Daily schedule – running too long

I’m sure a more experienced mom could help more since I’m kind of a newbie….but your comment about only scheduling some subjects once a week strikes me right off the bat as a possible good solution. I have been working on our scheduling/product ordering for next school year so this subject in really on my mind right now.

When laying out my schedule I noticed that Sonya only has a number of the subjects recommended 1x a week, some maybe several times but still not every day. For instance composer study, picture study and nature study (science) are once a week activities. I noticed on this forum a number of moms only do copy work 1-3 times a week. I’ve found that read aloud/literature usually works better either late afternoon with a snack after outside time or before bedtime vs along with everything else.

I’ll be anxious to hear what others recommend….

I’m sure that is frustrating trying to figure out what’s going on!  On paper (for this next year) my schedule is about 3 hours.  That is including breaks after every 2 subjects.  This is for my 6 & 7yo. (we will do nearly all subjects together).  I only slot about 15 minutes per subject.  Some will take longer when we do projects that go along with what we’re studying.  Perhaps 30 minutes is too long at this age?  I know that doesn’t help with your question of why it takes so much longer in real life than on paper.  I’m sorry I can’t be more help.  I’m sure some of these other wise women will be able to help you more!  I hope you’re able to solve this!

Do you not have any weekly subjects, only daily?

I agree that it sounds like you have too much scheduled… 5 hours is too much for a 7yo (and you say it is taking about 2 hours more than your plan… so 7 hours?)  although I’m not sure how much of that was the playing outside etc…

We are doing Picture Study every other week, listen to music in the background for music study.  

My kids do about 5 minutes a day on copywork (my 7yo does a scriptural type quote on Monday, practices a letter that I notice needs work on Tuesday, does a quote from readings on Wednesday, does a “writing fluency” test on Thursday… and Friday is our “wild day” so nothing then.)

Math takes us from 20 to 30 minutes for a lesson

We only do history a couple of times a week

Geography is running to the map to lookup places we are reading about…

Some time for literature….

Other books (say one for character or whatever) alternates

Anyway, with me moving between my 2 oldest kids (and often the one I’m not working with playing with the youngers…) we school for about 2.5-3 hours… then there is a 20-40min violin practice right after lunch (in theory, sometimes it ends up being another time) – then we are done and  then they play outside for a while.

My oldest is 8, and I have 4 children.  We are usually done with school for all of them in 3-4 hours, max.  At 7, I think most subjects should be 10-15 min. long at most.  It sounds like you are going too long?  Here is what we do:

We start at 8:30am and do our family subjects: Bible chapter, devotion, Scripture memory, poem, Sunday school song if they have one, hymn, artist/poet/composer study (the books & paintings – one of those per day).  This takes us to around 9am or so.

Next we break off into individuals.  My 8yo does her math, English & grammar, Spanish, and copywork mostly on her own, with a little help from me sometimes.  Even on days I help her with practically everything, we are done with her stuff in approx. an hour or so.  While she does her independent work, I start my 6yo on her math, copywork, Spanish, and reading.  I help her with practically everything, and it takes us 40 min or so.

As the 2 older girls have time, they each are in charge of helping my 4yo learn to count to 20 and recognize letters.  A couple days a week I teach her reading (she’s ready to read and has been trying on her own).  I also help her with her copywork on a dry erase board or with crayons for about 5 min. a day.

Mixed in we have the 2 older girls do History, Personal development (2 days/wk), Bible story, Geography, Science, and Journals (this is one we’ve always done and the girls enjoy – once a week or every 2 weeks or so).  On a “long” day, these take us an hour or so.

All in all, we are usually done by 11:30am, and if not, we will do the last 30-60 min. after quiet time (which ends at about 2:30pm).  Oh, we read my 4yo’s Read-Aloud and do the older girls literature (both in the 1st grade level right now) at the beginning of quiet time to save time on school time.

I hope this helps!

I used to have the same trouble as you – the school day would just drag on and on and on.  I have 4 children – 2 doing formal studies, 1 doing 4yo “preschool” and a toddler.  Like I said in my previous post, we now get done in 3 hours on most days, all in the morning.  That’s with doing individual work with all of them, plus reading nearly everything aloud (my 2nd and 1st graders are together, and the 1st grader can’t read yet), plus all the family work.  We really pared down what we were working on, and also concentrated on the habits of obedience and attention.  Most days they do pretty well, although I have a lot of goofing around when we do our family stuff right away.  But even with that, we are done with those things in 30 min. or so.

As I looked at your list, a number of things came to mind.  First, why are you switching rooms all the time?  We have a dedicated schoolroom, but we didn’t at our old house.  We stayed in one room the whole time (this varied as we switched to get our house ready to sell – first the living room, then the kitchen, then back to the living room again – but not during 1 school day).  All of our books are/were kept in the same place so as not to have to move around.  In some cases, I’d even bring the entire stack into the room we’d be learning in just so that I wouldn’t have to run back to our storage place to grab more books.

What time do you start school?  Before lunch, you’re only working for about 1 1/2 hours.  Assuming you have lunch at noon, you don’t finish breakfast until 10:30am?  I must be missing something there, right?  Another 1 1/2 hrs after lunch puts you at maybe 2:30pm for snack.  Another hour, then 30 min. for art, etc.  This puts you at about 4:30pm.  And only 30 min for outside.  I think I have that about right, give or take a little bit, right?  Let me know if I’m wrong…

As far as I know, CM advocated all the studies being done in the am (except possibly for older students), with the afternoons free for outside, handicrafts, musical instruments, etc.  I really encourage you to have a quiet time during the afternoon of at least an hour, too – it makes such a difference!

I do think you can cut back quite a bit on Language.  I work with my 8yo for 15 min. tops, usually it’s about 10 min.  She is doing English for the Thoughtful Child.  In 1st grade (is your son in 1st or 2nd?), he shouldn’t even have formal language lessons yet.  Reading too could be cut way down.  Your 7yo should be working on that for 10-15 min tops, and your other child (how old is she?) probably far less than that (my 4yo 5 min a day, my 6yo maybe 10 min max).

30 min. for Science sounds like a lot as well.  We do 10 min every day reading from Burgess’ Bird Book for Children.  We also spend time looking up the birds in our MN color-photo bird book.  Once in a while we’ll go 15 min.  If your kids like the lapbooks, why not read for 10 min. on Monday, do the lapbook for 10-15 min. on Tuesday, nature notebook for 10-15 min. Wed., an “experiment” or another reading on Thurs., etc.  That just cut 15-20 min. from your day, and the kids will have time to digest what they’re reading/doing.  Same for history – we read for 10 min or so.  We haven’t started time lines yet, but I do have The Timetables of History, and I can’t imagine this taking more than 5 min. at this age.

I hope this didn’t get too long and is helpful to you.  Prayers that you get it figured out quickly!

Sara  🙂

Maybe you should consider not doing Geography and Biography so much during the week. You could do geography once a week or a biography once a week. Whichever one takes up more time, could be divded to twice a week.  My son loves science too! But we only do it 2 times a week alternating it with History. We don’t do science, history, and geography everyday! Also you can combine a short geography lesson with History or Literature you are studying. Have a map with you when you do History and Literature.

We go a long time each day too. But that is only because I have health issues and start feeling better later in the morning. Plus my sons do much much better when they have a play period in the morning playing Chess, legoes, cars, or drawing before school. It helps them focus! We usually don’t have lunch till 1pm. Then we finish up around 2:30. Then they have the rest of the day to go outside. They read at night most nights. And I count any mind building toy/craft/activity as school. Such as chess, drawing, building, word playing games on a hand held device, they also have a College calculator! (dad is a college math teacher!)

They really do need more time outside! My kids are 6 and 8. I used to think that I needed to pour more and more into them! But my goodness, you can only retain so much at this age! Plus my 6 yr old has a late b-day. He would be in K in public school! He already knows stuff that a first grader knows! I have to remind myself to take it slow and enjoy the ride! Also Lies Homeschooling Believe by Todd Wilson, really helped me to focus on what I want for my kids!

Blessings!