Not getting to everything

[CrystalAnne]

I need some veteran mom advice.  We just seem to be getting to the bare basics everyday with my 7 yr old and I wonder if I should try to be getting in more somehow, or I'm not doing the right stuff, or I should just be ok with it this year.  The deal is, I have an 8.5 month old who is into everything and barely naps.  We are also out of the house for PT, OT, Speech, and ballet every week, and some of those things cut into the day, and no we can't really change that.  And we have a 3 yr old!

 

I hope the baby will nap better one day and somehow be able to sit safely somewhere for more than 60 seconds at some point!

 

Everyday the 7 year old does:

CLE Math 2

Rod and Staff Phonics 2 (He's a fluent reader, and I really like the well-rounded work in these books, but I wonder if they are helping him?)

Rod and Staff English 2

WWE 2

He draws several detailed pictures a day (art?)

He collects and watches backyard bugs everyday (science?)

He reads library picture books in the evening (45 minutes)

Sometimes we do bigger book read alouds in the evening

 

We don't ever get to (and we have curriculum for!!):

History (SOTW)

Science (BFSU)

Art (Artistic Pursuits)

Spelling  

Handwriting

 

And I think those subjects on the bottom are the interesting ones!  Should I really push to try to get them in sometimes?  Or try later in the year when maybe the baby naps better?  I feel kind of at a loss and overwhelmed... 

 

 

 

 

 

[Soror]

Sounds like a nice solid day to me and you are hitting science and art, just in different ways. I wouldn't worry about the spelling until you are done with phonics. The only thing that is really missing to me is history, personally that isn't a stress to me at that age but the audio would be great for your drive time, you could also pull in some related picture books to throw in his stack for reading. I know that when my youngest was at that age it was a nightmare, I was so happy to get through that year.

[abba12]

It sounds like you're having a hard year!

 

There's been a lot of talk on the forums recently about block scheduling. Can you manage to rotate science/history/art? Just getting to one of those each day would be great, but all of them sounds overwhelming in your situation! Do science each afternoon you can one week, then history each afternoon you can the next week. Art the next. Even if you only work at half pace, it doesn't matter, it's more than is happening now, and at this age it wont harm him to only do half as much science lol. Can you incorporate some science or history reading in during his library picture book time? 

 

Having said all that, I personally don't do any formal science/history at this age, it's just math/language arts/logic/motor skills for us until 3rd or so. 

 

I wouldn't worry about spelling until after phonics, they're kinda the same subject from different angles, so I generally see it as either-or personally. Handwriting is important though.... can you have your son do handwriting semi-independently, while you tend to baby or something? Provided he has a good grip and knows how to form letters correctly it's a minimal involvement subject and usually only takes 5 or 10 minutes. Alternatively, maybe you could alternate it with WWE?

 

Good luck! Don't stress too much, the other subjects are definitely the fun ones, but the only subjects he NEEDS at this age are math, reading and writing, which you're doing consistently, so you're doing a great job. I'd encourage you to try and fit handwriting in there, but otherwise, you have a good routine happening and everything else is just a bonus right now.

[fourisenough]

I second the STOW audio to make use of car time. Also, choose science, history, geography, art, poetry etc. picture books for him to read independently.

 

We've had a busy fall getting all my 12th grader's college apps & related things done, so my 6-year old (also a fluent reader) has had a grand time doing exactly what I just outlined above + watching science videos from the library. I usually overhear the videos and later ask her questions about them ("Tell me about some of the ways animals adapt to their environment..."). But even when I don't do this, I know she's learning a lot and enjoying them.

 

It's a busy season in your house; stand taller and feel great that you're covering the basic stuff well. With some minor tweaks, you can squeeze a bit more content in too!

[displace]

Ita with an easy solution: to incorporate non fiction science books, art books, history books as part of reading time. Consider getting audiobooks for home or school time. Also, if your DH or other help is home on the weekends consider doing an experiment on the the weekends. Or artistic pursuits. or do a few weeks of science over the summer.

[KSinNS]

Looks pretty good to me. You're getting the main stuff done. You can also incorporate history books in your read alouds or free reading. There are tons of fun books for that age. See what your library has.

[Tiramisu]

Having done Rod and Staff English 2, it's cute but unnecessary at that age. I would drop it but replace it with handwriting which is a more important skill to work on for now.

 

I'd keep phonics for now, but if he's a good reader, I would consider dropping phonics next year and using a spelling program that incorporates phonics. I haven't used Rod and Staff spelling myself, but the descriptions I've read here make me think it would be a good option. I think phonics and spelling are the same and it would be doubling up to do both in any case, especially for a kid who reads and spells more effortlessly. So don't feel guilty about not doing spelling now.

 

I wouldn't worry so much about history or science either. My kids never really retained much from approaching those subjects in an academic way at that age, no matter how much effort I put in. Since he likes bugs, you could always get a bug book to help him identify bugs in a casual, fun, interest-led way. I'd also consider listening to SOTW in the car or incorporating biographies into his reading. I think biographies are a great choice at that age.

 

What my kids remember from that age is the fun time we had together, even if it was just cuddling up and reading on the couch. It's the sense of closeness and coziness more than a specific thing we learned. My fifteen year old was never much of a cuddler, but she needed some help with math recently. She's outside for high school now so we don't get to work together much at all anymore. But when we had that chance to do math together, she snuggled very close with me on the couch. It was so nice. And it revealed that shared memory of closeness while learning together that is very special to me, even if she forgot some math concepts she had learned.

[Ellie]

I need some veteran mom advice.  We just seem to be getting to the bare basics everyday with my 7 yr old and I wonder if I should try to be getting in more somehow, or I'm not doing the right stuff, or I should just be ok with it this year.  The deal is, I have an 8.5 month old who is into everything and barely naps.  We are also out of the house for PT, OT, Speech, and ballet every week, and some of those things cut into the day, and no we can't really change that.  And we have a 3 yr old!

 

I hope the baby will nap better one day and somehow be able to sit safely somewhere for more than 60 seconds at some point!

 

Everyday the 7 year old does:

CLE Math 2

Rod and Staff Phonics 2 (He's a fluent reader, and I really like the well-rounded work in these books, but I wonder if they are helping him?)

Rod and Staff English 2

WWE 2

He draws several detailed pictures a day (art?)

He collects and watches backyard bugs everyday (science?)

He reads library picture books in the evening (45 minutes)

Sometimes we do bigger book read alouds in the evening

 

We don't ever get to (and we have curriculum for!!):

History (SOTW)

Science (BFSU)

Art (Artistic Pursuits)

Spelling  

Handwriting

 

And I think those subjects on the bottom are the interesting ones!  Should I really push to try to get them in sometimes?  Or try later in the year when maybe the baby naps better?  I feel kind of at a loss and overwhelmed... 

 

That's a lot of stuff for a little 7yo person.

 

If he reads well, I'd drop the R&S phonics in a heartbeat.

 

I'd also drop WWE. R&S English has plenty of writing *if* you require your dc to do it all, and do it in writing and not orally. An added benefit is that it can be done very independently.

 

So if he does only R&S English and not the phonics or WWE, you should have time for SOTW and BFSU (which you would probably alternate, rather than trying to both daily). OTOH, since he's doing nature studies in the backyard, you could let BFSU go. And Artistic Pursuits...he's already doing art. :-)

 

I wouldn't worry about the spelling, maybe not about the penmanship.

 

[J-rap]

You are doing quite a bit, and you could easily not do anything more this year and he'd be fine.

 

That said, it sounds like others have given you some good advice about what you could potentially drop or change.  Also, you could always incorporate a little handwriting into other things he is doing already, or as copy work in the car. 

 

You could incorporate his "science" bug-watching with his art.  I think that would be super fun.  Can he draw pictures of the bugs he collects, and keep them in a notebook?  Perhaps you can give him a bug picture book from the library that has pictures of common backyard bugs, and he can look up the ones he has collected and find out what they're called.  You could also find another book on more uncommon bugs, or unusual bugs from other countries.  I'll be there are great documentaries on bugs. 

 

As far as history, if you can't do history this year at all, I think that's fine.  But if you want to do something, you could lay the groundwork by helping him learning the continents of the the world and where they are.  Get a world map.  You can show him where countries that are important to him are (where he lives, where relatives live, etc.).

 

If you want to do just a little history, you could watch children's history-themed documentaries or films.  We had a year when we couldn't do traditional schooling very easily, and we watched lots of movies that took place in a certain period of history.  They were still really good children's movies, but without realizing it much, they were learning a lot about history too.

[Kiara.I]

Ah, sounds like me last year.

 

First, if he's a fluent reader, why do phonics?

Writing myself a schedule is helping.

 

I wouldn't stress too much about the Artistic Pursuits.  If your child is drawing regularly, let that go for "Art" right now and pick up Artistic Pursuits later in the year.

I would try to get history done.  Can you make yourself a standing-height workstation so that you can read from the book while holding/wearing baby and bouncing?  That might keep baby slightly contained...

And if you manage to get history done one day per week for a few weeks, considering adding BFSU on a different day.  ;)

[....]

Not sure if this helps, but we had several years where all we did was:

 

1.  Math

2.  Language Arts 

3.  We read books

 

I have a baby right now, too - about 7 months old.   :cheers2:   I feel your pain!   :tongue_smilie:

[abba12]

Oh, i totally forgot, Try doing the core subjects just 4 days a week, and the 5th day, do science/history/art/whatever instead. Much easier to get to if it's the ONLY thing to get to. 

[LMD]

We also will do a science week every now and then if I can't fit it in.

[Entropymama]

I would focus on hitting the big areas once per day - language, math, science or history, and only make a goal of 30 minutes for each. R&S, handwriting, spelling, phonics and any other reading counts as language, CLE for math and either SOTW or BFSU. If you can get that 90 minutes done, you can feel like you've hit your goal for the day. Then anything else you do is extra. 

[BlsdMama]

Have you listened to the Morning Basket podcasts?

 

That'd be my first go-to.  You could alleviate a LOT of mama guilt and help him in the process by doing History, Science, and Lit as listen alouds while traveling.  

If you haven't listened to Andrew speak on the effect of read alouds on the later ability to write, it's important.

 

My 7yo reads fluently.  She does a little MCP Spelling just as busywork. ;)

She also does Rod & Staff Grammar simply to get her in the habit of doing school first thing in the AM.  But read alouds and memorization are incredibly important to this veteran mama.... And all the of the work that appears important - workbooks, workbooks, workbooks, can take a backseat to those two things and outdoor time and drawing.  

 

;)