Silly question on 4 day weeks

[bobbeym]

Humor me please. My brain is frazzled these days.

 

If you have a 4-day school week but 5-day curriculum, am I right to assume the schedule would go something like this?

 

Mon - week 1 day 1

Tue - week 1 day 2

Wed - week 1 day 3

Thu - week 1 day 4

Fri - no school

Sat - no school

Sun - no school

 

Mon - week 1 day 5

Tue - week 1 test

Wed - week 2 day 1

Thu - week 2 day 2

Etc...

 

So if your curric is 32 weeks, how much time is going to add to that to finish the curric?

[Farrar]

I think that's an excellent math problem for your 15 yo. ;)

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Just thinking about that makes my head ache. I'm thinking around 8 weeks? 1 missing day per week of the schedule (32) divided by the 4 days of your school week. Maybe. Frankly, I would just do the test on the "no school" day of the 4-day week and let that be the only thing that happens that day. The rolling extra day would stress me out!

[Sherry in OH]

You could do it that way. It would add 10 weeks to your school year - 8 weeks of instruction plus 2 weeks (8 days) of tests.

Alternatives are variations on doing more work on each of the four days you do school to avoid extending your school year. For example, you might cover the week's materials Monday-Wednesday and test on Thursday; do the previous week's test on Monday plus one lesson, then do 1 1/3 lessons Tuesday-Thursday; or cover 1 1/4 lessons Monday-Thursday and test every few weeks, quarterly, or semesterly rather than weekly.

 

We usually cover math in four days by doing a bit extra each day. My children are much younger than yours though.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

You could do it that way. It would add 10 weeks to your school year - 8 weeks of instruction plus 2 weeks (8 days) of tests.

Alternatives are variations on doing more work on each of the four days you do school to avoid extending your school year. For example, you might cover the week's materials Monday-Wednesday and test on Thursday; do the previous week's test on Monday plus one lesson, then do 1 1/3 lessons Tuesday-Thursday; or cover 1 1/4 lessons Monday-Thursday and test every few weeks, quarterly, or semesterly rather than weekly.

 

We usually cover math in four days by doing a bit extra each day. My children are much younger than yours though.

 

Oops, I missed that the tests were a "6th day" thing. That makes my advice useless and it seems kind of odd to me. When do they expect you to administer the test? After the 5th day of lessons, or on a 6th day of the week?

[Mandy in TN]

The curriculum is 32 x 5 or 160 days. The way you have written your post it looks like you are wanting to add in an extra 32 days, assuming that there is a test weekly. So, with this schedule it will take 192 days to complete.

 

You are wanting to use the 192 day curriculum only 4 days each week. 192/4 or 48 weeks.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[Samiam]

You could also squeeze the 5 days worth of work into 4 days, thereby staying on track, week wise. Figure out which day is lightest in the week and that's the day you double up.

[bobbeym]

I love how some of y'all actually did math to figure it out. :lol:

 

Right now the schedule is schooling Mon-Fri for 5 weeks, then 1 week off or to catch up. He's so far behind b/c he just doesn't want to do the work that he'll be working almost every day (except for the week of camp) through the end of July just to finish up this year. Our school year is supposed to run early Aug - mid May (40 weeks including breaks), but I thought if I can figure out how to make a 4-day week work then I could start in September to give us both a breather from school and skip all those extra weeks off.

 

I'm not sure that I can manage to get 5 days of work done in 4; at this point we're lucky to get 5 days work done in 7. :cursing: I just took away his cell phone last night, he's not allowed on the computer unsupervised by mom or dad anymore, and if he doesn't get his textbook work caught up today I'm changing the netflix password and hiding the wii remotes too. I'm honestly at the point where I just want to say give up the fighting and be done with the year, whether he's done all his work or not, but I know that only makes it worse long-term.

 

His science syllabus is designed for 4 days/week. We're using Notgrass for US History/Lit and that's 5 days, unless I skip day 5's bible lesson, but I was planning to use that for a half-credit elective. Hmm, I suppose I could hold it over for a short summer credit though. I've got it set up so writing assignments are mandatory, and the review questions in the Quiz/Exam book are optional but encouraged. Normally he'd take the unit quiz every week and a major exam every 5 units.

 

He struggles so much with writing that I'm not sure I'm comfortable basing his entire history and literature grade on writing assignments alone. I could probably drop the weekly quiz and only give the 5-unit exams, since he'd still have to either take good notes or answer the review questions to pass them.

[Ellie]

Which is why Prairie Primer brought out the Mr. Monk in me: it is scheduled for Monday through Friday. I couldn't possibly do Friday's activities on a Tuesday. :lol:

[twoxcell]

I do that with HOD guides. The younger ones are scheduled for 5 days and the older starting at Preparing are scheduled for 4 days. I like having a 4 day schedule so we can do our informal co-op on Fridays. When I do the 5 day guides 4 days it adds about 9 weeks to the 34 weeks. I just do one day at a time and pick up wherever we left off the following Monday.

[bobbeym]

Which is why Prairie Primer brought out the Mr. Monk in me: it is scheduled for Monday through Friday. I couldn't possibly do Friday's activities on a Tuesday. :lol:

 

 

I don't think I could Friday's lessons on a Tuesday, but I could probably do them on a Thursday. :laugh: My kid though, can't even get Monday lessons done on Monday.

 

This morning I had to physically highlight both his Tue and Wed work with instructions to "do everything that is highlighted TODAY". Then I spent my entire lunch break talking him through WWS week 1, days 1-3 via speakerphone. I left him with instructions to finish his grammar while he eats lunch, resent him the account logon for math b/c he.lost.it.again, and to write out all his WWS day 4 phrases before I get home from work.

 

That kid is seriously writing-challenged. I can't even begin to imagine how he managed to pass TAKS writing exams for all those years in row b/c he's just barely capable of writing a 3-sentence summary!

 

ETA: BTW, the work he did for yesterday's assignments included 1 day each of geography, music, and grammar, and 3 days of world history. No math or literature, and writing couldn't get done b/c he hadn't done his chores by the time I was home and ready to start writing, so he spent writing time doing chores.