Scheduling questions for 9th grade

[mlktwins]

For the high school experts out there, or the newbies just starting out with high school, do you recommend daily work in all subjects or block scheduling?  Yes, I am behind on this as I was taking care of my dad, but I have everything laid out, have the boys' schedule for their 2 outsourced classes, swim schedule, volunteer schedule, and am working on their daily schedule now.  Even if you do block scheduling, are their any subjects your kids do every day -- maybe math and LA?

This newbie thanks you very much.  We have never done block scheduling before .  I am a little intimidated!

They do plan to do some work on the weekends to make the weekdays a little less stressful.   

[Lori D.]

What do you think THEY will prefer and be more productive with? And... don't be afraid of some trial-and-error experimentation this first year of high school. 😉

 

Not that what worked for us will at all work for your family, but in 9th, DSs did a lot of activities with the homeschool support group, about 3 Fridays per month, so much of the time we were homeschooling 4x/week, with just 1-2 hours of work on those Fridays. Other than occasional Lit. we did NOT do work on weekends as *that* would have stressed everyone and made the school week seem endless. DSs *really* needed some time off in the afternoons or evenings and on weekends for extracurriculars, and for down time for brain recharging. They were doing roughly 6 credits per year of high school, and did roughly 6 hours of school a day. No need to do homework on top of that. 😉

We did modified blocks, as that's what worked for us:
4-5x/week = Math (1 hour)
4-5x/week = Literature (1 hour/day together + 1 hour/week solo as "homework" )
4-5x/week Writing (45 min/day) and Spelling (20 min/day)
3-4x/week = Elective or Fine Arts (45-60 min)
2x/week = longer blocks = History (2 days -- 1.5-2 hours) and Science (2 days -- 2 hours), and finished up either/both on Fridays
2x/week = short/llight Grammar review, Vocabulary (10 min. each)
1-2x/week = longer block of time for Logic (75-90 min.)

Edited August 30, 2019 by Lori D.

[mlktwins]

5 minutes ago, Lori D. said:

What do you think THEY will prefer and be more productive with? And... don't be afraid of some trial-and-error experimentation this first year of high school. 😉

 

Not that what worked for us will at all work for your family, but in 9th, DSs did a lot of activities with the homeschool support group, about 3 Fridays per month, so much of the time we were homeschooling 4x/week, with just 1-2 hours of work on those Fridays. Other than occasional Lit. we did NOT do work on weekends as *that* would have stressed everyone and made the school week seem endless. DSs *really* needed some time off in the afternoons or evenings and on weekends for extracurriculars, and for down time for brain recharging. They were doing roughly 6 credits per year of high school, and did roughly 6 hours of school a day. No need to do homework on top of that. 😉

We did modified blocks, as that's what worked for us:
4-5x/week = Math (1 hour)
4-5x/week = Literature (1 hour/day together + 1 hour/week solo as "homework" )
4-5x/week Writing (45 min/day) and Spelling (20 min/day)
3-4x/week = Elective or Fine Arts (45-60 min)
2x/week = longer blocks = History (2 days -- 1.5-2 hours) and Science (2 days -- 2 hours), and finished up either/both on Fridays
2x/week = short/llight Grammar review, Vocabulary (10 min. each)
1-2x/week = longer block of time for Logic (75-90 min.)

This is great Lori D.!!!  For science, they are taking Honors Biology locally.  It is a flipped classroom where most of the book/video/comprehension/vocabulary work is done at home and lab is 1.5 hours on Fridays (for lab/discussion - they need to come prepared).  Monday is a 1 hour on-line live class and then they have one assignment due every Tuesday and the rest of the assignments (and I mean more than one) are due on Thursday morning.  Assignments for the week are distributed on Saturday morning every week.  This is the one class they are thinking of spending some time on the weekends doing with less time during the week - so they know the work is completed and turned in early.  The 2nd semester they will be adding SAT Subject Test prep for biology.  They are capable of the work, and the teacher is GREAT, but this is the one class they will feel most stressed about getting the work done.

Spanish is local 2 times a week for an hour and about 2 hours of homework a week.  Everything else is with me at home.  Photography is .5 credit and I am spacing that out over a year and that is meant to be fun.  Health and PE is 1 credit.  PE is covered by their swimming.  I am having them watch some Great Courses videos and reading a book or 2 for health.  No particular output required from me - just lots of discussion.

Besides science, LA will take up a lot of our time and they know my biggest focus this year is writing, which they strongly dislike doing.  They will love the reading.  It is the rest they will give me push back on -- LOL.

For math, should they plan to just work an hour or would you have them do a lesson (or 2) and be done for the day - even if it takes less than an hour?  Most of their lessons so far don't take them an hour to finish (they are doing VideoText Algebra).  

[Lori D.]

53 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

..For science, they are taking Honors Biology locally.  It is a flipped classroom where most of the book/video/comprehension/vocabulary work is done at home and lab is 1.5 hours on Fridays (for lab/discussion - they need to come prepared).  Monday is a 1 hour on-line live class and then they have one assignment due every Tuesday and the rest of the assignments (and I mean more than one) are due on Thursday morning.  Assignments for the week are distributed on Saturday morning every week.  This is the one class they are thinking of spending some time on the weekends doing with less time during the week - so they know the work is completed and turned in early...

I forgot you said you have outsourced classes -- we never did online classes, but my understanding from others is that
1. that has to be the priority, even before your own all-at-home classes
2. they often take more than the usual amount of time for homework and study

As long as they are fine with weekend work, then it sounds like that will work great for you all -- perhaps that means Fridays could be a lighter day, when you go to the local class. Maybe you can also do teen activities on that day, too, since they would do schoolwork on the weekend.

53 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

...LA will take up a lot of our time and they know my biggest focus this year is writing, which they strongly dislike doing...

For writing -- I had an average writer who hated writing, and a struggling writer who REALLY hated writing. I found that just setting a daily time of 30-40 minutes (for 9th grade -- more like 45 min/day by 11th grade) and writing 4x/week was enough to help us keep moving forward, without them feeling overwhelmed and as though they needed to gripe continually. One day a week we all 3 would do a timed essay from a past SAT test essay prompts from Online Math Learning (scroll about 1/2 down on this page) for practicing timed essay writing). We each picked a prompt, wrote, and then read aloud our essays, and very gently critiqued one another. No proof-editing, and no grading, as the point was to "free write" and practice quickly building an argument and organizing it. Kept it light. Worked our way up over 1.5 years to the full 25-minutes. At the bottom of this post, I copy-pasted from a past thread started by red squirrel ("Preparing for essay exam") the "steps" we did to slowly work up. We did that all through high school, and it was probably the one thing we did that was the most helpful thing of all for improving writing.

53 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

...For math, should they plan to just work an hour or would you have them do a lesson (or 2) and be done for the day - even if it takes less than an hour?  Most of their lessons so far don't take them an hour to finish (they are doing VideoText Algebra).  

I had a math struggler (DS#2) who could NOT focus for more than 45-50 minutes per day on math. The end. And, it took us 1.5 years each for Alg. 1 and Alg. 2 because it was so hard for him -- we had to keep going back and re-doing lessons. So, math just had to extend into the summer (still at a rate of 45-50 minutes a day) to be completed. Oh well, that's life. We still did not try and do second sessions of math at night or on weekends in order to "catch up". His brain just did not mature into the abstract and logic areas needed for handling Algebra, so there was no point in torturing him with homework and weekend work when he was already doing what he could with math.

I also had a very math-minded DS#1 who finished his math in less than an hour. No, I did not punish him for finishing early by piling on more work or having him work into the next lesson in order to complete an arbitrary time check box. School classes are counted as an hour, even though they really only run 45-50 minutes to allow time for passing period -- why can't homeschoolers do the same? 😉

BEST of luck as you plan for 9th grade scheduling! Warmest regards, Lori D.

______________________________

Our "steps" for working up to full 25-minute timed essays from a prompt:

"Level A"
- 10 minutes
- 1 paragraph at least 5 sentences long
- with an introductory sentence which introduces the topic
- at least 3 "body" sentences which support the topic sentence/contention with at least 1 specific example
- and a solid concluding sentence ("clincher")

"Level B"
- 15 minutes
- a longer paragraph, at least 6-8 sentences long, or 2 paragraphs
- with a "hook" in the introductory sentence
- a topic sentence/contention (can be in the same sentence with the "hook")
- the body sentences all support the topic sentence with at least 1 specific example
- and a solid concluding sentence ("clincher")

"Level C"
- 20 minutes
- 3 paragraphs
- intro paragraph can be short -- 1-2 sentences -- still must have a hook and topic sentence/contention
- body paragraph sentences must all support the topic sentence/contention, and must have at least 2 specific examples all supporting the contention
- and a solid concluding sentence ("clincher")

"Level D"
same as C above, but now must add an additional "extra" in the concluding paragraph, not just a restatement of the opening sentences -- add a thought, "reason why", "what this leads to" -- this is something out of the student's own thoughts and reasoning

"Level E"
- 25 minutes
- 3 to 5 paragraphs
- intro paragraph can be short -- 1-2 sentences -- still must have a hook and topic sentence/contention
- body paragraphs must have 3 specific examples which all support the topic sentence/contention, AND must include a sentence for each example which explains WHY the example proves or supports the topic sentence/contention
- concluding paragraph which sums up the essay, plus adds a little "extra" from the students own thoughts

"Level F"
like E above, but must also finish 2-4 minutes before the time is up in order to quickly proof the essay for typos, capitalization, punctuation, run-on sentences, forgotten word, etc.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Lori D.

[Garga]

16 hours ago, Lori D. said:

No, I did not punish him for finishing early by piling on more work or having him work into the next lesson in order to complete an arbitrary time check box

 

I was going to write this!  

As long as he’s completing the book by the end of the year, then it means he’s doing the proper amount of work for his grade to earn the credit.  If he’s faster and gets it done in less than the 160 or 180 hours for the credit, that’s ok.  I might say something different if he works on it for 30 minutes a day and only completes half the book.  Then I wouldn’t consider that he did the work for the whole credit.  But as long as he covers the entire year’s material, then he earns the credit.  Just lucky for him if he can get it done fast.

I was the sort of kid who blazed through my schoolwork. My son is veeeery slow.  Either way, we both completed our books at the end of our school years.  If you son is fast, let him be done faster.  

Edited August 31, 2019 by Garga

[freesia]

It is totally dependent on the child.  I do require Math and Foreign Language to be worked on every day.  Otherwise, as long as the work gets done and well they can do it how they want.  I do recommend daily and then at least weekly check ins.  I learned with my first that it is really important to help them schedule out their work and to make sure it's getting done.  My dd was really independent soon.  My sons not so much.  Something about ninth grade seemed/seems to rattle them.  I am scaffolding heavily with my present ninth grader.  He has expressed interest in block scheduling, but he hasn't done it yet.  (We are only finishing our first week of school.)

[Momto6inIN]

We do math 5x/week. My oldest DS looooooved math and would happily do 2+ hours of it a day. My 2nd DS and DD are very happy to do just 1 lesson or 1 hour, whichever comes first 😉

Spanish is 4x/week. It's a computer program with unevenly paced lessons, so I just tell them to spend 45 minutes ish on it each of those 4 days.

For everything else I give them what I estimate to be a week's worth of work and they can do it however/whenever they want. My DS's both prefer blocks, my DD prefers an hour of each subject per day.

Nobody likes weekend work. They will all work overtime during the week to avoid Sat work! But typically they spend about 6 hours/day - maybe 7 sometimes, esp for my slow worker DS - and that is enough time to fit it all in.

[regentrude]

Depends on the kid. I never scheduled for mine. They were expected to put in a certain number of hours for school each day, but what subjects they worked on was up to them (with the exception of daily math which I required for DS; DD worked well in 2-3 hour long math binges a couple times a week). If it got very lopsided, I reminded them. It always averaged out over the course of a few months.

[PeachyDoodle]

We kind of have a mix this year.

Math and Culinary Arts are on a full-year schedule. So are English lit and English comp although technically we are doing a credit of each so we're spending 90ish minutes a day on those.

All of dd's other core and elective courses are blocked. This semester is Apologetics and Chemistry. Next semester Eastern Civilization and Asian Lit.

We like block scheduling for the most part; dd likes to focus on fewer things at at time. But a drawback is the long break between similar subjects, which is one reason we've gone for a combo and kept math full-year.

[Miss Tick]

We've never done a block schedule, none of us seem to be able to stay focused on much of anything longer than an hour (or 10 minutes, depending on the subject.) This year, though, i am trying a 2-hour block once a week for each core subject. 

I have a master weekly schedule for all three of my dc. This helps me coordinate my own time - so I don't have multiple people needing my undivided, hour-long attention for different subjects. Turns out I can't teach someone Spanish and give someone else a spelling test and grammar lesson at the same time. 😊I stress that the schedule is my suggestion, though, if they want or need to modify it today or permanently I'm fine with that. We find that math and English go better in the morning when they are fresh, but each day is a little different from the others.

Mine are used to doing Spanish work on the weekends in order to keep up with the assignments. Occasionally they have other work to finish or start.

[Roadrunner]

I have tried scheduling in gazillion ways and it always failed here. So now we work until logical point, which could be determined either as a good point to stop because of content, exhaustion, or deadlines. I don’t have organized natural go getters, so as much as I would like to step away and tell them to figure it out themselves, I simply can’t do it. Otherwise I would end up with all the math accomplished weeks in advance and nothing else done. 

[RootAnn]

36 minutes ago, SusanC said:

I have a master weekly schedule for all three of my dc. This helps me coordinate my own time - so I don't have multiple people needing my undivided, hour-long attention for different subjects. Turns out I can't teach someone Spanish and give someone else a spelling test and grammar lesson at the same time. 

I have a schedule for my time teaching, checking, listening, discussing, etc. with my four at home. For any other subject, they are working on their own time schedule. I usually offer a suggested schedule to get everything done, but they can do their work whenever. For my eldest (now at college), the suggested schedule was ignored most of the time. The rest of the kids follow them most of the time.

We, too, can't handle too much of a subject at once so the only things that are a semester in length are electives. 

I'd do math consistently & foreign language if you block schedule.

[ByGrace3]

Well, this is our first year of high school and I am working with a highly motivated student-- but I schedule everything through Scholaric and then leave it up to her. My expectation is it is all complete by the end of the week if possible. 

Math- 5 x week (one day is live online class and 4 days to do the work)

History - Omnibus primary 5 x week

Literature 5 x week for reading, 3x week for Omnibus secondary lesson

writing- one "project" per week

grammar- every few weeks there is an assignment for "reinforcement"

Science/Logic (live online classes) I don't put the details on her chart, I just write "logic hw" and "Biology hw" and it is her responsibility to pace it out and get it done. 

PE- outside scheduled activity 

Music- piano lessons, band practice, and leading worship for our kid's church (she practices anywhere from 1-4 hours/day-- I only require 30 minutes, the rest is in her free time) 

Not sure if this is helpful, but it is what we are doing! 

[Bambam]

Once my girls started high school, I started moving their schedule from daily to weekly. So, at first I kept most subjects daily (or twice a week, whatever for each subject), but one-two subjects I moved to the "just-do-this-amount-this-week-sometime-whenever-it-fits-in-your-schedule" category - with the requirement that work by done by Friday, 5 pm. My goal was to get both students taking responsibility for their schedule, working on their priorities and developing good time management skills. One needed a slower gradual freedom, the other took to it right away.  So, my suggestion - think long term and what your student's strengths and weaknesses are and start figuring out ways to help them develop those strengths and find ways to handle their weaknesses. 

[mlktwins]

Thanks so much for all of your replies!!!  We are officially starting this morning so will see how it goes for all of us and adjust accordingly.  We know our set "outside" schedule, including sports, except for what day they will volunteer at the library.  I will plan to tweak things this first month of school.

Regarding math, thanks for encouraging me not to "punish" with extra work because they work fast.  We actually do math in the summer too, so I will just keep doing what I've been doing and if they get done early, that is great and they can move on.  I don't know why, but I'm feeling so much pressure to get the work done and not screw up their first year of high school -- LOL.  I will try and relax!!!

I have one boy that I could give an overall "get this done by Friday at 5 pm" and it would be done.  The other boy, not so much!  He is a good worker (once he gets going) and gets good grades and test scores, but I have to stay on him to get started.  Last year, when I was taking care of my dad and gone from home way too much, I would come home and no math was done.  He said, "It wasn't written on my planner."   Does that tell you anything :-)?!?!?  His twin just wrote down his next lesson/quiz in his planner and on he went.  Can't believe I gave birth to them a minute apart and they are so very different -- LOL!!!!

Do you all track all the time/hours your kids work or do you just assume enough were put in because you finished a full year curriculum?  Is there a need for me to have this information at the end of the year?  I'm talking for math (which I am good with now), LA (WWS2, WttW, LLftLofR, Vocab Roots, and Season 3 of Analytical Grammar), history (HotAW with study guide)?  I know Spanish and biology will be taken care of hours wise (for sure, plus they are outsourced) and I will count hours for health and photography. 

ETA:  We are definitely making our outsourced classes the priority.  I am not too worried about Spanish, but the Honors Biology already has a lot of work and they haven't been to their first class yet -- LOL.  They've gotten good grades so far so that is a good start :-).  This is the only class that I see that might require a bit of weekend work if they want their weekdays to be less stress.  They will need to try it both ways and see what works best for them.  We will figure that out this month!

Edited September 3, 2019 by mlktwins

[mlktwins]

On 8/30/2019 at 5:11 PM, Lori D. said:

I forgot you said you have outsourced classes -- we never did online classes, but my understanding from others is that
1. that has to be the priority, even before your own all-at-home classes
2. they often take more than the usual amount of time for homework and study

As long as they are fine with weekend work, then it sounds like that will work great for you all -- perhaps that means Fridays could be a lighter day, when you go to the local class. Maybe you can also do teen activities on that day, too, since they would do schoolwork on the weekend.

For writing -- I had an average writer who hated writing, and a struggling writer who REALLY hated writing. I found that just setting a daily time of 30-40 minutes (for 9th grade -- more like 45 min/day by 11th grade) and writing 4x/week was enough to help us keep moving forward, without them feeling overwhelmed and as though they needed to gripe continually. One day a week we all 3 would do a timed essay from a past SAT test essay prompts from Online Math Learning (scroll about 1/2 down on this page) for practicing timed essay writing). We each picked a prompt, wrote, and then read aloud our essays, and very gently critiqued one another. No proof-editing, and no grading, as the point was to "free write" and practice quickly building an argument and organizing it. Kept it light. Worked our way up over 1.5 years to the full 25-minutes. At the bottom of this post, I copy-pasted from a past thread started by red squirrel ("Preparing for essay exam") the "steps" we did to slowly work up. We did that all through high school, and it was probably the one thing we did that was the most helpful thing of all for improving writing.

I had a math struggler (DS#2) who could NOT focus for more than 45-50 minutes per day on math. The end. And, it took us 1.5 years each for Alg. 1 and Alg. 2 because it was so hard for him -- we had to keep going back and re-doing lessons. So, math just had to extend into the summer (still at a rate of 45-50 minutes a day) to be completed. Oh well, that's life. We still did not try and do second sessions of math at night or on weekends in order to "catch up". His brain just did not mature into the abstract and logic areas needed for handling Algebra, so there was no point in torturing him with homework and weekend work when he was already doing what he could with math.

I also had a very math-minded DS#1 who finished his math in less than an hour. No, I did not punish him for finishing early by piling on more work or having him work into the next lesson in order to complete an arbitrary time check box. School classes are counted as an hour, even though they really only run 45-50 minutes to allow time for passing period -- why can't homeschoolers do the same? 😉

BEST of luck as you plan for 9th grade scheduling! Warmest regards, Lori D.

______________________________

Our "steps" for working up to full 25-minute timed essays from a prompt:

"Level A"
- 10 minutes
- 1 paragraph at least 5 sentences long
- with an introductory sentence which introduces the topic
- at least 3 "body" sentences which support the topic sentence/contention with at least 1 specific example
- and a solid concluding sentence ("clincher")

"Level B"
- 15 minutes
- a longer paragraph, at least 6-8 sentences long, or 2 paragraphs
- with a "hook" in the introductory sentence
- a topic sentence/contention (can be in the same sentence with the "hook")
- the body sentences all support the topic sentence with at least 1 specific example
- and a solid concluding sentence ("clincher")

"Level C"
- 20 minutes
- 3 paragraphs
- intro paragraph can be short -- 1-2 sentences -- still must have a hook and topic sentence/contention
- body paragraph sentences must all support the topic sentence/contention, and must have at least 2 specific examples all supporting the contention
- and a solid concluding sentence ("clincher")

"Level D"
same as C above, but now must add an additional "extra" in the concluding paragraph, not just a restatement of the opening sentences -- add a thought, "reason why", "what this leads to" -- this is something out of the student's own thoughts and reasoning

"Level E"
- 25 minutes
- 3 to 5 paragraphs
- intro paragraph can be short -- 1-2 sentences -- still must have a hook and topic sentence/contention
- body paragraphs must have 3 specific examples which all support the topic sentence/contention, AND must include a sentence for each example which explains WHY the example proves or supports the topic sentence/contention
- concluding paragraph which sums up the essay, plus adds a little "extra" from the students own thoughts

"Level F"
like E above, but must also finish 2-4 minutes before the time is up in order to quickly proof the essay for typos, capitalization, punctuation, run-on sentences, forgotten word, etc.

Thanks so much Lori D.!!!  I will be coming back to this in a week or so to go through this more thoroughly!

[Roadrunner]

2 hours ago, mlktwins said:

Thanks so much for all of your replies!!!  We are officially starting this morning so will see how it goes for all of us and adjust accordingly.  We know our set "outside" schedule, including sports, except for what day they will volunteer at the library.  I will plan to tweak things this first month of school.

Regarding math, thanks for encouraging me not to "punish" with extra work because they work fast.  We actually do math in the summer too, so I will just keep doing what I've been doing and if they get done early, that is great and they can move on.  I don't know why, but I'm feeling so much pressure to get the work done and not screw up their first year of high school -- LOL.  I will try and relax!!!

I have one boy that I could give an overall "get this done by Friday at 5 pm" and it would be done.  The other boy, not so much!  He is a good worker (once he gets going) and gets good grades and test scores, but I have to stay on him to get started.  Last year, when I was taking care of my dad and gone from home way too much, I would come home and no math was done.  He said, "It wasn't written on my planner."   Does that tell you anything :-)?!?!?  His twin just wrote down his next lesson/quiz in his planner and on he went.  Can't believe I gave birth to them a minute apart and they are so very different -- LOL!!!!

Do you all track all the time/hours your kids work or do you just assume enough were put in because you finished a full year curriculum?  Is there a need for me to have this information at the end of the year?  I'm talking for math (which I am good with now), LA (WWS2, WttW, LLftLofR, Vocab Roots, and Season 3 of Analytical Grammar), history (HotAW with study guide)?  I know Spanish and biology will be taken care of hours wise (for sure, plus they are outsourced) and I will count hours for health and photography. 

ETA:  We are definitely making our outsourced classes the priority.  I am not too worried about Spanish, but the Honors Biology already has a lot of work and they haven't been to their first class yet -- LOL.  They've gotten good grades so far so that is a good start :-).  This is the only class that I see that might require a bit of weekend work if they want their weekdays to be less stress.  They will need to try it both ways and see what works best for them.  We will figure that out this month!

 

I don’t track time. I pay attention to it though. I mean if anybody has been sitting on a particular task for too long, and I know there are other things that also need to be worked on, I try to get them to wrap up and move on. 

I try to make sure no subject gets neglected, so I do jot down in my notebook what got accomplished on a given day. I toss those notebooks at the end of the year, but it helps me keep track of multiple kids.

[Arcadia]

On 9/3/2019 at 5:55 AM, mlktwins said:

Do you all track all the time/hours your kids work or do you just assume enough were put in because you finished a full year curriculum?  Is there a need for me to have this information at the end of the year?  

 

I track for my DS13 since kindergarten because he is a slow worker. We plan his current workload so that he would have some downtime based on his previous years work rates. Otherwise he might overload himself.

I don’t need that information for DS14 because he values his downtime and is good at estimating his own work rate so he is more likely to go for a lighter workload than he can cope. When I am bored I track for the fun of it, mainly to see how long he takes on subjects he does not like e.g US History 

[lewelma]

On 8/31/2019 at 8:16 AM, Lori D. said:

And... don't be afraid of some trial-and-error experimentation this first year of high school. 😉

 

Massive experimentation over here in 9th grade to figure out what worked for ds. In the end, we do 3 blocks per day: Math, science, composition. 

Notice a couple of things:

1) his blocks are based on different ways of thinking rather than by subjects - he doesn't like to silo. He loves to learn deeply. so this allows him to focus on different ways of thinking rather than on subjects. 

2) He does 4 days book learning, 1 day hands on - he really likes feeling like he only works 4 days and the other day is for 'fun'. This helps him enjoy life and thus stay engaged with is learning.

3) He keeps old topics continuing, while moving forward in new ones - he finds that he must keep reviewing or he forgets it all which is really discouraging

4) One subject is done outside of his standard work day - this lets him learn with his dad which he loves

So this is his plan:

Math is currently 3 days calculus, 1 day algebra 2 revision 

Science is currently 3 days chemistry, 1 day physics revision.

Composition is currently 4 days Geography this 10-week term, and then all English next 10-week term. 

5th day is music trio/string group, science labs, and drama

At night his dad reads to him 7 days a week on Roman history.  

----

So crazy different than what I would ever plan, and it took a lot of trial and error to get here. But it is working for him! His schedule is based what he needs for true engagement, deep learning, retention, and mental health.  Lots of metacognition went into this schedule!

Ruth in NZ

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by lewelma

[mlktwins]

OP here!  Just want to say WOW!!!  Lots of work -- LOL!  We aren't getting to it all yet  so I already feel behind !  We haven't started writing or literature (adding those in next week), but everything else is going strong.  Honors Biology is A LOT of work, but they both say the On-Level option wouldn't be any challenge to them.  They want to be stretched.  We are just trying to navigate the set in stone due dates each week and making adjustments on when they should be working on them to get them done timely.  They found out they didn't like being up until 10 pm one night trying to get all their work done to turn in by 10 am the next morning!  They had to get up early the next morning to finish it.  They made sure they had it all done and turned in the day before it was due this week -- LOL.

BUT, we are finding what is working and what isn't and both boys are on board trying to find the best way to get everything done each week.  They are finding they need to be more efficient in how they do their work, which is good.  I am giving them a list of what they need to accomplish each week and they are putting the dates they want to work on them by each task.  Once they finish, they log it in their planner.

I hope we have this down by the time they graduate in 4 years !

[Lori D.]

3 hours ago, mlktwins said:

OP here!  Just want to say WOW!!!  Lots of work -- LOL!  We aren't getting to it all yet  so I already feel behind !  We haven't started writing or literature (adding those in next week), but everything else is going strong.  Honors Biology is A LOT of work, but they both say the On-Level option wouldn't be any challenge to them.  They want to be stretched.  We are just trying to navigate the set in stone due dates each week and making adjustments on when they should be working on them to get them done timely.  They found out they didn't like being up until 10 pm one night trying to get all their work done to turn in by 10 am the next morning!  They had to get up early the next morning to finish it.  They made sure they had it all done and turned in the day before it was due this week -- LOL.

BUT, we are finding what is working and what isn't and both boys are on board trying to find the best way to get everything done each week.  They are finding they need to be more efficient in how they do their work, which is good.  I am giving them a list of what they need to accomplish each week and they are putting the dates they want to work on them by each task.  Once they finish, they log it in their planner.

I hope we have this down by the time they graduate in 4 years !

Just popping in with encouragement to say "hurray"! And good on your DSs for wanting to stretch and be challenged! 🙂

A few ideas to help your schedule be flexible:

Esp. your electives (Photography, Health) can be fit in here and there in your schedule. And if they are 0.5 credits, you can spread them out over the whole year -- so you just need about 2.0-2.5 hours/week, for the 36 weeks of the school year, to knock it out. You could even decide to drop one 0.5 credit elective for now, and instead bang it out as summer school next summer.

Lit. is going to require more work to figure out how to get that into the schedule -- usually requires several hours a week of just reading. Perhaps some could be done together as a 2x/week family evening read-aloud? That's what we did the year we did LLftLotR -- did the reading of the books on 2 nights as family read-aloud, and then did the rest of the program during a scheduled time during the school day. Other Lit. was read / discussed / worked with during scheduled school time during the day. 

Writing -- shoot for a consistent, focused 30-40 min/day, 4x/week and you'll move forward at a nice steady pace. That's a good 2.0-2.5 hours a week which is great for 9th grade writing. 🙂

Good for you all! Have a terrific 9th grade year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[mlktwins]

21 hours ago, Lori D. said:

Just popping in with encouragement to say "hurray"! And good on your DSs for wanting to stretch and be challenged! 🙂

A few ideas to help your schedule be flexible:

Esp. your electives (Photography, Health) can be fit in here and there in your schedule. And if they are 0.5 credits, you can spread them out over the whole year -- so you just need about 2.0-2.5 hours/week, for the 36 weeks of the school year, to knock it out. You could even decide to drop one 0.5 credit elective for now, and instead bang it out as summer school next summer.

We are actually doing video/audio during the car rides to class for both of these.  I am spacing them out and not stressing about these.  

Lit. is going to require more work to figure out how to get that into the schedule -- usually requires several hours a week of just reading. Perhaps some could be done together as a 2x/week family evening read-aloud? That's what we did the year we did LLftLotR -- did the reading of the books on 2 nights as family read-aloud, and then did the rest of the program during a scheduled time during the school day. Other Lit. was read / discussed / worked with during scheduled school time during the day.

We still do read-alouds - they love this time.  They do some on their own too and read for pleasure before bed, but our school literature will be together for now.  Just figuring out a consistent time to do this and they don't mind some weekend reading with me :-). 

Writing -- shoot for a consistent, focused 30-40 min/day, 4x/week and you'll move forward at a nice steady pace. That's a good 2.0-2.5 hours a week which is great for 9th grade writing. 🙂

This is what stresses me most as they don't like writing - LOL.  Math is in the mornings and I think writing will come right after that so it is done.

Good for you all! Have a terrific 9th grade year! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Lori D.!  Thanks so much for the encouragement and tips!!!

Juggling the swim practice 6 days a week is daunting too, but we are working it out :-).  At least they love swimming, it is great exercise, and they are sleeping well :-)!

 

[ByGrace3]

9th grade has been a bigger transition than I anticipated. . . we are slowly working it out as well! Biology has been SO MUCH work here as well, but my dd is enjoying it. I have backed off a bit on our at home classes to allow for a longer transitional period to get used to everything. Our writing projects are spanning 2 weeks instead of one, and we slowed down on Spanish and Omnibus a little but that's ok .  . . the pace is still decent and I want to keep her from being overwhelmed. I guess this year will be constant adjusting as we work it out! Hugs! We got this! :lol: