Time Pr/Wk on Science and History for 3-5th grade

[Soror]

Re-thinking and working the schedule here and am curious as to what others do. I'm going to try to do a poll but if you would be so kind as to tell me the time spent actively engaged w/ you and time spent on their own working- reading, projects, or documentaries that would be great :) I'm looking at making my content time scheduled by the week instead of by the day and am trying to make sure I'm being realistic.

 

I'm adding multiple choice so you can vote for multiple kiddos. I know that there is a fair amount of range from 3-5th as well so if you want to specify grades you voted that would be great as well :)

[boscopup]

I voted, but then thought some more and realized that I'm not sure my history-with-child was accurate. Basically, we have about an hour before lunch each week that we can spend on history or science. When it's history, that's usually my time to read to my 1st grader. My 4th grader listens in but doesn't really have to. He does his history reading on his own (having a 30ish minute time slot each day for history/literature reading). So we actually spend very little time together on his history work, but I put the time spent on history by me and 1st grader with 4th grader listening in. That probably doesn't make sense. I shouldn't post so early in the morning. :lol:

 

Science is also done together, but our lessons are pretty short. There is a short activity to do, then a page or two to read aloud. It probably takes about 15 minutes to do that. Then my 4th grader has some notebooking work afterward - drawing a picture if necessary and writing about how something works (instructions for him are in the science book). That takes him another 15 minutes. So we tend to spend about an hour per week on formal science. Maybe a bit more if we don't have much history to read that week. Or if we finish morning seatwork early, we can sometimes get in both history and science before lunch.

 

My 4th grader reads on his own, for fun, all.the.time, so I didn't count that in the poll. I couldn't possibly quantify it. I have science and history books strewn about that he can read when he wants to. He loves both subjects. So our formal time spent is not that much, but he's an avid reader, so I don't worry about it. I didn't even DO science much 1st-3rd grade, and he has a great body of science knowledge for his age.

[Soror]

Thanks boscopup, my son does a lot of reading on his own as well. I wish I could make it to the library more as he really tears through books and magazines. I need to get some subscriptions for him. We do a lot of science projects as well, rockets, robotics, computers, etc.  He spent an hr yesterday programming the EV3 and then watched a 30 min video on electricity.  History though doesn't happen naturally as easy, at least at my house. It seems now especially that documentaries and videos are either beneath him or above him and there aren't so many history projects that he is interested in, we do stop at historical sites when we go places but there aren't a lot around here. 

 

I'm thinking about scheduling science and history 2 days a week w/ me and then having him do reading/projects/ed. videos on his own the other 2 days. I've realized w/ history especially he gets so much more out of it when we do it together. I was looking at scheduling 2 hrs pr week for both and then 1 hr per wk for both for work/projects on his own.

[TianXiaXueXiao]

We spend a lot of time on these subjects- at least 1 hour per day on each - and about 65 % of the time is independent work. I spend 15 to 20 minutes setting up the lesson and assignments and my daughter takes it from there with occasional requests for assistance. These are favored subjects so I'm not counting family R&R time spent watching nature and history shows or exploring the outdoors.

[MinivanMom]

I spend about 3 hrs per week actively engaged in teaching history to my kids (4th & 3rd). This includes reading aloud history (text or biographies) and literature, writing summaries/narrations, and adding things to their timelines. We read historical fiction or literature daily, and we have history instruction twice a week.

 

I spend about 1 hr to 1 1/2 hrs per week actively engaged in teaching science to my kids. This includes reading aloud science (text or real science books), writing summaries/narrations, and the occasional science experiment. We have science instruction twice a week.

 

They spend at least 5 hrs per week on their own. This includes reading additional history or science books on their own, their own science projects, and occasional museum trips. My 4th grader does a lot more history on her own than science. She's a big historical fiction reader. My 3rd grader is split 50/50. He mostly likes to read nonfiction history and science books, and he comes up with a lot of projects and experiments on his own. We haven't been doing videos or documentaries up until now, but it something I'm trying to plan some for next year.

[Soror]

Thank you ladies for your input. I wasn't even thinking of free-reading history, geez my brain was off yesterday. When we go to the library and get books I always have ds get a stack of history books and magazines and he generally reads whatever we have on hand. I've just not been able to make it.  Ds doesn't usually read historical fiction though. He likes history magazines and engaging non-fiction. I wish we could find more history videos we like. We watched a documentary on the Hagia Sofia yesterday and a little video about the Buddhist caves the documentary was just too long for his interest (and mine as I was super tired) I think we'll just stick to shorter clips(10-20m) for now of the adult documentaries.

 

Anyone else?

 

I liked reading from the various age ranges as well as I'm looking into next year too. 

[Farrar]

I found it hard to estimate. Some weeks we spend many hours and others we just put in a few. It really waxes and wanes here, which works for us. My boys don't do a ton of on their own exploration, except I wasn't sure if I should count technology stuff like programming and building, which they do a lot more of.

[SilverMoon]

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Edited June 11 by SilverMoon

[Soror]

Thank you Moon and Farrar for sharing. 

 

Moon- I'd rather mine spend more time on lit as well and I cannot imagine a kid not finding science interesting! Your architecture course sounds awesome. 

 

Farrar- It can go similarly here as well but I'm finding that we are much more likely to hit science naturally than history. Ds does a lot of time w/ programming and building as well when he was younger he was more into nature but these days it is not near as much, although he does work on various survival skills from time to time w/ is a mix of life skills and science I guess.  We have lots of discussions about scientific concepts as well as ds is always asking questions we do have some history discussions as well but those don't come up nearly as often.

[SilverMoon]

On 12/11/2013 at 11:56 AM, soror said:

 

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by SilverMoon

[happypamama]

I'm one of those who just really doesn't care about scientific topics. I get that they're important, but I'm just not interested in the "why." Fortunately for my children, my DH is just the opposite, and he passed on that curiosity to them. And both of us love history.

 

I would say that my third grader spends about 30 minutes a day doing history, five days a week. This year, he is using History Odyssey and reading the books himself, rather than me reading aloud. He does the written facts on his own, and I review them and listen to anything else he has to say about what he read; there is also a lot of telling Daddy about what they read, and (the unexpected side benefit of the two big kids working on their own and me getting out of the middle) the two big kids discuss the topics with each other! Last year, we did SOTW Ancients, and I read aloud. Still about 30 minutes a day, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less if we just had a few picture books to read.

 

For science, about 30-60minutes most days. I read Mr. Q aloud, and the kids do the review sheets. Experiments take about 30 minutes, maybe, including a lab write up sheet that I have them do pretty often.

 

This year, I also am aiming to spend about an hour a week or so doing concentrated geography with them, unrelated to their history.

 

Plus, they read on their own from history, science, nature, etc.

[Soror]

Moon- LOL!

 

Thanks for sharing happypamama- I forgot about putting geo down but we are covering that informally.

[happypamama]

Moon- LOL!

 

Thanks for sharing happypamama- I forgot about putting geo down but we are covering that informally.

We have done that most of the time too, or in direct conjunction with history (they all really like the mapwork for HO and SOTW), but this year, we have also been having a ton of fun with the Google Earth book, learning a bit about each country, even if it's not necessarily connected to anything else. It's the first time geography has been a separate subject.

[Soror]

 

 

Google Earth book, learning a bit about each country, even if it's not necessarily connected to anything else. It's the first time geography has been a separate subject.

 

 

Hmm, I'm going to have to check this out, sounds interesting.

[Soror]

Ok, I cannot figure it out, can you send or post a link, pretty please :)

[happypamama]

Here you go! http://www.amazon.com/Great-Global-Puzzle-Challenge-Google/dp/0753467216/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386866644&sr=8-1&keywords=great+global+challenge+google+earth

 

It can be a quick thing, or you can take more time with it.  We're taking our time, and we're also using the notebooking sheets from GeoScribe (http://www.historyscribe.com/hs-geoscribe.htm).  I put all of the questions from the Google Earth book into a worksheet form and added the GeoScribe sheets for each country.  So one day, we do the Google Earth questions and look at the book and play on Google Earth, and then the next time we do geography (I aim for weekly, but it doesn't always happen), we look at some general books about that country and fill in the GeoScribe sheets (which include map and flag, plus things like capital, climate, industry, etc.).  I'd also love to get it together enough to have a snack or treat from that country too. :)

[BatmansWife]

Is there a reason you have to keep track of the hours?  I schedule science twice a week and history twice a week.  However long it takes is what it is...varies each and every time.

 

I was looking at scheduling 2 hrs pr week for both and then 1 hr per wk for both for work/projects on his own.

 

That sounds reasonable. 

[Soror]

Is there a reason you have to keep track of the hours?  I schedule science twice a week and history twice a week.  However long it takes is what it is...varies each and every time.

 

 

That sounds reasonable. 

We are to complete a certain amount of hrs where I live.  I think it is helpful as well as a quick guage to help keep me on track and are not shirking on anything and progressing.

 

Fwiw we completed 3 hrs one-on one and watched a 1hr documentary in history this week and in science he watched a few shows about 1.5 hrs total and spent about 1 hr on a project(programming the EV3). He'll probably work some more on some kind of science project sometime this weekend as well. Of course once my order of Noeo comes in next week we will be readjusting. It was nice to let him work on science on his own while we jumped into mixing things up w/ history. 

[BatmansWife]

We are to complete a certain amount of hrs where I live.  I think it is helpful as well as a quick guage to help keep me on track and are not shirking on anything and progressing.

 

Fwiw we completed 3 hrs one-on one and watched a 1hr documentary in history this week and in science he watched a few shows about 1.5 hrs total and spent about 1 hr on a project(programming the EV3). He'll probably work some more on some kind of science project sometime this weekend as well. Of course once my order of Noeo comes in next week we will be readjusting. It was nice to let him work on science on his own while we jumped into mixing things up w/ history. 

 

I see.

 

We are using Noeo this year too.  So far so good.  I'm hoping we'll continue to really like it so we can just stick with it for several years.