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Mary G
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| Posted: Sept 22 2007 at 3:39pm | IP Logged
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Willa wrote:
| What is your "lesson plan" or routine for the Main Lessons? (wondering now if I should start a new thread -- what do you think?) |
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I moved Willa's comment from the Waldorf posts because I think it refers to planning in gneeral. What are the subjects that you keep short -- the 15-20 that CM recommends? What subjects do you focus a longer block on (ala Waldorf) from a couple of hours to maybe the whole day?
How do you plan for this? Do you shorten the planned time if the kiddos begin to balk -- or reservse, lengthen what you thought would be a short period?
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CathinCoffeland
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| Posted: Sept 22 2007 at 5:42pm | IP Logged
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My dc are little so its still basic...baby, 3 yrold and 1st grader but looking at our day we have short or long learning times based on how we are approaching the subject rather than some subjects being long or short..
I was wondering if this would be the same for older kids too.
For example- dd and I might spend 15 minutes working on math facts but spend an hour the next day reading living math stories or cooking.
We might spend 10 minutes reading books about plants from the library but spend 2 hours in the garden.
We dont really plan it that way but after 15 minutes of math facts i know im ready to stop! 
Maggie
oh and the single biggest factor on short/longer lessons would be the baby's nap 
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vmalott
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| Posted: Sept 22 2007 at 8:11pm | IP Logged
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Weeeelllll....
Their independent work is done pretty much ala CM, that is, short lessons. These subjects include math, handwriting/copywork, and spelling, and they are done on a daily basis.
Then they move onto the "family studies" subjects: history, science, music, art, geography, nature study (I think that covers it???). Depending on the day of the week, they'll be working on a different subject. Mondays are more hands-on here and less academic, following Elizabeth's lead by trying to regroup after hectic sports-filled weekends.  The rest of the week it's usually assigned reading and projects for history and science.
While I would love for the kids to dig deeper and to utilize the block schedule approach, they are pretty much in the mindset of "let's see how quickly we can get all this stuff over with" so they can back to doing what they want to do. ::sigh:: Needless to say, I have been reading those Waldorf threads with very mixed emotions. 
Valerie
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Sept 22 2007 at 9:37pm | IP Logged
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I find it a very natural rhythm for us to spend long blocks of time on subjects that interest us. In fact, it is more often than not the case that we spend so much time on one subject that little else gets done in a day. Somehow the time just slips away...
I used to let it get to me and think that we were not getting enough done, but my dh is always good to remind me that deep is as good as wide, and often better.
The things we keep short:
for ds: math, usually, though sometimes if it is a project it may run on and on...
For dd: phonics practice. She gets frustrated if we spend too much time on it, so we do very short chunks. And she also does lots of little short activities on her own through the day, like puzzles, cards, etc.
Things that can take up an entire day (or half day) science, nature, writing, religion, art, geography, history, etc. Whichever we happen to be involved in. Our current unit studies are so much fun that we often forget to eat lunch. I do try to shift gears at lunch and work on something different in the afternoon to keep it fresh. But that is not a hard and fast rule by any means.
Willa asked how does one fill a long block without getting bored or distracted? For us it is by looking at a subject through many lenses, by doing lots of hands-on, by adding art, by reading aloud, and just letting our thoughts and imaginations lead the way.As I said, it just comes more naturally to us than trying to do many things in short chunks.
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ALmom
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| Posted: Sept 24 2007 at 9:17am | IP Logged
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Well, keeping at something for a long time is easy in our house - actually what might happen without mom at all - one child would do science from morning to night (all project and reading based with absolutely no writing) and another child would read history and maybe come up with projects. She likes to write but wouldn't necessarily write unless there was something she was asked to write about. This child would do nothing in math or science.
We have learned to set x amount of time per subject (amount of time per subject depends on child's age and abilities) and leave the favorite subjects toward the end of the day - this way, we do not totally neglect things like math and writing but keep them short and daily. Favorite or passion based subjects are scheduled at the end of the day for one of mine(by child's request) so that time for this is open -ended. She told me that part of how she got behind in math (this is a highschooler) is that she got so involved in her history that she lost track of time and then there never was time for anything but History, Latin and maybe a little bit of Lit.
For some of my others, the least favorite subjects are kept very short (20 min. or less) and the other subjects time spent is up to them. I have quite a few boys who like math so math gets done very regularly and painlessly - they like having at least 45 minutes on this. With my youngest school age child, I don't worry too much. I try to cover the basics and then they are free to choose whatever from the Montessori. My time with this child is spent with reading practice, handwriting, math, religion and read aloud time.
Janet
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AnaB
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| Posted: Sept 24 2007 at 2:19pm | IP Logged
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We seem to go on rabbit trails after a subject, but I don't plan long lesson times. My children seem to loose interest or get that glazed over look if I go over 20-30 minutes on a subject. Now THEY may take off from our study of Mercury or the Sumerians and do their own learning, but for me and my planning, I find that it's best for me to plan on short lessons and let them go on their rabbit trails if they get interested.
My kids too, are interested in getting things done and moving. Right now, they've built a maze out of cardboard bricks for their hamster. We are supposed to be doing Latin! I find that it takes alot of discernment to know when to push them forward and when to let them have fun!
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Willa
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vmalott wrote:
While I would love for the kids to dig deeper and to utilize the block schedule approach, they are pretty much in the mindset of "let's see how quickly we can get all this stuff over with" so they can back to doing what they want to do. ::sigh:: Needless to say, I have been reading those Waldorf threads with very mixed emotions.
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That is basically what my present set of kids is like. While I appreciate their efficiency, I am trying to slow them down just a bit. I suppose it will not be an overnight process.
I am enjoying all the answer!
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Martha
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I give short lessons, usually not more than 30 minutes.
They can choose to make them long if they like it. Or in the case of attitude being the reason for the extended lesson, if they don't like it.
Art/activity stuff always takes longer of course.
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marihalojen
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This thread sparked a great discussion between Marianna and I last night, she adores the idea of long lessons for certain subjects, science and history in particular, but for others, like spelling, she prefers having a short lesson.
So it looks like we will be having themed days of the week this year - "Science Tuesdays" or "History Thursdays"
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lapazfarm
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marihalojen wrote:
This thread sparked a great discussion between Marianna and I last night, she adores the idea of long lessons for certain subjects, science and history in particular, but for others, like spelling, she prefers having a short lesson.
So it looks like we will be having themed days of the week this year - "Science Tuesdays" or "History Thursdays" |
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That was exactly the discussion here this weekend! Afterwards I came up with this poem to describe our days:
A Schedule In Verse
Monday is for mostly math
You値l watch your DVD.
We値l master fractions and have time
To do geometry.
Tuesday is our writing day
At teatime we write letters.
And when that痴 done you can work some
To make your great book better.
Wednesday is a science day
We値l try to answer why,
Things move and work and live and grow
In water, land and sky.
Thursday is geography
We値l travel far and wide,
From continent to continent
What treasures will we find?
Friday is for Faith and Life
We値l read and talk and pray,
And go outside to learn about
What God has made this day.
And every day no matter what
The task at hand may be,
With pencil, brush and colors bright
We値l work creatively.
Once in a while, (now shhh! don稚 tell)
We値l simply walk away,
Just leave it all and heed the call
To go outside and play!
For every day is a learning day
As you can plainly see,
We grow in virtue and in love
And knowledge sets us free.
So that is the plan. For now we will work our Harry Potter and Beatrix Potter units into that schedule and then when we finish those we will just continue with the schedule and see how it goes. Monday math went very well, btw.
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Erin
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My highschooler is doing short lessons for spelling, dictation, copywork. But as she likes maths she will spend a fair amount of time on it.
As I mentioned in another thread we are trying the block approach with our LA and maths. So far it is working well, most of my children like maths so for them it is not a chore, and for the child who doesn't he is thrilled to only be doing maths two days a week The LA block is mostly to give lots of time for writing as I was finding it wasn't happening. I have found I do need to be specific here in my desired outcome or nothing is produced. Still in the polishing process here.
Then it is science two days a week for an hour block and geography on the other three days. Faith readings are about an hour.
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SusanJ
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I love the poem! 
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Willa
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Theresa, that is extremely cool!
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Willa
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stefoodie
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Theresa, I'm printing the poem out! Love it!
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vmalott
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Erin wrote:
| As I mentioned in another thread we are trying the block approach with our LA and maths. |
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Linky, linky, please, Erin?
I think I get how to arrange block scheduling for history and science. I think I have it engrained in my head that math and LA should be completed every day. So, would you mind elaborating on how you approach LA and math w/block scheduling? I'm ever so curious.
Valerie
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Erin
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Valerie
My apologies  I was referring to this post, where I shared what we are trialling.
On a practical note it looks like this: Monday and Tuesday we do maths from 8.30-10am, I also try to squeeze in some time to listen to my two budding readers, in reality they often are listened to later. In this time we complete the same amount of pages in our workbooks as we would over a week, three pages a day of their Singapore Maths, we play games, recite the times table and all going well read some maths picture books or Exploring Maths by John Hudson Tiner for the older ones. My dc love maths except for ds12. The real reality is I'm often having to sit with him for EVERY sum  I'm trying to accept that it will be this way for a long time, the fallout of this is we don't always get all the above achieved  the other factor I'm trying to juggle is my dd5 really needs some one on one time. But still I'm really happy we're trialling it this way.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we use the morning session for LA. I've cut out spelling and grammar, but we are keeping dictation and copywork. I took a look at what we really needed to achieve and how could we still achieve it in the streamlined manner as possible. The main area I wanted to happen was creative writing, in any form. It was just not happening as I was trying to squeeze it in, for creativity to happen we needed a chunk of time. Through editing I felt that they would have to improve their spelling and naturally do grammar. They are also attacking spelling through dictation anyhow. After a disastrous first week I have decided to micro-manage this area (actually I'm doing a big micro-manage in all areas at present ) So I have written on the children's charts, part of my process to teach independence, how much I expect. ie. ds12 1 page, ds10 1/2 page, ds8, 1 paragraph. It may not quite be Brave Writer but that wasn't working Maybe once the discipline is in place it may.
After morning tea we have a two hour block were we do our Faith reading and at present science or geography.
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vmalott
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Thanks for explaining it...now I can see math can reach far beyond doing sums on a piece of paper.  Don't know why I totally forgot about living math and fun, hands-on stuff like games.
And LA has been clarified too. I wasn't sure if you lumped together spelling, grammar, etc. or were concentrating more on writing.
Sounds like a great idea...I hope it continues to work well for you, despite having to micro-manage for now.
Valerie
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Elizabeth
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Theresa,
If I send you my schedule will you write my kids a poem? How totally cool!
Oh, and I'm finding big blocks is really making me feel less frantic this year.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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lapazfarm
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Thanks, ladies. The poem was really just a lark (and I'm no Shel Silverstein), but it really is pretty much our schedule.
One benefit I am finding is that it is so much easier for me to keep the flow going through the day because I only have to concentrate on one subject. Even though we may approach it from many angles, it is just easier for me to stay focused when it is all tied together.
Language arts day went really,really well today. I'll share what we did just as another example of block scheduling.
We started off all together with our read-aloud (Beatrix Potter) then ds had a little math to finish up while dd narrated the story to me. Then ds did a freewrite while I worked with dd on her pink language materials. She had a great time with the command cards because she got to "Hop", "Mop", and "Pet the cat." (bonus, my hallway floor is spotless!).
Then she did some Draw.Write.Now while ds researched and wrote a paragraph about Hippogriffs for his Hogwarts unit. That took ds most of the morning, but he did get some independent reading in as well. At teatime we wrote letters, then ds worked on his book while dd and I did some writing and painting for her Beatrix Potter notebook and played a phonics game.
We had a late start so did not get to grammar with ds, but all in all a good bit accomplished.
I can't wait for tomorrow!
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marihalojen
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Theresa, the poem is fabulous! Love it!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Long Lessons or Short
