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Help with fourth and seventh graders' schedules
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How much time do you usually spend on independent, family, and guided work with your fourth and seventh graders?
I have a bright, but very active 9 year old hitting fourth grade this fall. I’ve spent most of the summer focused on what to do with my soon to be 7th grader, that I haven’t given much thought to what to do with my younger ds. I know MUS Epsilon and Apologia’s Zoology 3 are on the list, but everything else is uncertain. He has a real natural ability for Language Arts, so I am not very concerned about that. I have ILL and Queen’s Language Lessons for the Elementary Child so I think LA is covered, though I am uncertain if we are going with one or the other, or using a combination of the two (might use the ILL for dictation and memory work and QLL for the rest — will have a better look at it all this week). I thought of pursuing Latin with him for the challenge, but I think I’ve settled on Spanish for both of them this year — that’s what they are interesed in, anyway.
For the mornings, when he will have to do the bulk of his independent work because I am working at the office, I have him doing Bible/character, math, LA, Science and another assigned reading. It is probably 1.5 hours worth of work, maybe 2 depending on the day and how focused he is, so he will have another 1-1.5 hours that is either free time (not so bad if the weather’s good and they can play outside) or that would need to be filled with some other productive activity.
Afternoons include History or Geography (alternating days) and Spanish 3x a week. Poetry, picture study etc. will happen the other two days of the week. I figure this will take 1 hour. In order to stay on track I need this time to be done by 2pm.
Finally, I would like to set aside some time, about 30-45mins, to work with ds independently each day. This time would need to include things like teaching new math concepts, dictation, correcting work from the morning, listening to narrations from morning readings, etc. I hope this is a sufficient block of time, because I really can’t give anymore. Finally, he would have some time afterwards, while I am working with his older brother, to finish up anything not already done. He will probably do some typing or another computer related activity at this time.
So, all together I am looking at having him complete maybe 4 hours of school work a day. Does that sound right?
My probem is I really want to squeeze in gym (I am looking at Family Time Fitness)and the only time I can do that and still get everything else in is at 3:30 -4. All the boys PS peers are out of school long before that, so the idea of having a shorter school day just went “poof”. I thought one option would be to get them to invite their friends to participate.
The other problem is having my oldest do his guided work second. He wouldn’t start guided work until after all his friends are already home from PS and that will not likely go over well. It doesn’t matter to him that they start PS at 8 am and he doesn’t start until 9am. Still, he does need a lot more guidence than his younger brother, who mostly just needs help staying on task. Ds 12 struggles with math and anything relating to writing, spelling and grammar. He also needs to continue working on reading aloud. Going second means I won’t have to cut things off with him in order to make sure I get to his brother.I hope 45 mins will be sufficient, because that would put us through about 3:30. We’ve not been very good with keeping to a schedule last year, but we did more as a family then. This year my 7th grader will be doing many things independent of his younger brother.
Should I consider giving each of them a half hour of guided work to end at 3pm, have our gym class, and then come back to my older son after supper if need be? We usually do read-aloud literature in the evenings or at bedtime.
Possibly, but that means I wouldn’t be able to participate with them (and I could sure use the exercse, too). It also means transporting equipment (probably not too bad) and that my older ds will be “in charge” and he is super competitive and sometimes bossy with his little brother. Supervision is still important with these two.
That makes sense. Hmm, I guess I can share our time plan for 7th. Basically Makayla works with me for 30 minutes on math one day per week (MUS, the rest is independent) and I will have ‘office hours’ daily where she checks in with me on other subjects. Office hours will be 45 minutes tops right now, I forsee chatting about science/doing experiments, or narrations, or working on writing together, or more math time if I’ve checked her work and she needs to rework problems. Honestly that’s it. Everything she does is pretty independent, though starting Apologia’s General Science will push her a bit out of her comfort zone.
For my 3rd grader: I teach a math lesson once a week to him (20 minutes). I read aloud history to him and youngers (20min) the other 4 days per week. Daddy is teaching science this year to the younger kids so I’m not doing that. I spend probably another 25 minutes listening to narrations and checking other work he’s done independently.
Not sure if that helps? For 7th I really expect a lot of independence. For 3rd/4th not so much.
I’m still trying to figure out how much independence is going to be reasonable for my younger son. I would love it if my older ds could do more independently, but he is also starting General Science this year, and I anticipate that being a big jump for him as it is. OMT is going to be new and challenging for him, too.
Can you explain what you mean by “office hours”, please?
To me office hours are the way to transition a child to being more of the owner of their learning. Think of it like a college class, you show up and do the work or you don’t, you understand the work or you don’t, but it is up to you to let the instructor know you need help or want to chat about something.
This will be Makayla’s first year with office hours, so in the beginning I’ll invite her to sit with me and ask specifically about her independent subjects. As the year progresses I will turn it over to her to get me for office hours and to tell me what she wants to talk about/ask questions on/needs help with.
In combination with this change we’ll be having evaluations every 6-9 weeks where I give her a progress report on how she’s doing in each subject.
At least that is how I envision this all in my head! In practice it may need tweaked a bit…LOL.
The other thing that goes with this is she receives weekly assignment sheets at the beginning of each month and can do her work from that. She won’t have to ask me what she needs to do, she’ll kknow that by the end of the month she should be done with ___ science modules, have read ____ books for history, and so on.
She and I sat down yesterday to plan her general weekly schedule (what subjects she’ll do which days). I think that will help her meet the monthly assignments.
My kids were 4th and 7th last year. We spent maybe an hour to hour and a half daily on together stuff. My 4th grader did probably 3 1/2-4 hours a day of total work(including together). My 7th grader did about 4 1/2-5 hours of total work (including together). And this usually included piano practice, I believe.
I don’t think the amount of school time sounds too long, but the breaking up the day would be hard on my kids…they just want to go at it and get school done to have free time, then play w/neighbors. It must be challenging working…I feel for you! Is there any way to give more independently that they can work on in the mornings? Online Spanish, maybe? Is there a computer available? We’re using Easy Peasy’s 1,2,3 Spanish for free next year. I would try to do as much as possible to help our day end earlier and not have rebellion because we’re doing work when school kids are done:) Blessings as you plan….Gina
Both my rising 4th and rising 7th graders are mostly independent. I would suggest letting them do their history, geography, etc. independently during that time. Personally, we find it hard to come back after such a long break. We much prefer finishing early.
Christie, do you follow the SCM guides? I love them. But now I’m feeling my kids (5th and 8th) need to do more independently. They both work well that way but since the SCM guide isn’t set up that way I’m wondering how you handle that (if you use the guides:) Do you buy doubles of books, or work out sharing? Do you plan to use the new geography guides and have them read/complete independently? Just trying to get ideas as I finalize planning!! Thanks, Gina
And I hope it’s helpful to everyone…don’t want to hijack thread:)
Hi Gina, yes, we use the SCM guides for Bible, History, Geography. I love them, too. I toyed with doing something different this coming year, but ultimately, I love being in the same time period. We will be using Module 1 this coming year. I added a couple of extra books for dd12 bc she is a voracious reader, but the amount is just right for my ds9. DD6 is a big reader, too, but at 6 we will stick with the list as is.
I try hard to find the SCM family books on audio and we listen during lunch or something, but they aren’t always available. Otherwise, I am giving family books to dd12 (going into 7th) to read on her own most often. I will read to ds9 and dd6. I have been trying to buy several books as eBooks either asa epubs or kindle books so that both older kids have a copy. Otherwise they can share if need be.
I LOVE THE NEW GEOGRAPHY!!!! I cannot say that loud enough. In my opinion, they are absolutely perfect. My plan is to do this together, but if for some reason, I can’t get to it, they can do it on their own.
I have found that for dd12, it adds a lot of length to her day if she has to wait for me when she is perfectly capable of reading the books on her own. I printed a 2 page per side copy of the SCM Module 1 guide for her to use.
HTH,
Christie
Thanks, Christie. That’s helpful. I need to re-think my schedule….had it all figured out as usual w/family time having me read all the family books. But this can sometimes be a frustrating time getting us all together, waiting on younger ds to gather art supplies, go to the bathroom, etc. And then I’m afraid older dd might get disheartened since younger ds is more academic. The recent quotes and comments by you and someone else on getting the older kids mostly indendent struck a chord with me.
Yes, I love the guides…they have simplified my life so much. And I also love the looks of the new geography…the Menzel books are so neat but we just never get to them enough but now I know we will:) And to have the maps ready to go…awesome!
I think it will make dd’s day more efficient, too, if she does more independently. We can do our family stuff right after breakfast and then the day is in her hands to finish instead of waiting on us:) Thanks!! Gina
Well, I can look at having my ds accomplish more in terms of history and geography on his own. He doesn’t do too badly with reading on his own, except that he hates anything I assign him and will complain about it — a lot. I have tried to get him to sit down with me an have a conference about his school work next year. I’ve tried to explain that he is in a unique position because he has some say in what he learns, how and when. None of his PS friends have that opportunity. He doesn’t even want to talk about it because it’s summer and he doesn’t even want to think about school. I am afraid if I assign too much independent work this year he won’t be ready for it, and yet, I know he can get frustrated with having to wait on his little brother. Hmmm…
So if I turn history and geography over to him, I am really not left with much else for the family. Maybe Spanish and Gym, and 10 mins a day for poetry, picture study, composer, etc. I guess I need to go back to the drawing board.
4myboys…..my eldest sounds a bit like your eldest. She’s not generally crazy about the books I give her to read. Younger is better and stronger reader. I’m not sure how she’s going to react about handing more over to her, but I really think it’s going to shorten her day so am going to approach it from that standpoint:) I’m going to search for audio or ebooks for as much as I can to change things up a bit. We used to do together stuff after lunch, and it seemed tough to get everybody going at the same time after a break…sometimes because of me being on the computer:( I do still plan to read the Bible and Geography section of the guide together. My plan is to read this and any other together stuff while they eat breakfast.
Christie…what do you mean by printing a ‘2 page per side’ copy of SCM guide? I’d thought of buying them each their own copy of the guide, but there would be so much to cross out….my Bible readings and the younger kids assignments. I’m wondering if it might be simpler for her if I just typed out a day-by-day reading schedule just for history (since we’ll be covering Bible and Geography together). Thanks! Gina
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