stm4him Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Recently my daughter's tutor who works with her on improving her processing speed for her learning disability told me that she needed to work by herself in her room on her assignments and needed to work only one on one with me for skill subjects. This put a damper on things because I had been previously combining my two oldest for LOE and IEW and I had been rotating my kids through a certain list of subjects which gave us a nice balance of working with me and then working independently back and forth. But it was hard for her to transition back and forth that way and I was allowing way too many interruptions from the little ones and giving her a lot of chores to do to help with the little ones. So I've changed the schedule to be more like Managers of Their Schools (the Maxwell's) who have a style of meeting with kids one time a day for all their subjects. My hesitation with this was that someone would have to wait until the afternoon to get their math lesson and that our day would no longer look like skills in the morning, knowledge/understanding in afternoon, wisdom in evening that I liked. But I will admit that the kids are liking it more in some ways because they have a list to accomplish before and after their meeting time and when they are done with it they are free (this includes putting away laundry and cleaning their rooms). They know at 4:30 we meet together until dinner for history or fine arts, science, and geography. The bad thing is that I am teaching ALL DAY. But there are also less kids in the room at one time (I only allow one little kid in the room not counting the 18 month old and the other two have to play in the hallway or the rec room near us). But it looks like this: 6:30ish Dress everyone, breakfast, kitchen chores, laundry, I clean my room 8:30 Work with 3rd grader 11:00 Work with 2nd grader 1:00 Work with preschooler 2:30 Work with K'er 4:30 Geography 5:00 Science 5:30 History or Fine Arts 6:30 Dinner and kitchen chores, laundry, straighten first floor 7:30 Bible 8:30 Read aloud 10:00ish Finish up chores as needed and Mom time I grab food when I can between kiddos and before we start. My husband throws dinner together and we make very easy meals. He helps get the little ones snack and lunch sometimes and he cleans up the kitchen at night. I am responsible for all the laundry, all the straightening outside of the kitchen, and the actual cleaning of all rooms except for the kitchen and his office, plus he knows I teach all day. So it works out. My daughter used to do a lot of this but now we are trying to allow her to focus more on her schoolwork and less on chores since her therapy takes 3+ additional hours a week plus homework. Anyone else do a schedule kinda like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Jo Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Unless you are getting break time in there I would burn out fast. Does your preschooler need 1.5 hours and then your k-er need 2 hours, or are you building in a lot of extra time? Can you just separate the eldest and then work with the other children like you used to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Recently my daughter's tutor ...told me that she ... needed to work only one on one with me for skill subjects. ...So I've changed the schedule to ... a style of meeting with kids one time a day for all their subjects. I do! But I only have two kids. For several years now, I have met with one child for the first 1.5-2 hours of the morning schooltime (but I could cut that time down if I needed to), then moved on to the other. The second one would have independent things to complete while I met with the first one. My meeting times with each one involve that one-on-one skills-subjects tutoring your dd's tutor recommended. When my kids were younger, I tried to have "history time" or "science time" or "art time" or whatever a few times a week. As they each grew in their need for more skills-subjects tutoring, I had to do less and less "content time" - but, I could still assign independent reading in those areas, and I did. As they got older, I could teach them pretty quickly a few other activities to do independently, such as putting dates on a timeline or doing a science experiment together, and I'd just add those assignments to their independent worklists. From reading your signature, I can see that you have a LOT on your plate (baby coming, six young children, a sick child, a child who needs therapy right now - many hugs to you for all you manage!). My suggestion (so that you don't burn out and wither away from not eating regularly :)) would be to limit your one-on-one time to absolutely essential academic skills subjects (math, grammar, writing, spelling, how-to-read). These subjects, esp. with younger kids, take a LOT of energy to teach and for kids to learn. They take time! Then, maybe have a block in the afternoon for free time for all of you? Or a block of time (an hour or two) where each kid (and you!) goes somewhere quiet to read (or nap). A LOT of content-area reading can be accomplished during this time every day, even if you are not using a "program." Then you can know that history and science are being "studied," but you don't have to be in teaching mode all day long. If they can read, they can learn content from books for the time being. And talk about it with you and dh at suppertime. And write about their reading sometimes during their writing-skills lessons. And do art projects instead of content reading every so often? Many possibilities. But I would prioritize academic skills work in order to make your one-on-one times as efficient as possible. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 duplicate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Anyone else do a schedule kinda like this? Hmmm...this sounds exactly like how we homeschool. I didn't know it had a name. We also do a one-room schoolhouse schedule sometimes. I'm teaching a 5 yro (who missed the K cut-off by several days, but she's already reading CVC words...so I'm calling this year K), a 2nd grader, a 4th grader and a 5th grader. We also school year-round and I haven't burned out, yet (it could happen). This is our 4th year. I try to start school with the 2nd grader and we work all the way through. If she needs a break, I'm OK with pausing for a few minutes. I probably spend 1-2 hours with her. I spend about an hour with the Kindergartener (sometimes less). My 5th grader and 4th grader work with me individually on Language Arts and Math. They can do some stuff on their own (like their reading and the 4th grader's copywork), but most of their work is teacher-intensive. They are combined in history, religion, science and art. We were working on foreign languages, but we stopped for now. I'm going to pick this up again later (there were some skills I really needed them to focus on more than I needed them to know a foreign language). Now that I think about it, none of the other subjects are independent. I guess working on their drawings for art would be independent work. Our schoolwork takes all day, too. I'm OK with taking a day off here and there...we do unit studies to break it up sometimes. We bring our schoolwork to the park sometimes. We do our read-alouds at night before bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted November 18, 2012 Author Share Posted November 18, 2012 SWB said in a lecture I listened to that in up until 4th grade students are really at your elbow for almost every subject. So according to that I think I'm dong the right thing. I do wish my third grader didn't need so much of my time but here is what I have to do with her: 1. Rhythmic Writing (this is a therapy exercise I'm required to help her with each day...takes 15-30 minutes but should get down to 15 in time) 2. Math lesson (Saxon 3) 3. Math drill (Tables, Squares, and Cubes.....she will eventually do this alone) and CC math memory work 4. Latin memory work chart (teaching her how to do this this year) and help with Latin as needed 5. Logic of English lesson (phonics, spelling, grammar, assessment, or review) and CC grammar memory work 6. IEW lesson (Fables book) 7. Read a McGuffey lesson to me. 8. Corrections or help as needed in other subjects She has a hard time focusing and is beginning puberty so we have attitude issues to deal with often and learn how to work through. If I had done IEW last year it would be easier for her this year. I also think my younger kiddos will be in a more Saxon 3 Intermediate by 3rd grade so they will be able to do more of it independently. She is just a special situation. My son just does Math, LOE, IEW, reads a McGuffey lesson and chants his memory work for me in the core subjects. His only takes 2 hours. I don't anticipate him taking the same amount of time next year as my daughter because IEW won't be new to him and he is just a faster learner. My K'er does Saxon Math 1, Saxon Phonics 1, reads me a Bob Book or reader from Saxon, and does thinking skills and a Greek letter with me (those two are very quick). He also chants his memory work quickly. The reason he takes so long is he isn't a good enough reader yet to read his worksheet yet but sometimes he wants to try and it takes forever! He can do handwriting on his own and that is about it. As his reading improves he will probably need less time with me. My Preschooler really takes more like an hour to get through phonics, math, and thinking skills (also super quick). Her memory work takes a little bit longer because I have to sing the songs slowly 3 times. But it is faster one on one than in a group with interruptions. I added in a half hour there so I can go get a snack and because she needed some extra help with handwriting so we don't develop bad habits. It is always possible that I could burn out, but in some ways it has been easier because I only have one with me at a time (cuts down on behavior issues either being silly or arguing) and I have fewer kids in the room making mess and noise. This makes it less stressful for me. I know that as my son's treatment progresses (and after I have this baby) this may not be possible but while he is doing well I'm trying to crank out what we can. I may decide that 2:30-4:30 needs to be our group time and 4:30-6:30 needs to be my time with my K'er but we'll see how it continues to go the rest of the month. The kids actually have more free time and feel more in control of whether they get free time. I feel I am doing less juggling back and forth so there are less transitions and so in that way it is less stressful. If anything my poor husband may burn out with all the help he is giving in the kitchen (which is right next to his office) but unfortunately I can't do it all right now and he sees how hard I am working. We need to train our 8 year old to help more but I seem to have a harder time getting boys to be of real help than my girls! But that's another topic altogether! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted November 18, 2012 Author Share Posted November 18, 2012 SWB said in a lecture I listened to that in up until 4th grade students are really at your elbow for almost every subject. So according to that I think I'm dong the right thing. I do wish my third grader didn't need so much of my time but here is what I have to do with her: 1. Rhythmic Writing (this is a therapy exercise I'm required to help her with each day...takes 15-30 minutes but should get down to 15 in time) 2. Math lesson (Saxon 3) 3. Math drill (Tables, Squares, and Cubes.....she will eventually do this alone) and CC math memory work 4. Latin memory work chart (teaching her how to do this this year) and help with Latin as needed 5. Logic of English lesson (phonics, spelling, grammar, assessment, or review) and CC grammar memory work 6. IEW lesson (Fables book) 7. Read a McGuffey lesson to me. 8. Corrections or help as needed in other subjects She has a hard time focusing and is beginning puberty so we have attitude issues to deal with often and learn how to work through. If I had done IEW last year it would be easier for her this year. I also think my younger kiddos will be in a more Saxon 3 Intermediate by 3rd grade so they will be able to do more of it independently. She is just a special situation. My son just does Math, LOE, IEW, reads a McGuffey lesson and chants his memory work for me in the core subjects. His only takes 2 hours. I don't anticipate him taking the same amount of time next year as my daughter because IEW won't be new to him and he is just a faster learner. My K'er does Saxon Math 1, Saxon Phonics 1, reads me a Bob Book or reader from Saxon, and does thinking skills and a Greek letter with me (those two are very quick). He also chants his memory work quickly. The reason he takes so long is he isn't a good enough reader yet to read his worksheet yet but sometimes he wants to try and it takes forever! He can do handwriting on his own and that is about it. As his reading improves he will probably need less time with me. My Preschooler really takes more like an hour to get through phonics, math, and thinking skills (also super quick). Her memory work takes a little bit longer because I have to sing the songs slowly 3 times. But it is faster one on one than in a group with interruptions. I added in a half hour there so I can go get a snack and because she needed some extra help with handwriting so we don't develop bad habits. It is always possible that I could burn out, but in some ways it has been easier because I only have one with me at a time (cuts down on behavior issues either being silly or arguing) and I have fewer kids in the room making mess and noise. This makes it less stressful for me. I know that as my son's treatment progresses (and after I have this baby) this may not be possible but while he is doing well I'm trying to crank out what we can. I may decide that 2:30-4:30 needs to be our group time and 4:30-6:30 needs to be my time with my K'er but we'll see how it continues to go the rest of the month. The kids actually have more free time and feel more in control of whether they get free time. I feel I am doing less juggling back and forth so there are less transitions and so in that way it is less stressful. If anything my poor husband may burn out with all the help he is giving in the kitchen (which is right next to his office) but unfortunately I can't do it all right now and he sees how hard I am working. We need to train our 8 year old to help more but I seem to have a harder time getting boys to be of real help than my girls! But that's another topic altogether! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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