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Mary G
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 8:53am | IP Logged
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Right before I start back to full-time schooling, I always try to read a few curriculum books to get all jazzed ...
Last night I read Catherine Levison's A Charlotte Mason Education (it was on the "back to school" kiosk at the library!). This is a very pithy overview of CM's philosophies and how to implement in your own home. Levison REALLY stresses the 15-20 minute "class" time -- to the point where she sets a timer and they stop whatever they're doing and move on....
Does this really work? It seems that a more organic approach (some days you spend hours playing math games and another day barely 5 minutes on math facts) would work better. I can understand having a time limit if the child is getting frustrated -- no point in beating a tired dog, is there?
So do any stick with this time issue? Do your kids like it? Do you get done everything you need to?
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MaryG
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Elizabeth
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I definitely do not stick to time limits. If it's something like a drill, I don't "make" anyone do more than 15 minutes, but quiet concentration is gold around here and I'd never interrupt to move on because time's up.
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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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Meredith
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MaryG wrote:
| This is a very pithy overview of CM's philosophies and how to implement in your own home. Levison REALLY stresses the 15-20 minute "class" time -- to the point where she sets a timer and they stop whatever they're doing and move on.... |
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I really like her book for it's conciseness, but I always thought this was a little unrealistic. If my kids want to keep going with Math and a timer has just gone off, am I going to STOP THEM, no way 
I DO like the idea of keeping things from droning on and on, especially if they are just wasting time  which of course, NEVER happens at my house 
Blessings!
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LLMom
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 10:16am | IP Logged
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I move on after 15 minutes if I see them getting tired, frustrated or bored. (unless they are older and we go for a longer set time) Otherwise we keep going.
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Mary G
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| Posted: July 31 2007 at 12:26pm | IP Logged
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So, am I right in assuming that y'all have flex-schedules -- rather than set 15-20 time blocks? I really like the idea of keeping things fluid and altho my corporate self would love to have everything scheduled "just so"  , my mom-side says, "lighten up"!
I'm so glad everyone agrees with me
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MaryG
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alicegunther
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Oh, yes Mary, we are with you! I do think the answer in our house is, "it depends." When Charlotte Mason wrote about short lessons, she was coming against the kind of mind numbing education that required little children to sit for hours working on a Latin lesson or memorizing dates. She saw that this had a dulling effect and was actually counterproductive, so she advocated short, pithy lessons during the morning hours, moving one subject to the next to keep their interest up. This I truly believe in, although it requires tons of planning and perfect organization to pull off well. I usually fall far short in this area!
CM expected children to read and read and read in order to learn, and this she would not have limited to fifteen or twenty minute intervals. She also allowed hours for nature study, art, narration and certain other pursuits without any limits.
I like to sit down with a list of goals for the year, naming each subject. A few naturally lend themselves to compact, concentrated lessons in the morning. (These might include Latin, Math Drill, Spelling, Catechism Questions, Copywork.) For other subjects, particularly those requiring creativity on the part of the student, time limits would not be useful.
That being said, it is almost August, and I have done NO PLANNING FOR THIS YEAR! I'll be reading closely for ideas the next few weeks! 
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lapazfarm
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Very flexible here. I do believe in short lessons. But I also think there is a difference in "lessons" and independent work such as projects, research, etc. I consider lessons to be when I am actively working with a child to help him/her understand or solidify a concept. This I tend to limit to approx 10-15 minutes. If a child is working along on something on his/her own, then they basically set their own time limit based on interest and attention. Things like read-alouds, art/crafts, and science projects, however, may go on all day. I think it is good for us to have variety in our days.
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simplemama
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I'm glad you asked this question, I just read either the same book or one simililar to it. I have noticed though with my daughter, who is only 3.5, does generally follow a 10-20 minute attention span when working on activities. She can pretend play all day though! :)
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missionfamily
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I let my kids time things like copywork, spelling, and math. Rather than schedule a certain lesson a day, we set the timer to fifteen minutes, then add five if they would like to continue working. Occasionally, they would rather finish the rest of the lesson than stop and I let them. I do not time history, read-aloud, religion, etc...(now that I write it, I realize it's the things I like ). Onr thing I like about timing those more intensive things is that I can set something up for the littlies that occupies them for that block of time, then move on to the next thing and give them something new to do...or 20 minutes is exactly right for nursing a baby and sharing a board book with a toodler, so if I set everyone up with copywork and set the timer, we are all engaged during that time. That's how I use that whole 15-20 minute thing.
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Leonie
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I have used the short lessons idea when dealing with areas that encouraged one or more sons to dawdle - different areas at different times of our lives.
Fopr some it was formal maths, for others copywork or handwriting or journal writing, perhaps music practice, silent reading. Having a timer with the notion that this work/lesson was set for 15 minutes, helped to prevent dawdling from becoming a habit.
We have an organic learning structure to our days in general, but I like to keep a few tips, like short lessons, up my sleeve, just in case.
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Topic: 15-20 minute lesson times?
