Middle schoolers- Are you getting it all done everyday?

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

I am struggling now to get everything accomplished everyday and do it right?

How are you able to teach every subject and stay up to speed?

[mcconnellboys]

I don't teach every subject, every day.

 

We do math, spelling/word study, grammar, and writing mostly four days per week. He does do a page of MUS on Fridays, but that's about 5 minutes worth or work, or less. He does take a spelling test on Fridays. We do a short (2 minutes or less) oral language lesson. He may do a page of grammar is we have an odd page left to finish up a chapter, but that's not often. Monday through Thursdays, these subjects take 30 minutes or less.

 

We generally do Bible/Character study and literature every day. Most of the time all his written work and corrections, etc., take up about two hours and that leaves us another 2 hours in the mornings to just enjoy reading time (I only have an hour actually scheduled for both these subjects, but that means we generally get a good extra hour in before lunch time.)

 

The last couple of things we do in the mornings are geography (30 mi. on M,W,F) and logic (30 mi. on T,R - but so far it's taken much less time); Spanish and Latin, which alternate with one being M,W,F of one week, and then T,R of the next week. So he does have geography scheduled on Fridays and one language each week, too.

 

After lunch, he has 30 mi. of reading time scheduled, but he reads as we drive to/from after school activities, too, so gets in much more than that. And we try to do about 90 minutes of history and science, two days per week, each.

 

This leaves more free time on Fridays (our traditional field trip days) so that we can do more hands on learning through field trips; see plays; etc. It also gives us time to catch up in case we get behind during the week.

 

So, my schedule looks like this:

 

Bible/Character 8-8:30

Math 8:30-9

Spelling/Word Study 9-9:30

Grammar 9:30-10

Penmanship/Writing 10-10:30

Literature 10:30-11

Geography (M,W,F) 11-11:30

Logic (T,R) 11-11:30

Spanish and Latin, alternating by weeks, 11:30-12

Lunch 12-1

Reading time 1-1:30

History (M,W); Science (T,R) 1:30-3:30

 

Lighter schedule on Fridays

[cherryblossom]

My dd gets up at 6:30 and we begin school by 8am. We take maybe 30-40 minutes for lunch. She's still working until at least 5:00 and then has to finish up with reading and Spanish. I do have to play "taskmaster" a lot as she tends to daydream from time to time. But even on days when she's working her tail off, we don't finish any earlier. For those of you that do finish by early afternoon, HOW do you get it all accomplished? Am I scheduling too much stuff in our day? Obviously I have no suggestions or answers for you, just sympathizing with you and pleading for help and suggestions on how to get it donefrom others who have been there, done that.

I'm listing what we use below.

Bible - Reads a chapter each morning from New Testament, works on a section each week in AWANA book, & we've been going through a short devotional each morning discussing "teenage girl" topics

MathUSee - Algebra

Bob Jones 8th gr Grammar

Spelling Power

Writing Strands

Wordly Wise 3000

Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural & Verbal

Apologia General Science

History/Lit - Sonlight Core 100 w/ Hakim's History of US along with the recommended historical fiction and literature selections

Geopgraphy - Maps, Charts, Graphs (in lieu of the mapping activities in Sonlight history)

Rosetta Stone Spanish

This is what we do each day. Now, because she loves art and this is the ONLY way it won't get pushed aside, we're going to begin lessons soon.

Art - start class w/ an instructor twice/month beginning this month

[Carrie12345]

I'm not sure how you define middle school, but ds is doing 6th grade math in 5th grade, with G&T Language Arts and Lit, and we are having a *tough* time. If he were traditionally homeschooling, I like to think that it would be different. With the cyber school, we could technically slow down a bit, but I think ds's father would flip out and insist he go back to the b&m school.

 

We're working on setting up more of a block schedule. He reads every day and he does math every day. I'm trying to work out English and Social Studies for different days, since they're the toughest. I have no idea where to stick Science. That's not true. I have an idea, but it involves a bad word.

 

In another few weeks, we may have to reevaluate the G&T aspect, just to give the kid some breathing room. It'll break his heart though. I really wish we could just set a slower pace with just as much in depth coverage.

[Stacy in NJ]

Agreeing with Regena. We do math, Japanese and spelling 4 days per week. Grammar, composition, history and memory work get done 3 days per week. Science and bible are done twice per week. The only thing we do 5 days is literature (assigned reading).

 

My 6th grader has been working from 8:30 to 10:00, then breaking for 30 minutes, then working again until lunch at 12:00, starting up again at 12:30 and working again until about 1:30. So, he's working for 4 hours during the day with extra homework assignments of about an hour assigned daily. Homework is typically a bit of math and a bit of either history or science.

 

HTH, Stacy

[8filltheheart]

We do get everything done everyday. But I suspect my list of subjects is much smaller for my 7th grade ds than most people on this forum:

 

LL from LOTR

writing assignment (1 paper per week.....takes the entire week to complete)

geometry

spelling

French

history

science

religion

 

That's it.

[AngieW in Texas]

Everything is going much more smoothly this year.

 

I use an assignment list for my 8th grader rather than an actual schedule.

 

9-9:30 I go over Spanish with my 8th grader

9:30-11 my 8th grader works on her own

11-11:30 I go over anything else my dd needs

10:30-2:00 (or sometimes 2:30) My 8th grader works on her own and only calls me if she can't figure something out. She eats lunch at some point in there as well.

 

Typical workload:

30 minutes with me to work on Easy Spanish Step by Step

one page of Megawords, 3 days/week

30 minutes of Kinetic Books Algebra I

reading (from SL Core 100 reader or history novel, two days worth of assignments in IG done in one day) - usually about 30 minutes

half page of Winston Grammar (4 days/week) or one week's worth of Fix-it Grammar: Frog Prince (1 day/week)

1 lesson/week from US history-based writing lessons (I let her choose how much to do each day as long as she finishes in one week)

history reading and questions from SL Core 100 (each day's assignment in the IG spread over two days)

poetry from SL Core 100 (each day's assignment in the IG spread over two days)

Prentice Hall Science Explorer, usually one chapter section each day, reading and workbook

Kaplan SAT prep 25 minutes 2-3x/week

 

She also has to listen to Core 3 history and readalouds. She was only 6yo when we did Core 3 last time, so she doesn't remember much about the books.

 

Not part of school, but she also usually takes a 45 minute break to play Spore during school time ever since my dh brought the game home earlier this week.

[lwilliams1922]

I don't teach every subject, every day.

 

We do math, spelling/word study, grammar, and writing mostly four days per week. He does do a page of MUS on Fridays, but that's about 5 minutes worth or work, or less. He does take a spelling test on Fridays. We do a short (2 minutes or less) oral language lesson. He may do a page of grammar is we have an odd page left to finish up a chapter, but that's not often. Monday through Thursdays, these subjects take 30 minutes or less.

 

We generally do Bible/Character study and literature every day. Most of the time all his written work and corrections, etc., take up about two hours and that leaves us another 2 hours in the mornings to just enjoy reading time (I only have an hour actually scheduled for both these subjects, but that means we generally get a good extra hour in before lunch time.)

 

The last couple of things we do in the mornings are geography (30 mi. on M,W,F) and logic (30 mi. on T,R - but so far it's taken much less time); Spanish and Latin, which alternate with one being M,W,F of one week, and then T,R of the next week. So he does have geography scheduled on Fridays and one language each week, too.

 

After lunch, he has 30 mi. of reading time scheduled, but he reads as we drive to/from after school activities, too, so gets in much more than that. And we try to do about 90 minutes of history and science, two days per week, each.

 

This leaves more free time on Fridays (our traditional field trip days) so that we can do more hands on learning through field trips; see plays; etc. It also gives us time to catch up in case we get behind during the week.

 

So, my schedule looks like this:

 

Bible/Character 8-8:30

Math 8:30-9

Spelling/Word Study 9-9:30

Grammar 9:30-10

Penmanship/Writing 10-10:30

Literature 10:30-11

Geography (M,W,F) 11-11:30

Logic (T,R) 11-11:30

Spanish and Latin, alternating by weeks, 11:30-12

Lunch 12-1

Reading time 1-1:30

History (M,W); Science (T,R) 1:30-3:30

 

Lighter schedule on Fridays

 

 

What lit are you using?

 

It's Sat night and we are still working on thursdays assignments.

we'll get the week done by monday but gosh it seems like we'll never get a weekend without work to make up.

[Mama Lynx]

I have a 7th grader and a 5th grader this year. Now ... by many people's standards, I am not getting it "all" done. But I am happy with what we do.

 

7th grader:

 

My husband handles math. He does his assignment during the day, and they have a lesson in the evenings.

 

He does a Galore Park Latin lesson every day; either a textbook lesson which he does orally with me, or a workbook exercise which I then check.

 

He does Greek every day with Elementary Greek; he does this independently, and I quiz him.

 

He is taking an online writing class right now, which frankly requires very little of him on a daily basis. I will bump that up soon.

 

I give him a reading list every week, and he completes it. The reading list is TOG history reading, literature, and the Iliad.

 

Every day he does spelling with Megawords, and handwriting.

 

 

My 5th grader does Latin and math with me, every day - Henle and Right Start E. He also has a reading list with TOG assignments, literature, and D'Aulaire's Greek myths. He also does Elementary Greek independently. Every week I have him do history narrations, and dictation. I don't currently have him doing any other writing or grammar, but will start that soon. I will also teach him outlining during this year.

 

Both boys are also taking programming lessons from my husband, and are heavily involved with Scouts. I am currently teaching them piano, and we have swimming lessons.

 

I let them plan their days, more or less; no computer time or TV time until school work and chores are done.

[Jenny in Florida]

We did fine our first week. Then, week #2 hit, which included both Labor Day and my husband's birthday. My son likes to be off whenever Dad is home, so we ended up trying to squeeze the whole week's work into three full days.

 

That meant that this past week, week #3, we had all of this week's work plus a little bit of stuff left over from last week. And then some friends from out of town got in touch, which ate a day from this week.

 

Now, we normally plan on only four full days, with Wednesday off except for a math lesson, as long as he's caught up by the end of Tuesday. But this week, we had to take Tuesday off, since that's when our friends were available to play . . .

 

And, well, it just threw us off track again.

 

My son did do the left-over math and geography this morning, though, which means we're caught up and ready to start next week with a clean slate.

 

I have only one student these days, though. And I don't "teach" every subject.

 

I work with him on math, Latin, English and writing. He's taking art and geography with Florida Virtual, and he likes me to read over the lessons with him but I don't plan or grade his work. Everything else--math reading, history reading, "literature" reading, vocabulary, science (except for occasional assistance with or supervising of an experiment or project), Spanish and Greek--he does pretty much independently. He checks in with me as he finishes each chunk, and we chat about what he read or learned, giving me a chance to make sure he's doing and understanding the assignments. But I don't really "teach" the material.

 

I don't know if that makes a difference in what you're asking.

 

He does do most of his subjects every day, because he generally prefers to work in small chunks. As long as he's getting the work done, though, it's up to him to decide when to do it. He does have the carrot of knowing that he may have Wednesday off if he stays on track, but, honestly, he's done by 2:00 or earlier most days, anyway.

 

We get up at 7:30, and he usually starts his reading while I shower and dress. Then, while I'm making his breakfast, he showers and dresses. He usually reads some more over breakfast, and we start math as soon as he's done, generally between 8:30 and 9:00.

 

These days, he tends to like to do all of the subjects that involve me up front. So, once we finish math, we'll read through the art and/or geography lesson (depending on how much he has to do in those classes that week). He does any related assignments on his own. Then we'll do a page or so each of English and Latin and spend a few minutes on the current writing model or assignment.

 

After that, he does some Greek and Spanish and, once or twice a week, a vocabulary lesson.

 

By that time, he's ready for a break and will often go start something for lunch. He might watch an educational DVD I've assigned for the week while he eats or maybe do some more assigned reading.

 

After lunch, he finishes up the reading for the day. If it's early by the time he finishes, he might do his science experiment for the week. Some weeks, he'll also have history-related projects to do, which will get done either during these afternoons or on Wednesdays when he's bored.

 

Other Wednesdays, we have field trips planned.

 

He has extracurricular classes and activities most afternoons, which require us to spend a fair amount of time in the car. So, if he runs out of time to finish reading, he takes that with him.

 

I was really worried that the workload might be too much for him this year, but he's doing fine so far. (Knock on wood . . .)

[Ida]

In the past we have struggled because I have gotten lax and I was not organized enough. My ds is pretty much a self starter and is pretty willing to do his work even if he doesn't just love it, so the lack of organization was more my fault than his. This year we are using K12 independently for several subjects to help with the organization and we've been good about hitting the books bright and early, but it is taking us a LONG time. Yes, there is a lot ds (6th grade) can do on his own, but there's quite a bit I need to at least get him started on and there's a lot that we need to discuss or he has questions about or problems with along the way. Also there are several subjects that we really have to do together. And I'm also juggling teaching my 7 and 9 year olds. I've tried making schedules with subjects in various time blocks and I've tried looping, but I never stick to those. I am also sympathizing with no real advice. I try to reassure myself with the fact that we are getting more done than we have in past years and even though there has not been a single day in the first month of this school year that I have gotten through everything on my list, we are doing work over time that will accumulate into a pretty thorough education. I envy mcconnellboys' schedule, but my ds cannot finish many of those subjects in half an hour, and if we limited it to that time we simply would not progress enough through the school year.

 

Here's what my 6th is doing

 

English-K12 Intermediate English A

Math-NEM 1

History-K12 US History, first half (6th grader is registered for this, but I am folding the youngers in too, so we do this all together with library books thrown in)

Science-K12 Earth Science w/ PH Science Explorers Earth Science (again, folding in youngers and adding in age appropriate library books for them)

Spanish-SYRWTL Spanish 1

Latin-SYRWTL Latin prep

Logic-Critical Thinking Bk. 1

 

Logic only takes about 15-20 minutes. We do it orally-just curl up on the couch, read the lesson, and discuss the questions together. Spanish and Latin we try to alternate. We spend about 30-40 minutes together reviewing flashcards and working in the text, then he has independent written work. Math we go over the text and class activities together then he does an exercise. For some I only assign odds or evens, but it still takes him a long time. Lots of the English he can do on his own, but again, it just takes time. We are liking K12 more than I thought I would. With science we are outlining the PH textbook. Since outlining is new to him I sit with him and we talk about what information should go in the outline and I write it on the whiteboard and he copies it. Eventually he will be able to do the outlining on his own, but that'll be a while. It really doesn't look to me like it should be too much, but somehow it is taking forever and still doesn't get done. He does get lots of breaks during the day, usually when he's ready to move on to another subject and I'm still working with a sibling. Anyway, I will be watching this thread for others' great ideas.

[mcconnellboys]

I'm not using a set lit program. I picked up Reading Strands at convention this year and looked over it to help me with teaching lit. We are reading primarily mythology and folklore this year because ds is doing ancients for the last time before the more in-depth, high school level. He's reading stories to go along with whatever culture we're studying for the week (Old Kingdom, Egypt, this past week). We talk about them and he's also doing reports on some of them.

 

I also am reading weekly from Eyewitness Mythology and from a book entitled Goddesses, Heroes, and Shamans: The Young Peoples' Guide to World Mythology (Scholastic), as well as other stories (Golden Goblet, right now).

 

I put together a literary analysis notebook using websites and printouts from the internet. I just linked a bunch of those in another thread, about teaching literary elements. I'm using some of the worksheets periodically to go over literary terms. I incorporate this into the time period when he's sitting doing other written work.

[mom31257]

We were struggling a little bit, but dd has extra on her right now because she is the lead in our children's musical at church, which is next month, and doing sewing lessons this month along with starting back to piano. What I did was actually leave off her formal reading curriculum for right now. I use Bob Jones because I love all the comprehension skills and literary lessons. She reads avidly and always does well, so it's not necessary for now.

 

I do an assignment list each day off of Homeschool Tracker, the free version. We start our day at 9:00. We do devotion, prayer, pledge, then we work at the table together on most of their subjects. I don't really follow a schedule, just work on the list. We usually have lunch around 12:30. I read their history to them while they eat. They take a break while I eat lunch. We do any project type activities after lunch, then dd finishes anything else left, which is usually her piano practice, working on her lines, etc.

 

 

I hope it gets better. Evaluate what your really need and maybe leave something extra off. It sure helped me.

[lwilliams1922]

I feel like I should be doing more for literature.

not like we're not struggling to get done with what we do have each week.

 

i have a question though...

 

the wtm suggests history for 60 mins 3 days per week.

 

We do outlining on 1 day

related readings and summaries 2 days

then outling and maping on another day.

 

our outlining and mapping takes15 mins at most.

are we missing something?

is there something I'm not doing that should be taking up the other 45 mins??

[mcconnellboys]

I actually count the outlining time in with my grammar time regarding the Remedia workbook we're using for that; and the outlining of history is done during history time (so is map work); outlining of science during science time.

 

Even when he writes reports, that's usually done as part of his seatwork, or written work time. So during our actual "lit time", we're generally just reading and reading more (or talking about what we're reading). No, I can't think of anything more you need to do for lit, unless you want to get into doing literary analysis (which you certainly don't need to do yet at this age), or you want to use study guides with some of your stories, which include questions to answer in writing, vocab work, etc. I actually bought a bunch of study guides one year, but I just couldn't bring myself to use them. I think they take all the joy out of literature.

[Beth in SW WA]

I am struggling now to get everything accomplished everyday and do it right?

How are you able to teach every subject and stay up to speed?

 

The threat of Saturday school works for us. If there is dilly-dallying, then they lose free time on Saturdays.

 

Before church on Wed nights they have to be mid-way through their list of weekly assignments -- or they don't go (which would be torture for them).

 

Daily:

 

Bible, Math, Latin, Reading 1 hour, Science, History, Grammar, Geography, Music, PE

 

Twice Weekly:

Logic, Writing

[PollyOR]

Sheepishly chiming in here. We do very little. My main goal is Latin, math, and writing every day. I would LOVE to do more but with three kiddos, weekly counseling appointments, and church meetings, it is all I can do right now. I still have hope for the future. ;)

 

A couple of things help. First, I try not to assign work in areas that she already does/enjoys. She is writing her own book and is reading The Lord of the Rings, so we aren't doing writing or literature lessons.

 

 

The other thing that I do is try to find self teaching programs. For example:

Latin - Lively Latin

Math - Teaching Textbooks Alg. 1

Spelling - Phonetic Zoo

 

The other thought I've had is to teach subjects like a university does .... only 4-5 subjects a term and M,W,F, or T,TH schedules for each class/subject.

 

Good Luck!

[PollyOR]

One more - have a cut off time. By 2pm I call it quits no matter how much we have left to do. There is always tomorrow.

 

BTW, I have a general idea of what I want to accomplish over a year, but I only put weekly goals in writing. I was getting angry :banghead: when we got "behind."

[Peela]

I try and focus on quality over quantity here. I am big on the kids getting lots of free time, so I prioritise. If they are good at something (e.g. outlining) I don't keep on hounding it week after week. We just get to it, or use it, now and then. We do less writing, more reading and discussing. We do 2 languages but on alternate days. I try and work with where the kids are at and keep moving them forward.

I don't know how anyone could do TWTM as is, with schedules. But it is a wonderful and inspiring guide- I think one should use it as a starting point, rather than adhere to it too strictly. Find what works for you and your kids.

For me, 'simplify' is one of my homeschool mantras.

[magistramom]

Middle school (as in 5th - 8th or so)?

 

This will sound contrary to every fiber in your body...

 

QUIT. TEACHING.

 

No one can really teach anyone. Learning comes from within the student, and practice. We don't have lessons for walking or talking, it's done through modeling examples and intrinsic motivation (there may be an extrinsic reward, but until an connection is made between the reward and the teaching - nothing happens).

 

A few ideas to help make the switch from the lesson per day, teaching mode:

• Have your children be accoutable to you about their schedule and plan to get things done. Meet with them each morning on their goals. Meet with them at the end of the day about what they accomplished. Let them share their excitement, rather than you judge the amount completed. Engage Socratically - not Q&A. Meet with them once a month or every other week to discuss larger, long term goals.
  
• Place all their work on the table the night before the next day. Have them spend a minute looking through the materials. Tell them that these are the resources they can use for the next day. At the end of that next day, have them show you that they have done something from each of the following groups: read something, write something, research something, solve something, interact with someone or something. You don't have to limit what you put on the table to their curriculum. If you give a child a copy of Euclid's beginning proofs (from the internet), they'll be able to work quite a few of them out (even in lower grades). Toss a few historical novels on the table (they will learn through reading about dress, manners, customs, and so on as they read). Throw a few fact sheets on the table for math. Maybe a science workbook, or a link to a few science pages or experiments on the internet. Your work will be to strew interesting things on the table. Their work is to find a love of learning - and only they can do that - it is not teachable.
  
• Instead of focusing on one lesson from each book each day, place your focus on moving forward. Set a time for each lesson and have your child work on it during that time.
  
• Go back and read the posts on looping - it really works. You will need to do four hours per day for 7 subjects, 3 for five subjects (try to whittle or combine a few subjects). You are available during that time for your child as a mentor. If you have five subjects (math, grammar/spelling, writing, science, history) do only three per day (Monday: math, grammar/spelling, writing, Tuesday: science, history, math; Wednesday: grammar/spelling, writing, science; Thursday: history, math, grammar/spelling; Friday: writing, science, history).
  
• Focus on what will be needed through life (spelling, grammar, writing styles, math). Combine or fold the other subjects into those. For example; combine math and geography; history and writing; art and math; spelling and science...

I hope you both enjoy your new found freedom if you take this approach!

[8filltheheart]

Middle school (as in 5th - 8th or so)?

 

This will sound contrary to every fiber in your body...

 

QUIT. TEACHING.

 

No one can really teach anyone. Learning comes from within the student, and practice. We don't have lessons for walking or talking, it's done through modeling examples and intrinsic motivation (there may be an extrinsic reward, but until an connection is made between the reward and the teaching - nothing happens).

 

A few ideas to help make the switch from the lesson per day, teaching mode:

 

• Have your children be accoutable to you about their schedule and plan to get things done. Meet with them each morning on their goals. Meet with them at the end of the day about what they accomplished. Let them share their excitement, rather than you judge the amount completed. Engage Socratically - not Q&A. Meet with them once a month or every other week to discuss larger, long term goals.

• Place all their work on the table the night before the next day. Have them spend a minute looking through the materials. Tell them that these are the resources they can use for the next day. At the end of that next day, have them show you that they have done something from each of the following groups: read something, write something, research something, solve something, interact with someone or something. You don't have to limit what you put on the table to their curriculum. If you give a child a copy of Euclid's beginning proofs (from the internet), they'll be able to work quite a few of them out (even in lower grades). Toss a few historical novels on the table (they will learn through reading about dress, manners, customs, and so on as they read). Throw a few fact sheets on the table for math. Maybe a science workbook, or a link to a few science pages or experiments on the internet. Your work will be to strew interesting things on the table. Their work is to find a love of learning - and only they can do that - it is not teachable.

• Instead of focusing on one lesson from each book each day, place your focus on moving forward. Set a time for each lesson and have your child work on it during that time.

• Go back and read the posts on looping - it really works. You will need to do four hours per day for 7 subjects, 3 for five subjects (try to whittle or combine a few subjects). You are available during that time for your child as a mentor. If you have five subjects (math, grammar/spelling, writing, science, history) do only three per day (Monday: math, grammar/spelling, writing, Tuesday: science, history, math; Wednesday: grammar/spelling, writing, science; Thursday: history, math, grammar/spelling; Friday: writing, science, history).

• Focus on what will be needed through life (spelling, grammar, writing styles, math). Combine or fold the other subjects into those. For example; combine math and geography; history and writing; art and math; spelling and science...

I hope you both enjoy your new found freedom if you take this approach!

 

I really disagree with this approach. Children do need teaching. It is very hard to make the leap from reading something by yourself to understanding/comprehending, let alone synthesizing/evaluating the information. That makes for a very flat, knowledge based education.

 

Socratic discussion is question and answer. The questions are open ended and are very purposeful. The questions are deliberate. The tutor helps guide the student make a connection on their own, but one they most likely would not have made without the interaction.

 

Here is one explanation of Socratic discussions.

http://www.greatbooksacademy.org/html/what_is_the_socratic_method_.html

 

As a comparison.......it isn't if the child knows that 2+2=4. It is if given a scenerio, they know how to use their knowledge of math to find the answer.

[threetreasurs]

We do have to work at it. Since I started enforcing the no playing with neighbor kids until homework is done, the pace has picked up dramatically.:)

[at the beach]

Middle school (as in 5th - 8th or so)?

 

This will sound contrary to every fiber in your body...

 

QUIT. TEACHING.

 

No one can really teach anyone. Learning comes from within the student, and practice. We don't have lessons for walking or talking, it's done through modeling examples and intrinsic motivation (there may be an extrinsic reward, but until an connection is made between the reward and the teaching - nothing happens).

 

A few ideas to help make the switch from the lesson per day, teaching mode:

 

• Have your children be accoutable to you about their schedule and plan to get things done. Meet with them each morning on their goals. Meet with them at the end of the day about what they accomplished. Let them share their excitement, rather than you judge the amount completed. Engage Socratically - not Q&A. Meet with them once a month or every other week to discuss larger, long term goals.

• Place all their work on the table the night before the next day. Have them spend a minute looking through the materials. Tell them that these are the resources they can use for the next day. At the end of that next day, have them show you that they have done something from each of the following groups: read something, write something, research something, solve something, interact with someone or something. You don't have to limit what you put on the table to their curriculum. If you give a child a copy of Euclid's beginning proofs (from the internet), they'll be able to work quite a few of them out (even in lower grades). Toss a few historical novels on the table (they will learn through reading about dress, manners, customs, and so on as they read). Throw a few fact sheets on the table for math. Maybe a science workbook, or a link to a few science pages or experiments on the internet. Your work will be to strew interesting things on the table. Their work is to find a love of learning - and only they can do that - it is not teachable.

• Instead of focusing on one lesson from each book each day, place your focus on moving forward. Set a time for each lesson and have your child work on it during that time.

• Go back and read the posts on looping - it really works. You will need to do four hours per day for 7 subjects, 3 for five subjects (try to whittle or combine a few subjects). You are available during that time for your child as a mentor. If you have five subjects (math, grammar/spelling, writing, science, history) do only three per day (Monday: math, grammar/spelling, writing, Tuesday: science, history, math; Wednesday: grammar/spelling, writing, science; Thursday: history, math, grammar/spelling; Friday: writing, science, history).

• Focus on what will be needed through life (spelling, grammar, writing styles, math). Combine or fold the other subjects into those. For example; combine math and geography; history and writing; art and math; spelling and science...

I hope you both enjoy your new found freedom if you take this approach!

 

You make lots of great points. Thank you for sharing. I think looping is a great idea. I also love your accountability suggestions.

 

I do want to say, I think that teaching and learning/educating are two different things. I think we all need teachers, but teachers cannot educate. Some things teachers do is inspire, impart knowledge and lead others to educate themselves because they are receptive to what is being taught. John Taylor Gatto talks about the differences between being a teacher and an educator and the confusion that exists about these two roles in one of his books. (I love Gatto!) We can teach our children but we cannot educate them. People must educate themselves but that doesn't mean we don't need teachers.

 

One of my concerns as I continue homeschooling and as my dd 11 approaches her teen years is that I want to ensure that she has enough interaction with mentors who can inspire her and broaden her perspective on life and the world. I don't want all her perspective coming from me. I think she needs other appropriate role models as she grows older, and I hope she is getting them through her outside activities. She has a great relationship with her piano teacher, for example. He is a wonderful teacher and he creates in her the desire to learn IMHO.

 

Hope I am making sense. Thanks for your post. It's helping me clarify my own thoughts in regard to working with my children.

 

Anita

[charlotteb]

I am struggling now to get everything accomplished everyday and do it right?

How are you able to teach every subject and stay up to speed?

 

 

My son is now officially a middle schooler too! With trying to bump up his schedule and keep my 3rd grader in the mix, I was going bonkers during the first few weeks of school too! It was mostly bad scheduling on my part. Oh, and we joined a once a week co-op this year too.

 

Here's what DS is doing:

Old Testament Bible Study from Anne's School Place

Typing Instructor Deluxe

Abeka Language

Megawords Spelling

SOTW Vol III with sister

Noeo Physics II with sister

Saxon 7/6 Math

English From the Roots Up

"The Hobbit" for reading (with sister) and a comp guide from VP with it

 

At the co-op, he's taking:

IEW SWI B

Around the World in 180 Days

Presidents and Elections study

Karate

 

He often has homework from the first 2 co-op classes.

 

So we adjusted our schedule this way to make things easier- No other school work will be done on co-op days. Any homework needs to be completed the same day.

At home, we do history and science on atlernating days. I planned to do them the same day, but that didn't work. They both get done 2x a week.

We do reading at night. DH goes to bed at 8 pm (due to early job hours) so that's when we read. It takes about an hour to read the chapter and do the comp questions.

English from the Roots Up is only done once a week. DS and I work on it together while DD is having speech theraphy.

 

I also had to wake up earlier. If you knew me, you would know what a struggle that it :) But I can see the benefits of it . Before I adjusted our schedule, we would still be doing school @ 5pm some days. Now we're done around 2:30.

[Heather in VA]

We're getting it done - 8th grade this year. I have an assignment sheet for her which contains some daily assignments and some I expect done within the week. I don't teach every subject at the moment that she does it. We have a couple of "meeting times" each day where we discuss and evaluate in a socratic fashion things like literature, history and science. For example, I teach math and Latin when she does those but she may do her science reading and assignment in the morning and we don't discuss it until after lunch.

 

Does that help?

 

Heather

[at the beach]

Well, I will preface this by saying we have only finished our first week. ;)

 

My dd 11 is doing the following:

 

Sonlight Core 5 for history, literature, geography, and Bible--she is loving this but I know it's early on yet! So, we'll see.

 

Latin Prep 1--she loves this, too. It is such a nice change from LC 1. I had planned to do Henle with LL, but she wanted this, and I felt it was more age-appropriate for her.

 

GP SYRWTL Science 1--good text to get her ready for higher level science IMO and very user friendly.

 

GP SYRWTL English 2--fabulous program and she really likes it very much. I plan to use Our Mother Tongue after we finish SYWTL English 3. OMT appears straightforward and easy to implement. I also like the looks of the Window to the World Course offered by IEW (I think that's what it's called). I have the Lively Art of Writing and this also seems a great, efficient way to work on writing later.

 

Calvert Spelling 6--she wanted this so I got it, and she likes it so far.

 

Singapore Math (very time efficient and fun for us! But I do have Rod and Staff for back up to make sure she gets enough drill or extra practice)

 

Artistic Pursuits (first book from the 4th - 6th grade level)

 

Piano and violin lessons weekly with daily practice of at least 30 minutes on each.

 

Dance class (tap, ballet, and jazz) two nights a week (fortunately falls on the days she has piano and violin.)

 

I think that's it.

 

I'd like to add in Keyboarding, but we shall see. I'm also doing artist and composer study informally and we'd like to add in more poetry, more lit from AO, including Shakespeare, history and science bios, and science books. She did get everything done except a few things this week that she will finish today like Artistic Pursuits and one short history reading. It has been fairly manageable. We spend most of our time with living books, which is what I want. I do think that my choice of grammar program for her is very efficient. So is Latin Prep and Singapore Math. I found that last year part of the problem we had with falling way behind was math was taking hours in spite of my devotion to Charlotte Mason. ;) I finally had to stop the madness. Math is important but spending half a day on it was not beneficial for any of us. Also, JAG took her a long time and it felt like drudgery to her. Galore Park's English is actually fun so far. We are ahead of schedule in it amd have finished all of Chapter 1--there are ten units. I have a foreign language obsession and would like to add in more but have to stop myself right now.

 

I really pray that we will be able to manage this schedule. We stay clear of busy work. I detest anything that even smells of busy work. My daughter is actually enjoying Core 5's Eastern Hemisphere Explorer. I figure it's not busy work as it's helping her figure out how to find information. The Bible program sort of feels busy work-ish to me so we'll see on that one. She is happy with her schedule. I work a demanding job and the Sonlight instructor guide will (I think) help me stay on top of things. I love the help if offers me. We are also doing Core 1/2 with dd 9, and that's going well.

 

One thing that helped this first week is getting them out of bed early. And I do mean early, like 6:30. If we wait until 9 to get going it really makes a huge difference. We start the day feeling behind, and that's hard. So, another key I think is that they have to get to bed earlier, too. Public school kids are catching the bus as early as 6:50 here. So, you know, I feel that we have to also be serious enough about things to get our butts out of bed early. It's that important to me to get a handle on this because I think it will be a key factor on staying on top of our schedule.

 

Yes, it's a struggle to keep on top of things and get work done, and I also worry about making sure I am not shortchanging her. But I also try to remember that we are often doing way more than what kids would get in school. Honestly, they are there for about 7 hours and a lot of that time is spent shuffling from class to class, a lunch period, study hall, and when in class there are probably 20 plus others there, too, in each class. Then, I think about things like my lovely niece telling me she hates ALL reading except fiction because every other sort of book is BORING. This is a highly capable child and it saddens me to see that she is just not interested in so much of what the world has to offer. I am sure she is drowning in textbooks and busy work. So, I hope I am at least instilling a love a learning in my children, not driving it out of them. And if we manage that, then I think we have accomplished much more for our kids than what most of our children get in our society. Just MNSHO!

 

Anita

[Murphy101]

I had to cut science this semester because I simply cannot do it and american history. So we're focusing on history this semester and next semester we'll start science.

 

I'd also dearly love to start a foreign language for them, but I simply cannot afford one.:(

 

So here's what we are doing. Oh and I don't keep track by time, but rather by lessons completed.

 

8th grader:

daily lessons in:

seton reading/lit

seton english/comp

seton religion/church history

MP traditional logic

Life of Fred math (w/ key to series)

 

weekly lessons in:

american history or physical science (reading, Q&A, paper and activities take a week to complete)

CHC speller

Speech for Communication (focus on one skill per week)

Spcrates Meets Jesus (weekly discussion)

 

This is basicly the same for my 7th grader only he is using hillside's lingua mater instad of seton english and he is not doing MP trad. logic.

 

I didn't put my 5th grader on the list... not ready to call him a middle schoolers yet.;)

 

The daily stuff is pretty much done on their own. Of course, they come to me with questions. Of course, when I grade it I discuss on problems they appear to have had and they correct it. But for the most part, their daily work is self-learned. They read the directions and do the assignment with little initial input from me.

 

The weekly lessons tend to be things that need more teacher involvement, with the exception of spelling. history, logic, and science are subjects that they tend to need more Q&A and discussion of to really get anything out of them.

[Greta Lea]

Also, as much as I hate to follow a strict timed schedule it does help to get it all done. Here's my 8th grade son's schedule...

 

*8:00-9:00 TT Math

*9:00-9:30 Explorer's Bible Study (read then discuss with mom)

*9:30-9:45 snack break

*9:45-10:30 SL Core 100 History (read then discuss w/mom)

*10:30-11:30 IEW writing (history, science, literature or bible assignments)

*11:30-12:00 Lunch

*12:00-12:45 Apologia General Science

*12:45-1:00 Math fact drills (Mon/Wed) or Spongebob Typing (Tues/Th)

 

This is where the schedule varies some daily....

 

Monday & Wednesday

*1:00-1:15 break

*1:15-1:45 Winston Grammar

*1:45-2:30 SL Core 100 Literature (read, discuss w/mom)

*2:30-3:00 Tell Me More Spanish

 

 

Tuesday & Thursday

*1:00-1:45 SL Core 100 Literature

*2:00-4:00 YMCA pe and swim classes

 

 

Friday is our shorter day for regular academic classes...

*8:00-9:00 TT Math

*9:00-9:30 Explorer's Bible Study (read then discuss with mom)

*9:30-9:45 snack break

*9:45-10:30 SL Core 100 History (read then discuss w/mom)

*10:30-11:15 Logic

*11:15-12:00 Lunch

*12:00-2:00 4-H or work or work on projects

[Sunshine State Sue]

We're having no problems finishing here for 7th grade. We've even added typing, literature, and an extra day of history and logic this year. But, I suspect that is due to 2 or 3 reasons:

 

• Ds chipped a bone in his foot and is hobbling around on crutches. Therefore, it is not as easy to get up, run away, and distract himself. Also, extracurricular activities have diminished.
  
• I have an only child.
  
• I've outsourced Latin.
  

 

 

I must admit, though, that starting last year, he has been much more cooperative and independent. I thought the posts about to teach or not to teach were interesting. We do a mix here. He's more independent in some subjects (Lof Math, History, Logic) but I do the teaching for others (MUS Algebra, Grammar, Writing).

 

These days, he's up at 8:30 and finishes by 1pm.

[Jane]

Yes! My 7th grader is consistently getting it all done--every day. I'm quite thankful and hoping it continues.

 

Something I did early in the year was post my 7th grader's schedule here and ask for help trying to figure out how to possibly get it all in. The board was wonderful with their suggestions. Maybe if you do the same we can help you with recommendations? :) (Given the amount of replies to this post, I would recommend starting a new thread.)

[Colleen in NS]

Logic-Critical Thinking Bk. 1

 

Logic only takes about 15-20 minutes. We do it orally-just curl up on the couch, read the lesson, and discuss the questions together.

 

This is good to hear! I bought this book, too, to look ahead for next year with ds. I wondered how people use it!

[Colleen in NS]

The threat of Saturday school works for us.

 

I'm totally tracking your vibe. :lol::lol::lol::lol:

[HollyDay]

Thank you for this thread, I am learning a lot!!

[Jenny in Atl]

Yes, but it's painful. I find we are doing some on the weekends to make up for activities that pop-up. Pretty much a 8:30-4pm time frame. It's a very long day. :tongue_smilie:

[Beth in IN]

My dd gets up at 6:30 and we begin school by 8am. We take maybe 30-40 minutes for lunch. She's still working until at least 5:00 and then has to finish up with reading and Spanish. I do have to play "taskmaster" a lot as she tends to daydream from time to time. But even on days when she's working her tail off, we don't finish any earlier. For those of you that do finish by early afternoon, HOW do you get it all accomplished? Am I scheduling too much stuff in our day? Obviously I have no suggestions or answers for you, just sympathizing with you and pleading for help and suggestions on how to get it donefrom others who have been there, done that.

I'm listing what we use below.

Bible - Reads a chapter each morning from New Testament, works on a section each week in AWANA book, & we've been going through a short devotional each morning discussing "teenage girl" topics

MathUSee - Algebra

Bob Jones 8th gr Grammar

Spelling Power

Writing Strands

Wordly Wise 3000

Building Thinking Skills Level 3 Figural & Verbal

Apologia General Science

History/Lit - Sonlight Core 100 w/ Hakim's History of US along with the recommended historical fiction and literature selections

Geopgraphy - Maps, Charts, Graphs (in lieu of the mapping activities in Sonlight history)

Rosetta Stone Spanish

This is what we do each day. Now, because she loves art and this is the ONLY way it won't get pushed aside, we're going to begin lessons soon.

Art - start class w/ an instructor twice/month beginning this month

 

Cherryblossom,

 

Are you doing everything in Sonlight's Core 100 except the geography? If so, that may be your problem. It looks like you may be doubling up on things if you are. I am using it also but heavily modifed because of all the other things I am using that covers the same or similiar things. We have very similiar schedules but it is taking dd about 6 hrs/day to complete.

 

BTW...GO Colts!

 

Beth

[Laura Corin]

I'm finding it hard too. Calvin works most days from around 9 to 5, including an hour of PE, an hour break at lunch, and half an hour off in each of the morning and afternoon sessions. So that's about five hours of actual academic work. We are doing:

 

So You Really Want to Learn Maths Book 2

So You Really Want to Learn English Book 2/Lightning Literature 7

IGCSE Biology from Longman (UK high-school course)

SOTW history, plus lots of supplements (he's actually reading the HE Marshall Scotland book at present instead, but will go back to SOTW when our shipment arrives)

Chinese homework (he goes to Chinese school on Saturday afternoon)

Recorder From the Beginning Book 3

Latin Prep Book 3

Galore Park RE

HWT

PE

Various art history

Various art

Poetry memorisation

 

We are meant to be starting French in January. This currently seems mad, but at that point the science load will be reduced, as C will have taken the exam he's preparing for at the moment.

 

Laura

[mamato4girls]

We seem to get most everything done, she does get distracted easily and can stop in the middle of something if I don't stay on top of her.

[Chris in CA]

lots of coffee for me, none for the kids :001_smile:

So far we are doing pretty well, but I only have two