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Martha
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Reading what Marilyn wrote about all her subjects and then thinking about what we are doing, got me thinking...
How do you actually get it done?
We are needing to redo our schedule. I think I need to do some kind of block scheduling maybe..
We have Seton full enrollment:
Literature
Grammar/Comp
Physical Science
Saxon Math
Religion
Spanish
Plus we have:
Vocabulary building
Greek Literature & History (just reading & discussion)
Drafting
Electronics
I'd like to break this down into blocks.
2 subjects in the morning that are all year long.
2 subjects in the afternoon that will be completed in a semester, then move to two other subjects each the next semester.
But I can't seem to wrap my brain around which to do when. I'm thinking spanish and math need to be all year long...
opinions on my theory?
care to share your own schedule?
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Martha
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Bookswithtea
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I did some block scheduling with my 10th grader last year. Doing English and History in 10 week blocks (on average) was fine. I regret trying to do science and Spanish in a block. In hindsight, in addition to Math and Religion, I wish I had block studied foreign language and science.
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KackyK
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I don't do any blocks with my older dc. Basically starting in the middle grades, they become responsible for getting their own work done in the order they choose. So I have a planner for each child. I fill out a week's worth of assignments at a time. Each day, they know what is expected of them. I also write down on their planners any time we might be out of the house during that day so they can make room. Then when they "hit the books" after prayer time, they make their schedule essentially. They don't necessarily do the same thing each day either, that is what I sit down and plan when writing their planners.
This has worked well for us, so the child who likes to wake up and begin immediately, before prayer (and sometimes breakfast) can do so, and the child who is slow to wake up , and always waits till after prayer, begins then.
Since I have 6 dc schooling at one time, 6 different grades, they go about their "work" (the littlests have workdrawers they do without me) and then I circulate throughout the morning to see how everyone is doing and to do the work that must be done with mom. I have some Rightstart users, so they don't do math till I come around. I always chat about the religion assignment of the day with each. And the littlests actually get more of my daily attention, one on one, since there is phonics to be done.
I tried blocks...didn't work for our family because everyone wanted to go at a different pace. Sometimes I have sprinkled in unit studies that encompass more than one child, but those don't have a set a "time".
Probably not very helpful! 
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ALmom
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Getting it done. lets see, the most effective means in our house is:
plans for the child (I do write it with all subjects per day per the child's request - but the child adjusts accordingly as long as they meet the deadlines and get it done) I do sometimes adjust, particularly if it is obvious that we were clearly overly optimistic.
training in how to upload their own work in those situations where we are outsourcing some.
plans for science time with dad. He explains better than I do in this subject so we know a day that he is off work, home early, etc. - I give a heads up so they can adjust to the opportunity.
Post it notes for communication - and one set place for us to put them. Also a place to set work to be corrected, checked,etc.
Responsibility for getting me to discuss something is on them - I have a note in the plan that I want to discuss xyz with them or they need to recite something to me or ..... They have to tell me when they get there.
I remind them of certain efficiency things - like wrap up a paper before taking break (you just have to remember where you were and what all your ideas were all over again if you postpone it till after a long vacation. Same goes for tests in major areas of difficulty. Don't leave stuff hanging.
Having an outside source of accountability in some of the things that just take me a long time (looking over papers). We still talk about the ideas in the papers - but the idea of developing as a writer, I just am not a good help. My children already have all my strengths and my weaknesses. They need a little input from someone else. The timliness of having this input from the outside source, and the confidence it engenders means less spinning of wheels. We're all for that.
The biggest thing for me is to not plan too much - If I followed all the plans out there, my child would not be able to breath. The reality is that we cannot do all that I would like to do. I have to decide how deeply we need to go in something, how carefully I want something done. Ie do we do this just to grapple with the ideas, to practice writing or both. I modify according to our intentions. We pick and chose assignments based on what the child needs and what we see as important - not just that it was on the list of whichever plans we are following. I also have to take into account my child's own style. She is overwhelmed by too much detail at first but given and assigned less, she will dig very deeply. If given too much, she gets overwhelmed, doesn't finish things, and does a more cursory job at it. Block learning has worked wonders for others, for us it was major disaster. DD just took as long to do one subject as she was taking to do it when she had a bunch of things. Same things with activities - some folks cannot have too much outside the home, others are motivated to finish in order to do the activities outside the home. You take what works. Our dd is way more efficient now with outside things to look forward to.
Handing over the school to them in a certain sense. I am not stressing about when we finish. We are due to graduate this year by age and such - if the work is done, we graduate; if not, we graduate when the work is done. The deadline to her is suddenly more real and she is doing a much better job of actually staying on track. If we need more time to understand something, it really doesn't matter if we take 4 1/2 or 5 years - does to her, but in the long scheme of things it is not a big deal. When I stopped stressing, she started doing more.
I don't know if it is the sanguine in my first 2 that has made it harder for them to be on track - but structure, coupled with some fun activity to look forward to seem to be the key with them figuring this out. My choleric, melancholic has never been behind - ever. I understand him much better. These sanguine's have had me baffled for years, and stressing and wondering if we'd ever finish. When I let it go, they picked up the ball. Maybe I'll learn by the time I have to do this again with my other sanguine.
Janet
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Tami
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I've been thinking about doing this with a middle schooler...
Martha, why not do the math and Spanish for 1 hour each day, all year long? Then that would leave you with another block time in the morning.
And Kacky, what planner do you use for your children? (not to hijack, or anything. Really. )
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Kristie 4
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Hmmmm...this is the sticking point here too Martha! It seems we can just do a couple things a day well- at that point I will be homeschooling them in my rocker!
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KackyK
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Tami I use the Good News Planners
There are a couple of threads floating around here about them too.
LIke here and here and you can find it in other places too. Just search for the phrase "good news planners". I don't use a teacher planner, just the student ones.
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Tami
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KackyK wrote:
Tami I use the Good News Planners
There are a couple of threads floating around here about them too.
LIke here and here and you can find it in other places too. Just search for the phrase "good news planners". I don't use a teacher planner, just the student ones. |
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Thanks, Kacky! 
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Tami
When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become. (Nouwen)
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MarilynW
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Martha wrote:
How do you actually get it done?
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Ah Martha, 'tis the question 
OK - my dd is having to develop organization and time management skills - probably the toughest thing on the curriculum this year!
The main problems I am having are:
1) Finding time to spend with her on her work before night or weekends
2) Getting going in the morning (me that is - I just find we are slow right now so work later in the evening)
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Martha
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#1 is killing me too Marilyn!
And organization abilities is his toughest course too!
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Kristie 4
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I would say #1 and #2 are killing me Marilyn!
Ditto on the organization and science for my ds in 9th!
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MarilynW
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ALmom wrote:
Handing over the school to them in a certain sense. I am not stressing about when we finish. We are due to graduate this year by age and such - if the work is done, we graduate; if not, we graduate when the work is done. The deadline to her is suddenly more real and she is doing a much better job of actually staying on track. If we need more time to understand something, it really doesn't matter if we take 4 1/2 or 5 years - does to her, but in the long scheme of things it is not a big deal.
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Janet - this is what I planned to do. But all of a sudden I am feeling transcript panicked. When I saw Angela's transcript sample from Ave Maria - for the first time I realized that you have to put dates on your transcript. I thought I would only have to put Grade 9, Grade 10 etc - and that it would not have to say how long each took..
How do you work round this on your transcripts - do you prepare your own or use Kolbe/something else?
(apologies for being a bit transcript fixated - must be the fact I never had to do one in England - it is the great unknown to me!!)
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Martha
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I don't think you HAVE to put start/end dates for each grade. I've seen many transcript samples that don't do it that way. Rather they state expected date of graduataion.
Am I off here ladies?
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Martha
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ALmom
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Oh, I should add that the deadline for them is suddenly more real because they have their own plans. Dd just daddled till she got interested in fire fighting. She can only be a junior till a certain age, then she either has to join the fire dept. or get out. She wants to join the fire dept - but you have to have a high school diploma. Suddenly it means something.
Older dd did chemistry in half a year. There was something that suddenly made finishing school important to her - and based on past history, she was so scared that it would just drag out that she was very intense on this. By golly she wsa going to get it done.
Our experience was no one paid any attention to any dates on the transcript. Our dd finished in 4 years - but took 2 years to do Biology and then half year to do Chemistry (though I don't think anyone could tell from the transcript that it took her half a year for Chemistry since we didn't report grades until the usual times and the date that goes on the transcript is the date we actually submit the grade.
Aaah,it is so much easier when they are goal oriented, organized by nature and such. But life is interesting with these more artsy types who seem to be fun loving and motivated by fun. It stresses this choleric/melancholic to the core of her being. I want all my duckies in a row - the sooner the better, please!
Janet
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Angel
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Marilyn, I didn't mean to scare you with that link!
In all my books on homeschooling high school, the transcripts are varied. Most of them use dates, I think, because they seem to have classes done here and there, over the summer, etc. But some of the samples don't use dates.
I was looking at Ave Maria's form more closely and realizing they also have all the course titles written down for you, so you don't get to invent more interesting names than "English I" or 9 or whatever they actually have it as.
If you didn't want your dd to graduate young, I bet you could make some "combo years". I would probably try to make an 8th/9th grade combo. If you had a couple that span a year and a half, high school would take 5 years. Or you could have a long senior year, I guess.
I imagine that I'll end up calling most of the colleges where my ds will be going anyway; the way we do things is just too weird sometimes for me not to have questions. So I imagine that when it comes time to do the application, someone at Ave Maria could give you some guidance.
Ok, back to the getting things done conversation... 
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Natalia
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My dd(16) does her own scheduling. For most of her subjects we follow the Classical Conversations curriculum guide. Since she has to have her work done for class day on Tuesdays, she plans accordingly. I have tried to do the schedule for her but it didn't work. I print assignment sheets from Donny Young's website and she distribute her work for the week. She usually starts with Math and then do the other subjects. I have noticed that sometimes she will do all the work pertaining a subject on one day (for example all of her Logic). The most difficult part is( and what we butt heads about) is the time she allots to papers. Most weeks she ends up having to do some work on the weekends because of her ballet schedule, she is out of the house a lot. Last semester she was taking some Dual Enrollment classes and so she also had a deadline for those. I guess I would say that having a deadline is the most motivating factor for her to get her school work done.
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Martha
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Okay, shame-faced question here...
For those of you that say they are doing their own schedules...
What, exactly, do you mean by that? If it was just getting it done - I wouldn't have a problem.
It's the grading, correcting, study for quiz/exam, and so forth that is dragging us. He does need me for that. And if I wait until Friday, he is hugely frustrated bc he has made the same mistake for a week and might as well start over. Plus - what about discussions? I can't just ditch all the other kids whenever he decides to do something. Well I guess I could, but I won't and I'm fairly certain you ladies aren't operating like that either?
Am I doing too much? Is he just too immature comparitively and not doing enough? He can follow a checklist or lesson plan for just geting it done. It's all the other stuff that I can't see him just going to his room and comming out done.
I'm not being snarky. I'm seriously asking bc this is a HUGE big honkin point of contention here and I would love to have that change.
Posting before I chicken out of my shameful confession...
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Martha
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As for block scheduling...
Setting a time doesn't work. It's highly frustrating to end a math lesson half way thorugh for example. Usually what I do is have a ballpark idea of how long a subject lesson takes and focus on progression through lesson(s) rather than a time frame.
So what I would like to do judging by how this semester is currently plodding along...
Math all year bc it's his toughest subject and he really can't be going an entire semester without it.
Spanish all year bc I feel foreign language is one of those things that if you don't use it - you loose it, kwim? (And it's one of his favs.)
Science in one semester.
Religion in one semester.
Vocabulary in one semester.
Then next semester we will continue the math and spanish and focus on getting English lit
Gram and Comp done in a semester.
The drafting, electronics, and greek are electives that he can do around the other stuff as time and inclination permit. He enjoys them greatly and they require nearly nothing on my part, so I'm not too worried about them not getting done.
Opinions? Does this sound realistic and doable?
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Angie Mc
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Martha wrote:
It's the grading, correcting, study for quiz/exam, and so forth that is dragging us. He does need me for that. ...I'm not being snarky. I'm seriously asking bc this is a HUGE big honkin point of contention here and I would love to have that change.
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Martha snarky . Sorry, friend, but that just cracked me up.
I think I hear what you are saying and I'm going to try to share my experience...but it may take me a post or two/tree.
Because of who I am and how our family runs, I'm mainly a macro-level thinker. I look at the big picture which means I give each of my teens ~ six years to "get stuff done." The best example I have is Algebra with my dd. Tried it in 8th grade - bombed. Tried it differently in 9th grade - bombed. Started it again in 10th grade - better. Comped into a math course at community college - better. Took 3 math classes plus tutored math as a Junior and Senior - best. Bumped her SAT math score her senior year enough to hit scholarship level. In this case, I stopped "doing grading, correcting, study for quiz/exam," until she could do it herself. I know this sounds harsh but, if my time is being disproportionately spent on a teen, I tend to shift gears - to discern if there is a problem with developmental readiness (if so, I will wait a good six months, then try it again - yes even maths) OR if there is a character issue involved. Character issues have included, but are not limited to  , sloth, passive-aggressive behaviors, lying, sneaking, not doing what is hard first, spending too much time on outside activities, poor time managment, lack of honest personal evaluation, frozen in fear, withdrawal, etc. My dh and I see it as a disservice to "do for" our teens when they can at least try to do for themselves. We need to watch them fail and pick themselves up again, and again, and again. Now before you all think I'm a big meany, read serving teens.
Martha, I hope to add more of our experience until it gets down to the daily grind - from macro level to micro level - which really is so important, but I need to run.
I'm always looking for ways to improve our days and am happy for this topic!
Love,
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Martha
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I don't think you are mean at all! In fact, son in question has no assigned chores bc I felt we needed to serve him some too for many of the reasons you gave.
I am willing to wait and even back peddle. In fact that's one reason I want to do block scheduling. If gives a semester of "waiting" and lightens the daily grind a bit.
I'm anxiously awaiting more insight!
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: getting the actual work done?
