Welcome to reality...

[jenn-]

DD's 8th grade school work is going to be demanding and time consuming.  She is used to being able to get everything done within 3 hours or so.  This year she is doing 8th grade through Keystone because she needs some practice working for other teachers before she hit the high school level.  She's made it through 1 day and she is already done with this.  It is hard and she doesn't like it.  Right now she is melting down because I want her to write out her 1 paragraph essay for her music class on a Saturday.  OMG!!  I expect her to work on a Saturday?!?  She is pretty sure I am the spawn of something evil.

[Chava_Raizel]

This was us last year. I didn't do an online school, but I definitely amped up her workload to prepare for high school. She was not a fan, but I think the adjustment to high school level work this fall will be a little easier for having had a demanding 8th grade year. 

 

When I was in high school, there was one teacher who had a bulletin board in the back of his room that said in big letters: "Welcome to the 12th Grade!" He'd had it up so long that by the time I had him the original letters were gone and all that was left was their shadow as the rest of the paper around the words had faded. It was his catch phrase whenever anything was challenging. So whenever dd would complain about her workload I'd smile and say, "Welcome to the 8th grade!" I'll probably use it again this year for 9th grade...eventually they'll get used to it! 

[jenn-]

After much teeth gnashing and crying, she finally wrote down a horrendous paragraph.  I went through it with a correction pencil and sat with her while she made a second attempt.  It went a lot better.  She is accepting that she will have to spend a few minutes tomorrow typing it out.

[Kelly1730]

Yes, I think I'll be using that phrase with my boys this year, only it will be "Welcome to 6th Grade!"  :ohmy:  It looks like our day will be going from 9am to 3-4pm depending. I was very generous with the schedule times ( I think) so once we get into a routine it may go faster than I planned. That also includes a one hour lunch break, both for their sakes and mine! Those days of getting school done in 2-3 hours and playing the rest of the afternoon are over, but  I don't want to be the one to tell them. 

[threedogfarm]

Thank you for this timely post!  

 

I really feel for you, having to be the enforcer (all of you).  I'm not looking forward to it, but it's good to know what I am going to be up against in the future.

 

My son is going into 5th grade and even though our course load would still allow us to have a shorter day (getting school done in 2-2.5 hours and then playing all afternoon) I've decided that I have to extend the day so I don't have total rebellion the following year.  I've never been a fan of filler work or lots of worksheets so I'm trying the approach of expecting more with adding pictures with Draw Write Now to history narrations, nature journaling, etc. along with adding typing and logic puzzles, etc.  I've also decided to give them a planner for a few subjects where there is independent work so that they have control over what they get done and when they get it done.  We're also going to do the "room time" in the afternoon for 45-60 minutes.  I wish I had started this when I started homeschooling two years ago when my son finished 2nd grade but I overloaded on afternoon activities.  But I am going to do it now so that there is a time during the day when extra work can (and should) be done if they weren't as focused during school time as they should have been.

 

Any other suggestions?

[Chava_Raizel]

I'm not a fan of filler work either. I wanted to give her more of a workload without it being busywork. Here are some ideas:

 

Extend a lesson - give him a open ended research question and ask for a paragraph or two of writing on that topic. For example: if you're reading about planets in science, ask for a short essay about one of the planets. Or if he's crafty, he could make a model solar system or make constellations with white chalk on black construction paper.

 

Amp up the amount of reading that is expected - I increase their reading from 20 min. in grades 1 - 3, to 40 min. in grades 4-5, then up to an hour for 6-8. I'm expecting dd to read for about 2-3 hours this year, between all of her subjects. You could break it up over the day so it's not one solid chunk of reading time. 

 

I'm a big fan of projects - I try to have everyone working on an extra project, sometimes their choice, sometimes something I assign. Obviously if they choose it it's better, but some of my children aren't terribly motivated on their own.  :001_rolleyes:  Some examples would be keeping a character journal as they're reading a book, designing a model of something, writing a short piece of historical fiction, etc. One year my kids were really into making their own field guides, so we had a local bird field guide, a leaf guide, a dinosaur field guide, a rock field guide along with a rock collection. 

 

Something else that I started with my oldest last year was quizzes. We've always done a CAT test at the end of the school year, but I wanted her to know how to take a quiz with open ended questions. I bought the Hewitt guide for the History of US, and gave her those tests for each book. It was very eye opening for her - she'd never really studied before, so she had to learn how to study for a test. I'm planning on doing quizzes with my twins this year - I'm thinking one a month or so, just to get them used to it. I wish I didn't wait til 8th grade to start that with dd. 

 

I haven't watched them yet, but we bought the How to be a Superstar Student from the Great Courses. I'm planning on having my two rising 6th graders and my rising 9th grader watch them this month as sort of a back-to-school prep course. 

[Mandy in TN]

My son is 10yo turning 11yo this falll. He misses the cut-off and is registered as a 5th grader.

 

He is not studying a foreign language or logic, and just LA, math, science, and social studies will be taking him about 5 hours. He is not doing anything that I would consider filler work.

 

I agree with the PP that he should be read at least 40min to an hour. He is also doing an online composition course. His other LA includes word study/ spelling, grammar, poetry, daily paragraph editing, and a write-in reader. So, I am thinking that LA alone will take longer than some people say their whole day takes.

 

He does Kumon math and a math program both above grade level and then does Evan Moor daily math grade 6 to stay familiar with what is going to show up on testing.

 

So, the way I see it if you are solidly covering LA at grade level and having your child read whole books and doing a math program and a drill component, then there is no surprise big jump in time required. There will instead be a couple of shifts. One when you move from learning to read to reading to learn and another when you move from reading to learn toward deeper analysis of material covered. Each grade can see a slight increase in time rather than big jumps. :)

 

HTH-

Mandy

[HRAAB]

Our school day usually increases every year until 7th/8th grade when school runs from around 8:30 to 3:30.  What is new in 7th/8th grade is they get homework to be completed in the evenings or over the weekend.  Generally I would say our school days increase approximately an hour every year until we're doing about 6 hrs. of school work including math, all lang. arts, history, science, research work, writing, reading for subjects plus homework assignments starting in 7th.  That way the jump to high school hasn't been quite so dramatic.  Even though I warn them up front that school will be increasing in time, difficulty and expectations, they still act all shocked and abused, but it's really more an act than anything.  :laugh:

[jenn-]

Our school day usually increases every year until 7th/8th grade when school runs from around 8:30 to 3:30.  What is new in 7th/8th grade is they get homework to be completed in the evenings or over the weekend.  Generally I would say our school days increase approximately an hour every year until we're doing about 6 hrs. of school work including math, all lang. arts, history, science, research work, writing, reading for subjects plus homework assignments starting in 7th.  That way the jump to high school hasn't been quite so dramatic.  Even though I warn them up front that school will be increasing in time, difficulty and expectations, they still act all shocked and abused, but it's really more an act than anything.  :laugh:

 

I think this is what I need to start implementing at a younger age.  The fact that she had to do work outside of her normal school time was her biggest issue.

[8filltheheart]

My kids don't really notice any major difference in work load since it increases incrementally every yr.   FWIW, they have not found a transition between high school and college, either.   They work about 1 hr/grade level (+up to an additional 1/2 hr) until middle school.   Middle school avgs between 6-8 hrs.   High school avgs between 7-10. 

[HRAAB]

My kids don't really notice any major difference in work load since it increases incrementally every yr.   FWIW, they have not found a transition between high school and college, either.   They work about 1 hr/grade level (+up to an additional 1/2 hr) until middle school.   Middle school avgs between 6-8 hrs.   High school avgs between 7-10. 

 

Many years ago an experienced homeschooling mom recommended increasing school time by an hour each year starting with about an hour in 1st grade.  I think it's some of the best advice I've received.  The transition from 8th to 9th has gone fairly smoothly.  Last year my 10th grader probably spent an average of 8 hrs. a day on schoolwork.  I anticipate this will increase some for 11th grade since she has a couple more rigorous courses.  I anticipate my 7th graders will be spending about 6-7 hrs a day including their independent assignments.  This way there aren't any huge increases in time expectations, and we slide right into the next year.  More or less, anyway.    

[threedogfarm]

Thanks to all the posters, especially Chava_Raisel for the specific suggestions.  I realize that our days have been shorter because all of the subjects except math were combined.  Also, I do not count independent reading as part of our day. . .

 

We started on Monday and I do see this year being about 4-5 hours which is right on track for what I thought it would (and should) be (4th/5th grade).  We haven't progressed up to essays yet so I can't really ask for an essay on what he has read, just narrations.  History will slowly become independent as we finish up SOTW together.  I'm finding that I do like the independent work assignments that are given at the beginning of the week this year because it does give me a chance to do different things with each one.  

 

This year already has such a different feel to it and I am glad that I was conscious of needing to make the change and amp things up a bit.  Rereading relevant parts of TWTM is always a good reminder too.  I took Hunter's suggestion and bought the 1st edition ($1.00!) to get new (old) ideas on the different subjects.  I do find it easier to make a big change at the beginning of the year and fine tune it by adding things on as we go through the year.  

[jenn-]

I have a 2nd grader and a 4 yo, so I am nowhere near you all...YET. But it will come. I have recently come to the conclusion that HS is a lot of long, hard work for everyone, especially mom. So here's my question about reality: are YOUR days so much longer also? I am training my dd in 2nd grade to do some work independently. I would hope as she gets older more and more of it will be independent. Is this correct?? I hope! Or else we may live off of frozen meals and laundry may take over the house.

 

For a lot of years there she was fairly independent.  I fear that this year will be different though.  She is wanting a lot of hand holding on these first few assignments.  I hope as she gains confidence, she will become more independent again. I cannot handle her needing me so much when her 3 brothers need me a lot still.

[Mandy in TN]

I have a 2nd grader and a 4 yo, so I am nowhere near you all...YET. But it will come. I have recently come to the conclusion that HS is a lot of long, hard work for everyone, especially mom. So here's my question about reality: are YOUR days so much longer also? I am training my dd in 2nd grade to do some work independently. I would hope as she gets older more and more of it will be independent. Is this correct?? I hope! Or else we may live off of frozen meals and laundry may take over the house.

uhhhm- just don't sleep. :p But really, all kidding aside I just don't sleep much. I often do lesson plans and looking over school work late at night after dh is asleep. I get up in the morning with dh. In the evening about 15-30min before dh gets home I run around straightening the house. I have a friend who once called me the master of the 15min tidy up. lol this is just how I have made it work for me.

 

The good news is that children do grow older and turn into little helpers. Tonight, 10yo straightened the living area, brought upstairs everything that needed to go upstairs, organized all the pillows on the sofa while I ran around cleaning the toilets, sinks, and bath tubs.

 

The other good news is that, although my children never worked independently and pretty much needed me available all day until they were probably in about tenth grade, they did grow and at some point they managed to open their own books and read the directions. My youngest is much more independent than my oldest was. At 10yo my youngest only needs me to work with him directly for about 1.5-2 hours. The rest of the time he just needs me around. Sometimes he will ask me to sit beside him telling me that he is smarter when I am sitting there. :D

 

I started outsourcing classes in high school. My middle ds took three dual enrollment classes both semesters of his senior year. So, really my longest school days were when my oldest was in grade 8, middle ds was in grade 6, and youngest was a toddler distracting everyone and getting into everything.

 

HTH-

Mandy