I agree with this. One of the reasons I wanted to hs my middle son: the bored turned mischievous child. All of you seem to be saying that we've been doing too many hours. I'm trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. Do your children work independently mostly, or do you sit with them? For us there are some subjects they can do on their own, but most of the time I have to be present. I try to teach them on a rotating schedule, so while one is doing his handwriting, I do the math lesson with the second, and then when the second goes to do the math problems, I do spelling power with the first, who has now finished his handwriting...sort of like that. A lot of times one of them will lag behind, and I end up spending way more time than I had intended trying to get him to finish whatever he is doing. I don't think I am doing too many subjects. When I talk to other hs mothers, they see to do about the same. I try to combine certain things like history and science, since my oldest two aren't that far apart in age. We take a break at around 11.30...I noticed most of you break around 12.30...maybe I should keep going and do the same? That way we don't break momentum and can maybe get more accomplished?
I absolutely agree with this. Granted, you might find yourself spending all day on something interesting that isn't necessarily part of the 3 R's, but that's ok. The core of homeschooling can usually be done (give or take) in 30 minutes per grade level. We'll be doing 1st & 4th next year. My 1st grader will spend about an hour a day, and my 4th grader (because of extra stuff he's chosen to do) will take about 2.5 or 3 hours per day. Some days are longer, and some are shorter, but it works out to 10-15 hrs per week, which is very managable for us. The older the kids get, the more they'll do independently for school, and the more they'll be able to help with chores.
I don't agree with this. When I worked in the public schools I observed several different elementary classrooms in different states. In each one I observed the students engaged in focused learning time. I've observed in a couple private schools too and didn't see much difference. There were no big transition times. Transition time was rather minor with the majority of the time spent learning. Most homeschoolers have a lot fewer than the average 30 children in a class to teach, I would say, wouldn't you? Comparing an hour of one on one teaching to an hour shared with 30 other children is surely not a straight comparison? We certainly do not break for 30 mins at mid morning, and another hour at lunch, with an afternoon break of another 30 mins. It is not just transition times, but what they are doing. We also don't use up time with a lot of busy work. :wink:
It may not be that you are doing too many subjects, but you may be using things that are too teacher intensive. I do spend all the time of school sitting with my 3 that are still at home. I do alternate between them... and honestly, if they are not the one I'm working one on one with, they are off doing their own thing, not working on something independantly. Now if they do have something independant to be doing, they are usually where ever I am working on that while I teach the other (Cameron really doesn't have any structured lessons, I pretty much teach him as I described above... he does play with our math manipulatives and he requested a workbook which I talk through a page here or there with him and we do the work with our fingers, he isn't permitted to write in it yet, I don't think at just turned 3 he needs to be doing a workbook, and I do not want it to feel like he is to him or me, so fingers work for tracing lines or pointing to the ball that is different, though this year he will be doing the Sweet Pickles Bus from when I was a kid... but even then there is no writing and we will be going very very slowly with it... and the other kids will be more than into joining him for most of it). Here is how our days kind of look: M- Social Studies, PE, Math, Language arts (we are working through Total Reading books this coming year, so mostly inclusive, quick and painless), spelling (copying the words), reading T- Science, Music, Math, LA, reading, a game of some sort (Family Math books, Scholastic game books kinda game, board game) W- Same as M only today spelling is a fun worksheet TH- Looks just like T only we do Art, we may do a spelling test this day.. or we may play some kind of game to work on spelling words.. or we may not F-Social Studies OR Science OR Art (whichever we have some kind of project to work on), PE/Health, Math, LA, spelling test if we need to, anything else FUN we need to get done so more SS/S/A if need be ETA... Rylee and Reagan work together on everything except Math, LA, Spelling and Reading.... which are the same thing just their own levels. None of it is very teacher intensive, and none of it takes a long time to get through a lesson of.
MomToMusketeers, what are your kids ages, and what are you using? That could helps us help you maybe. Also, please tell me you aren't going to that other board and letting them fill your head with this and that as being the best and if you don't use it your kid will be certain to have a job with his name on his shirt, but if you use 3 maths and 6 LA programs, all of them each day for at least an hour each, your kid will definately become some high up aristocrat...lol (I think I'm only partly kidding here. I was great before I found that place... then I spent 2 years with the grass must be greener and wasted tons of time and money only to try to kill ourselves with school and wash any joy out of it that there was.)
Yes, but I believe that is a different issue. Instruction is going on for most of the day, but it may not be at the right level for that student. I don't know about other homeschool situations, but we also have down time in our days. Kids have bathroom breaks, transition times, toddler/preschooler interruptions, a child waiting to ask a question, and time spent disciplining. I agree. If you make the comparison between a group of 30 kids and one-on-one instruction you will get done much faster. Unfortunately, many schools do not have that amount of recess any more and are spending more time on academics. I don't disagree that homeschoolers are more efficient and will get done faster. You can't beat individualized instruction. I do disagree of the characterization of public schools as non-learning entities in general. There are many public schools who do a great job with academics. They do teach to the standard average learner so if your child isn't one of those then it wouldn't be a good fit for learning. IMHO, 2 hours of homeschooling would be quite insufficient for middle school and high school.
It also depends on how you school your children. If you are going the traditional route with textbooks and worksheets then these times might work, especially at the younger grades. The 1.5 hours suggested for my 2nd grader wouldn't even cover the movie he saw yesterday on the 300 Spartans. I wouldn't be able to school my children in a manner that suits them or myself as a teacher with those time recommendations. The least amount of time spent was 3 hours for my first 1.5 years of homeschooling. My rising 5th grader will be spending about 8 hours a day and the other day he came up to me and gave me a kiss and told me that he liked school.
Things like movies, educational games, etc I do not count into those hours.. of course a movie will take longer. Things like that for us happen after the main "bookwork" is done. There are many days that we get lost in something we are doing and before I know it we have been at whatever it is for hours and hours. To me there is a lot more to life than hitting the books all day long. This is what fits my family, every family is different.
Crazymama, lol, this board is my one true source for all things homeschooling. When I first started considering homeschooling, I googled homeschool boards, or something like that, and this was the first on the list. I came on, and never left Embassy, I am with you on the point of ps schools not being all bad. I went to ps, well, actually it was private, but still not homeschool. It was excellent. I still dont get how one hour is enough for 1st grade....maybe I am doing too much, or too teacher intensive? This is what I am going to be using, which is similar to what I used last year: 9 yr old (4th grade in fall): Saxon 5/4 Writing with Ease (starting this new this year, used to do Writing Strands) Spelling Power Easy Grammar Social Studies (Macmillan/Macgraw-Hill) Science (Foreman) Rosetta Stone Spanish Building Thinking Skills History (SOTW) 7yr old (2nd grade) Saxon 2 Spelling Power Writing with Ease (new this year, used to do Writing Strands) Social Studies (Macmillan/Macgraw-Hill) Science (Foreman) History (SOTW) 5yr old (kinder) Sing Spell Read Write Singapore math Kindergarten They do cursive handwriting as well, but we usually just incorporate that into their writing programs. LOF we do at night, its part of our nightly reading session, and all other reading they also do at night in bed, after their showers and everything. Its our little ritual we have done since they were born. Its mostly a fun relaxed time, and they read, I read, we talk about it, and no one realizes that they are also learning something Muahahaha...ahem! Sometimes if we have 10 extra mins I have them read out loud from a newspaper or national geographic. I do think Saxon is very intensive, and requires all those drills etc...and Social studies is our other big time eater.
Wow! There were a lot of responses to this thread. I also just finished my "official" 1st year of homeschooling. We are doing a unit study on oceans over the summer break and phonics/reading to maintain what they have learned. I have discovered my kiddos do best with routine and structure vs. a blank slate "what shall we do today" type summer. So I thought it best for the whole team ( so they don't drive me crazy ) to do a light load of school , something that would interest them and keep them engaged. I have learned A LOT this last year, trial and error , modifying and praying that the Lord would change my perspective about things if need be. I have learned about myself as well as my kids, in a different light due us spending more quality time together that is intentional and engaging. I too am like Samantha who posted previously on this thread, I can't work in a "disastrous" room or house. I get anxious or uptight and I can't function or focus because all I see around me is mess , mess , clutter etc. That's how I have always been. At the beginning of the school year I lacked balance and it is difficult for me to ask for help or to "delegate" jobs to others in the family. My husband is a contractor so I am also his secretary and I have to schedule 2 office days a month to help with the invoices , profit & loss statements etc. so that is another "thing" that requires my attention and time. But my ability to delegate or to be somewhat balanced has improved. Our kids are helping out way more now. We had to do some "experiments" to see what they were capable of. We now know that our son loves to mow the lawn and is safe with it. He can clear the dirty dishes from the table without breaking any. We spent the time with both kids to teach them how to fold their own clothes and now we have "folding parties" . I figured out that doing laundry everyday just doesn' t work for us. Monday's and Thursday's are our laundry days... Monday's so that we have clothes for the week and Thursday's so that we have clothes for the weekend ( we do quick weekend trips such as camping and visiting family that is scattered around the state ). Wednesday's we clean the bathroom. I went to a homeschool convention with a dear friend of mine who has been homeschooling for 10 years now and she shared some wisdom that really helped me . She said that as long as she is homeschooling her house will never be as clean as she would like it to be and that's ok because she is investing in her children & playing a HUGE part in their education.. which is way more important than whether or not the sink is full of dishes or the shower has soap scum on it. When she shared this with me it was like I felt a weight fly off of me and suddenly it became ok if I "couldn't get it all done" .
Math.. I would dump Saxon in a heartbeat, I know many many use it and swear by it, but it's boring, dry and kids will drag it on forever.. on top of the forever, teacher intensiveness that is already built into it. We love love love, like fluffy heart kinda love, McRuffy for math for the younger years, then TT is my choice. TT with the oldest would free you up some, it can be very independant... just make sure you are checking to see that he is doing it and understanding it. WWE.. we tried this last year, hated it, it took forever for us. I do not believe that kids so young even need a writing program or a grammar for that matter, but I do think that getting a little dabble of it is a good thing. Are each of your kids doing their own science and social studies? If so, either put them all in the middle ones book and work them together or look for something that is more homeschool friendly and work together. Even my little guy will eventually fall into wherever we are with science and social studies. Not until they can be doing like History Odyssey level 2 or something like that would I consider them working on their own level. Have you ever heard of Creek Edge Press Task Cards? They might be GREAT for your kids since they are kind of spaced out on levels. I do not know anything about Spelling Power, but to me if spelling takes more than 10-15 minutes a day you are doing more than you need to. Easy Grammar is ok, usually shouldn't take too long. Why are you doing history AND social studies? History should come into play in your social studies. You are using PS texts which usually barely touch on history in the elem levels, but if you plan on keeping with PS type texts, this is ok, you will get to history later. You can see what we are using on my blog. We are covering pretty much the same as you, I think we are doing Spanish this year using Elementry Spanish on Discovery Education... I think I did not put that on my blog because I'm still not sure... but you can see pretty much everything else there.
Embassy, I'm one who feels that education is going on 24/7. When my kids cook, when they go grocery shopping with me, when Faythe is learning how to quilt.... I don't think I could live in a place that requires you to track your hours!
YES!!! And THESE kind of things are the ones that I think are WAY more important than doing "school work". Does that make sense? Even when my kids are watching something stupid they are learning something.. they learned that jellyfish sting by watching Spongebob :lol: I really think that the KISS philosphy is important for me as a homeschooler. Keep It Simple Stupid... yep that pertains to our "school time"... but we are learning constantly.
I read most of the responses but skimmed closer to the end. LOL My first thought was also about how long you're spending with school, especially at those ages! My 2nd and 4th graders can get the "core 4" done in an hour. Grammar/copywork, math, spelling, Bible. Then Reading we do in "sets" of silent reading while I cook lunch or work with my oldest, and after lunch comes history, read-alouds, science, and if we just have lots of energy we might stick extras in there also. I'm also working on a planner that works for the way I think. I've yet to find one that works well for me, so for the rest of the summer (at least!) I'll be using a regular spiral and making my pages as they make sense to me. Maybe eventually I'll find a planner that fits my needs, or I can find or make pages to print, but for now this spiral is going to fit the bill. I'm also working on a planner that works for the way I think. I've yet to find one that works well for me, so for the rest of the summer (at least!) I'll be using a regular spiral and making my pages as they make sense to me. Maybe eventually I'll find a planner that fits my needs, or I can find or make pages to print, but for now this spiral is going to fit the bill. Prioritize. Make lists. I'm having to re-discipline myself to do exactly as I tell the kids they should do: do what I have to do before I do what I want to do (ie screentime). It's a self-control, discipline thing for me, and honestly I feel pretty silly admitting that. Somewhere along the way, I just had the freedom to do so I just did and I let the important things go by the wayside. Now I'm paying the price and seeing some of those tendencies in my kids, so I'm putting myself in boot camp for a while. Well, sort of. LOL About finding resources online and spending time doing that - I think there was a thread here about that recently? And how it's a time-consuming black hole of death. (Maybe not those words, but those were my thoughts, anyway.) Recently very uplifted and had a light bulb moment for me as I finished reading my One Year Bible with the last bit of Proverbs 31 and read where she (the virtuous woman) gets up each morning and decides her servants' tasks for the day. Opened my eyes in a huge way about when I plan and how long I spend doing it. Going to be blogging about this over the next week or two if you'd like to come find me. Link in my sig! Anyway. I'll be back later. I shouldn't even be on this site right now because I was only allowing myself an email check! *hand slap*
I also am wondering why both history and social studies? I don't know SOTW, but if it's good, it should cover the history, geography, and cultures - even something of government, economics, whatever else - you'd want to cover. And I wouldn't spend much time on creative writing, myself. I don't know your program, but I personally would focus on writing a good sentence, and writing a good paragraph, and putting that together into a good essay or report or news article or letter. But that's just me. Spelling Power, as I understand it, should take about 15 minutes per student. EZG should be pretty independent for the 4th grader. Science you can do together, right? One reason I love CLE so much is that it is SO independent, even my first grader grandson could work on his lesson by himself, after we did the "teacher parts" at the beginning, both LA and math. Even doing that, I was "available" in between groups of items to answer questions for the other two, even if I had to give DGS the instructions for the next section. CLE may or may not be the right choice for your family, but it seems to me you probably need something not quite so teacher-intensive. Here's how I would "streamline", but this is just ME, you know, and YMMV. ONLY a suggestion of possibility... 9 yr old (4th grade in fall): Saxon 5/4 - either ditch it for something more independent, or just spend 10 minutes introducing the lesson and the rest done independently and I'd check later. Writing with Ease (starting this new this year, used to do Writing Strands) - I'd ditch it and just incorporate paragraphs into science and history. Spelling Power - 10-15 minutes at most Easy Grammar - mostly independent and I'd check later Social Studies (Macmillan/Macgraw-Hill) - I'd ditch it entirely. Science (Foreman) - I'd do all kids together. Rosetta Stone Spanish - independent Building Thinking Skills - independent History (SOTW) - together, even the K'er 7yr old (2nd grade) Saxon 2 - ditch it for something more independent Spelling Power - 10-15 min Writing with Ease (new this year, used to do Writing Strands) - I'd ditch it Social Studies (Macmillan/Macgraw-Hill) - I'd ditch it Science (Foreman) - do together all 3 kids History (SOTW) - together 5yr old (kinder) Sing Spell Read Write Singapore math Kindergarten Kindy just naturally takes more teacher-intensive time. It just is what it is.
I totally agree. Learning doesn't shut off. We don't live in a place with any regulations. I prefer it that way We just spend a lot of time because it works best for us. I count educational fun things that are part of our lesson plans as school, but education stuff done outside of regular school time I don't track.
Social studies is a time hog? What topics are being covered in social studies? What makes it time intensive?
9 yr old (4th grade in fall) (my dd is the same age): Saxon 5/4 - I would see if your child could read over the lesson on their own. Dd does this and as an incentive she can earn points towards something in the treasure box when she gets her Math done in under an hour. Last year we did Saxon 6/5 and it worked great. Writing with Ease - should be ok Spelling Power - only do it for the alloted time Easy Grammar - let them do this on their own Social Studies (Macmillan/Macgraw-Hill) - have them do this indepent or SOTW. Science (Foreman) - You could choose one set and do it all together Rosetta Stone Spanish - on their own Building Thinking Skills - on their own History (SOTW) - use this with the audio cds or SS program 7yr old (2nd grade) Saxon 2 - I like Horizons for this age
I started my college carreer at Oral Roberts, and took a two-semester course called HUMANITIES. We started with pre-Greek and Roman, and worked up to the time of Oliver Cromwell in England. When I transfered to Bowling Green, I was told I needed a semester of World History. I went to talk with them, believing that my Humanities should fulfill this. I explained the time frame, and was asked specifically what topics were studied. There were six main areas we hit...art and aesthetcis, political theories and institutions, literature and drama, economics, archetecture....I forget what else. And the woman looked me straight in the eye and asked, "...but did you study HISTORY?" HUH? How can one possibly study all that stuff and not study HISTORY? What the heck did she think history WAS?
SOTW covers History & SS. Social Studies is more "the way things work" whereas History is well.... History. That's how it was explained to me. Heck with SOTW - they have it on audiobook and everyone can listen to it! If you have a computer - your kids can do math on the computer as well - with something like Aleks (they have a 3 month free trial!) or even Switched on Schoolhouse. Alexis like SOS even though it is just the LifePacs on the computer... but she thought it was fun. It made her independent with that subject as it does all the grading for her!
