Scheduling/curriculum questions

[displace]

So, before starting HSing I read how others had made their curriculum schedules.  For instance, take book X for math, divide topics/lessons into days in the "school year" and figure out how many lessons per week, etc. 

 

For us I assume we'll be working year round because of the nature of the dyslexia/dysgraphia beast.  But I'm wanting HSing to be a "break" compared to PS.  We used to work 6 days a week (5 school days/5 afterschool days with usually overlap so only one full day off on the weekend).  I'm wondering how to arrange scheduling now with HSing.  Should I still aim for 6 days but obviously much shorter with no afterschool?  I'm considering doing art/music on the weekends for fun but putting in the portfolio for school.  Should I shift back to 5 days and the year round schedule more typical of regular school, but have the summers and breaks continue with partial days with reading/writing/OT? 

 

Since we transitioned fairly quickly from PS to HSing it took a little for the curriculum to arrive (still waiting for level I of Barton!) and it's so confusing  for me to schedule anyways.  But I don't want to overload DS6.  I don't want to do math year round if it's not necessary.  OTOH, since we "lost" the first semester to PS I'm needing to give math curriculum I got (Singapore) in a somewhat condensed manner to meet the school year.  And science is still confusing as I'm going to switch to unit studies but I want to make sure we cover the typical curriculum topics.  Science is DS's love so I don't want to shortchange it. 

 

Our eventual goal is to reintegrate to PS but the timeline is not up to me but DS and our progress (meaning I want to keep up with minimum standards in other subjects).  I figure with reading and writing we'll just do some each school day, just 15 min handwriting with buildup to more when able, reading lessons with Barton about 30 min each school day with buildup to more when able.  And we progress when it's time. 

 

Any thoughts?  Just work through it and decide as we go along?  I must say I'm still adjusting mentally from our overloaded PS homework/afterschool franticness to a more casual stress free environment.

[maize]

To a great extent you're going to have to figure out what works for your family as you go along, and expect plenty of course corrections along the way.

 

I can tell you what we do :) I school year round, partly so we can have plenty of time in our day for free play, reading, following interests, and pursuing extracurriculars. I try to have a regular schedule for the basics every day, six days a week. But I aim for not more than two hours for my younger kids (up to age 8 or so), gradually increasing after that. My older two are 9 and 11, and while they necessarily have more work I try to give them as much input as possible with regards to materials and planning.

[OneStepAtATime]

O.k. first, big hugs.  I understand where you are coming from.  I was there once, too.  And honestly it is hard to shift gears from how ps structures things.   :grouphug:

 

1.  I would not plan to take an entire summer off from math (but maybe I misunderstood what you were saying here).  His retention will almost certainly plummet.  Even NT kids lose a lot over the summer.  In fact, I wouldn't take an entire summer off from reading/writing either.  That doesn't mean a normal public school mentality on lessons, though.  And you will both need a mental break, I agree.  Math review can be accomplished with fun games, practical application life skills development, etc.  It doesn't have to be formalized lessons for him to be learning.  

 

2.  You are both going to be able to accomplish a lot more in a day than he would have in ps.  Instruction will be one on one, he will not spend tremendous amounts of time lining up to go places and waiting for the teacher to pass out work or deal with discipline or administrative issues, etc.  When you are scheduling lessons please keep that in mind.  I would NOT start out scheduling hours and hours every day plus weekends.  You will both burn out.  He is so very young.  Plan on keeping lessons short.  You should be able to get through everything in the morning, depending on what your start time is.  Art and music can be incorporated into morning routine, too, if you want.  But you can reserve those for afternoons if you prefer.

 

3.  Be prepared to go at the pace of your child.  He may need a much slower pace than ps, especially at first as you work on his gaining valuable base skills.  If he is struggling, slow down.  I understand you wanting to stay close to the ps schedule but ps, IMHO, moves way too fast for many kids, even NT kids.  And so many things are not retained or mastered if kids are rushed through the material.  Do not make yourself a slave to that schedule if it isn't working for your child.  He may end up losing ground instead of gaining ground, KWIM?

 

4.  Your child is 6.  Only 6.  Please, please keep that in mind.  He is still very, very young.  There is no one right formula here.  He is a child.  It is going to take time to get into a groove and it will take time for you both to get used to this process.  Make sure that while you are both getting into that groove you give him a chance to just be your son, your precious little boy.  

 

 

For scheduling itself, that will really depend on the materials and how your son does with them but I would NOT plan on doing school on weekends as a structured thing, at least not at first.  He is very young.  I just don't see it being necessary at this stage.  Spend that time bonding as a family.  Maybe start a family project together, like starting a box garden or building a bird house or something.  

 

Personally, knowing what I do now, if I were you since you seem to really want a set schedule to guide you I would do the following:

 

1.  Look at the lessons for math and the other subjects besides Barton and lay them out on a calendar, including all Holidays and other breaks that you plan to take off and see how far into the summer you end up.  

 

2.  Then the lessons that end up spilling over into the summer I would actually move to the middle of the summer.  I would plan on taking 2 weeks off right at the beginning of summer when the rest of the ps kids are getting out of school and two weeks off at the end of summer to get fully prepped for the fall.  Maybe put him in a couple of fun summer programs or take a family vacation or both.  

 

3.  But then I would take those remaining lessons and schedule them for 3 days a week through the rest of the summer until they are done.  Some of it could be fun educational game day reviews if you wish.  If you have some lessons going throughout the summer he will be far more likely to retain what he is learning and you won't feel as pressured to rush him through to finish on the ps schedule.  He is no longer in ps.  You can walk away from that structure.  

 

4.  Barton is a different kettle of fish.  Your son will progress in Barton at whatever pace he progresses in Barton.  You rush him when he isn't ready and he will lose ground.  Plan to do Barton even through the summer if you decide to stick with the program, but again, during the summer you could take a break, just don't take much time off.  And just like with math you could schedule 3 days a week in the summer instead of 5 if you so choose.  Just please go at the pace of your child.  You won't be doing either of you any favors to rush.

 

5.  With history and science, there will always be something to learn.  As OhE once told me, that material is fractal.  You can't ever know it all.  I found when I was in school, and this is true for my kids, most of the time the material was glossed over so quickly I didn't really understand or retain all that much.  I learned enough to get good grades on the tests and then it was usually quickly forgotten.  If you feel better sticking with standard subjects, fine.  But give your son a chance to explore in as much depth as he wants.  Depth, more than breadth, might give him a real passion for one of these subjects.  

 

I think I may have mentioned a friend of mine whose son homeschooled from mid-1st grade onward.  When they brought him home he had a bit of an obsession with sharks.  Although he learned other things of course. they allowed him to and supported his desire to keep learning about sharks.  They assumed he would grow out of it eventually.  Only he didn't .  And he was accepted to a very prestigious college program in the ocean sciences for this year.  He worked incredibly hard to get into that program because he had developed a passion that he was allowed to pursue.  Give your son a chance to pursue passions.  Don't just check off boxes on a list.

 

Hugs and best wishes.  I am sure others will chime in with some great ideas.  Good luck!   :)

[OneStepAtATime]

Just thought I would add, with regards to passions:  My DH is dyslexic/dysgraphic and struggled with basic math facts all through school.  He still has difficulties with spelling.  School, frankly, was a bit of a nightmare for him.

 

But he found a passion for electronics and computers and science.  Even though he had no help in school and honestly nearly flunked out of High School, he is highly intelligent.  His parents didn't really understand his struggles, but they did support all his outside interests.  Because of that he gained mastery in those areas very early on.  Those interests led to jobs far earlier than his peers that took a standard route through High School and College.  By the time he was a sophomore in college his job opportunities were so great he ended up never finishing his degree.  He intended to go back but never needed to.  He has a very successful career in Broadcast Engineering.  He is highly respected in his field and is very good at what he does.  When his boss retired he introduced DH as the smartest man he had ever met.  He got to this point partly through luck but in large part because his parents recognized his talents and interests and did all they could to provide him with opportunities to thrive in those areas (and they lived on very little income, but they found ways to support him even without much money).  Checking off boxes in school didn't get him where he is.  Pursuing his passions did.  Just thought I would mention that.   :)

[imagine.more]

For a 6 year old dyslexic I'd actually do 4 day a week school and not take summers off. That way it feels like a break to him but is actually the same amount of work and it would prevent any summer backsliding that might happen while you are remediating his dyslexia. We took too much of this summer off due to circumstances outside my control and I regret it for my dyslexic daughter's sake. Anyway, I'd do 4 days a week of regular school (math, Barton, etc.) and then one field trip day where you do the more fun stuff. Even a nature hike or a big messy science project. That day could be Fridays or Wednesdays, I know homeschoolers doing each. Use that fifth day and afternoons/weekends to let your DS pursue his passions and incorporate things he's good at. Many dyslexics are strong in art or math or science or sports, try everything until you find his particular talent and then run with it. Teaching to weaknesses gets exhausting for the kid after awhile. My dyslexic DD is good at swim and art, so she does swim team and we keep her supplied with art stuff. I want to build her self confidence while giving her more things to be confident about, kwim? 

 

I have a 6 year old son and he does 4 days a week of school, none over summers, and about 2.5-3 hours of work a day. He's ahead of public school kids in every subject except handwriting and even that he's solidly on grade level. Now of course a dyslexic child needs a bit more remediation, hence the summer work, but I'd be careful not to overload with schoolwork. 

[PeterPan]

nt

[Pen]

I did not read other replies, so sorry if this is repetitive.

 

1) Figure out your state laws. Our state has no requirement at all for 6 year olds, for example. 

But whatever your state requires you will basically need to meet--though you may be able to adjust things due to LD needs.

 

2) My ds was still in brick and mortar school at the age of yours, so I was still at the afterschooling etc. stage then, but once he was homeschooled (grade 2), I did things according to a set amount of time per day/session. And each session was "do the next thing" from wherever we had been the day before.

 

Science was in longer blocks for projects, daily for nature appreciation/garden. Frequent for science DVDs. Art was in blocks (basically once per week, as had been the case at his Waldorf school) b/c of time needed to set up and clean up.  And some of this was dependent on things like weather, rather than according to a strict schedule.

 

We did not do formal history till 3rd grade (at which point we did all of SOTW). At that point, there became a daily space for history and/or science.  And there have been times when there has been a daily choice between art, music or poetry.

 

Math was 5 days per week, less than an hour per day at 2nd grade, an hour from 3rd on. Reading was daily in several short sessions (but shorter on weekends) until he was "remediated." A lot of things were not part of a "school" day, such as music (appreciation and instrument practice) and read alouds and films. Outdoor/active time was interspersed with academic time (though as much of academics was also done outdoors and more actively as could be managed--such as learning while in a tree or on a swing).

 

3) I basically figured out a workable amount of time per day to spend on things, figured out how to spread that out over day (for example, several short reading sessions to be broken up by physical activity, meals, and other schoolwork). Then we followed the time allotments. I did not try to take a book and divide it up into what lessons would need to be done when.

 

4) For my ds this worked well because he tends to be very bright and quick in some areas (history, science), but was slow in others (reading), so it allowed him to progress at his own rate of ability, rather than trying to fit him into a lesson plan. 

 

5) I do assess the time plan every so often to decide if more or less time needs to be put to certain subjects, or if things need to be arranged differently. This year, officially 6th, is the first time that we have math being done according to a number of pages per day (calculated to allow the main book to be done in one year or less), rather than by an amount of time. This was by mutual agreement. It is still somewhat flexible allowing extra to be done on one day in order to take off or do less on another day. 

 

6) While reading was a 7 day per week subject in 2nd and 3rd grade, in 4th grade it stopped being a "subject" at all, and the LA emphasis moved to writing (which is still the case now). Reading is now something he just does so long as I keep him supplied with books.

[Pen]

While I did not hs at age 6, had I done so, I might have done something like 3 fifteen minute sessions of reading (total 45 min/day), interspersed with 2 fifteen min. sessions of math (total 30 min/day) daily, and both of those interspersed with outdoor time, nature and physical activity.  

 

In addition, an hour long block (longer if he wanted to for fun, but not otherwise) of art OR science OR baking/cooking OR something else along those lines each day.  For a science lover, that might be 3 science blocks, one art block, and one cooking/baking block per week for example. 

 

Everything else, read-alouds, other interests, maybe an instrument, etc. would not be required "school."

[PeterPan]

nt

[displace]

Thanks for all the replies!  I guess my biggest adjustment is mental at this point.  :)  I think I'm going to try a 5 day regular schedule (with maybe field trips every 2 weeks or so), skip weekends except read alouds, and plan to do school a few days or so a week during the summer. 

 

Sorry I can't reply more.  I'm prepping for the day :)