninth grade test is showing. If you can just give me a run down of your day or curriculum for your dc I would really appreciate it.

 

Thanks in advance!:)

[Jenny in Florida]

Hmmm.

 

My son is finishing the year we're calling ninth grade. He's already shifted into summer mode, but during the regular year his day goes something like this:

 

My husband wakes him at 7:15 before leaving for work.

 

Son comes into the office/homeschooling area and starts working on math, which he does independently. This year, he used an Art of Problem Solving book along with some other resources I assembled for him.

 

Meanwhile, I'm out walking with the dog. When I get back, I make breakfast. He usually showers and dresses while I'm getting his food together.

 

While he eats, I read aloud and we discuss. This year, most of his breakfast-time reading was related to math.

 

Once he's done eating, he gets back to working independently. A typical day might have him doing a lesson of Spanish (FLVS in the first semester, then Destinos in the second) after math. Then, he might read a chapter of whatever he's reading for science and complete the review sheet I made for him. (He read mostly general interest science books this year, rather than a text.) After that, he'd move on to history, reading a section of the history encyclopedia and, again, completing the review sheet. If he's working on any kind of project for either science of history (writing a paper, doing a lab, etc.), he'd spend some time on that during this chunk, too.

 

Then he'd usually break for lunch, which he makes himself.

 

While he ate, I'd read aloud some more. Lunchtime reading tended to be literature, and we'd discuss it as we read.

 

After lunch, he'd go back to working on his own. He'd read whatever literature he was assigned to do independently, write his reports and papers and, again, work on any projects he was in the midst of doing.

 

Edit: Oooops! I forgot about composition stuff. That was also usually done during the after-lunch time.

 

He was required to keep working until 2:00 or until he'd completed a lesson of each subject, if that was later.

 

He had a variety of outside activities to attend in the afternoons and evenings. Mondays, he had choir rehearsals and dance lessons from 4:30 until 8:30. Tuesdays were private voice lessons and sometimes another dance class. As part of his performing arts credit, we had season tickets for a local theatre. So, once or twice a month, we'd go to a show on Wednesday evenings. If he was rehearsing a show, he usually had those rehearsals Tuesday through Friday evenings, too.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Jenny in Florida

[shanvan]

I hope you get more responses since I'm in the midst of planning too and would also like to read about some typical 9th grade days.

 

Here are some links to other 9th threads jus tin case they help....

 

9th grade schedule

 

9th grade threads

[mschickie]

You do not really "teach" critical thinking but there should be more critical thinking involved in the questions being asked of a 9th grader. Instead of questions retelling information this is really the age where the why, how and consequence questions should be the focus of their work. You should find this transition within the curriculum you are already using.

 

We pullled dd out of ps mid 9th grade so her schedule was not typical but I used to teach in high schools so I am familar with this transition year. At this point your child might still need help scheduling their day and work but as the year goes on you should try to move toward him planning is day based on the amount of work he has and when it is due. Having due dates for work/projects and sticking to them helps them learn how to better manage their time.

 

One way of doing that is with a research report (you can incorporate it into their favorite subject). You have several different due dates built into that, one for topic (if they do not come up with one you assign one or pull one out of a hat), one for reseach day...have them plan a trip to the library, one for a bibliography, then one for an outline, a rough draft and then the final report. It may seem like a lot of due dates but it gets them used to looking ahead and mapping out their work.

 

I also suggest some sort of daily planner that they can use to plan out their week. This should be done together at first and then by the end of the year you should be able to just hand him the list of what he needs to do, when it is due and have him schedule it out. These are skills that they will need for either college or a job.

 

Hope this helps a little.

[Based on Faith Academy]

Hmmm.

 

If he's working on any kind of project for either science of history (writing a paper, doing a lab, etc.), he'd spend some time on that during this chunk, too.

 

 

 

This is one thing I would like to incorporate in to my son's schooling. What are some labs that you are doing/did?

 

Also I saw you mention Spanish. I am interested in starting my son on a foreign language. What do you recommend to get started?

 

Thank you so much for taking your time to answer my post!

[Based on Faith Academy]

 

I also suggest some sort of daily planner that they can use to plan out their week. This should be done together at first and then by the end of the year you should be able to just hand him the list of what he needs to do, when it is due and have him schedule it out. These are skills that they will need for either college or a job.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

I really like this idea. He is doing so much better with managing his time as he has gotten older but I think this would be great for him to see it written down on black and white. Time management is an important skill that even some adults have a problem managing.

 

Thank you so much for your help!

[Based on Faith Academy]

9th grade schedule

 

9th grade threads

 

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

So much information!

 

I love it!!!:)

[Jenny in Florida]

This is one thing I would like to incorporate in to my son's schooling. What are some labs that you are doing/did?

 

This hasn't been a banner year for us in terms of labs, unfortunately. We went off the beaten path a bit for science this year, doing a home-designed course we called "Science in Popular Culture."

 

When he was reading The Science of Star Wars, he did a few small robotics kits. He also played around with making and launching some simple rockets, trying different combinations of "fuel" and measuring how far and how accurately they flew. Throughout the fall, he participated on a Lego robotics team, and he spent a lot of hours at home practicing with our kit.

 

During his Science of Harry Potter reading, he grew a plant from a kit we bought at WDW, logging measurements and descriptions of it each week.

 

Ask me about labs again next year, please? We're doing chemistry, and I have a whole series of actual labs planned for that!

 

Also I saw you mention Spanish. I am interested in starting my son on a foreign language. What do you recommend to get started?

 

Well, I'm no expert in that area, either.

 

The classical model recommends Latin, of course, and at least a couple of years of a modern language, too. We stopped Latin after a few years earlier in his academic career, though.

 

My son chose Spanish, mostly because he didn't care much which language he studied and I have enough background from high school and college to help him through the first couple of years. We've tried a variety of curricula over the years and never found one we loved. As I said, at the moment he's working through Destinos ( http://www.learner.org/resources/series75.html ). I bought the text used online and will start supplementing next year with a couple of grammar books I got through BookMooch.

 

There are plenty of resources available for foreign language. It's really just a question of deciding which language to study and figuring out what approach will work best for your student.

Edited June 27, 2012 by Jenny in Florida

[Jenny in Florida]

I also suggest some sort of daily planner that they can use to plan out their week. This should be done together at first and then by the end of the year you should be able to just hand him the list of what he needs to do, when it is due and have him schedule it out.

 

We're transitioning to having him manage this next year. Until now, I've always written assignments for each week in advance, then gone over it with him at the beginning of the week and helped him set his goals for each day. Next year, we've agreed that he'll take over doing the daily planning on his own.

[jessicalb]

I also suggest some sort of daily planner that they can use to plan out their week. This should be done together at first and then by the end of the year you should be able to just hand him the list of what he needs to do, when it is due and have him schedule it out. These are skills that they will need for either college or a job.

 

We tried this for 8th grade and it went in reverse. By the end of the year I was doing all the planning alone and giving him a daily task list.

 

We'll try again in 9th. I'm sure he'll pick it up eventually! :)

[tjarnold]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

So much information!

 

I love it!!!:)

 

Yes, thank you so much!

 

Tiffany

[mschickie]

The planning and time management is a skill that can take a few years sometimes for kids to master.

 

If you are not comfortable in teaching a language you can try and find a co-op that offers them or wait a couple of years and just have them take a couple of semesters at a local community college. One semester of a college class counts towards a year of high school work. Another alternative is that some private schools (at least in NY) will allow homeschoolers to take a class or two, that might be an option to look into in your area.

 

Another class you might want to add in as an elective in either 9th or 10th grade is College and Careers. You can either find a curriculum (Sonlight offers one) or just do it on your own. You can get apptitude tests online (sometimes through your district) that you can have him fill out and see where his strengths and interests are. At that point have him research a few of the jobs he shows a leaning towards and see what type of education he would need, salary expectations..... This way even if he is already planning on a career he can see what else is out there. After that you can start looking at what you need to do to apply for college. You look at how to apply for the PSAT (through your district, they are taken in the fall of 11th grade), SAT/ACT, what courses are required, FASA and what that looks like, scholarships available and start looking at colleges they might be interested in. The reason you want to do this in either 9th or 10th grade is so that if there are some specialty courses or experiences (like explorer groups) that they might want or need you have time to research it and do the work.It also exposes them to things they will need to do in 11th/12th grade. Normally these are 1/2 unit/credit class so you would either do it more intensely over 2 quarters or lightly over the entire year. It all depends on how much work you want them to put into it.

[FaithManor]

Ds spent about one hr. per day on math, but though he was in AP biology, he flew through that and rarely spent more than 30 minutes per day on that. It really clicked with him. However, on days when we did labs, he took much longer.

 

American History - he could usually do the reading, outlining, note-taking, and complete the study guide questions within 45 minutes. Art history was a snap for him - he's pretty talented in that department - and spent around 30 minutes per day.

 

Great Books/Literature with grammar/Comp review - an hour to 1.5.

 

Computer Programming - 1 hr.

 

Latin - 45 min.

 

Rocketry team - 1 hr. per day.

 

Classical guitar - 45 min. of practice per day.

 

Practical Drafting - 30 min. per day

 

Every subject, every day M-F pretty consistently. Classical guitar lessons on Friday afternoon and three out of four Saturday mornings were spent at the flying field testing rockets with the team.

 

Faith

[1Togo]

Math - 1 to 1.5 hours per day

 

Science - 1 to 1.5 hours per day

 

Composition & Grammar - 1.5 hours per day

 

History/Geography - 1 hour, 3X per week

 

Literature - 1 hour - 3 to 5X per week

 

Bible - 45 minutes per day

 

Reading (related to history or Bible or personal or....) - 30 to 45 minutes per day

 

Violin - 2+ hours per day, weekly lesson

 

Ballet - 3+ hours per week, rehearsals for recitals

 

Youth Choir- 1/2 year

 

Volunteer Work - fostering dogs w/Humane Society - 1/2 year

 

For tracking work, we use a 1-page, homemade spreadsheet; i.e. 6 rows by 7 or 8 columns, kept on a clipboard. We map out the weekly work together, and it is checked off when completed. At the end of the week, all completed work, grades, exracurricular hours, and volunteer hours are copied into a planner. On a weekly basis, we primarily use four binders; i.e. composition,, math, science, and a "weekly work" binder that has dividers for Bible, geography, history, and literature. There are lists in the front of this binder for recording books read, volunteer hours, and curriculum completed.

 

We have a big binder for World History, and all Bible, geography, history, and literature work is put in that binder as each quarter is completed. We also have a big binder for 9th grade, and we file other quarterly work in that; i.e. composition that isn't connected to literature, math, science, etc. We keep spreadsheets on the computer for all graded subjects. At the end of the year, we print the spreadsheets and put them in the 9th grade binder. Course descriptions will go in the front of this binder as well.

 

We have used other ways of organizing and planning in the past, but this is working with our last student.

Edited June 27, 2012 by 1Togo

[Trilliums]

Last year my 9th grader scheduled his own days but I can list roughly weekly work schedules:

 

Math: About 10-14 hours a week, often doing some on weekends. He used AoPS geometry and also worked on Alg 2. He is finishing up Alg 2 over the summer in order to go into precalculus for 10th grade. This was his decision; I did not schedule so much math.

 

Science: He took Honors Chemistry, a 1 hr class every day. He had homework about 3 times per week.

 

SS: World History using Spielvogel's World History text as a spine. Watched or listened to Teaching Co lectures regularly. Had a weekly writing assignment and weekly map assignment.

 

LA: He started with Oak Meadow and WWS which took about an hour a day plus reading novels. Late in the year he started 9th grade LA at the ps which had a lot of homework including a symposium research project and weekly reading logs.

 

Foreign language: Mandarin with a tutor 1x per week, online daily for about 30 minutes. Also some community classes (cultural such as dumpling making).

 

Engineering: He took an Engineering class at the ps. Class met 1hr daily and he had homework about 3x per week.

 

Electives: He worked on a Fine Arts partial credit using Teaching Co lecture on music and art appreciation.

 

He also did a health unit studying muscle development and exercise techniques.

 

Participates in martial arts 6-8 hours per week including mentoring.

Mentored a Lego League team in the fall.

 

He kept up with scientific reading, listening to lectures, watching videos, etc in the area of physics. He also did a coursera comp sci 101 class, but that was just 6 weeks long.

 

He also started watching the news and discussing politics with us much more frequently.

 

This year my younger son is a rising 9th grader and we are still deciding what to do. :willy_nilly::willy_nilly::willy_nilly: He requires more direction and interaction. My older son just wanted a weekly list and then he would go off and do it very independently. By the end of the year, he didn't have any kind of list from me he just stayed on track with his programs. SS did get pretty boring for him though.

[shanvan]

Ds spent about one hr. per day on math, but though he was in AP biology, he flew through that and rarely spent more than 30 minutes per day on that. It really clicked with him. However, on days when we did labs, he took much longer.

 

American History - he could usually do the reading, outlining, note-taking, and complete the study guide questions within 45 minutes. Art history was a snap for him - he's pretty talented in that department - and spent around 30 minutes per day.

 

Great Books/Literature with grammar/Comp review - an hour to 1.5.

 

Computer Programming - 1 hr.

 

Latin - 45 min.

 

Rocketry team - 1 hr. per day.

 

Classical guitar - 45 min. of practice per day.

 

Practical Drafting - 30 min. per day

 

Every subject, every day M-F pretty consistently. Classical guitar lessons on Friday afternoon and three out of four Saturday mornings were spent at the flying field testing rockets with the team.

 

Faith

 

Can I de-rail the thread for a moment to ask what your Ds used for biology?

[Based on Faith Academy]

 

Computer Programming - 1 hr.

 

 

Faith

 

 

I am interested in using something like this for my son. How would I go about doing it? Is it an online course?

 

 

Thank you and thank you all for the responses.. I feel I need a week just to sit down and absorb all the information.

[barybar]

My son is just starting high school next year. I am worried about missing out on doing things with him that need to be done. I just found out that critical thinking should be being heavily taught. Do you incorporate it in your schooling with other subjects? I've been doing it from what I can tell but not in the aspects that his ninth grade test is showing. If you can just give me a run down of your day or curriculum for your dc I would really appreciate it.

 

Thanks in advance!:)

 

We, too, are working on a day that includes a small toddler in the mix. :lol: Making suggestions important.:iagree:

 

We had a crises--establishing guardianship of our g-son and then beginning HS this year. All the planning in the world may need to be adjusted accordingly. We live on a ranch that revolves around the work that needs to be done. (i.e. a pump stops working, cattle getting out, etc...)

 

Scheduling is going to be the most important. Math being a key. I have researched every subject to the max and beginning to get worn around the edges in anticipation. Thank you to the above for giving a glimpse of their day!

 

Char