Name: CHEC Rocky Mountain Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-12T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-14T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Denver, CO

Tagged: Schedule, Scheduling books

This topic has 14 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 9 months ago by crazy4boys.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

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July 8, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Sharon
Participant
I’m having a challenging time planning for the new school year. I think I’ve been reading too many resources. AO recommends reading sloooowly (as well as William Thayer in Gaining Favor with God & Man) and Sonlight schedules tons of books. I thought CM wrote about scheduling a certain number of pages in a term, but right now I can’t remember. I have many CM resources, but I haven’t seen any specific recommendations on how many books will be a good balance, e.g., a spine and 2 books, 1 chapter a day. I like to have a simplified schedule. AO has too many books to read at a daily basis and with three children, that can be very overwhelming and it’s just not my style.
I am trying to assign books for my 7th and 5th grade dd’s (I will read living books to my kindergartener) and I want to make sure I assign enough books, schedule them in balanced ways and at the same time, challenge them. I tend to go overboard with assigning too much.
I’m not sure if I’m making much sense, but any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. I’m anxiously saving so I can order the SCM scheduling book/CD and other resources (yeeaahh!).
God bless!
Sharon Nelson
July 8, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Bookworm
Participant
Have you read Sonya’s earlier blog posts about scheduling? They can get you started, and then when you get the scheduling book it’ll make things really, really clear. Basically, the thing to do is to think about what your individual children need. I have an 8th grader, and this past year, he did daily lessons in Spanish, Latin, science, math, some writing every day (varied from longer copywork, longer dictation, written narration) and three or four individual readings. I tend to end up somewhere between just the categories here on SCM and the Ambleside categories–for instance, we do Shakespeare and Plutarch every week, maybe two or three literature readings, then readings in scattered other things like geography, nature readings, biographies, economics, etc.
I have to start with what I think we ought to do each year. Then I break it down into terms, weeks, then how many days I think it needs to be read to get done what I want in a year. I try to avoid 10yo and under doing the same thing for more than 20-30 minutes at a time, but my older ones can work for up to 45 minutes on one topic now without losing focus. I don’t always schedule just a chapter, because some books have 5 minute chapters and others have hour-long chapters; we see how long a chapter is and break it down or do more than one as needed.
OK. Here is the first of the blog posts on scheduling:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/2008/03/12/new-planning-series/

Then follow these through and I think you can get a jump-start and then fill in details when you get the planning book.

HTH!
Michelle D
July 8, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Sharon
Participant
Thank you so much! My 7th grader could keep up the longer pace since she’s an avid reader and likes to read vs. go outside on her spare time. I literally have to demand that she put her books down and go outside for some fresh air.
My 5th grader doesn’t like to read herself, but loves for mom to read to her or listen to audio books.
Thanks again! I’ve gleaned so much from your previous posts also. You are such a blessing! I’ve spent my day putting things on paper to make sense of every idea I have whirling around in my head. I’m sure one day in time, scheduling will be easier!
God bless!
Sharon
July 8, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
Chock this one up to another one of Sonya’s weird project ideas, but I was curious about this very question a few months ago and did some research and some math. Here are my best estimates on how many pages per day students read in Charlotte’s schools.
- Grades 1-3 read from about 2 or 3 books per day, about 4 pages from each book.
- Grades 4-6 read from about 3 or 4 books per day, about 4 or 5 pages from each book.
- Grades 7-9 read from about 4 or 5 books per day, about 5 or 6 pages from each book.
- Grades 10-12 read from about 5 or 6 books per day, about 6 or 7 pages from each book.
The rest of the time was spent dealing with “things,” like handicrafts, nature, art, scientific experiments, physical exercise, music, etc.
Now, please keep in mind that we do not have to duplicate Charlotte’s schedule, but I thought this information was helpful as a guide.
July 9, 2009 at 12:58 am
mishlevi
Participant
So is Math included as one of the books? I only ask because the extra things you added seemed to be mostly afternoon activities.
Mish
July 9, 2009 at 1:47 am
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
Good question. No, math was not included in that page- or book-count. I guess I should have said “Most of the rest of the time was spent dealing with things.” 🙂
July 9, 2009 at 3:25 am
Sharon
Participant
Thank you Sonya!! You’re a gem!
I also agree that Charlotte’s schedule should be used as a framework. Plus she also schooled for 6 days. I don’t think my girls will like that idea.
God bless!
Sharon
July 9, 2009 at 2:37 pm
caroline4kids
Member
So in the older grades was it multiple history and science books, or does that count include foreign languages too?
July 9, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Sonya Shafer
Moderator
Yes, multiple books per subject. For example, here is a breakdown of living books used in one term for Grades 7-9. They did a total of about 30 books per term (not necessarily reading the whole book, but reading from that many books).
Bible: 5 (+1 optional book and 2 reference books)
Literature: 4
English History: 1
French and General History: 2 (+1 optional book)
Citizenship: 3
Geography: 3 (+1 reference book)
Natural History and Botany: 2 (+field guides)
General Science: 2
Then they worked through some lessons from a German course’s book, an Italian grammar book, a Latin course’s book, a French course’s book, and read some French poetry from another book.
August 14, 2013 at 5:19 am
Melissa
Participant
Thank you Sonya 🙂
August 14, 2013 at 5:46 am
Sue
Participant
Oh, yay! This is the thread I was looking for the other day! Thank you, Melissa, for bumping it….and thanks, Sonya, for undertaking “weird projects” like this.
August 14, 2013 at 7:22 am
Melissa
Participant
We are all in this together 🙂
August 14, 2013 at 3:33 pm
Anonymous
Inactive
So I’m wondering, at the 10th-12th grade level, what this is going to look like on a daily basis, practically speaking — considering all the subjects like Foreign Language, Math, and Science and making room for extra things like projects and such.
August 14, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Jordan Smith
Keymaster
We have a sample week with subjects spread throughout each day at the bottom of the Family Enrichment plans in our free curriculum guide. There’s also a page with sample weekly and daily schedules that might help.
August 14, 2013 at 6:05 pm
crazy4boys
Participant
This was very helpful to see what might be a good number of pages to assign per day. I know what I want them to read, when…but wasn’t sure if it was too much or not enough. I can see that perhaps I was going too easy on at least one of them for fear of overloading!