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Once a month catch up week?


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This is our first full year homeschooling. I schooled 1/2 yr in 7th, 1/2 in 8th, and most of 9th, because of my daughter's health issue (Chronic Fatigue). In 7th and 8th, we mirrored her private school's course load, including using the same books and assignments. In 9th grade, she had to be pulled out and put in Home and Hospital care. I basically tried to stay the course and did what her schoolmates were doing. Well, this year we are on our own, homeschooling permanently now.

 

I have her enrolled in outside chemistry, drawing and rocketry classes. We are using MFW Ancient History, SOS Spanish, Prentice Hall Alg 2 (Foerster's was too much) Latin in the Christian Trivium at home. My daughter would do MFW history all day long if I let her. We just changed math curriculum, so we are starting back at Chapter 1, and I enrolled her in ALEKS to make sure there weren't any holes from three years of spotty math teaching (I'm an English person- not the best math teacher!).

 

My question is , do you all think it's ok to slow down one week a month and "catch up" on things? It seems like there are always a few assignments that aren't done at the end of the week, partly from teenage laziness and partly from teenage time-management. This week I didn't assign any MFW at all, just filling in the math holes with ALEKS, a bit of Latin (which is easy for her) and the chemistry and rocketry homework her teachers assign. Maybe a bit of Spanish, maybe more, maybe not.

 

Does anyone else do this? Am I crazy for thinking its ok? Homeschooling has been so stressful, this week has been a relief because we arent swamped! How do I find a good balance and still get stuff done?

 

Sorry this is so long, just need help and venting a little too! Haha! Help!!

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Do what works for your family and for the time-management goals you have for your dd. Giving your dd a weekly list of all the assignments she needs to complete by Friday may help her time management, as may loss of privileges or extracurricular activities for failure to complete work in a timely manner. I've been amazed at how dedicated my dc become when their extracurriculars are on the line.

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Basically I schedule a four-day week for most things, and then Friday is catch-up day. If DS is ahead in a subject (math, usually) he can skip it on Friday. If he's behind (Spanish...), he does double, and if he's just barely on schedule he does the usual hour or so.

 

I think I'd enjoy a week of catch-up... but the quick turnaround of one day a week has been good. And with lots of outside classes it would be hard to get a whole week away from deadlines.

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My dc are in 8th and 10th grades. About once or twice a semester we schedule a day to catch up. On my planner I write "work day" and my kids spend the day getting caught up - usually they are no more than a few days behind and only in a couple or a few subjects. That one day is enough to get us back on track.

 

If all of their work is caught up quickly, we use the remainder of that day to organize rooms, school area, cook and freeze meals, something 'home-ec'-like.

 

I was much less strict when my dc were younger. Sometimes we just needed a 'mental health' day. ;)

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What about just 2-3 days so that you don't use up a whole week? I plan on doing that this year because I start to feel stressed when I see that art has been passed by...books are not getting done at the speed I want....you know. I will actually be doing this the beginning of next week. I have neglected art/music so I will spend a few days just doing that along with Phonics Road and math of course:tongue_smilie:

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Do what works for your family and for the time-management goals you have for your dd. Giving your dd a weekly list of all the assignments she needs to complete by Friday may help her time management, as may loss of privileges or extracurricular activities for failure to complete work in a timely manner. I've been amazed at how dedicated my dc become when their extracurriculars are on the line.

 

:iagree: I do the same for my sophomore. He knows what must be completed each week, and if it isn't done by Friday evening, then he finishes over the weekend. That potential loss of free time really motivates him to manage his time well during the week.

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I only schedule four days a week. That way we have a make-up day every week.

 

 

Same here. We had a number of outside activities on 2-3 Fridays each month in high school, so we could do the activities and use the left-over time as our catch-up day from the week.

 

One thing I did NOT push to finish in the school year was high school level math. Several years we just went into the summer a few weeks, continuing to do math (about 45-50 minutes/day) about 4 days a week, until we completed the math program. So, not a big deal to "slop over" into summer if you need to. :)

 

 

BTW -- Welcome to full-time homeschooling! Take your time and make tweaks here and there as you need, and by the end of this year, you'll most likely have a very good fitting routine for YOUR family! Warmest regards, Lori D.

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Thanks everyone for your help. I do want to clarify that we did NOT take the whole week off! We went on two field trips, both related to class, and she's been doing work the rest of the week. We are much more relaxed, I think I'm going to keep this up- it really gave us a break from the stress of homeschooling!

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