NatYoung17 Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 Hello! I'm wondering how much time your 7th graders spend daily on school work? My dd (almost 13) wants to do most things on her own now and I do check her Math every day and do spelling with her, but everything else she works on on her own. The problem is, I don't think she spends enough time on it and she balks at writing summaries for her History and Science lessons, so I don't really feel like I know what she has done. I don't feel that just reading a chapter in her history book or science book is enough at this level...am I wrong? How do you deal with this surging independence, but still make sure your kids are doing enough? TIA for your advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 (edited) Hello! I'm wondering how much time your 7th graders spend daily on school work? My dd (almost 13) wants to do most things on her own now and I do check her Math every day and do spelling with her, but everything else she works on on her own. The problem is, I don't think she spends enough time on it and she balks at writing summaries for her History and Science lessons, so I don't really feel like I know what she has done. I don't feel that just reading a chapter in her history book or science book is enough at this level...am I wrong? How do you deal with this surging independence, but still make sure your kids are doing enough? TIA for your advice! I basically told my kid who didn't like doing output that he either had to do the output I required cheerfully or he needed to take an online class (where the teacher would require the output). My 7th grader does about 6 to 7 hours of school work and 1 hour of piano practice per day. He also has chores and is active in scouts and youth group. He does an every other week math club and is working on a math fair project outside of school hours. I also assign some amount of out-side-of-school-hours reading that he doesn't need to tell back. The work he does is pretty dense (it isn't just gazing up into space) but he is a slow reader. Emily ETA: he never did the "writing assignment" cheerfully, so he takes WTMA WWS. He does written narrations or oral narrations for all his school reading now, though. Sometimes we discuss or he writes an essay/story/summary instead of a retelling. Edited October 31, 2017 by EmilyGF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 Would doing weekly or every-other weekly summaries work? My 6th grader reads from several history books and takes notes (not very wordy notes, but something). Every 1-3 weeks, he writes a report. We're doing ancient history, so for the first report he wrote a 5-paragraph report on Egypt. The next report was to compare/contrast 2 civilizations. This let him go longer between reports, since he had to read about both groups, but then the report was a bit longer. Right now, he's reading about ancient Greece. I'm guessing that this will be some summary, some compare/contrast on Athens and Sparta, then maybe something about wars. He may break it up into 2 reports. He loves military history, so maybe I'll get him to write about the relative importance of the military in the history of Ancient Greece...now that I think about it, comparing the importance of the military with the contributions of the arts, or something like that, might be neat. Anyway, these reports don't ensure that every day is productive, but they do show that learning and work is being done. Alternately, you could get a book that has tests (or write your own) and let the student read and study however they want as long as they learn what is on the tests. You can even give the questions ahead of time - a list of 5-10 open-ended questions to think about while reading, and then ask some of the questions as essays or paragraphs or whatever is appropriate, every few weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 My 7th grader spends 4-5 hrs daily (not including reading assigned literature). He no longer writes summaries; I have him outline science and history chapters. He also writes a short science report every month on his extra science readings. I feel that there just has to be some output at this age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 (edited) My 13 year old 7th grader works from 8-3 daily, so about 7 hours. Friday’s are usually shorter (~4 hours). She takes 4 online classes (roughly 12-3 M—Th) and the rest is independent work time. For the two subjects she does outside of an online class, I chose programs with prescribed output: CLE for history which includes daily worksheets and quizzes/tests; AG for grammar. It would definitely NOT work for me to just assign reading without some sort of output. It’s too easy to just skim through without retaining anything. ETA: She is a serious ballet student, dancing 18-20 hours per week, so she has no evening homework. She does usually spend 1-2 hours on Sunday evening preparing her planner for the week ahead and tackling anything she wants to get a head start on. She’s freakishly organized and mature for her age. Edited November 1, 2017 by fourisenough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 I explained to my kids that junior high was a time to prepare for high school, and that they should expect to spend about 45 minutes on each subject now, and about an hour per subject in high school. I also explained that there would be more writing required in high school, and to prepare, we would start increasing the writing in junior high. If your student is trying to go from no summaries to daily summaries, that's probably too big of a change at once--I would "scaffold" more incrementally. One way to do that would be to have her choose one subject per week to write a summary on (or even to do more reading online and write half a page or so about). Let her use oral narration other days of the week, and have her write once a week. You might also have her focus on summaries mainly for history, and in science focus on learning how to do lab reports while continuing with oral narration. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 Ugh... I am not looking forward to these higher grades... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 My 7th graders do about 6 hours a day pls 40 minutes piano practice, chores, scouts/soccer for one and 18 hours ballet/wk for the other. We are maxed out, but just on this side of the gods/crisis line. I agree with Merry about 45-1hr per subject per day. But then art class pops up, or park day, or ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted October 31, 2017 Share Posted October 31, 2017 My 6th grader works about 4-5 hours depending on the day. I thought she was taking forever, but apparently not. She has full subjects that are grade appropriate, though... I'm not ready for heavier stuff. Hopefully she gets better at self-managing because we tried that this year and it was painful. If I give her a schedule, she can follow it. If not, she tends to dawdle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 Agreeing with the others. My 7th gr Dd spends about 5 hrs M-F, plus piano practice and literature reading. She often does some work on Saturdays. No more summaries. I require outlines and discussion weekly, and writing every other week in science and history. Dd also does AHG, choir, youth group and is a jr. docent at a local historical home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 Just on the responses, I got somewhat better attitude when I allowed her to choose the kind of response/output. I made a list. She's done things like dot point outlines, narrative summaries, a Google slides presentation, word cloud summary/character sketch, comic strip/captioned pictures etc. I wanted to encourage her to own her own learning and be enthusiastic about responding to content. She does WWS too so I'm not worried about writing skills. Good luck! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 My 8th grader works on average about 5 hrs a day at home, plus several hours of extra curriculars a few days a week. Output on science and history. For science, we do a lot of read alouds with no output except discussion. She has a co-op class where they do labs with the occasional lab report or chart to fill out, and she does the questions in her textbook for every chapter as she goes. In history, she fills out her timeline book, does art/history projects for an hour or so a week, and I require one summary or output a month right now. First month she did a summary. Second month she did an outline. Third month we are planning a bigger presentation. She will prepare a poster including mapwork, written work, pictures, and give an oral presentation at co-op. And then we will rotate through all of that again. With my odd, she had more written work, but this one has dyslexia, and we are still working up to more written work. We just got reading and spelling down within the last year. She works about a year behind in most grade level texts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 I had to read some of the responses to my 7th grade son because he's spent the morning complaining about how long he has to spend on school now that he's doing algebra. Everything has always come very easily to him before now and he's used to spending maybe 3-4 hours on school each day, including his one hour of assigned reading. Algebra alone is taking him an hour, which from what I've seen here is really not that much, but he thinks it is. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 My seventh grader spends about five hours a day or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 I had to read some of the responses to my 7th grade son because he's spent the morning complaining about how long he has to spend on school now that he's doing algebra. Everything has always come very easily to him before now and he's used to spending maybe 3-4 hours on school each day, including his one hour of assigned reading. Algebra alone is taking him an hour, which from what I've seen here is really not that much, but he thinks it is. I hope he realized he is getting it done very quickly after reading these! I do have dilly-dally-ers here, so their work could probably be done more quickly. But they haven't every only had 3 hrs of school, lol. Today for the 8th grader she had a morning journal page that required her to look up a verse or a quote and make a to do list. She dragged that out much longer than necessary and a map of Europe to fill out- one hour or more on that. Science- we reviewed her chapter aloud together and started the weekly written work- another hour. She had an eye dr. appt. but math usually will take another hour. Latin- she still has to do that, and it is another hour. There is her PE out of the house (her choice, not required) which is 2 hours today. And she needs to do some reading still, about 30 min. probably. Other days that she has less out of the house PE means more LA and or History, giving another hour or two to do the day. 5-6 hrs is probably minimum on a day at home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatYoung17 Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 My 13 year old 7th grader works from 8-3 daily, so about 7 hours. Friday’s are usually shorter (~4 hours). She takes 4 online classes (roughly 12-3 M—Th) and the rest is independent work time. For the two subjects she does outside of an online class, I chose programs with prescribed output: CLE for history which includes daily worksheets and quizzes/tests; AG for grammar. It would definitely NOT work for me to just assign reading without some sort of output. It’s too easy to just skim through without retaining anything. ETA: She is a serious ballet student, dancing 18-20 hours per week, so she has no evening homework. She does usually spend 1-2 hours on Sunday evening preparing her planner for the week ahead and tackling anything she wants to get a head start on. She’s freakishly organized and mature for her age. Thanks! I have a question about CLE History... is it very biblical? We use CLE for Math and it doesnt' bother me there, but I prefer a secular program for history... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatYoung17 Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 Thanks so much to all of you! This was very helpful and I greatly appreciate all the sugestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 My 7th graders do about 6 hours a day pls 40 minutes piano practice, chores, scouts/soccer for one and 18 hours ballet/wk for the other. We are maxed out, but just on this side of the gods/crisis line. I agree with Merry about 45-1hr per subject per day. But then art class pops up, or park day, or ... I always let those days be exceptions. We might only do reading and math plus a park day or art class, for example. Or sometimes I rotated subjects for those "half-day" types of situations. I always preferred to do just some subjects (either 3-r's focuses or rotating content subjects like history and science) rather than the option of making every class shorter than normal (and not getting much done...) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 I always let those days be exceptions. We might only do reading and math plus a park day or art class, for example. Or sometimes I rotated subjects for those "half-day" types of situations. I always preferred to do just some subjects (either 3-r's focuses or rotating content subjects like history and science) rather than the option of making every class shorter than normal (and not getting much done...) Yes, good point. It is much less stressful for all if we do the "thing" and let that days' school work adjust around it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 We are spending less time than previous posters, but I am happy with what we are getting done. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 Thanks! I have a question about CLE History... is it very biblical? We use CLE for Math and it doesnt' bother me there, but I prefer a secular program for history...The newly released 8th grade American History program called Changing Frontiers is, IMHO, very secular friendly. Any religious content is gathered in well-marked text boxes. It is SOOOOO good. I only wish they had a 1-year world history that was comparable; I’d jump right on it for 9th grade! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 (edited) Our schedule is a little crazy... we have co-op every Tuesday which enhances and builds on what we have done at home in writing/literature, history, science, and logic. Co-op is 9-3. Our days at home start at 8:30 and last about 5-7 hours-- that includes 30 minutes of piano practice and read aloud. dd also swims 10 hours a week, has a 1 hour horseback riding a week . . . ETA: Independence... My 12 yo 7th grader is incredibly independent. I help edit writing assignments, grade and correct with her for grammar and pre-algebra (tests only for math). I teach her writing and logic in co-op. History we read the text as a family, fill out the worksheets and maps together. She reads science on her own, does the science vocabulary in a separate notebook for each chapter. Either every week or every other week I ask for a science outline and essay on a topic from her reading that week. She occasionally has extra assignments for history or science for co-op. Edited November 2, 2017 by ByGrace3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy to monkeys Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 About 3 hours in the morning of either independent or one on one work with me 1-1 1/2 hours of family time studies (after lunch and a walk) 1 hour of quiet reading time That's about 4- 4 1/2 hours not counting our 2 mile family walk after lunch, and any time spent studying or pursuing interests in the afternoon. I am ok with this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 My daughter averages about 5 hours a day except for Friday which is a shorter day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 We are spending less time than previous posters, but I am happy with what we are getting done. We've always spent way less than other posters on this forum. *shrug* My 7th grader spends between 3-3.5 hours a day doing schoolwork, year-round. This year, she's able to cover (in that time): Math RS4K Physics (which she already finished) + physics labs Easy Grammar Plus Copywork/dictation/creative writing Progeny Press literature My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures This isn't counting free reading, the creative writing she does on her own, ballet, PE, working with a private tutor (she's at a late high school level in something, so we have her meet with a teacher for that), working at an equestrian center, etc. I guess if you counted all that, it would look like a lot more. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollyhock Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 My 7th grader spends about 3 hours per day. As for output, I have him write 2 narrations/summaries per week of his choice (either science or history, occasionally something creative). His science (Apologia) has in-text questions so he does those. In history and logic, we do the text questions orally. So there is more than one way to require output, and I think it makes school more interesting to mix it up a bit. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeoKitty Posted November 7, 2017 Share Posted November 7, 2017 My 7th grader does about three hours in the morning. She reads upwards of an hour before bed. And we do anywhere between 3-5 hours on weekends. She chooses to do science often in the evenings, for fun. She goes 20 hours a week to gymnastics practice. Lately, though, with choreography, it has been 23-25 hours weekly. We do a lot of car schooling too. We do a weekly co-op (Ecology, English, History) a weekly mythology class, a biweekly book club, and monthly science class. Her classes are World history, honors Biology, last chapter in AOPS Algebra, lit/ writing/ vocab/ Grammar, Czech 1, Greek, French. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted November 8, 2017 Share Posted November 8, 2017 My 7th grader works for 6 hours a day. She takes piano, stem class and dances about 9 hours a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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