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How does your 3rd & 4th Graders days look like?


Rosepetal
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Hi,

I am homschooling two kids of 8.5 & 9.5 yo but usually I am short of time esp. with my younger one who is a struggling child esp. in Maths ,Reading and Spelling.I want to bang my head n the wall when teaching younger one.

Yesterday it took 3 hours in teaching nearest tens and thousands in Maths........esp. rounding the nearest ten and thousands..........

Here is my curriculum for both.......including Time4learning online.......(inorder to fill gaps)

Language Arts-Mcgraw hill Grammer,Mcgrawhill Spelling,Launch into literacy(writing compositions),Reading Comprehension books and Classic read alouds.......and Nelson handwriting also.......

Maths-Singapore Maths,MM and T4l

Science-Singapore Science and T4l

History/Geography-Sheppard software and Easypeasy

 

Which subjects shoud be done daily?

and how much time should be given as my younger one takes long time in doing any subject?

Really worrying what to do?Kindly help me.......,

How is my curriculum?Is it academically strong?Just skipped Wordlywise due to deprive of time......

My main concentration is on Language arts and Maths.

 

My daily schedule is like this:

 

We usually start around 11am.

 

Literature Readaloud/silent reading - chapter a day

with oral or written narration with working on its vocab.

 

Grammer -30 minutes twice a week. 1 chp. weekly

 

Spelling-30 minutes twice a week. 1 chp. weekly

 

Readers/comprehension-20 minutes twice a week.

 

Handwriting-15 minutes 5 days a week.

 

Writing- creative writing and writing process twice a week.

 

Maths-1 Hour daily with 15 minutes xtramaths.org

 

Science-30 minutes twice a week with written narrations.

 

Religion-30 minutes twice a week with oral/written narrations.

 

Geography/History-Once a week with oral/written narrations.

 

Free reading-30 minutes daily at bedtime.

 

Hope someone will chime in and guide me.

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I think your schedule and curriculum look more than adequate for 3rd and 4th grade. Am I understanding correctly that your 3rd grader spent 3 hours on just math? I think that's asking too much. Is there a reason why you are using multiple math programs? Maybe you could explain more about how your 3rd grader is struggling. Have you always homeschooled or did you recently pull them out of school?

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This is what my 8yo 3rd grader does:

 

Language arts:

Spelling AAS 4 (MW

Grammar MCT Grammar Level (T/Th)

Writing CW Aesop A (M-Th)

Math: RightStart C or Singapore PM 2 (we work with one curricula at a time for 1+ month at a time, M-F)

History & Science: MFW Adventures + extra reading (M-Th, we will be adding more science soon)

Latin: GSWL (MW) & Minimus (T/Th)

Spanish: La Clase Divertida (M-F)

Religion: Bible (MW), Catechism (T/Th), Saint Stories (F), and other religious books (M-Th)

 

This takes 1-1.5 hours in the early morning for math, Latin, and writing, 30-60 minutes late morning for history and science, and 1-1.5 hours in the afternoon for everything else.

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Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

I mean sometimes my younger one takes long time in understanding the lesson.either it is Maths or LA....

Which Maths programs do you think are solid to go with?Singapore Maths and T4L?

How is Language Arts curriculum?Should I drop any thing or it is fine?

Thanks for reading this.....

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I would just use singapore. I use it with my 4th grader, and cannot imagine doing another program alongside it. Maybe for drill a few minutes a day. It is solid in itself, it just lacks the drill some like and need. My 4th grader is not strong in math, so I was actually thinking of switching something more basic like rod and Staff, but not because it is not a solid program. Oh yeah, some times it takes us two days to do one days work. Its not a race. If they are frustrated, it is hard to learn anything at that point. Take a break, or wait till the next day. We do an hour for math a day approx.

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I have two 4th graders (new to 4th grade) and a new 2nd grader. Our day looks something like this:

 

Bible 15-20 min all together.

History/Geography 30-45 min all together.

Literature 15 min all together read aloud.

 

Math 30 min sometimes together, sometimes separately depending on the topic. We have a low-volume practice problem curriculum (Math on the Level) that allows us to accomplish much in a short time. My kids don't need/rebel against the drill and kill practice.

 

Phonics, grammar, reading and writing. 40 min (just mom and 2nd grader)

4th grade Independent work - handwriting, vocabulary, silent reading, memorization review, spelling practice, math review WB, grammar review WB (4th graders together)

 

Spelling, grammar, writing 40 with mom and 4th graders

2nd grade independent work - handwriting, silent reading, vocabulary study, math review WB, grammar review WB, "skills" workbooks (he enjoys these)

 

Sometimes their independent work takes a little longer than the time I am instructing and they finish up afterward.

 

Building in that independence so I have uninterrupted instruction time has been crucial to our success. Teaching two or more levels is a challenge. The balance is finding constructive work to be completed individually without adding busy work.

 

We finish school in 3-4 hours.

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My fourth grader does:

M-Th:

1 hour of morning basket with the family--we read the Bible, read and discuss literature/poetry, and I sometimes throw in read alouds coordinated with science or history.

40 minutes of math

30 minutes of Latin

20 minutes of writing

A few minutes of spelling, reviewing his list

10 minutes of "extra"--we rotate music theory, extra writing, handwriting, and reading aloud to me.

20 minutes of violin practice

1 hour assigned reading

 

Fridays:

30 minutes Morning basket

Spelling and/or Latin tests

90 minutes of history

90 minutes of science

20 minutes violin practice

1 hr assigned reading

 

(All the specifics of curricula are in my signature)

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8yo 3rd grader

 

It could be your 8yo needs to be in 2nd grade. My dd9 is in 3rd grade and was 8 for most of the year in 2nd. Here is the average age levels that some curriculum makers go by when making curriculum for children:

 

Kindergarten - turn 6 within the school year and be 6 for most of the year

1st Grade - turn 7 within the school year and be 7 for most of the year

2nd Grade - turn 8 within the school year and be 8 for most of the year

3rd Grade - turn 9 within the school year and be 9 for most of the year

4th Grade - turn 10 within the school year and be 10 for most of the year

And the list goes on.......ending with 12th grade were the child will turn 18 during the school year.

 

So if she/he is taking 3 hours to understand math, the problem could be that she isn't in the right level.

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My 3rd grader is 9 (since August) and like the pp said, I do believe it's made a huge difference for us.

 

We spend 2 - 3 hours between 9am - 11:30 on spelling, bible/handwriting, grammar, writing, and math. We do science or history after lunch (depending on the day) for 30 - 45 minutes.

 

Electives like French, computer skills, current events/news, and art - we fit these in around 15 - 30 minutes depending on the day.

 

He also reads independently for 30 - 60 minutes while I'm working with his sisters or grading papers etc. He doesn't consider reading 'schoolwork' though because he enjoys it. ;)

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My 8yo third grader does the following between about 9:00 and 12:30. This includes an outside break where he plays cricket (it's an Aussie thing...) or handball, or rides scooter etc.

 

Math: two pages, takes an average of about 30 mins probably depending what is on the pages

LA: LLATL lesson and either cursive handwriting or grammar, depending on the day.

Writing: free writing twice a week. Other writing covered in LLATL

History: Sonlight history with me for about 30 mins then sometimes extra notebooking.

Science: Abeka science 3x a week. This takes about 20 minutes on average

Read aloud to me - takes about 15 mins.

 

The above should take place in the morning, and usually does.

 

In the afternoon he reads for 30 minutes followed by Read Aloud with 5th grade sister and me. That's about it. He does a bit of piano, and he draws, but we are not too formal about this yet. It doesn't sound like we do much compared with some others above, but it is quite enough for him at this stage.

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We spend about 45 minutes at math, 15 each for spelling, grammar and writing (WWE), 5 for handwriting, about an hour reading whether that's read aloud or silent reading, and 30 min each for history and science though we don't always get to both. Plus there's piano practice. That's under 4 hours total, but we do start by 9AM. If we started at 11AM, I would feel like the day was dragging on forever. We do a heavy "snack" around 10:30 so by the time we break for lunch around 1, Mom is pretty much toast for the day and glad that we've pretty much covered everything! I think my attention span is 4 hours too! And does someone want to explain to me why I can't hit "enter" on this website to start a new line?! It's driving me bonkers!

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My 3rd grader is doing:

 

Daily: MFW Adventures for Bible and History, Teaching Textbooks 3 and XtraMath, AAS, WWE, FLL and Easy Grammar, Abeka penmanship (cursive), CLE Reading

 

Monday/Wednesday: Science (A Reason For Science) and we also get The Young Scientist Club kits twice a month

 

Tuesday/Thursday: Art/Music

 

Our schedule is this:

 

8:00-8:30 Bible

8:30-9:15 Math

9:15-9:45 History

9:45-10:00 break

10:00-11:00 all language arts/spelling/penmanship

11:00-11:30 CLE Reading

11:30-12:00 lunch

12:00-12:45 Science on M/W or Art T/Th and music classes on Tuesdays

 

We do independant reading for about 30 minutes after lunch and we are done most days at about 1:30

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My dd9 3rd grader is doing the following:

 

Daily School Time Estimates

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - 5hr 45m

Thursday - 4hr 45m

Friday - 4hr 20m + any project times

 

 

Estimated Times per Subject per day

Bible - 15m

Music Practice - 25m

 

Reading - 30m morning/60m evening = 90m

Spelling - 30m; 20m on AAS only day

Grammar - 20m

Writing - 15m

Cursive - 10m

Latin - 30m

 

Math - 30m

 

History - 90m

Science - 90m

 

Art - 60m

Music study - 20m

Home Economics - 30m

 

 

Days per Week per Subject

Bible - daily

Reading - daily

Spelling - 4 days

Grammar - 3 days

Writing - 4 days

Cursive - 3 days

Latin - 3 days

Math - 4 days

History - 2 days

Science - 2 days

Art - 1 day

Music - daily practice; 1 day of composer/orchestra/instrument study

Home Economics - 1 day

 

Then, I sort them into a daily plan:

 

Daily Subject Plan

Monday - Bible, Reading, Grammar, Writing, Cursive, Spelling (both), Latin, Math, History and Music practice

 

Tuesday - Bible, Reading, Grammar, Writing, Cursive, Spelling (both), Latin, Math, Science and Music practice

 

Wednesday - Bible, Reading, Grammar, Writing, Cursive, Spelling (both), Latin, Math, History and Music practice

 

Thursday - Bible, Reading, Writing, Spelling (AAS only), Math, Science and Music practice

 

Friday - Bible, Reading, Art, Home Economics, Music, Projects and Music Practice

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It could be your 8yo needs to be in 2nd grade. My dd9 is in 3rd grade and was 8 for most of the year in 2nd. Here is the average age levels that some curriculum makers go by when making curriculum for children:

 

Kindergarten - turn 6 within the school year and be 6 for most of the year

1st Grade - turn 7 within the school year and be 7 for most of the year

2nd Grade - turn 8 within the school year and be 8 for most of the year

3rd Grade - turn 9 within the school year and be 9 for most of the year

4th Grade - turn 10 within the school year and be 10 for most of the year

And the list goes on.......ending with 12th grade were the child will turn 18 during the school year.

 

So if she/he is taking 3 hours to understand math, the problem could be that she isn't in the right level.

 

The op's third grader is 8.5yo. My 8yo dd is doing 2nd grade math (took 2 years to go through two programs concurrently and is now rock solid on everything she has learned) but at or above third grade level in her other subjects and has done best with outside classes with the older age. She takes about 30 minutes for math most days, sometimes a little longer if she has a longer worksheet and is being distracted by her siblings.

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I have youngish third graders. The thing we get to every day pretty much are 20 mins of AAS for my poor speller and 40+ mins of math for everyone. But we don't have a "typical" day - I have checklists - mental and whiteboard based - to make sure we get in lots of things every week...

 

* a dictation

* 3-4 piano practices

* science reading

* history reading

* map work

* a narration

* a freewrite

* time to work on writing projects

* some art

* time to work on other projects

* some grammar

* a documentary or a movie

 

And then, on a two or three times a month sort of basis...

 

* history projects and crafts

* poetry teas

 

We do a science day with another family once a week so experiments are taken care of then. And we do a co-op where all kinds of odd things are covered (we're studying robots and basic programming now).

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My 4th grader does:

 

Daily

Bible/with family-10-20 min

Read aloud with family-30 min

Read Quiety-30 min

Piano-30 min

 

M-TH

CLE math- 1 lesson @ 30 min-40 min

CLE grammar-1 lesson @ 20 min

LOE cursive-10min

LOE spelling-20 min

IEW SWI A -works on 1 lesson over the week

 

M/W:

SOTW-1 chp. each day with map and narration

T/TH-Apologia Flying Creatures-20 min

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My third grader has a daily checklist that is super simple: copywork (I choose one day, he chooses the rest), math 30-45 minutes depending on the topic/lesson, quiet reading (not assigned, but we select books together to make sure he reads variety and gets challenged), and free choice learning (1-hour minimum).

 

I have a weekly checklist for everything else and work around my toddlers schedule :)

 

Latin 3-days per week for 20-30 minutes

Read alouds - I have three anchors through the day that I try and read

Discuss copywork passage I chose (he does this first on Monday so when I have a moment I can discuss)

Science

History or unit study

I am trying to get in more narration

Free write

Art

Baking / tea time

Anything else I think up :)

 

 

 

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I have a 3rd and 4th grader. I think maybe your biggest problem is starting at 11.

 

We start around 9:30 (our days go even better when we start at 9, but that's hard to pull off). We have co-op one day a week, so most of this is done 4 days.

 

I read aloud for about 30min every morning.

 

We use singapore math with both of them. I work separately with one while the other is reading. That takes 30-40 min each.

 

Spelling: I work through the Writing Road to Reading spelling lists with them until I've compiled a list of 12-15 words that they misspelled. That usually takes a few days of dictating 15-20 words a day. Then I put those words into spelling city and give them about a week to practice. So, we probably spend 20 min a day, but I only work with them half the time.

 

MCT- about 20 min, done together

 

Writing- Ds works 5-30 min a day on Writing Tales 2. Dd is using Primary Language Lessons for 5-15 min a day.

 

I throw editing in here and there for ds and typing for both of them, but it's a scattershot approach.

 

History- Story of the World w/ mapping and written narration. about 20 min a day.

 

Science- BFSU about 30 min, twice a week. W/various rabbit trails and add-ons.

 

We are often done by noon, and never go past 2.

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