If you follow a schedule

[Janeway]

I have grown to realize that my obstinate child needs a strict schedule and thrives on knowing what is expected of him, at what time, and keep it consistent and stable. He is not a flexible person. Unfortunately, I thrive on the freedom of letting the moment take me, lol.

 

He is in 7th grade. I would love to hear what everyone does, or at least a general idea, if you have one.

[MinivanMom]

My middle schoolers love having a set schedule. They like knowing exactly what's required of them and having a firm line between school time and free time. My 7th grader's schedule (times are approximate):

 

8-9 - Latin

9-10 - Algebra

10-11 - French

11-2 - Break to practice instruments and eat lunch

2-2:45 - History

2:45-3:30 - Science

 

English isn't on her regular schedule, because she reads and writes so much on her own. I usually assign a book per week for her to read, and she gets it done in her free time. She usually works on essays, reports, and free writing on Tue evenings or Friday afternoons, because those are the days when she doesn't have any extracurricular activities.

[dragonflyer]

My kids respond well to timers on my phone.  That way it is not mom saying: "it is school time" or "it is clean-up time."  The alarm on the phone goes off, and my boys might sigh, but generally move toward doing what is expected.

[Loesje22000]

DD loves the CM approach of 30 min. working on a subject and then switch.

 

When we start at 8.30 it became look like this:

Latin

Math

French

 

Dutch

English

History/Geography

 

 

Math

Science

Science

German

 

Reading

 

Wednessday is the day we have only a half day of lessons so we do a lot of our 'once per week' subjects.

[Ethel Mertz]

Here is what we did last year for 7th:

 

We started at 9:00 am with Morning Time for an hour, followed by:

 

45 min to an hour of either Spanish or Latin

1 hour of math

45 min of writing

30 min of grammar, spelling, or vocabulary (depending on the day)

Lunch and a couple of read alouds

45 min of Latin or Spanish (depending on which one we did in the morning and, also, the day of the week - we aim for at least 4 sessions of each language a week)

2 hours of Science or History (depending on the day)

1 hour of reading

 

I'm probably forgetting something. We are finished no later than 4:00, sometimes by 3:00. 

 

 

[HomeAgain]

By 7th is when we had morning meeting time in our house.  Each day we'd go over the daily requirements and my kid would write them down in the order he wanted to do them (except for non-negotiables, like not being able to move a class or whatnot), and approximate time it would take.  He was in control of developing those work habits instead of me.  Everything had to be checked off before the day was done, and he had to write start time at the beginning of the subject and end time after he was done.  It helped him to see where he was dawdling and how to manage his time better - if he *thought* a subject would only take 20 minutes but it took an hour and a half, he could immediately see how it threw off the rest of his day.

[Sahamamama]

We have never been successful at scheduling TIMES. We have been very successful at lining up assigned WORK. There is a difference, and that difference is the deal-breaker (or maker) for us.

 

Whenever we have (briefly) tried to list work alongside times (e.g., 8 am--9 am: Math, etc.), we flop. For us, I suppose we are too free-flowy to get that machine humming smoothly every morning, and having those times there feels like a daily, perpetual failure. So...

 

What we do instead is have assigned work, very rarely with times listed alongside the tasks. The exceptions would be if (1) we have an outside appointment, and need to make a note to be ready by a certain time, or (2) for a while, my oldest daughter needed help with learning appropriate time frames for specific types of assignments, because she had no intuitive sense of "how long" something "should" take her to complete. So occasionally, a time marker can be a helpful bit of information, but for the most part, we take out the times from our Daily Work Lists (DWLs) and just list the work to be done that day.

 

When the kids are in bed at night, I spend about ten minutes on the computer to pull assignments for the next day and put those specific tasks on each student's DWL. The assignments are pulled from my yearly Teacher Plan, so I don't have to think too much at the end of the day. ;) Here's how we list the work:

 

Morning Routine

• Pet Care
• Household Chores
• Meal Job
• Shower, dress, hair
• Room neat
• Ready for school

Independent Work

• Here I list any of the work the student is able to complete independently, including independent components of work that is not completely independent (e.g., math fact practice, but not the entire math lesson).

Tutor Time

• Here I list all the work that the student will do (or at least go over) with me. I usually alternate who gets TT first, but this kind of depends on who is doing what (who is ready to start with me) and how much a particular assignment is teacher-dependent.

Group Work

• Here I list whatever work we will do as a group. Since I have three girls, less than two years apart, we are (at the moment) able to do quite a few things as a group.

So, when we have a "listed day*," that school day's work is set out very clearly, BUT there are no assigned times. I find that (for us) it works out so much better to assign the work, but to let the clock keep on ticking.... We pay attention to the work, and ignore the clock! ;)

 

* We have a variation on the "listed day," and this is the "whiteboard day." LOL. That is what happens when the work we need to accomplish is not so much that I need to print out DWLs for the following day. Instead, we just list the work on the whiteboard and check it off as we go. Works fine for a more casual school day, but not for every day. The DWLs really help us to stay on track (especially with independent work) and push ourselves harder. I let the list direct the traffic all day, so I don't have to. HTH.

[Sahamamama]

By 7th is when we had morning meeting time in our house.  Each day we'd go over the daily requirements and my kid would write them down in the order he wanted to do them (except for non-negotiables, like not being able to move a class or whatnot), and approximate time it would take.  He was in control of developing those work habits instead of me.  Everything had to be checked off before the day was done, and he had to write start time at the beginning of the subject and end time after he was done.  It helped him to see where he was dawdling and how to manage his time better - if he *thought* a subject would only take 20 minutes but it took an hour and a half, he could immediately see how it threw off the rest of his day.

 

I like this. I've been thinking that this upcoming year, with my oldest (6th), there will need to be a transition from the Mom-made daily work list to the student-made daily work list. This is good to keep in mind, thanks for posting it!

[Janeway]

I would love him to be more independent and come up with this on his own. His older brother was doing well at this age. But for him, we have really struggled and he indicates he never knew he had to do this or that, or he never had time. He needs a lot of help with this before he is let loose. He is one that would have done great with the scheduling of the public school.

[Critterfixer]

We like our schedules. We change them for the summer and winter to take advantage of daylight and weather. So the day might start and end at different times. However, the schoolwork always follows a certain routine: French, Latin, Math, Composition, History/Science, Literature/Elective. 

I'm not strict on time, but I don't like spending more than an hour on any one thing. Math is the most likely to run over, followed by Composition. I will call time after an hour. Anything left over can be done over lunch, or after the school day is over. And it's over with me at three-thirty every day. I'll take questions and so forth, but I write between three and five every afternoon. If I find that we are taking too long, I'll bump the start time up each day until we are getting done at the proper time.

[KrissiK]

We don't do it by time, necessarily, but by subject. We start every day at 8:30 with recitations and then do Bible, Greek, and Science together. Then Latin. Then, since the kids have to share the computer for math, and I work with them individually on some subjects my DS, who will be in 7th in the fall, does math while I work with his sister on Language Arts. After break I work with DS on Language Arts while his sister does math. Then they have a break while I work with middle dd on her school work. After lunch we do history.

Edited July 3, 2016 by KrissiK

[OneStepAtATime]

I have grown to realize that my obstinate child needs a strict schedule and thrives on knowing what is expected of him, at what time, and keep it consistent and stable. He is not a flexible person. Unfortunately, I thrive on the freedom of letting the moment take me, lol.

 

He is in 7th grade. I would love to hear what everyone does, or at least a general idea, if you have one.

I started printing out a schedule through Homeschool Planet.  It is color coded.  I rotate harder subjects with easier subjects and include short breaks.  We discussed that the times are a ballpark.  We will just flow from one thing to the next.  If something is finished early (but thoroughly) then they can move on to the next thing.  If they are struggling, there is no rush.  We can spend more time on that thing and if it still isn't clicking we can take a break and go do something else for a bit so we dont' waste the whole day on whatever is causing issues.  This was inspiring because they could get through things early and have more free time but also not panic that they might not get something done in the allotted time.  DD does better if it is the same stuff in the same order each day, so I keep stuff flowing in the same order each day (unless there are special experiments or something that we have to do out of order).  

 

I also have a book cart that rolls. Everything we need for the week is on the book cart, including writing utensils, paper, etc.  The kids know where to get the thesaurus, the dictionary, their workbooks, etc.  I keep stuff in the same spot on the cart.  Everyone puts their stuff back at the end of the day (I may have to remind them but since they know where to put it and we have trained ourselves to put the stuff back now, it gets done).  It makes it much easier to function and the kids are far less likely to lose something we need.

 

I tend to be more go with the flow in these things but found that the kids need more structure.  Being consistent and having that structure was not easy for me to implement but when we do get into that routine it makes my life easier, too.

 

As a matter of fact, even though DD is a real free spirit, she asked me just a couple of days ago when we were starting school again.  She misses the structure and the lists and the clearly laid out expectations.

[Melissa B]

My 7th grade dd prefers having a set schedule. She will start school each day at 7 am. The order was determined based on her three online class times and the times I am available to work with her. Anything not finished by 3:30 she must work into her free time after dinner or on weekends.

 

English

US History

Latin

Writing

Lunch

Math

Science

Geography

Literature

 

[MinivanMom]

By 7th is when we had morning meeting time in our house.  Each day we'd go over the daily requirements and my kid would write them down in the order he wanted to do them (except for non-negotiables, like not being able to move a class or whatnot), and approximate time it would take.  He was in control of developing those work habits instead of me.  Everything had to be checked off before the day was done, and he had to write start time at the beginning of the subject and end time after he was done.  It helped him to see where he was dawdling and how to manage his time better - if he *thought* a subject would only take 20 minutes but it took an hour and a half, he could immediately see how it threw off the rest of his day.

 

I love this.

 

My 6th grader has been really struggling with slow work speed, and I haven't been able to figure out a way to help him. It's a new situation for me, because my older daughter is so quick about getting things done and staying on top of everything. I'm going to try this with him.

[RootAnn]

We have a set schedule for the times they work with me, but their own time is their own time. When they are older, they have a checklist of what they have to get done each week or each day (depending on the kid & their age).

 

I have a posted schedule for each kid (and if you look at them together, you can see who Mom is working with at any one time) - but as long as they aren't working with me and they get everything done, they can choose what they work on when.

 

I have one that will get up early & have one subject done before breakfast. (The problem is getting her to relook at something that she didn't understand or messed up. To her, she's "done" with that since she worked on it already. So, it often has to be spelled out very well.) Another will do all the easy subjects & leave the hard ones for last.  :banghead:  One will do as much of her weekly math checklist as possible early in the week, so I often have to schedule all the teaching (for the week) on the first day & then have a "fix it" day with me on Wednesday or Thursday.

 

Checklists for independent subjects can be great. A morning "check-in" to go over them is essential for some kids who thrive on mis-interpreting written instructions. You'll also need to make sure they understand that something isn't done until it is done correctly. (See my early-and-done child, above.) You may want to combine a checklist & a schedule for your 7th grader.

[LMD]

By 7th is when we had morning meeting time in our house. Each day we'd go over the daily requirements and my kid would write them down in the order he wanted to do them (except for non-negotiables, like not being able to move a class or whatnot), and approximate time it would take. He was in control of developing those work habits instead of me. Everything had to be checked off before the day was done, and he had to write start time at the beginning of the subject and end time after he was done. It helped him to see where he was dawdling and how to manage his time better - if he *thought* a subject would only take 20 minutes but it took an hour and a half, he could immediately see how it threw off the rest of his day.

I love this. Thanks!

[MerryAtHope]

I have grown to realize that my obstinate child needs a strict schedule and thrives on knowing what is expected of him, at what time, and keep it consistent and stable. He is not a flexible person. Unfortunately, I thrive on the freedom of letting the moment take me, lol.

 

He is in 7th grade. I would love to hear what everyone does, or at least a general idea, if you have one.

 

My oldest who always likes to know what's expected did really well with workboxes. We didn't follow a schedule exactly (though I did put times to some subjects--such as "read for 30 minutes), but workboxes allowed him to know exactly what he needed to get done, what was next etc... You might check them out. 

[HS Mom in NC]

My kids like having a week of assignments (prepped and in a file folder-one for each week of school) and a Friday at 3:00 deadline. If they finished early then their time was/is their own.  They often went to a midnight movie premier and slept in on Friday because they finished all their school for the week by Thursday evening.

For years we've been schooling 5 days of school in a 4 day time frame because PE is at 10:30 on Thursdays and the kids like to stay after and hang out if the weather is tolerable. Schooling after that is nearly impossible on Thursday afternoons.  Having it prepped and planned makes it easier to do that because having it all in hand gives you a very clear idea of how much you've already done and how much you need to do. There are still times throughout the day and week that they work with me but the time they can work on their own they know exactly what needs doing and when it's completely done.

If you're juggling multiple kids having a folder full of assignments for each kid means they have plenty of choose from to work on when mom can't work with them one on one.  It cuts back dramatically the amount of idle time during the school day.

Anther huge benefit is that I'm done.  I don't plan or prep on weekends or weeknights during the school year. I do all my planning and prepping for the entire year in the summer and when school starts I'm done with planning and prepping until next summer.  I only have to work with the kids during the day and grade completed assignments.  That's enough for me during the school year.

It's also good prep for college and a little like owning a business.  College students have assignments and deadlines and business owners have contracts and deadlines.

[J&JMom]

This was the "plan" at the start of the year. It has been tweaked as needed, but you get the general idea.  Bolded classes (Cl) are with me and others are independent.  Titles merged are 'joint' classes with both boys and me.  I did not strictly adhere to the minute of this schedule, but used it as a guide to our time.