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Our Term 3 Schedules – Thoughts
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Claire, It is funny how we’re all so different. Do what works for your family is an important part of homeschooling! Knowing your family and lots of prayer are key! That said, I’ll share my thinking on what works for us.
Time Allotments per Subject – I’ve taught my children to use timers to keep on task and avoid distraction. The time allotment is there to help them remember to set their timer and be diligent. They are quite good at this most of the time and often finish before the timer with quality work. I wish for the children to have as much free time as is possible and the timer method helps so much by cutting down on dawdling. They know if they don’t finish, they will have to use their free time to finish up. Unless, of course, a lesson was very difficult or they are struggling with a concept or something. In that case, the timer tells us we’ve spent enough time for today and we just move on to the next subject.
Schedules – Everyone is different and thrives on a different set-up. I write up a general schedule, but it is more of a routine for us. We often don’t hit the specific times and that’s ok, but having the general schedule and time allotted for each subject helps get us back on track. I should add that my 2 oldest kids are morning people and like to get up early and tackle most of their independent work on their own and are often finished before I come downstairs with the little ones each day. I want them to work when they’re most productive, so if it’s morning, then great! Now me, I am a night owl for sure. It stresses me if I don’t have a plan AND I don’t want to have to come up with a plan every day or even every week. Decision making is exhausting and I find that we do better when we all know what’s coming. While I have to start with a plan, I’m completely able to throw it out the window and improvise and be flexible. We do that when it’s a beautiful day after a week of rain or when life interrupts, but the routine or schedule, if you will, allows us to get right back on track. We might have blanks in our chart, but we try to finish those off either during our off week or the next mini-term. On occasion, things get dropped altogether for a season.
Schooling Year Round – We do school year round, but ~ 3 weeks out of each month. I schedule 36 weeks of work, but if it takes 40, then we do forty. In the past, we just schooled and took off when we felt the need or desire, but I did feel we weren’t being as diligent as we could be. This year with 3 weeks on/1 week off planned out we are really accomplishing so much more. We still have days we just take off on occasion, but knowing we have an off week coming soon, helps us to stay focused. That off week is for hair cuts, shoe shopping, dentist, fun trips, big house projects – basically anything that would take time away from our ON weeks. It also gives a catch-up week each month which helps with the random off days.
Independent Learning – My goal has always been to get my children to the point of independent learning equipped to continue and to do so as early as possible. We still do fine arts, scripture memory, same history cycle together and the conversation is always going, but I want them to own their own work. With my oldest 2 (dd11, ds8) they do as much as is possible on their own already. I read history & science to ds8, but expect he will move to doing it on his own by the end of 3rd, beginning of 4th as is recommended by Charlotte. Right now ds8 does personal devotions, copywork, math (I explain concepts as needed, but mostly he reads, learns and just does it.), some history and some literature, as well as practicing piano all on his own. DD11 only needs me for Spelling, polishing narrations and some math. I don’t know what my youngest two kids will be like, but these two are very motivated and just do what’s needed most of the time.
Transition to Independence – There is a bit of a shift that comes as they transition into more of their own work and I find that tweaking is needed as they move through this. My limited experience with these two has shown me that they are capable of achieving the goals set before them and that by starting with high expectations, they most often meet them. If I find I’ve assigned a book for independent reading that is simply too hard, we shelve it and save for the future or I read it to them. I use the 5 word test for any book I’m unsure of before we start a term. Basically, if in reading the first page of a book, the child struggles with 5 or more words, that book is too hard for independent reading at this point. This has been very accurate and effective for us thus far.
Just my 2 cents for what we do and a bit of the why.
Blessings,
Christie
PS – Can’t wait until our retreat next week!
@4myboys – I’m quoting your reply in bold and replying below, since the post rolled over to a new page and I can’t remember all of your good points. My responses are simply what works for us. I don’t expect my goals to be the same as anyone else’s nor our method of achieving them.
I agree that the charts are beautiful, and I love the outline. My older son in particular thrives on check-lists, so I will be borrowing some of these ideas, however, I love the flexibility of homeschool — where we can drop everything for an hour or two and explore something facinating going on outside or whatever the case may be.
Thank you re. the charts. It simply helps me to see it all visually. I agree with you re. flexibility. I love the flexibility and we flex well, but I find that too much flexibility leads to too little being accomplished at my house. We need the structure of regular routine or everything becomes too random to be effective.
Christie, do you really need to have literature narated all the time? I can sort of see where you are coming from, but maybe fewer books to narrate isn’t such a bad idea, especially when so many history books can count as literature as well. What are you really gaining from the extra narrations?
Yes, I think that the children should be ready to narrate EVERY lesson. It is the narrating that helps them to connect with the reading. That said, there are days when some narrations get skipped, but we try not to have too many. Here are some quotes from Charlotte on this topic. You can see all of these and more in the SCM Book, Hearing and Reading, Telling and Writing, ch. 6 as well as in the original CM books.
“As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should ‘tell back’ after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read” (Vol. 6, Preface and p. 155).
“Oral teaching was to a great extent ruled out; a large [emphasis added] number of books on many subjects were set for reading in morning school-hours; so much work was set that there was only time for a single reading; all [emphasis added] reading was tested by a narration of the whole or a given passage, whether orally or in writing. Children working on these lines know months after that which they have read and are remarkable for their power of concentration (attention); they have little trouble with spelling or composition and become well-informed, intelligent persons” (Vol. 6, p. 15).
“What they receive under this condition they absorb immediately and show that they know by that test of knowledge which applies to us all, that is, they can tell it with power, clearness, vivacity and charm” (Vol. 6, p. 63).
“It is our part to see that every child knows and can tell, whether by way of oral narrative or written essay” (Vol. 6, p. 171).
I don’t come close to the number of books AO or CMH prescribe, as it is not attainable for us at the present time. DD11 reads 1-2 chapters (depending upon length) of either her history or her science each day AND one chapter from her assigned literature book (sometimes 2 books) each day. The only other required reading is her personal Bible/character study. So at most, she is reading 3-4 assigned books per day. For our family this is doable without much difficulty and we will raise the quantity of reading as the children age. DD11 also reads quite a bit at her own leisure. In fact, I have to point out books she’s not allowed to read if I want them read for school.
Also, why 3 different math for 45 min? It seems very long for a CM lesson. Do others usually have such long math lesson times? (Not trying to be critical or antagonistic, just trying to understand and sort it all out in my own mind where I’m still so new at homeschooling.)
CL stands for Calcu-ladder drills. These take 2 minutes. This is simply to help her build speed. She has mastered all of the +-x and most of the / facts using Rapid Recall and is accurate 99% of the time and is semi-quick. However, this is an area that we want our children to work to their highest potential (basic math) and I know she can get faster with practice. Therefore, when she finishes her Rapid Recall division, we’ll move to doing daily Calcu-ladder drills. LOF stands for Life of Fred and is new for us this term. These books are terrfic at explaining the why behind the math and are more storylike than anything. Each chapter has just a few questions at the end. She is enjoying these already and they are encouraging her to understand why this “stuff” is important. MM is Math Mammoth which is what her spine will be for the rest of this year. She doesn’t have to do them all in a row, but all total it would take no more than 45 minutes. Math is her most challenging subject and we’re playing a bit of catch-up right now, too.
Just a thought, if you school 4.5 hours a day (3.5 indep. then another hour family), and you school year round, you are spending at least as many if not more hours schooling than PS, aren’t you? Your kids are already learning 3x as much, so dropping a book or two, or moving it to the optional bin shouldn’t hurt one bit. I tend to want to do it all, and I’m really recognizing that’s not possible. It’s not good for me or my boys. (But maybe your family thrives on all the books and still finds time for the extra fun stuff that pops up or gets thrown in last minute? If so, tell me HOW do you do it?!)
Yes, I school year round, but we school ~ 36 weeks a year, the same as our local public schools. We simply spread our breaks out more throughout the year when it isn’t blistering hot here in FL. Most of our PS run 7 hour days, if we finish in 4-4.5 we’re doing only half the time they are and still covering so much more. I do drop books or topics at times or shift them to the optional bin. I did so with some of our American history readings this year, but, for our family, the number of books we’ve slated (for history & literature) is on the minimum end of what we’re comfortable with. We are not a big hands-on type of family – no crafts, no lapbooking, rare bits of notebooking, no big salt dough maps. We like reading, narrating and then the kids play act what they’ve learned all on their own. We have enjoyed parts of the Hands N Hearts history kits, but I typically buy them and just let the kids go at it on their own. We participate in a CM co-op two terms of the year and our family likes to play outdoors and sports – ds plays baseball and golf, dd rides horses. That kind of rounds out how we like to school and spend our time.
My biggest struggle is fitting in what we want to get done. It’s probably the same for all hs moms and dads. It’s more challenging for our family right now because of our little ones (dd~5 and ds2), but that is simply our season right now and we have to adjust as needed.
It has helped tremendously to have this discussion, because I analyzed everything I want her to do according to a good, better, best list (thanks, Bookworm) and dropped one non-essential (grammar) and I may drop Master Skylark if we have too much trouble fitting it in. The rest, I’ve realized is a reasonable expectation for our family. 3.5 hours is good for dd11 and 1 hour of family work should work most days. The challenge is more mine, training the littlest one and redeeming time that I squander or use ineffectively.
I love how we each get to do what works for us in our current season. I love this forum for sharing it all and thinking it through. I would love to have some great big SCM Forum family reunion someday to meet all of you in person. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Blessings,
Christie
I’m off to type up ds8’s chart for this term and then retire my planning hat for a bit.
I meant to add a link to a different kind of checklist, this one is for those who want a general list of to-do each week, but flexibility in the doing of them. It’s quite nice and might be a fit for someone here. http://fivejs.com/homeschool-weekly-assignment-planner/
*It has helped tremendously to have this discussion, because I analyzed everything I want her to do according to a good, better, best list *
Iron sharpens iron! Thanks for sharing Christie, it helps all of us too.
I am so thankful for this discussion! I can not say that enough.
You are correct Chrisite. Everyone is in their season. Everyone has to make their own path to some degree but how delightful for me that some of you have forged ahead and beaten away some of the briars and tall weeds! Thank you for your wisdom.
Tell me more about a good/better/best list? I’m not sure I grasped that idea.
Also, if you don’t mind me picking your brain a wee bit more … if you do take the time for something else and a lesson or more on one day is missed how exactly is it integrated back in so as not to cause you to have to retype the chart everytime that happens?
I pictured myself planning a day every other week for catch up of those “missed/lost” lessons but that certainly would not work since everything moves in succession (can’t read chpt. 4 before missed chpt. 3).
The list was simply an idea given my by Michelle aka Bookworm. She suggested evaluating every subject/book for this current season and rating it good, better or best. After rating, keep the bests, as many betters as possible and goods if time allowed. So, by doing that I realized grammar was simply a good for now, so I cut it. The Story of by Guerber and a couple other books were betters, but didn’t make the cut this time. Master Skylark is a good and we’ll keep it if we can, but no worries if we can’t. The rest of mine were on either my best or better list and I kept them.
Re. time off for life or other interruptions – My daily (3 week at a time) checklist doesn’t have any chapters or lesson #s listed. That info is on my 12 week Term Outline. Both live on the children’s clipboards and we just move through each resource and the kids can check where they are as we go. I should show you next time. Let’s say on Day 2 of week 3 we don’t get to our history reading. No checkmark goes in the checklist and we know to pick up there next time. Sometimes we can double up a reading or we can do it on our off week.
Does that help or muddy the waters.
Christie
The list was simply an idea given my by Michelle aka Bookworm. She suggested evaluating every subject/book for this current season and rating it good, better or best. After rating, keep the bests, as many betters as possible and goods if time allowed. So, by doing that I realized grammar was simply a good for now, so I cut it. The Story of by Guerber and a couple other books were betters, but didn’t make the cut this time. Master Skylark is a good and we’ll keep it if we can, but no worries if we can’t. The rest of mine were on either my best or better list and I kept them.
Re. time off for life or other interruptions – My daily (3 week at a time) checklist doesn’t have any chapters or lesson #s listed. That info is on my 12 week Term Outline. Both live on the children’s clipboards and we just move through each resource and the kids can check where they are as we go. I should show you next time. Let’s say on Day 2 of week 3 we don’t get to our history reading. No checkmark goes in the checklist and we know to pick up there next time. Sometimes we can double up a reading or we can do it on our off week.
Does that help or muddy the waters.
Christie
Christie – I find this extremely helpful as well. And your charts made my heart go pitty-pat, ha! I heart charts. 🙂
I am amazed at what your 8 yo does independently. May I ask what your language arts consists of?
Also, do you have one book for “family” history and then the other book(s) are read independently by the child? Same with science – do they just read their science stuff on their own and you don’t have anything to do with it?
I think I’m rather torn here (for my own life) because on the one hand I absolutely believe my child should be able to work independently – more so as they get older. But on the other hand, isn’t one of the reasons I hs so that I’m actually “with” my kids – aka: the “family” subjects. I’m wondering if I’m doing too much hand-holding or if I’m sort of abandoning them (my kids) if I put so much of their work in the independent catagory.
BTW – I am totally NOT criticizing you in any way – I’m very impressed with your schedule and how your family works! I think I’m just looking for some advice … or something…lol.
Becky
Thanks for replying Christie. I really appreciate hearing from the more experienced moms, especially being so new. It soulds like you are acomplishing SOO much and you’ve really found what works for you. We are still searching. My biggest issue is the fact that I work 3 hours Mon-Fri mornings, so the more I can get them working idependantly the better. It would be nice to have them working diligently for the full three hours. We’re working on it. I also think that if I could get them working year round independantly that would be fabulous — I’m working anyway, and they are at the office with me, so what else are they going to do? It’s harder to establish that coming from PS, though. They already have such negative attitudes about school and doing it in the summer is not going to appeal to them, either.
Here the PS day is less than 5 hours (the elementary school they attended was 9:15-3:15 with an hour for lunch and a 15 min recess — so about 4.5 class time (give or take because there are bathroom breaks and library and gym and music class). Even Jr. High is only 8:00-2:00. High school might last an extra hour at absolute most, so with lunch and a spare, they still aren’t getting in 5 full hours of class time. Of course, I suppose they are generally expected to put in 1-3 hours of homework time in the evening, so I guess we are still having a shorter day in that regard, even if we do eventually put in 4.5 of solid work a day…
Then, maybe I’m under-estimating my children…?
I like the idea of a personal timer. I’ve got one I picked up at the dollar store. It would clip on to a note book or binder. It would work for my older son I think, but my younger, who has “push-a-button-syndrom” might be too distracted by it.
Yep — I totally agree with Becky. Just trying to find my way around…the best for everyone. This discussion has been excellent and I thank Christie for getting it started.
I am curious to know about if they each do their own science and history, also. I was thinking of keeping them together and doing Apologia Zoology over the next couple of years, them move older to Apologia General in grade 8th and using the remaining Apologias with the younger. Now I’m not so sure…he can get very distracted by his younger brother who is ADHD.
Ok, so looking things over again, I’m really liking this set-up. If I’m understanding correctly, the only subject (besides Family subjects) you do with your kids is language arts, right? How about math – do they just come to you with questions if they have them? Also, how do they do their memory work on their own – how does that work? And finally, does your son give you written narrations or oral from his readings? Do you. write his narrations down for him if he gives you oral narrations? (I’m thinking I need to start doing this with my son who is 7.5)
I am totally going to re-vamp the way we do things so it looks more like this. We would probably save a ton of time that I could use to spend time with my pre-ker, which has been an issue for me.
Here’s something else too – I have some reluctant readers, which may be just laziness, because they say they “like” being read to. But I’m getting rather tired of reading “everything” – which I do actually except for what I give them for independent reading. Do you think I need to make them become more responsible for their education by making them read their own assignments (because I’m totally onboard lol)? I’m wondering if it would solve some bad habit issues (like laziness) across the board. Hmmm….
(insert big grin here)
Hi Becky,
LA for my ds8 is simply copywork, Pathway Reader and AAS.Oh and recitation (memorizing of poetry and scripture).
History – we use the SCM modules and are currently in module 5 which I rearranged a bit due to our big American history field trip last month. So for this term our family books are Story of the Nations, vol. 1 and Master Skylark (if we get to this one). DS8’s books are Toliver’s Secret, Good Queen Bess, Bard of Avon and Out of Darkness which I will read to him. He will read Matchlock Gun on his own and narrate (not in module, my addition.) My dd11 will join in for Story of Nations and Master Skylark and will without being asked either listen in on his readings or more likely, read them on her own, just because she loves reading.
Science – We are using Outdoor Secrets w/ the Companion guide and books for ds8 and we do it together though he could do it on his own, I think. DD11 does her own science this year. Next year we are using RS4K pre-level 1 and level 1 – same topics, different levels. DD11 will do on her own, I will work with ds8. Experiment days will be all of us together.
Family Studies – We will always have our fine arts studies (poetry, artist, composer, hymn, folk song), nature studies and some read-aloud or two ongoing I expect. These will be done together along with family devotion/Bible time and scripture memory.
Please don’t mistake, I am with my children all day, every day, but I cannot hand hold 4 kids all 3 years apart. They must learn to learn independently or Mama will lose her mind! By 6th-7th grade, I picture myself more as the mentor and guidance counselor as well as book discussion partner than I do teacher. I’m there, available to help as needed and always there to discuss, but the children need to do their own work. This is a very CM idea by the way. No time to give a quote, but I know Charlotte recommended kids begin reading their own books around age 9.
I have 4 kids and like all moms with more than 1, I have to work out that balance. I don’t want to shortchange my little ones by hand holding the older ones too long. I want the littles to get to read, go outside and count acorns and blow dandelions, but truthfully the older ones cannot spend their work time doing these things or they will never advance. So where do I go – play with the littles or school with the olders? It’s a quandry. In fact, I’m in the midst of hiring someone to come for a couple of hours a day to either play with my littles or oversee my olders so I can play with the littles. It won’t be necessary forever, but it will be a tremendous help to me right now in this season.
@4myboys – I do understand the difference of circumstance coming from ps and working on changing that mindset and having to work part time. If the boys are with you at work, I would certainly make use of that time, but that’s what would work for me. Perhaps try a few different schedules over the next few terms to figure out what best suits your family. For us, year-round works. PS here goes from 8 – 2:30 or 3 and even taking out an hour or 2, that’s 5 hours with lots of busywork, I know. That really isn’t my comparison to make as I don’t really care what the public schools do. I simply set our goals, determine if they are reasonable and then figure out what it will take to meet them. Having finished our schedules it looks like dd11 will have 4.5 hours of work (incl. family work, but not piano) and ds8 will have 3 – 3.5 hours of work. This is a reasonable goal for us. Now if I can find that person to help, I know we’ll meet the goal with 2 hours to focus!
I know what you mean about button pushers, too. My 2yo is one and loves to sneak off with a timer if he can.
Blessings on your continued journey,
Christie
I just saw the last two posts while I was typing.
Charlotte recommended reading lessons for grades 1-3, which we do for history and science. Both of mine have been proficient enough at reading to add in a book or two for them to read on their own like Matchlock Gun in 2nd grade. If they weren’t proficient, I wouldn’t add it. I will say that requiring reading for a certain amount of time per day helped dd11 get over the hump where reading went from being hard to being a joy. My son is at that hump, but I expect him to be over it in the next few months.
DD11 has done 2 Apologia courses in previous years with our co-op and needed a change for this year. This year she read through Fabre’s Storybook of Science and made a lovely journal to go with it with drawings, journaling, labeling, etc. DS8 as I mentioned is doing Outdoor Secrets w/ companion together with me.
Math – DS8 uses Math Mammoth and the directions and examples are in the text. He does it on his own unless he doesn’t understand a concept. This works b/c he gets math. DD11 was a guinea pig and we tried many different things. Math doesn’t come as easily for her and jumping curriculum didn’t help. It would have been better for her to stick with what we started with and plug along, but I didn’t know that then. So, we’ve done a few things. We are using the Blue texts from MM for this last term to fill in some gaps. I will need to go over concepts more often with her b/c this is her area of struggle. LOF has already been of benefit for her to see the need for this. Next year, she’ll do more on her own. We will use Systematic Mathematics and LOF next year.
DS8 only gives oral narrations. I have him draw a picture at the end of the book and I occasionally type up a narration he does, but not often.
I do not oversee copywork as both kids have nice penmanship. I circle errors, which are rare, and ds8 corrects them. We did cursive from the beginning and he uses copybooks from Light Home Publications (currclick) at 1/2 page per day, 4 days per week. He’s on the shorter ones. Right now using A Celebration of Christian Character. DD11 doesn’t do copywork, but will start a common place book next year. I do AAS with each kid and help dd11 polish narrations. That’s it for LA.
I can’t tell you what to do re. possible reluctant readers and reading laziness. I can only say what I would try. I would read ALL lessons for grades 1-3 and begin requiring reading for learning on their own at grade 4, but only 1 subject at a time. It is a transition phase and I imagine not all kids will transition easily. Slow and steady wins the race, but the goal is for the kids to read their own books. To build reading endurance, I would require everyone to spend a set amount of time reading per day. My DS8 must read 30 minutes during quiet time in addition to his assigned reading. DD11 reads on her own and has no requirement.
I am no expert, I’m just a mom who loves these methods and am striving to learn how to best incorporate them into our family. (Notice my one deviation from her methods with AAS. It works for us.)
Christie
Christie – perfectly clear now! Thank you. I was not seeing that you do not list out each page to be covered each day but instead an amount from that source for the week. Stands to reason then that they are picking up where the last were in each book/subject each day. Thus flexibility is gained! Yahoo! Schedules scare me because I have to have that flexibility without everything falling apart. That’s sort of why I’ve generally stayed away from them for two years!
Reading through Charlotte Mason’s first book this year helped me to see that unless you follow this philosophy hook, line and sinker you can not expect the same results. Many components have come together for us and our method is solid but it was our expectation and volume and independence that were lacking. Without those … well, not really CM is it. Lovely. But not CM. Just a note … it was exams this term that lead me to take a step back and see our past year with clear eyes. Not because they weren’t done well at all, but in reviewing sources for the questions asked I realized I’d missed the boat on some things and been doing a “type” of CM instead of what I really wanted to be doing.
Thank you so much, Christie, for taking the time to answer so thoroughly – I know you are a busy momma! 🙂
So it seems I must continue on reading everything… sigh. No just kidding, but it will be nice when ds starts reading some of his own work. I am unsure about what to do with my niece – 10, who will school with us one more year before probably returning to public school. She really needs both a bit more hand-holding and to take some responsibility for her school work. Perhaps that will have to lie in the hands of her parents.
Knowing I will be reading our lessons until 4th year (approx of course) makes me feel better about the whole “abandonment” thing. I think its when I hear hs friends who have their kids school mostly by computer that I wonder if that’s really the point of all this (hsing). To each their own, I know, but I think I feel called to be more involved, especially when the kiddos are little, ya know? So what you said makes complete sense – thank you again for that! (Though I’m a little bummed because I still have to figure out how to get things done with my little guy! ha! :))
Have a wonderful night – Becky
Reading through Charlotte Mason’s first book this year helped me to see that unless you follow this philosophy hook, line and sinker you can not expect the same results. Many components have come together for us and our method is solid but it was our expectation and volume and independence that were lacking. Without those … well, not really CM is it. Lovely. But not CM. - The topic ‘Our Term 3 Schedules – Thoughts’ is closed to new replies.