Am I expecting too much for high school?

[northcoast]

Five weeks into high school and it's not quite what I thought it would be.  My son is doing:

MFW Ancients (history, English, Bible)

BJU Chemistry, 3rd edition

Lial's Intermediate Algebra, 6th edition

Tell Me More Spanish

private guitar lesson - 1/2 hr lesson once/week + practice

 

It is taking 6-8 hrs a day for everything.  We are weak in writing and so I know that will take a while.  In general it takes longer than 1 hr/day for each subject.  And once school is done (8-4 pm or 8-5 + 1hr for lunch), he's not ready to do much else except a little exercise.  But he is doing well in his subjects, especially math and chemistry.  He likes the reading for the most part.  But he's tired and so am I of things taking a long time.  There isn't much time for any outside interests.  So is this our new reality?  :)  Or should I ease up a bit?

 

FTR, he was interested in trying chemistry and since math is his strong suite, we went for it.

 

 

[Luckymama]

My older kids were in school from 8am-2:30 every day then had anywhere from 1-4 hours of homework per day (depending on the day). They usually were at school until 5 for extracurriculars (band, chorus, theatre, Science Olympiad) so they had to fit that homework in before and after dinner.

 

I remember ninth grade as being a HUGE transition for both kids. I sat at the kitchen table with them, reading or working on my own stuff, while they did their homework.

[G5052]

Every kid is different, but that's about what mine are doing, the older one even more with an AP class.  My younger one is really balking, but they're capable and ready for more work.

[klmama]

Honestly, that sounds about right to me.  I would try to use time more efficiently by using meals as your discussion time.  If you're using BJU videos, he could watch those over lunch.  If you can get a little exercise in earlier in the day it might give both of you more physical and mental energy to keep going.  Also, be sure to take a few breaks outside while the weather is still good, or have him do his guitar practice outside.  The fresh air will do him good.  If it still seems that it's too much work, perhaps some of the reading could be moved to the weekend so that he has time for some outside interests, too. 

 

 

[northcoast]

Thanks for all the replies so far!  It is helpful to know what others experienced.   The amount of work has been a surprise along with using a new curriculum (MFW).   We haven't done 9th grade before.  :)

[Mom22ns]

I haven't used MFW, but I would expect BJU Chem to average about 90 min per day and my ds spends that long on Lial's Intermediate Algebra too (he is not fast with math though). You have 6 credits there. I would expect it to take at least 6 hours/day and up to 8 sounds very reasonable to me.

[nancy in nj]

I agree with the other posters. Chemistry and a good algebra program both average at least 90 minutes per day each--puzzling out the problem sets is a necessary part of the learning process. You may need to tinker with your schedule to make sure that he doesn't try to do the 3 hours or math and chemistry in a large chunk. We found it best to alternate the quantitative reasoning subjects with the reading/writing intensive and to leave time for exercise during the school day to recharge.

[at the beach]

Reasonable is in the eye of the beholder. High school can be an adjustment, but I think you can re-evaluate if you think you and your son are feeling burned out. 

 

For example, there are a lot of chemistry options. I've read on this board that Spectrum is excellent as an intro chemistry course. It is designed to be done 3 days a week, too. Do you need to do the religion credit that is included in MFW? If MFW is taking you over three hours a day, I would be looking to cut there. JMO. :) If you have five solid academic credits, you can do more credits that are light/fun and count things like PE or art or whatever else he is interested in. You can count his music as a credit or partial credit, too, if you so choose.

[AK_Mom4]

DS17 is a senior and is doing 5 hours each day plus another 2 for calculus homework.  This is fairly normal, I think.  He has a buddy who comes over two afternoons a week to work the calculus homework together those days and then stay to play computer games.  That young man is doing a varsity sport, so has even less free time.  DS gets done earlier than your son because he starts early - he has to be at a band rehearsal at 6:30am each morning, so that gets him up and moving. 

[Julie of KY]

If you are feeling overwhelmed, another option is to continue the same subjects, but limit the time to one hour per day. Just pick up where you left off and keep going - if it takes more than a year, that's okay.

[northcoast]

Thanks for all the thoughts and suggestions.  I'm pondering them all.  My mom reminded me today that when I was in public high school and one sport,  I did homework all evening.  :) 

[ThisIsTheDay]

I don't understand why this schedule is taking so long each day.  My son used MFW-AHL last year for 9th grade. It was our first time using MFW, and while the material was rigorous, it was not time consuming at all. It was definitely a step up from the level of work he'd done before.  My initial concern was that the reading would overwhelm him, but he liked the variety assigned each day.

 

Are you doing any kind of service project (per MFW)?  My ds did not. That was such a light day on the MFW schedule that I did what I could to give him other things to do on those days (although he didn't need it to keep up on the rest of his work). Additionally, even on the regular days, I had to assign "pleasure" reading, and I added to the English component to make it more credit-worthy for him. My constant challenge was to give him appropriate school-related work to balance out his days.

 

Science and math also didn't take as much time as I expected. He studied biology in an outside class (BJU, with appropriate homework) and Lial's Intro to Algebra with Jann in TX.

[Teachin'Mine]

His schedule and the amount of time look right to me.   Ninth grade was hard for me as I was missing the very flexible schedule and field trips of earlier years.  It took my dd a quarter or so to adjust.  Just give it time and it will be the new norm.   :001_smile:

 

Thisistheday, even with similar schedules, students shouldn't be compared in regards to time needed.  JMO

[wingedradical]

I don't know anything about MFW and how long that takes but I will say high school is not like grade school - in grade school and to some extent, middle school, my children were definitely able to spend fewer hours than public schools and still get just as much of an education (more, I think, because even when not "doing school," we were learning). In high school, it was not so much that way. High school subjects introduce many new concepts quickly that must build on previously learned concepts. It requires more thinking and more writing. Just one problem in pre-calc can require 2 or 3 pages of calculations and the time needed (even with a scientific calculator). I think a comparison is arithmetic. No matter how smart your children are, when they are small, you usually will spend nearly the same amount of time doing arithmetic as public school children (although I always thought Saxon overdid it and didn't use it for that reason and others). High school is like having math 6X a day.

 

I don't think working that hard/long every day limits my dfd's ability to engage in more extra-curricular subjects. She has the energy, especially if it is something she enjoys. I think the only thing that limits her from doing more is ME -- I don't have the energy, lol. I am only homeschooling her, but I am 61. I imagine if you are homeschooling more than one, you are as tired as me at the end of the day.

 

BTW, It takes us more than 3 days a week to do Spectrum, but admittedly, dfd is slow (she is smart and has no problem with it- she is just slow moving in everything). Still, only on lab days do we sometimes spend more than an hour. I just wanted an adequate chemistry program, not a challenging one, because we had other things to work on (her being a foster and having to deal with her past). Spectrum looks like less partly because the book looks smaller - but there is also a lot of instruction in the lab manual and some in the teacher's guide.

[michaeljenn]

I know this is an old topic, but thought I would chime in... I just pulled my 11th grader from public school, but my  12th grader is still in school.  He has to be at school by 8:15 and he does not get out until 4:40. He then has at least 3 hours of homework a night, and sometimes more, so your son being able to get it all done in 6 hours is actually a quick day because your son does not have homework at night:)  

 

[abba12]

As a homeschooled high schooler I probably did 6-8 hours, however I used my time in such a way that it never felt like it. Required/standard subjects are very different here in Australia, so my work looked nothing like yours, but I would fit it in like this

 

Get up early, 6am, not 'too' early but enough for a good start. I was a good worker in the morning and did math/science type subjects first thing. I finished one subject before getting up to get breakfast and shower etc around 8ish.

I also found it best to push through and get it done, I would eat breakfast while working on history etc. I would try to finish up all but my 'evening work' before lunchtime, and use lunchtime for discussion type assignments. 

It meant that my family basically didn't see me all morning, but I had the afternoon for myself or spending time with my younger siblings who also worked to be finished by lunch.

 

Any labs or hands on projects were done once a week in the afternoon, usually a friday since the younger kids had nothing on and wanted to watch/participate, plus it could carry into the weekend for longer projects.

 

I went to bed around 8, and read, usually history books or English literature, until around 10pm (bedtime).

 

This gave me 8 hours a day, minus labs and discussion times, of schoolwork time. Once I got in the routine, it was enough to allow me to move to a 4 day school week, but I was not taking an intensive courseload. 

 

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I also found, for me personally, I worked much better (and faster) focusing on one subject at a time. I would regularly do my weeks worth of science in one day, for example, and get it done in 5 or 6 hours on one day instead of 7 or 8 hours across 5 days, because you get on a roll and don't have to spend time transitioning, you get into a groove with it and can focus well. You can't do this in some subjects (e.g. foreign languages, and many kids would struggle with this routine for math, though I personally was able to do it) but for things like science or bible, I found it worked very well for me. Then again, it would probably not work for a lot of kids, who are used to switching through subjects and variety through the day.

[northcoast]

Thanks for 4pillars and abba12 for chiming in.  We seem to have leveled out to a 7 hr day and are getting into a groove accepting our new reality that there is less flexibility in high school.  Thanks for the thought of doing all of one subject in 1 day.  Hadn't thought of something like that.