laurad1125 Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 (edited) I am wondering if I'm asking too much of my 4th grade boy. He's 9 and will be 10 next month. In a typical week we plan to do the following (I've listed the time we allot, though his assignments rarely take the whole time): Daily (4 days a week) Math - 60 minutes (Just switched to Horizons 4) Reading - 30 minutes (Various children's classics - he reads then narrates to me) Writing - 15 minutes (WWE level 2) Grammar - 15 minutes (FLL level 3) Spelling - 15 minutes (Spelling Power) Memory Work - 10 Minutes (from FLL) Handwriting - 10 Minutes (Handwriting Without Tears) [edit] Latin - 30 minutes (Latin for Children A) 2-3 Times a week History - 30 minutes (SOTW) Bible - 30 minutes (Alpha Omega Bible 3) Weekly (1 time a week) Robotics club meeting for 1 1/2 hours soccer practice for 1 hour a soccer game on Saturday music lesson & Listening 30 minutes art appreciation and practice - 30 minutes drawing course - 45 minutes How does this compare to what your 4th grader is doing? Edited November 6, 2008 by laurad1125 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraGB Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 Sound about right. I don't see anything overwhelming. Is he struggling with the schedule? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdie Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 Your schedule is almost identical to my dd's 4th grade schedule. How is your son doing with what you planned? Does he seem overwhelmed? My dd has the same daily schedule except she does Bible every day and she alternated grammar and writing, (two weeks at a time) following the lesson plan in BJU English. Her 3 times a week schedule is history and science. Her weekly commitments are similar: cheerleading practice once a week and cheer a game on Sat., dance class once a week and 4 co-op classes once a week (sign language, voice, art and crafts). Her daily work takes between 2.5-4 hours depending on the writing assignments and math topic. She spends another 1-1.5 on history and science which we do as a family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audrey Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 I am wondering if I'm asking too much of my 4th grade boy. He's 9 and will be 10 next month. In a typical week we plan to do the following (I've listed the time we allot, though his assignments rarely take the whole time): Daily (4 days a week) Math - 60 minutes (Just switched to Horizons 4) Reading - 30 minutes (Various children's classics - he reads then narrates to me) Writing - 15 minutes (WWE level 2) Grammar - 15 minutes (FLL level 3) Spelling - 15 minutes (Spelling Power) Memory Work - 10 Minutes (from FLL) Handwriting - 10 Minutes (Handwriting Without Tears) 2-3 Times a week History - 30 minutes (SOTW) Bible - 30 minutes (Alpha Omega Bible 3) Weekly (1 time a week) Robotics club meeting for 1 1/2 hours soccer practice for 1 hour a soccer game on Saturday music lesson & Listening 30 minutes art appreciation and practice - 30 minutes drawing course - 45 minutes How does this compare to what your 4th grader is doing? That seems like a lot of math, but I think it depends on how fast he is, right? My ds only takes about 30 minutes for math (we do Saxon), but sometimes he will go a little longer to finish a practice sheet. Otherwise, it doesn't seem too much, IMO. That's similar in time per day & week that we would spend on sit-down lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurad1125 Posted November 6, 2008 Author Share Posted November 6, 2008 I've edited my original post to include 30 minutes of Latin 4 times a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 It looks about like what my dd is doing. For the once a week she has dance and PE at PS instead of what your ds is doing. She also has 2 afternoons of Live2Learn at the PS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 No, that doesn't seem like too much for 4th grade. Looks like his days stack up to no more than 4 hours, assuming he takes all of the allotted time. Very do-able, not too much outside stuff, looks really good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddhabelly Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 So is the Robotics serving as science for this year? Just wondering. We alternate history with science. Some semesters it is history three times per week and science twice/week, while some semesters it is the reverse. He loves both, so he doesn't really care which way we do it. My son is doing the Robotics too....less than three weeks until our competition! Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted November 6, 2008 Share Posted November 6, 2008 That seems like a lot of math, but I think it depends on how fast he is, right? My ds only takes about 30 minutes for math (we do Saxon), but sometimes he will go a little longer to finish a practice sheet. Otherwise, it doesn't seem too much, IMO. That's similar in time per day & week that we would spend on sit-down lessons. I would agree with the math issue. In 4th my ds took about 30 minutes, but otherwise you're schedule appears fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurad1125 Posted November 7, 2008 Author Share Posted November 7, 2008 So is the Robotics serving as science for this year? [clip] My son is doing the Robotics too....less than three weeks until our competition! Julie Yes, robotics is our science. I'd really like to do more formal science but when we try to do more, we actually get less done - KWIM? Good luck in your competition! Ours is after the new year, I believe. They just got their mission 2 weeks ago. DS adores robotics. He's getting a Lego Mindstorms NXT for his birthday in 3 weeks. He'll be ecstatic.... Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurad1125 Posted November 7, 2008 Author Share Posted November 7, 2008 That seems like a lot of math, but I think it depends on how fast he is, right? My ds only takes about 30 minutes for math (we do Saxon), but sometimes he will go a little longer to finish a practice sheet. Otherwise, it doesn't seem too much, IMO. That's similar in time per day & week that we would spend on sit-down lessons. It is a lot of math - but I did all I could to shorten it. We were doing Saxon 54 and I assigned all the practice problems plus every 4th lesson problem. That usually worked out to 10-12 problems a day. It took 30-45 minutes. Then he had to correct the previous lesson, with 2 additional problems assigned for each problem he missed. (This was a miserable attempt at getting him to CARE if he got his math right or wrong....) That usually consisted of another 10-12 problems. He frequently missed 1/3 of his assigned problems. I looked at why he missed them and it was carelessness. He didn't read the directions, or skipped part of the problem, or messed up on a math fact (I let him use a table.) So that would be a total of 20-24 problems. It frequently took the whole hour and sometimes more. This week we switched to Horizons 4. I let him choose (we have a homeschool store in town where we went to look at curriculum together) the math he wanted and this is what he picked. For the first 2 lessons, he's taken only 20 minutes and gotten everything right. I don't fully understand why and am afraid we're just in a honeymoon stage with the new books, but will take what I can get. So to sum it up - I think an hour is too long too but wasn't willing to cut even more problems from his math assignment. Hopefully Horizons will help us cut the math time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurad1125 Posted November 7, 2008 Author Share Posted November 7, 2008 Sound about right. I don't see anything overwhelming. Is he struggling with the schedule? He is. He simply hates school. I try various things to make it more acceptable to him, including involving him in the selection process. Initially a new curriculum will seem better but it eventually is reduced to me threatening and bribing him to get it done without complaint. Maybe that's just his personality - I don't know. But knowing that other 4th graders are shouldering comparable loads helps me stand strong in the face of whining. Thanks to everyone for all the responses. I feel better about what I'm requiring of him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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