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Help me understand how to NOT do core subjects every day
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I was just reading Sonya’s latest article on music education, and she made the point that “you don’t have to do every subject every day”. This is something I’ve read several times, and that I would love to implement but I just don’t know how! I use materials for most core subjects that have lessons for 160 to 180 school days. So, how would I not do those subjects every day and still complete what we need to do in a school year? The thought of skipping and then having to double up on math and science, for example, is not appealing, either to me or my kids!
So, how does this type of schedule work in real life?
Anne
I do certain subjects daily (like math and reading) and others only on specific days (like science, music, art). With that said, I felt the same way about having to get through Module 1 in a year b/c there are 180 lessons. Well, when you add in field trips and other special events there is no way for me to complete the module in one year unless I were to double up, so I finally let it go, and it has been freeing for me. I decided to not let it bother me, and since we started year round school this year we are using the summer to finish Module 1.
Personally I do think math should be done most if not every day. Doubling up a math lesson is no fun for everyone. Remember, though, that you can skip questions — you do not need to do 20 problems when 10 is usually more than plenty. LA we do 4 times a week. We are going to use ILL and PLL this year and I will be skipping lessons — like grammar lesson they all ready know, dictation and some of the others. The lesons are short and varied and doing many lessons orally will allow us to double up on lessons fairly regularly and still keep it short. Science we will do 3 times a week, History and Geography 2 times a week. Most other subjects only once with the exception of Bible which is also done daily.
Look at some of your core books and the age ranges they cover. For example Considering God’s Creation has 36 weeks of lessons and covered grades 2-7. We felt that the pace was too quick and we wouldn’t have time to really explore some of the topics, so we took the publisher’s suggestion to spread it out over 2-3 years. We covered Physical Science in one year and had plans to cover the zoology lessons and then human biology lessons over the next year or two. Some of your 180 lesson resources might be more effective if spread out over a year and a half or even 2 years. I guess you need to ask yourself if your goal is to complete the book, or to help your child really learn. You need to be willing to go at their pace and just accept that life happens and you may not get everything done that you start off planning to do.
In my province we have no requirements as to how many days or hours we have to home school. I am planning a 30-33 week schedule for all subjects except math which we will continue with all year. This way I can have extra time to make-up for those days when life happens (and it always does). It means I have to be much clearer as to what my goals for my children are and how we are going to meet them in the most efficient way.
I tend toward the 3 Rs being the only core subjects. Well, actually 5 “subjects”: reading, spelling, grammar (writing), math, and good citizenship are required for me in TX. But, not set number of days/hours. So, we have a routine that covers those most (if not all) days during the week. Writing co-op (we’re using IEW’s medieval lessons this year,) takes place Monday afternoons and takes 2-3 more days worth of work to complete. But, not loads of time. Math is 2 lessons per day (we’ve worked up to this through the years using a timer,) so we usually cover more math in a shorter amount of time even if we miss some days. We want out children to work up from 10-15 minutes in K to 1 1/2-2 hours at a time in high school.
The rest of the subjects are done in a fashion similar to SCM. We do one start off day for scripture memory/Bible study and geography on Mondays. (Short review four more days, but this takes minutes, not hours.) Four days of history are mainly covered with short read aloud times for our younger two dc. But, we have a four days a week Timeline review using Veritas Press cards (similar to CC routine.) This brings perspective to their history reading assignments when they get older.
Science for our younger dc is covered through nature study once a week and some CC type memory work, a weekly experiment, and living books spread out over the year. Eldest daughter is completing her science studies this year by spending time on it 3-4 days per week (maybe 1 1/2-2 hours in the evenings.)
We do music/art appreciation 1-2 times each week. Low key, but planned out ahead of time. Poetry is tackled at lunch time. I use simple poetry lessons from Rod and Staff at some point between Jr/Sr high school, but mainly focus on appreciation similar to SCM suggestions.
I think the idea you must remember in order to be “okay” with fewer days is that having a planned routine to follow and a plan for what to accomplish in those short amounts of time means very rich moments that last for hours, days, weeks… Less becomes more when the habit of attention and narration skills have been developed. This is because there is such focus and so much learning happening that you need not spend hours, days, and weeks of boredom without retention.
Hope that makes sense. You won’t have less an education. You will have an abundant one through diligent use of smaller amounts of beautiful time spent on true learning.
We are adding French to our days, which I expect to do five days per week until we establish a solid routine and become accustomed to using French throughout the day. I try to do this with any new subject in order to get acquainted with it at first and then find it’s place in the schedule.
Hth,
Becca<><
Okay, thanks for all the good ideas, ladies! I just seem to run into the problem of the basics taking so much time that the “fun stuff”–Nature study, picture study, music, art, etc., always seems to get the short end of the stick. I guess this is where making a realistic schedule and KEEPING it really comes into play!
Yes. Your daily lessons in the main areas should be SHORT, but well organized and done with full attention. (Fifteen minutes of truly GOOD, not busy-work, done with full attention, will accomplish MUCH more than an hour’s meandering lesson where you lose the child 20 minutes in.) Really focus on accomplishing THIS first–then the rest are less difficult to add in.
Your daily lessons in the main areas should be SHORT, but well organized and done with full attention. (Fifteen minutes of truly GOOD, not busy-work, done with full attention, will accomplish MUCH more than an hour’s meandering lesson where you lose the child 20 minutes in.)
I so wish I had learned this earlier on! We are starting our 11th year of homeschooling and I am just now implementing this concept. Lots of wasted time and frustration during those years.
We do the 3Rs at least 4 days a week. So the core subjects are a daily thing in our house.
We do Bible, history, math, language (though not necessarily same resource each day), and reading every day.
Two days we do Science (T/Th) and nature study just happens around here. We are outside a lot, so I just keep their journals handy.
We also have a critter carrier (the small one we got at a local pet store) that always has something in it. Right now it is tiny little toad DS, 10, rescued from my parent’s pool. We will be releasing him to creek this weekend, but he has been fun to watch and we’ll draw him in our sketch books. He is really no trouble!
On Friday, we go to a Community Bible study class, so we get only a short history lesson, math and language done besides our class, which is 2 1/2 hours.
We use Apologia Younger Explorers through 6th grade and then Apologia Gen. Science starting in 7th. We have no issues getting the books completed for YE in one year. DS, 13, began Gen. Science last year but did not finish. However, if you work at a certain pace, you can finish in a year. We just took it very slow and he lost steam. Since getting him the MP3, he is doing much better.
Other things we do one day a week and/or less often such as geography/map drill (about one day a week; we follow SCM guide for this), artist, music, art, and sometimes a field trip, which is usually about nature or history!
HTH
If you are using SCM History modules you already have Bible, History and Geography on different days. I would require Math every day and you can alternate the other subjects as you find the need.
This all depends on the ages of your child. For elementary grades I would require some Reading, Writing and Arithmetic every day but the other subjects such as History, Science, Music, Art, etc can be rotated. For high school if you are awarding a full credit for a course yearly then you should probably do it daily unless you double up on History one day and double up on Science the next day. If you are awarding a quarter or half credit for an elective class then you wouldn’t need to do it every day.
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