Spin off of "How much time does your (child) spend on each subject ?"

[plmzk]

I was looking at that ""How much time does your 10 y.o. spend on each subject ?" thread, and got to wondering.

For those that know exactly how much time is spent on each subject: How do you time each subject? By clock? Timer? Other? Is it necessary? What happens when the time runs out and not everything is done/comleted?

 

We are in our first year HSing and I too sometimes use a timer to speed things up, or we would be writing 4 sentenses all day and get nothing else done. What do you do, and most importantly why or why not?

[regentrude]

The only thing I mandate daily is math. An hour for my 8th grader, 45 minutes when he was younger.

For all other subjects, he can pick when and how long he works on them. It averages out.

It is the kids' responsibility to keep track of how much time they ended up spending on each subject, so that I can keep records.

I do not use any curriculum with set daily lessons that must be completed.

[sewingmama]

We use the CM method so our lessons are short. Last year when DD was doing K it was 10 minutes per lesson (exact - I use a timer). This year for grade 1 I will increase it to 15 minutes and I plan to increase it by 5 minutes every new year. My DS in K will still be doing 10 minutes per subject.

 

It doesn't sound like much time but 10 minutes of focused work is more then my DD would get done then previously when she sat staring at the page for 2 hours. She absolutely needs a timer -so she knows when it goes off she is done - otherwise she can't focus.

 

When time is up as long as she has been working diligently for the entire time I let her decide what to do - either finish up where we are or keep going till she finishes the page which she usually does if we are close (or until she has had enough and wants to stop). If she messes around in that 10 minutes and doesn't get a satisfactory amount of work done I assign it as "homework" and move onto the next subject. She then does it during play time. I've never had to do this yet though - something about hearing the timer ticking away really keeps her focused.

 

I had to put a time limit on our subjects because the lessons became endless as DD fought me and messed around.

 

In 10 minutes we get 1-2 pages done - which is way more then when I let it take "as long as it took". Usually then it was half a page in an hour before the tantrum started.

[Heidi]

We have a morning block of time in which we do subjects that we do together as a family and end it with an independent subject (math). That morning time block ends at 10am no matter what, so we can tidy up the house and have a snack break. For those that haven't finished their math, they go back to working on it until it is complete. For those that have, they can play until lunch time.

 

Then I have another scheduled block of time later in the day in which to do the rest of school. I schedule plenty of time so that everything should be completed within the timeframe. No matter what, we stop at a certain time. For those that haven't finished school, they finish it either on Wednesday or Saturday when there is no regular scheduled academic school time.

[boscopup]

For most subjects, I just know how long a lesson will take or how long my child can spend on that subject before melting down. :D It's not that I time them everyday, but that it just happens to be a similar work load each day.

 

I started out using a timer for phonics lessons with my middle son. He has to work hard at reading, so 10 minutes is about his limit. I don't use the timer anymore, because I can "feel" when it's been about 10 minutes and just stop there. I try to stop on a good note, before he has hit his limit. Now we *may* be up to 15 minutes this past week, because I had him do a page in his phonics followed by reading one of his Star Wars Phonics books. Then we'd do another page in phonics and read another book. Bribery. He really wanted to read those Star Wars books! :)

 

Math takes him about 10-15 minutes after doing the teaching and then the workbook exercise. Likewise, DS1's math takes about 30 minutes to teach and do one exercise (then we do some CWP together later, and that takes about 20-30 minutes).

 

So it's not that we're working toward a certain time in most cases, but that I just know how long it usually takes. I pay attention to that so I can schedule our day appropriately. With 3 little kids, I need a schedule! When they're older, they can schedule themselves.

[Chrysalis Academy]

For math, it's an hour, first thing, by the clock. If she finishes the main lesson before the hour is up, we'll do one of our many supplements for the remainder of the hour. Writing is always second (after a 20 min break) because she focuses best in the morning, and if writing is pushed any later in the day, it's much more difficult for her to do well. After math and writing, our schedule is more flexible.

 

It's like boscopup said - I just know about how long it takes her to do something, or how long she can focus on something optimally before she just starts to spin her wheels. So my "time per subject" numbers are approximate, and vary day to day. Math is always an hour, but writing (WWS) can vary from 20 minutes to close to an hour, depending on the assignment. It just takes however long it takes, and we choose the next thing based on the amount of time we have left in the morning, and on what she feel like doing next.

 

I've started letting her choose the order of subjects (after math and writing). I'll say "Ok, we have spelling, latin, history and science left. What do you want to do next?" In those subjects, we go as long as the focus/engagement is there, or until there is a natural breaking point in the lesson. So the times are very approximate, they are really an average daily time spent on that subject across the whole week, rather than a set, this many minutes per day thing.

[RootAnn]

I didn't reply on that thread, but I have three kids doing school, one who needs a little of my time (pre-K letters/numbers) & another little guy running around. I NEED a schedule or we wouldn't get anything done. If I listed times, it would be what's on the schedule. We generally are pretty close to the times on the schedule because otherwise, we would be skipping subjects or working late into the evening. (There isn't enough of me to go around unless we do it by the Who Mommy Is With Now schedule.)

 

When we are doing a dreaded subject, I will sometimes give them a timer or have them watch the clock. If they do the work correctly & are done before the timer is up, they can have the rest of the time 'off.' If they don't get it all done, sometimes it is 'homework,' and sometimes we just pick up where we left off the day before to finish it. (If they were goofing off, it is homework. If they were working hard or there was another good reason they didn't get it done, we just keep going the next day.)

 

I've generally schedule enough time per day/week so they can complete a year's worth of [science/history/grammar/etc.] in a school year.

[mommy5]

I'm not sure ... we are using HOD now for my 2nd grader and it takes 3 hours total for us to get through everything (History, Bible, Music, Art, Science, Grammar, Handwriting, Spelling, Math, Reading ...) sometimes a little bit longer than that depending on the day it might take 4 hours.

[Pen]

W/ timer, esp for math. Allows working till done (ringer sounds) without clock watching. Also allows pausing timer for breaks.

 

Goal is to work on subject for the time set, not to finish a given amount of material. Sometimes things go quickly, sometimes slowly, but overall it allows forward progress without burning out.

 

Currently only math and writing are on timer system. Other subjects seem to happen by student interest driving them. Even writing sometimes just gets done by student initiative, in which case it doesn't need to be timed.

[skeeterbug]

I don't time anything. When we finish a lesson or reach a natural stopping point we're done. Unless I happen to glance at the clock I have no idea how long we are spending on each subject. Works for us! At this age we can get by with it. As my kids get older and workloads get heavier we will reassess.

[Connections]

The only thing I mandate daily is math. An hour for my 8th grader, 45 minutes when he was younger.

For all other subjects, he can pick when and how long he works on them. It averages out.

It is the kids' responsibility to keep track of how much time they ended up spending on each subject, so that I can keep records.

I do not use any curriculum with set daily lessons that must be completed.

 

 

Regentrude-

 

If you do not mind expounding...

 

Aside from the daily math requirement, do you have other daily requirements? Are they expected to work for a specific time? Are all other subjects covered through reading? Do you select specific resources they have to complete or are they free to choose anything on a given subject? Do you define any output requirements?

 

I would love to hear any details you are willing to share.

 

Thanks,