Homeschool scheduling advice

Discussion in 'Homeschooling' started by shelbym, Dec 30, 2014.

  1. shelbym

    shelbym New Member

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    Good Afternoon,

    My husband and I are looking to homeschool our kids in the fall-grades 2 and kindergarten. I am excited but my husband worries that the time commitment might be too much for me. We have two toddlers and I work part time as well. Can any of you tell me what curriculum you use and how many hours a day you work at it?

    Thanks,

    Shelby
     
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  3. Jackie

    Jackie Active Member

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    Oh, dear, that's not an easy question, as everyone here uses different stuff!!! And the time commitment will be different, depending on the ages and abilities of your students, and your teaching style.

    For your children's ages, learning needs to be more "fun" than academic. You'll need to do math with each one at their own level. As far as reading goes, I've never really "taught" it. You can do fun phonic-type stuff with the younger one, and maybe a phonics/reading workbook with your older one, and then read, read, and read out loud to them.

    As far as Social Studies/Science/History, etc., you can teach them together. Pick a topic such as MAGNETS and run with it. Go to the library, read about magnets, do a lot of the experiments you find, and just have a fun time. Or DINOSAURS. Or WINTER. Whatever topic your kids might be interested in. Don't think you have to sit down and "do school" for six hours each day!!! You've got the toddlers. Be sure to use their nap time to your advantage. Also, I strongly suggest having a "mom time". When your little ones are napping, there's no reason why your other two can't go to their rooms for Silent Reading Time. If your kindergartener is a pre-reader, she can look at books anyway, or listen to books on CD. THIS IS YOUR MOM TIME!!! You are with your kids 32/7, and YOU NEED A BREAK!!! Set the timer for a half hour. Your children MAY NOT come out of their room until the timer goes off!!! (Though I remember the day my middle child came running down the stairs to tell me "I KNOW WHAT THESE WORDS SAY!!!" She had just "discovered" that she could actually read. And I was OK with her "breaking" my rule for that :wink:) ANYWAY, during Mom Time, you MAY NOT do anything related to school or taking care of the house. No meal planning, no grading papers, no planning lessons, no cleaning dishes. Do whatever you do to relax. Read a book. Do Facebook. Talk with a friend on the phone. Have a cup of tea. But this is YOUR time.
     
  4. cornopean

    cornopean New Member

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    For us, the workbook approach has been life-saving. There are an infinite number of workbooks on EVERY subject and at every skill-level. and the beauty is that you can just dictate that your child do one lesson per day. and workbooks are very inexpensive. the better workbooks also have a sequence of workbooks so you can chart your child's progress.

    Your children are quite young tho. I have my 2nd grader's pile of workbooks next to me right now. We use the Spectrum workbooks with a few Kumon and Explode the Code thrown in. He does Spectrum Math, Writing, Reading, and Spelling. Then he also does a workbook that is all math word problems and finally Explode the Code. Then he does addition and subtraction on www.xtramath.com. All this generally takes him 2-4 hours, and he makes tons of errors none of which we take too seriously. His handwriting is atrocious. Spelling is even worse. oh well. hopefully he grows out of it.

    This has greatly helped my wife who has six children from 10 to 3 months. She is HSing three of them with a fourth about to come on.
     
  5. Jackie

    Jackie Active Member

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    Also, they are young enough to learn how to work independently. Yes, there will be times when you need to sit down and explain stuff to them. But once you've explained their math or language or whatever, you should be able to give them the assignment and go play with the little ones or do laundry, or whatever without constant interruptions. This is an important skill to learn! Of course, there will always be some questions and they need to be able to come for help when needed, but they should be able to work without you being right beside them the whole time.
     
  6. Lindina

    Lindina Active Member

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    I agree with everything Jackie said! :)
     
  7. 2littleboys

    2littleboys Moderator

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    The academic stuff will come with time. The important thing to teach at this age is independence. 6-8 year old children are perfectly capable of doing things on their own after a bit of instruction and occasional correction. What if you lived on a farm and they had chores? What if they were in a classroom with 25 other kids? They would certainly have things to do that would require independence.

    Learning style is something you'll have to figure out before you find a curriculum that works for your children and your schedule in the long-term, but in the short-term, there are some types of curriculum that will be easier on you than others. Workbooks are the most boring way to learn (for some kids), but they're also the easiest to implement, so use them to your advantage. Subjects like handwriting or math fact practice can be done this way. Another easy-to-implement approach is reading. Pick a science or history subject and get library books to go with it. Computer-based programs are also very parent-easy. There are some that teach the basics and do all the tracking for you so that you know exactly what your child does/doesn't know, and you can supplement from there. For example, Time4Learning is an all-in-one computer based curriculum. I wouldn't use it as my ONLY curriculum, especially in the higher levels, but for now, it's fine.

    As for hours per day ... a homeschool day is MUCH shorter than a public school day. You only have to teach to a single level (because you don't have 25 second graders, you only have one), and you don't have all the interruptions. One rule of thumb is to spend 30 minutes per grade level on the core subject matter. If you want to spend all day on something really interesting, that's fine, but a 6 year old doesn't need to spend an hour on math. It should take an hour to finish everything ... a little practice on reading, handwriting, math, and perhaps a little art project. Your reading practice could be done with a book about math or science so that you're covering two subjects at once. It really doesn't take long at all.

    Another thing to consider is that young children (toddlers thru early elementary) have an attention span that is roughly triple in minutes their age in years. A two year old can focus for only 5-6 minutes on something interesting, while a 6 year old can focus 15-20 minutes. After that, you'll need to have a change of subject, a recess, a snack, etc., or else both of you will become frustrated very quickly.

    Good luck to you! :)
     
  8. Gina

    Gina Member

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    I use Easy Peasy, which I am thrilled to have discovered. At most, it takes two hours a day, which works out very well for us, with me being a full-time (online) student myself. My son starts his school day by 9:30. When he's done, he does his own thing while I spend a couple of hours on my own studies.

    And, although there are some areas where the child will need guidance, it is designed for the child to work independently. Another reason I like it so much is it's all laid out for you, which is great if you're like I was, and have no idea where to begin. And the best part is, it's completely free, so if it doesn't work out for you, you're not out anything.

    The only word of caution is it's Christian (although not overtly, but I'm not sure what your religious beliefs are). But, if you're interested, here's the link:

    http://allinonehomeschool.com/about/

    Hope this helps.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2015
  9. mschickie

    mschickie Active Member

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    K is really easy, just an hour or so a day max. I used Horizons for math and phonics plus you throw in some science experiments and some crafts and educational games (Chutes and Ladders...)


    For 2nd you can probably expect any where from 2-4/5 hrs of work a day depending on what you choose to do. We did Sonlight which has a lot of reading a loud so the time was sometimes a little longer but it is nice because everything is all laid out for you. Days we did art projects were probably closer to the 4-5 hr range and other days were probably 2-3 hrs. Most of the time I was done by lunch or shortly after.

    When working with your 2nd grader you would want to work towards having them do some subjects independently (worksheets, writing, possibly Math...) so that will leave you more time to work with your younger child and have time for the toddlers. What some folks do with toddlers in the house is have the older kids switch off playing with them. When you are working with one child the other can play with the little ones. You can also have a special bin of toys that only come out when it is school time.

    I know many families where the Mom works part time and they still homeschool multiple kids. Remember school does not have to be done during the traditional school hours or even on the traditional school days. Maybe school happens over the weekend or at night. You can also look as schooling year round so you stretch things out or take more days off during the traditional school year, whatever best fits your family.

    I would also look at finding a local hs group. Being able to interact with other families provides great support and also can help when Dad's are not quite sure it will work. I have one friend whose husband really did not want them to hs but he was willing to try. Now he comes to events and is really impressed by how well it works.
     

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