Tell me how you schedule?

[~Amanda~]

We spend all this time planning our days (at least, I do) and I wonder; how do you implement it? Do you set a timer; 1 hour per lesson, if not done then... what? Do it later for "homework"? Do it tomorrow and get a little behind? If you don't set a timer, then what if you have a child who likes to drag his feet, and go to the bathroom, and get a drink of water, and piddle around and not do all of his work in like, say, you know, 2 hours or something? LOL and then that puts the rest of the day behind, and then you start falling behind in everything because they take SO. MUCH. TIME. in one particular subject?

[BugsMama]

I did a blog post about our daily schedule/system-

https://onlypassionatecuriosity.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/tomorrow-is-our-first-day-of-school/

 

Using stickers for ATTITUDE for each subject, as well as the "bonus cards" for snacks and breaks eliminated most of the problems we had with kicking the feet and procrastinating. My kids know we have to do math and reading before snack time, and you don't get a break until we do. If hey do it without whining, they earn stickers on the sticker chart. If we MUST stop for something, we loose that sticker for the subject they interrupted. Things go much smoother now!

[BugsMama]

Annnddd.... I just saw your kids are 10 and 12. Stickers may not work. But the general idea may be adapted! Good luck!

[Ellie]

We spend all this time planning our days (at least, I do) and I wonder; how do you implement it? Do you set a timer; 1 hour per lesson, if not done then... what? Do it later for "homework"? Do it tomorrow and get a little behind? If you don't set a timer, then what if you have a child who likes to drag his feet, and go to the bathroom, and get a drink of water, and piddle around and not do all of his work in like, say, you know, 2 hours or something? LOL and then that puts the rest of the day behind, and then you start falling behind in everything because they take SO. MUCH. TIME. in one particular subject?

We did KONOS two days a week, Monday and Wednesday. That's all we did. I scheduled the activities I thought we could do before lunch. If we weren't finished by then, I erased those activities from one day and moved them to the next. If we didn't finish them on the next day, I erased them and moved on.

 

For lessons in, say, grammar and math, if we weren't finished in an hour, dc picked up where they left off the next time we did them.

 

I didn't have a dawdler. But then we were sitting at the table together, such that I could have prodded someone who was piddling around. And if it was a constant thing, I'd have tried to figure out why that happened: lessons/methods inappropriate? too easy? too hard? completely wrong method? I wouldn't have let her take two hours for an assignment that I knew could be completed in far less time.

[coffeegal]

We spend all this time planning our days (at least, I do) and I wonder; how do you implement it? Do you set a timer; 1 hour per lesson, if not done then... what? Do it later for "homework"? Do it tomorrow and get a little behind? If you don't set a timer, then what if you have a child who likes to drag his feet, and go to the bathroom, and get a drink of water, and piddle around and not do all of his work in like, say, you know, 2 hours or something? LOL and then that puts the rest of the day behind, and then you start falling behind in everything because they take SO. MUCH. TIME. in one particular subject?

 

I move the detested subject to last. For some reason the children complete their work much more quickly when they know it's the last thing they have to do. I've also been known to set a timer for the amount of time a subject should take plus give. If the child finishes early, they get a few minutes of free time. If the child drags their feet, they get to finish later in the day. Once the other subjects are completed, I've found the subject in question always is promptly finished. ;) It does seem to help to have already started the lesson so they are simply finishing the day's work.

[....]

I'm teaching a 5th grader, 4th grader, 2nd grader and an almost-5 yro (who's learning to read). Planning is really something I'm not good at.

 

I do have a weekly planner and on Sunday night, I pencil everything in for the week. We do schoolwork 6 days a week (used to be 4, but I just can't do 4 anymore - there are too many kids).

 

When I wake up in the morning, I grab everything that I'm teaching for the day and stack it on the kitchen island. Throughout the day, I grab different subjects and sit down with that group of kids...or send them away with their book to read, etc.

 

I'm really laid-back about when they finish stuff. I can cook dinner and listen to my 2nd grader read her Beginner's Bible... I'm OK with doing Math Mammoth at 6:30 am with my 10 yro. IOW, I try not to recreate a school schedule or get stressed out about finishing things at a certain time and being organized.

 

As far as dragging feet, mine don't do that much. Most of what we do is group-work and my 5th grader and 4th grader are combined in almost everything. My daughter has been crabbing a little when it's time to work on Writing with Skill, though. Writing is hard...WWS seems dry sometimes...I understand. If I sit down next to her, though, she'll sit down and work on it.

 

My biggest problem is corraling the 7 yro and 4 yro away from their herd of My Little Ponies so they can hear a story, do math, do Five in a Row, etc. But, I think play is VERY important to small children, so I try to find a time when they aren't playing to get them to read to me, etc. I've even read to them with their stuffed animals in the "audience". Yesterday, my 4 yro was doing alphabet flashcards on her own with two blankets (the blankets have names and they answer questions - yeah, we're weird :glare: ).

 

Anyway, that's the best I can explain our planning. Mainly, I just try not to get really stressed about it. I've also noticed that 3-4 subjects a day is perfect. Any more than that and I've overscheduled.

[....]

I move the detested subject to last.

 

LOL. That's what I do, too. :D

[~Amanda~]

Mostly its my DS with math. I had intended on making it be first for next year; we were using MM. I'm starting him off with LOF this next year to see if a different approach will help... otherwise I don't know what to do.

[PeacefulChaos]

Well, our basic scheduling can be found here.

 

We just do it all every day. There are specific subjects that we do different ways (for example, Link's math we set the timer and then do what we can get done in that amount of time) but for the most part, we just do it. :)

[angelmama1209]

We spend all this time planning our days (at least, I do) and I wonder; how do you implement it? Do you set a timer; 1 hour per lesson, if not done then... what? Do it later for "homework"? Do it tomorrow and get a little behind? If you don't set a timer, then what if you have a child who likes to drag his feet, and go to the bathroom, and get a drink of water, and piddle around and not do all of his work in like, say, you know, 2 hours or something? LOL and then that puts the rest of the day behind, and then you start falling behind in everything because they take SO. MUCH. TIME. in one particular subject?

 

subscribing because i have a drag their feet kiddo.

 

@elllie- how do you keep them focused on their own work all at the same table? my 7yo is very easily distracted and would much rather watch her sister learn the letter a than do her own work, no matter how many times i fuss at her. if i send her to another room to do it, it never gets done, either.

 

i like the idea of setting a timer for a reasonable amount of time and whatever doesn't get done gets done later, but how do you keep them from rushing to beat the clock?

[threedogfarm]

subscribing because i have a drag their feet kiddo.

 

@elllie- how do you keep them focused on their own work all at the same table? my 7yo is very easily distracted and would much rather watch her sister learn the letter a than do her own work, no matter how many times i fuss at her. if i send her to another room to do it, it never gets done, either.

 

i like the idea of setting a timer for a reasonable amount of time and whatever doesn't get done gets done later, but how do you keep them from rushing to beat the clock?

 

My son used to drag his feet to do work. This was something I worked hard to overcome with him. Finally he learned that he had a little bit of free time to read or play quietly with his legos if he worked diligently. However, I didn't want him to rush through things either. So I told him that if he had too many answers wrong or if the work was too messy or if he didn't follow directions, he would have to redo his work and maybe even have "extra" for practice. This made him see the benefits of doing his work as quickly as possible in the proper way.

[8filltheheart]

For my kids that have trouble staying focused, I sit with them and talk them "through" the assignment.......every day until they are less distracted and have better internal motivation/control. For example, our 5th grade dd had a very difficult time staying focused on math until last yr. I would sit beside her and ask her what the answer was to each question in her math book. It helped her keep from her daydreaming and what would take for ages on her own, she would finish in about 30 mins w/my keeping her attention on the task.

 

In answer to your main question, we do not function based on time. They have specific daily assignments that must be completed before their days are finished. (with the exception of reading w/the lower grades which is time based.)

[angelmama1209]

I did a blog post about our daily schedule/system-

https://onlypassionatecuriosity.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/tomorrow-is-our-first-day-of-school/

 

Using stickers for ATTITUDE for each subject, as well as the "bonus cards" for snacks and breaks eliminated most of the problems we had with kicking the feet and procrastinating. My kids know we have to do math and reading before snack time, and you don't get a break until we do. If hey do it without whining, they earn stickers on the sticker chart. If we MUST stop for something, we loose that sticker for the subject they interrupted. Things go much smoother now!

 

Okay, just checked this out and i think it might work for us! I've been toying with a similar idea, but not been able to nail down exactly how I wanted to do it. Thank you!

[GoVanGogh]

I spent several weeks last year timing lessons, to see how long they actually took. Then I started making lesson plans using that figure instead of how long I thought they should take. It has removed so much stress from our school. I realized that it was more 'my' issue than my student's issue. I was trying to cram 6 hours worth of work in 3.5 hours. No wonder I felt like we never got anywhere and I was always stressed... Our days go so much smoother now.

I do allow for a certain amount of 'nonsense' as I have an only child and he tends to be chatty. But we are able to sit down and knock out quite a bit of school when I am not stressed and always rushing us through to the next subject.

I write our lesson plans in pencil and include amount of time per subject. (Ex: 15 minutes spelling, 60 minutes math, etc.) I am not super-strict about watching the clock, though. My time allowances have remained a good working number for us.

[MerryAtHope]

First, I don't plan a certain amount that "has" to be done per se; The planning I do involves things I want to coordinate, lining up books I want to read, deciding the order, and so on. I create a main list and an optional list. If we don't get to all of the main ones, that's still ok--I can choose to drop one or two. If we get ahead, I have my optional list ready to go. My planning involves a rough idea of which week I think I might want it (week 1-36) or just the order--not how much to do each day. That kind of planning is too intense and stressful here.

 

For math, I do plan one lesson per day minimum (and an hour spent on math--if they do more than one lesson in that time, great!). Back at age 10, I would do 30-45 minutes though.

 

For dawdlers--I sit with them and help develop good habits. Then I work in the room on a chore (folding laundry etc...) and "race." We see who can get done first--me or them. Another thing I've done if I think they are dawdling is to say, "you have 20 minutes left (or however many). After that we'll move on and this will be homework."

 

Homework is done at the kitchen table on wooden chairs--not curled up on their beds or on a comfy couch or upside down or on the floor... Mom isn't as available for homework either.

 

For a son who isn't working for mom, you may need to get Dad involved if it's a character issue. A little encouragement/reminder/push from Dad about respecting mom and working diligently can go a long way. So can showing Dad son's work each day. That gives incentive to work if he knows Dad will see it.

 

If learning disabilities, focus/attention issues etc... are possible, it may be time to look into solutions for those.

 

Workboxes have really helped my kids stay organized, focused, and on task. Not perfectly, but much better than before.

 

Hang in there! Merry :-)

[abba12]

The first step is to discover if the child is slow because of an issue with the subject or work, in which case maybe an adjustment in the program or expectations is required. It's not fair to punish or disadvantage a child for something they are not doing intentionally, so if there is any struggle with the work itself that needs to be addressed first.

 

But if the child is just be dragging their feet, going to get drinks and have bathroom breaks etc because they just don't want to do it and think wasting time means they wont have to, then that can be changed. The attitude to this would vary slightly depending on ages, but ultimately it comes down to this, dragging your feet is not a good work ethic, it wont serve you as an adult in employment if you only do the things you want to, and sometimes you just have to do things you don't want to do (it helps if dad has a task based job and not an hours based job to use as an example. Mum dosen't get to just leave dinner half cooked because the clock struck 6pm, or just leave half the floor unmopped because the phone rang halfway through, those things just need to be done). And as such, you can either get it done and move onto more interesting things, or waste your day away with something you dislike, but it still needs to be finished.

 

My sister was like that when she left state school. Once the actual learning issues were resolved and it was simply a dislike for the topic, mum made my sister keep going until she was finished. If waiting for my sister slowed down another child, like a group subject or homeschool co-op session, then the undone work waited until after those subjects, but for as long as her dawdling only affected her, she was to sit there until it was done.

 

It involved a few weeks of her crying at the dining table at 5pm while the rest of us played outside, but soon enough she figured out that just getting it over with was far more preferable.

 

There are plenty of reasons to not finish a days assignment of schoolwork in that day, but wasting time and messing about shouldn't be one of them.

[boscopup]

I try to get "work with mom" subjects out of the way first, so that everything after that is all independent work (ie, I've taught the math lesson, so now DS1 can go do the workbook exercise on his own). If I have him doing something independent before I get to work with him on something, I'll just have him stop at a reasonable amount of time, switch to what I need to work with him on, then go back to his independent work. Sometimes that breaks the dawdle cycle anyway, but even if it doesn't, we've still gotten our together work done, and anything left is on him alone.

 

We also talked about working diligently recently (it helped that we read a Proverb one morning about how a foolish man hunts but doesn't prepare what he killed... I likened that to doing half your writing assignment and then not finishing it). One day, he ended up missing hockey because he had dawdled all day, and he almost missed pancakes for dinner (that lit a fire under him!!!). The next day, he worked diligently and was done with all his work by 10:40am. :001_huh: So he finally saw the huge difference... if he works diligently, he has TONS more free time! The last couple weeks since then have gone so much better.

 

Oh, and we also had dawdles when using Math Mammoth. I needed to sit with him and alternate writing on that one (despite only assigning half the problems in the first place). It was better on days where we had truly new material, but that just didn't happen THAT often, and the incremental teaching sometimes made it boring for him (he catches on to math concepts quickly). We have since switched to Singapore, and it has greatly reduced the dawdling issues. He even said a couple weeks ago, "Math is really fun right now!" One thing that helped when doing MM was to throw in some Singapore CWP and IP to break things up and have a change of pace. We started LoF after switching to Singapore, and that would be perfect for adding to MM also. DS enjoys LoF.

 

As far as scheduling goes, I've made up a schedule via trial and error, but it is not time based. I have figured out what order to work with the kids in, and we follow that order until we're done. I work however long I need to with DS1 to kickstart him in the morning. Then I work with my 3 year old so he'll think he's "done school". ;) Then I work with my 5 year old on reading and handwriting. Then I work with my 3rd grader again (3 and 5 year olds go play). Then I do math with my 5 year old, followed by reading-aloud to 3 and 5 year olds. Then I finish up anything I needed to do with 3rd grader. After that, I'm done for the day. My 3rd grader will probably still have some work to do, but he can easily finish it with plenty of afternoon playtime to spare. Right now, he can finish before lunch, but when we get his Sonlight history back in, we'll probably finish shortly after lunch. Obviously, kids your kids' ages will take longer.

 

Also, I did lay out time expected for each subject, so I can make sure we can physically do the work in one day in a reasonable amount of time. I don't want my 3rd grader to have 6-8 hour days! His work can be done in under 4 hours, so that's perfect.

 

I would LOVE to have all the kids working at the table together at the same time, but we're not there yet. I need my younger ones to get older and have enough work to do. My oldest gets very easily distracted, so I have him sit in the dining room (where I can still see him) and I work with the little ones in the kitchen. Maybe when they're all school age, they might be able to work at the table together. I dunno. The 3rd grader has so much more work than the K'er right now, and the K'er has zero independent work, so it just doesn't help to throw them together yet.