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Do you plan to stick to the 20 min. per subject method?
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This will be our first year trying to stick with all or most of the CM ideas and I really like this one, 20 min. per subject for a 3rd grader. I feel it’s going to be a challenge, as we’ve had fun in the past staying with something for as long as we liked, but I like the idea of taking small bites and having them to chew on all day.
What do you have planned for your time allotment per subject?
I have a 2nd grader, a 1st grader, and a 4 yo (1yo doesn’t count – yet). My 7yo we were doing 15 min. at a time in 1st grade, but she is a seatwork kind of gal. 🙂 I am trying to decide whether to stay with 15 or go to 20 min. Or somewhere in between. My 1st grader did/does perfectly at 10 min. I hesitate to change that right now. She is very much like a boy… LOL My 4yo I do 5 min. max at a time. Usually much shorter, but she does sometimes beg for more. However, a 10 min. story she is OK with sitting through, IF it’s interesting. She can’t sit still for our Bible reading. <sigh> And the 1yo has the attention span of… well, he doesn’t. He just doesn’t. LOL
I understand CM’s rationale for short lessons, especially with younger children, but if they are really having fun and learning and enjoying the lesson (I realize that won’t happen everyday) as Monucram asked, why would you want to stop them?
Why not let them continue as long as the lesson is “speaking” to them and they are not bored with it? Won’t that develop concentration and attention skills?
Nanci
Yes, I have a 2nd grader and I plan no more than 20 min. for his subjects, I may only do 15min. for each subject. My older one will do 45min., maybe.
Yes, there are times when you might want to extend a lesson that the children are immersed in. Just keep in mind that you need to stop before you lose their attention, in order to cultivate the habit of full attention for the entire lesson. So the longer a lesson goes, the more you will need to be watching closely to conclude it before they become tired of it or start to lag.
How do you work this with multiple ages? I really wanted to be able to set a timer and have everyone doing 1 subject (except a few they will have to switch with eachother like computer time, etc). I have a 1st, 3rd, 5th, & 6th grader? How would you suggest letting the 5/6 graders get longer times while the younger ones get shorter, or am I being unrealistic with wanting to say ok. Everyone is doing copywork now? My hope was if everyone is doing the same thing then they wouldn’t be looking around at eachother so much, to see what he’s doing, or listening to say someone else read something to me? Also how long at what ages should they be doing things? Lots of questions here sorry Misty
Misty- My older girls (15, 13) each have their own timers. They work about 30-45 min per subject. Our house is a split level, so they work downstairs, while my 6, 11 and 3 yo are upstairs with me.
There’s are always timers going off at our house, LOL, between the school timers, and the stove timer to remind me to give supplements/doses to my Asperger’s child. Everyone’s used to it.
Nanci
I interpreted her 20 mins./lesson differently.
I have a 6th grader, 4th grader, and a 3rd grader.
In Math for example, my teaching time is usually anywhere from 10-20 minutes and that is what I consider the lesson. Not how long it takes my child to do their part of the work alone or with a bit of my help.
Read-alouds are in about 20 minutes increments so the children can chew on the information for a bit. Sometimes we go longer if it is fun and we’re really enjoying ourselves. School read-alouds are usually about 20 minutes though. Sometimes we’ll do 3 20-minutes increment read-alouds in a day, and sometimes only 1.
I have 2nd, 3rd and 5th graders, and they do everything at the same time as each other. Everything I read aloud is to all of them, and when it’s time for independent reading, math or something they are on their own level with, they just do it at the same time as each other. I just go back and forth helping each of them. It’s the best way we’ve found to keep from getting distracted by what someone else is doing. They are 3 peas in a pod, so they are really used to being together doing the same thing all the time. But I never have tried to time the lessons or even see how long they take. I think we just naturally quit when we need to most of the time. I’ve learned how it can backfire if you go too long.
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