Annie Laurie Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Looking at what I have planned this year, I can't realistically figure out how to get it all done. How much time do you spend on FLL 3 R&S English 6 WWE 4 WWS creative writing assignments, if you do any (my kids actually love to write and find WWE too regimented and have begged for other writing options so I'd like to add in writing workshops, The Creative Writer, etc.) math for 6th, 5th, 3rd grades Latin for those grades history science spelling The problem is I have 3 kids to teach, plus a toddler who limits our productivity, the kids have to switch off playing with him while I work with another kid, so they can't work on independent things, like their reader or typing program, while they wait for me. Toddler is very active and does not nap well, I have to sit with him to get him to nap, so that cuts into our school day too. After this school year he will be at the age when my other kids were happy to tag along and not get into everything. So I just need to have patience for this school year (2012-13) and then it will be smooth sailing again after this. But in the meantime, how do I get to these things? My kids thrive on hands-on, teacher intensive programs, such as RightStart math and AAS. We use Sonlight and love the read alouds and I was going to try to do two cores this year. Help?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracesteacher Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotSoObvious Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Wait. You do all of this AND Sonlight?? Wow! Here's how much time I spend: FLL3- 15-20 min, but sometimes we do 2 lessons Math- we usually set aside 45 min- 1 hr. It just depends on the lesson, BUT they only need about 15 min from me, then the rest is independent History- about 45 min, twice a week on a good week Spelling- AAS is about 15 min daily, my other dd's spelling is pretty independent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoVanGogh Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 FLL 3R&S English 6 WWE 4 WWS creative writing assignments, if you do any (my kids actually love to write and find WWE too regimented and have begged for other writing options so I'd like to add in writing workshops, The Creative Writer, etc.) math for 6th, 5th, 3rd grades Latin for those grades history science spelling We use FLL 4 (not 3) but spend about 15-20 minutes per lesson.WWS is kicking our behinds. :glare: I am finding I need to plan on spending 60 minutes so I don't get frustrated. (And we often don't finish in that amount of time. I have a child that loves to talk about the writing process but hates to actually write. :lol:) Math - 5th grade - We need to spend 45-60 minutes before I feel like we make progress. Latin - depends on our mood. History - we have used Famous Men and SOTW and I plan on spending 30 minutes per lesson/chapter. Spelling - AAS - 15 minutes per lesson. I save the dictation off for review the next day, which also take ~15 minutes. Science - we love and spend way too much time doing. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Can't help you too much since I don't have that many or those grade levels, but for our writing the year I'm doing CW Aesop which can be pretty intense. Because both my boys love to write creative fiction, and need help with style and choice of materials I opted to do a schedule with one week of CW followed by one week of creative work. I'm using a vintage resource with my boys, who are going into third grade, but alternating a week of WWS with a week of creative work might be useful to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Laurie Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 Wait. You do all of this AND Sonlight?? Wow! Actually, that's just the plan, my hope for the year, but it doesn't look realistic for us at all this year when I write it down on paper. It would take me around 7 hours to do all that- not gonna happen because of my toddler and my own needs for self-care (such as running or some kind of exercise I need every day), and running my house (these people need to eat often). That would be 7 hours of my time, since I have 3 kids to rotate through working one-on-one with, not their time. To be honest, this past year was one of the hardest of my life because my baby never slept and I was a zombie. All we did all year was SL (tons of reading aloud), WWE, and math. Along with lots and lots of library books, discussions, real life experiences, visits to the science museum and the zoo, etc. They scored very well on standardized testing, not that that is my yardstick, but I think their basic skills are fine. With my older two going into 6th and 5th I feel like we should be moving things up to logic stage. But I don't know how to fit it all in! I just spent an hour looking at TOG- I love the idea of incorporating vocab, art history, crafts and hands-on, writing, and geography all into our history study. Seems like it could save time, maybe. But for it to really save time, it seems like I'd have to drop WWE, FLL, etc and just trust the TOG process and incorporate it all there. So really we'd be spending as much time, but just in a different way, maybe I could teach all three kids at the same time better though. But, we love SL. I have tried plenty of others and nothing has fit us as well as SL. It definitely lacks in some areas- I feel like I need to add geography and I know my kids would like more hands-on projects, and that stresses me out since I already don't have enough time. But we always love the readers and read alouds so much, and I feel like maybe TOG lacks in that from the brief look I've given it. Really, the SL books mean so much to my kids. So, back to what to do, what to do? Sorry about the long ramble, I'm sure I killed my own thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narrow Gate Academy Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 Looking at what I have planned this year, I can't realistically figure out how to get it all done. How much time do you spend on R&S English 6 (10 minutes teaching, 30 minutes independent work) math for 6th, 5th, 3rd grades (10 minutes teaching, 30-40 minutes independent) Latin for those grades (30 minutes 5th and 6th, zero for 3rd) history (45 daily) science (30 minutes 4-5 days a week) spelling (10-15 minutes independently) The problem is I have 3 kids to teach, plus a toddler who limits our productivity, the kids have to switch off playing with him while I work with another kid, so they can't work on independent things, like their reader or typing program, while they wait for me. Add the toddler into the rotation. While he plays/reads with mom, the older kids can work independently. Also have the 5th and 6th grader take turns playing with the toddler and working independently while you are working with the 3rd grader. Toddler is very active and does not nap well, I have to sit with him to get him to nap, so that cuts into our school day too.Sounds like a perfect time for independent school work and reading for the older ones. A slightly staggered eating time can also help. You can work one on one with the older children while the toddler is busy eating either by having them eat 30 minutes earlier or later than the youngest. But in the meantime, how do I get to these things? My kids thrive on hands-on, teacher intensive programs, such as RightStart math and AAS. We use Sonlight and love the read alouds and I was going to try to do two cores this year. Help?! I have to make a MOTH schedule. For each school age child make a list of everything they do for school and how much time is required with you versus how much time is required independently. From that figure out how much time you will need to spend with each child (or if there are realistically enough hours in the day for what you have planned). Then plug it all in to the MOTH schedule. There are some examples on my blog under the MOTH tag. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 R&S English 6: We used 4 this year. I had schedule 45 min. a day, including my time to work with her on review and the day's lesson. Most days I spent 5-10 min. tops and she spent 20-30 min on the written work. The exceptions for us are the writing assignments. On those days, she worked her 45 min. and usually was not finished. She would work on it the next day in her independent work period for as many days as she needed to make the rough draft and then the final draft, while continuing on with the daily grammar lessons in our English time. Creative Writing assignments: My 4th grader had a writing period each day during one of her independent periods while I worked with her sister. It was a 20 min. time period. During these periods, the work changed according to what else was going on. Sometimes she worked on writing assignments from her English, history, or science assignments from the day before that weren't finished. Sometimes she wrote pen pal letters. Sometimes she did a penmanship sheet if there wasn't anything else. And if she was working on a creative writing paper she could do it at this time. I rarely assign any. Mine likes to write them for contests in things like American Girl Magazine, so she could do it on her own whenever she wants. Latin: One 1 hr. class period a week with me. 30 min. daily on her own the rest of the week. History: 1.5 hrs twice a week. Plus addtl reading and finishing up anything they don't finish on their own the rest of the week when and if necessary. Occasionally we work on a project together. If it is a creative writing assignment it will be done during writing time each day. If it is a memorywork project, that is done during memorywork time, if it is an art project we do that during our next art period, etc. Science: One 1hr. time period a week with me. Then additional work (definitions, reading, looking up things online) on their own throughout the week. Spelling: For my soon to be 5th grader, natural speller, spelling takes about 10 min. on her own each day. For my soon to be 3rd grader, not a natural speller it can take much longer, and I have to work with her the whole time most of the week. Maybe one day a week her job is to just copy the words twice, and I don't have to be involved. But I find the more I work with her each day, the better she does with them. I also give a test to each and dictation once a week. **** This is all info from last year based on a 2nd and an advanced 4th grader. My schedule will actually change this year, but it will be similar. I will also have a 3 yr old this year to work into the schedule (I am going to babysit, so I will be dealing with some of the stuff you are!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Laurie Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 I have to make a MOTH schedule. For each school age child make a list of everything they do for school and how much time is required with you versus how much time is required independently. From that figure out how much time you will need to spend with each child (or if there are realistically enough hours in the day for what you have planned). Then plug it all in to the MOTH schedule. There are some examples on my blog under the MOTH tag. HTH I did that and then freaked out because it added up to 7 hours of my time. But, I think my time estimates are not accurate in several areas, which makes me feel much better! You and 2 girls mommy both have shorter times for things I had estimated longer. (I had 30 minutes for grammar with the 5th and 6th graders and 30 min with the 3rd grader, but that seems too long now.) Some if it will be trial and error, but I've gotten some ideas from this thread on how to streamline- staggering lunch is a great idea, thanks! And I'm wondering if I could do one core 2 days a week with my older set and then another core 2 days a week with my younger, just doing a longer period each time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycc Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Exactly to the tee...minus the Sonlight. I don;t know how you add in all that plus Sonlight. The whole reading aloud thing doesn;t work because of my loudmouth toddler. My toddler is very active and loud and distracting. He requires so much 1:1 attention. He cannot just go and play by himself and when he does I know he is doing something he shouldn't. For some reason I thought he would be getting easier by now but he isn't. I forgot how distracting the toddler can be. Plus the older kids thing toddler is hilarious so they get distracted by something he says or does. I guess the "Sonlight" for our family is that I buy the books on the lists and place it in their bookshelves and they read them at nights at their leisure. Terrible I know but there is no way they would be willing to just read the pages assigned. They would want to read the whole chapter or whole book in one night or just a nibble here or there depending on the book. I don;t do any literature discussion other than would you recommend this book and to whom and why or how does it compare to the movie? I have written out a schedule on the board-with rotations/chores/outside time/tot time/meal times etc for each kid ...it changes about 30 minutes so I get to work with a child each time. If we dont finish something we might get to it the next day or later in the day. If they finish early, yippee-they can stare at the blank wall. Just kidding...they get a potty/snack/play break whatever. I don;t think homeschooling is expected to go smoothly or very pretty with toddlers in the house. I think there was a thread on what it looks like to have a toddler in the house and posted a play by play of what our morning was like. It was chaotic and crazy. I am hoping things will settle down some but a las I am expecting yet another one in November. When will I ever learn!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delirium Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 30 minutes for warming up, consists of a reverse math problem and reading. 1 hour for math 1 hour for LA another 30 for journal. 1 hour P.E. MW and special interest TTH 1 hour Science MW and History TTH 1 hour wind down to research or finish anything. Fridays we do 2 hours for art and she take a 1 1/2 fun class with a homeschooling group then we do 2 hours of finishing things off, discussion of weeks topics. My hat is seriously off to you moms of more than one. I'm in awe of your multitasking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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