Time spent prepping

[Sammi]

After reading a post, it gave me the idea for this discussion. I'd love to know your thoughts on this topic.

 

I spend a lot of time correcting and prepping school work. It seems to never ever end. I am always doing school. I know if I bought everything boxed, it would be much easier, but that isn't really our style.

 

I just finished reading The Yearling for my son's literature group. I thought I would never get done! I really don't want to fake talking about a book. I still have to finish reading Misty for my daughter's group. This book is not as good as I heard it was. Oh, well. Then there are tests to make up for Jensen's, which always take me a bit of time. It just seems to go on and on.

 

I was just wondering, do you all feel the same way?

 

:001_huh:

 

It would be nice to know I'm not all alone on this island. :willy_nilly:

[Michelle in AL]

Yes, but I enjoy it and have learned so much! I spend about 2 hrs on the weekend planning the week for 2 kids and skimming their science and history. I skim over Algebra 2 and wrestle with anything I don't understand until I get it. This portion I don't enjoy so much, but I do enjoy reading for lit. I read almost all of the books ahead of time and that does take hours/week, but I enjoy that and I see how it has benefited me as a person.

[Peela]

I do about as much prep work as I have energy for. If I am in a burned out stage of the year...I do the bare minimal. If I am in an anthusiastic part of the year, I will go the extra mile.

I have become slack about reading all their books- but we still read several aloud so we just discuss those and I ask how the others are going.

The part I dislike the most for sure is marking their work. Its important, i know, and especially to go over their mistakes....but I really find myself putting it off too often.

 

I spend time in the holidays doing as much prep work as possible so that during school term I have very little, especially photocopying and planning writing, history assignments etc. Its helps so much to spend that time before term, so that I can not be "doing school" all the time on school days and have time to play and rest and read and have my own life :)

[EKS]

Yes. And my son is only in 7th grade! He has gotten to the point in his studies where I can't just wing it. I have to work ahead of him and read books alongside him (as you mentioned). So, in addition to the normal prep time, every weekend I am doing a week's worth of geometry problems and Latin translations and many evenings I am reading his assignments for literature.

 

As Michelle mentioned, I *am* learning a lot but I'm also hoping that all this energy spent now will carry over to when I teach his younger brother these things in 5 or so years. It is all very exhausting.

[Kelli in TN]

Yes, yes, yes.

 

My husband and son are gone for the day and my gameplan is to hook the younger kids up the wii and spend the day in the classroom with everything laid out and my browser windows open to discovery education and the local library.

 

We have been operating since Christmas without a plan and it shows!

 

But I am pretty sure that a box curriculum would not be a good fit for my family so I soldier on. At least I have donuts and coffee as a reward for my labors.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

I can't manage daily planning and grading. Once a month I take several hours or a whole day to plan for that calendar month. I have a "school meeting" with each person to give the assignments for that month or that chapter.

 

Example: Read chapter 12 of your history book and write a 2 page report on Pearl Harbor. Then next month the assignment might be a test or short project or outlining... or just reading and oral narration.

 

The kids know the types of assignments I give and love knowing that I rotate the assignments. They don't get bored outlining every chapter, or bogged down in the tediousness of answering every chapter review question on paper. They have also learned that the more details given in oral narrations (and the more interest shown in learning) the they are assigned fewer written assignments. (We do write in every subject area so 'writing' is well covered.)

 

This way my planning time for a calendar month might be a few hours if I am only assigning reading with oral narrations. If I am assigning written work , then the planning time may take 8 to 12 hours. And YES my high schooler still do oral narrations!

 

I do not read everything they read. Four kids with 6 subjects each equals 24 books/materials plus extra reading and fun reading. NO way I have that much time. On my planning days, I do look over the books and skim over the materials used for core subjects. I hardly ever pre read what they choose for "fun books". I only read literature that will be discussed in detail.

You can teach all aspects of literature with short stories. Then teach how to apply the concepts with ONE novel.

 

As for grading.... I try to grade a paper immediately. It is not always done, but I try. If a book has 24 chapters, I don't need to average 24 chapter tests to assign a grade. A book with 24 chapters will have about 6 written assignments and usually those written assignments DO reflect quite well their knowledge and retention of the subject.

 

I might spend a total of 2 hours a week (spread out over the whole week) grading written assignments.

 

We have a copier/printer so I make copies as needed. I have friends that will spend a whole day making copies and prepping for a month ahead. But that is not my style.

 

I also don't write lesson plans. We do the next lesson, read the next chapter, just do whatever comes next.

 

Hope this helps.

Pam

[Tami]

Hi Sammi,

 

I just want to remind you that you are doing a great job! However, if you become burned out all that great energy will be for naught. So, monitor how much time you spend homeschooling. It will take up as much time as you allow it to.

 

I work outside the home, and don't spend that much time prepping. My year is planned out, and I read some of my dd's books over the summer or when I can. Perhaps is it time for you to share planning/teaching responsibilities with other moms, rather than doing it all yourself. I have never been in a literature club in all my years of homeschooling, and my dd reads well, and is perfectly fine. : ) Sometimes I think over-teaching actually sucks the joy out of reading.

 

I don't spend any time correcting daily work - my dd does that. She corrects each page in math or language before moving on to the next page. I only proctor and correct Quizzes and Tests, and this has worked well for us. I expect an 85% score or above, or I assign extra work and have her re-take, so she is motivated to do well and learn her daily lessons without any nagging, prepping, or correcting from my end.

 

If you get too tired of all the literature clubs, I would suggest changing to a family reading format. Simply read aloud to everyone at the same time and discuss. Ta da, you are DONE!

 

Also, there is no reason why your older children cannot correct their own daily work using an answer key. Would you feel comfortable sharing more control of your homeschool with your children? I think sharing the control and responsibilities of the day-to-day homeschool tasks will leave you feeling more at peace. Don't try to do school at home, it will leave you feeling burned out. Work together as a team.

[Beth in SW WA]

 

It would be nice to know I'm not all alone on this island. :willy_nilly:

 

No, You are not alone. We all struggle in some ways w/ what you are dealing w/. I don't have a spare minute -- unless I selfishly take one. I could spend every waking minute pre-reading for my dc's upcoming lit selections. I am leaving for vacation tomorrow morning and I'm taking The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, The Giver, Ben Franklin's Autobiography, etc. You get the idea. It never ends. I love history/lit so that is not a burden, but it does take time.

 

I agree w/ Tami. You need to delegate the daily correcting. I agree w/ Pam, Peela, Kelli, EKS & Michelle. They gave you great advice. Kelli has the ticket -- doughnuts & coffee... :) Ah, the simple pleasures.

[MomsintheGarden]

I'll be the dissenting voice about correcting. I have really felt the need to keep up with my high schooler's math checking. Each student gets about 2 1/2 sections of CD math done a week, and I go over every lesson within about 2 days of its completion. Talking them through their errors, and helping them understand if necessary is so important. I also teach and reinforce good problem solving technique and make sure they show all the steps of a solution. Of course I check their tests, too.

 

I don't check their weekly Logic (Intro & Intermediate), or their Apologia science lessons, just their tests. I try to keep up with the reading, but at times have not done that.

 

Perhaps some students could do the daily checking of math, but it was important even for my very math-oriented students. Math is foundational to other subjects and I want to lay a strong foundation.

 

As far as other subjects, I'm right there with you! I plan each student's year the summer before and tweak as necessary throughout the year, reading the books, papers, etc. It's just my nature. I don't think I could be able to let go enough to use SOS or even outsource at this time.

 

GardenMom

[Tami]

I just wanted to clarify that just because kids do the daily correcting and reworking of problems does not mean they are not accountable. Daily problems need to be reworked, and dd has found out herself that if she does not do this it results in a poor test score and repeat of the unit. If she cannot figure out how to rework a problem, she looks at the teacher's manual. If she still can't figure it out, she will ask me, but she can usually figure it out herself.

 

I agree math if foundational, and the majority of responsibility of learning the material can fall to the student if certain parameters and accountability are set up.

 

Since I let dd self-correct, she enjoys math so much more and is getting better test scores. I do proctor tests at a table with nothing on it but her test and a pencil, and I correct these myself, just so you know the scores are legit. ; ) If she has a question, she asks me, and this shift of responsibility has made all the difference for us. She enjoys math so much more now.

 

I just wanted to clarify. :001_smile:

Edited February 1, 2009 by Tami

[Nan in Mass]

We read aloud altogether and then do TWEM questions, so I don't have to read ahead in literature. My children do history more or less on their own. They correct their own math, usually, as they do their problem sets, checking each problem after they finish it. I think it is really important to do math this way. If they can't figure out how to correct it, they leave it and move on. If they keep getting them wrong, they come to me, otherwise, the next day during math, I ask how they did and go over the wrong ones with them. They have various workbooks that they are doing on their own, that they correct on their own. I usually read the science book aloud so that I know what they are doing, and some of the questions we answer together orally. If they do the questions on their own, I correct it with them using the answer guide the next day during science. Latin we do together. Latin would go much better and faster if I did my homework more often, and worked with the story more often, and did my flashcards more often, but at least it is going. Generally, I have periods of time (now is one of them which is why I've been posting so much) when I reassess how we are doing, rewrite our schedule, rethink our goals, and decide what we're going to read next for literature. I have a grand planning session once a year (now) when I decide what we're going to do for the next year, and then another one in the spring where I do the paperwork for the school department, write assessments for the year, decide what my children are going to read for the summer (large amounts), rethink my earlier plan (which by now I've had a chance to live with subconciously), and order the books, if I haven't done that already. I divide all the subjects up into groups: independent/together, must-be-corrected/just-do, school-year/summer, do-lots-of-extras-because-child-interested/just-do-the-minimum, work-hard-on-because-either-a-talent-or-a-hole/just-do, me-heavily-involved/me-not... So my basic strategy goes: reread TWTM and talk to husband and children and think about life now and in the future, decide goals for year, figure out what we're going to do to meet the goals, figure out whether it will all fit this year or needs to be dropped or put off to another year (dividing up books and deciding what needs to be covered and somre sort of routine for each subject), write a daily schedule and buy books. The daily schedule is what subjects we're going to do when and for how long. This and the subject routine is the whole key to making homeschooling work for us. If I don't have those two things, we spin our wheels and don't go forward and the children become very unhappy because they feel they are wasting their time and not learning anything. This may or may not be true, but in our family, I have always treated the children as the ones with the final say about their own education. (My children excell at passive resistence, so this is a necessity.) That means that if they can't see and feel that they are learning, the whole homeschooling thing doesn't work. I can barely get them to wait for an hour while I explain something, if they can't see where it is leading or how it is working, to say nothing of a whole semester or year. Anyway, the upshot is that I spend almost the whole school day working with them, but except for the planning sessions, I don't spend much other time on prep. It would be better if I did, I'm sure, but I don't. They watch while I correct their work. They watch while I bumble around finding background material for our literature. They watch while I count up the weeks left and divide it into the number of pages left in their textbook. They watch while I read the directions and then modify them. They pay attention and make suggestions and put their two cents worth in and everyone knows what we are doing and why. Mostly.

-Nan

[mama25angels]

hi Tami, glad to see you over here!!! I agree with letting the kids have "some" responsibility of grading their daily work. I'm also changing formats and reading some of the heavier literature with my older one aloud so that we can discuss as we go. Also, don't be afraid to make use of sparknotes and literature guides as well.

[Starr]

One area that works for me is to correct math together. If a problem is wrong they figure it out then and there. Dd reads off her answers and I look at the teachers manual. It saves me time and she sorts out here problems before moving on.