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DianaC
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Posted: June 10 2008 at 9:12am | IP Logged Quote DianaC

I've read so often that people only spend 15-20 minutes on a subject per day and I am wondering how that works.
I am only schooling one child and most subjects take us soooo much longer.

When we sit down to read our devotions/daily bible readings we usually take about an hour. Math takes us about 1 1/2 hours. If we do a project of any sort, it usually takes us the whole afternoon. With the exception of workbooks (or writing assignments), my daughter really seems to get into whatever subject we are working on. Occasionally she dawdles, but mostly she is just really involved with what we are doing.

I don't want to be constantly rushing her and setting 15 minute time limits, but I also don't want to work at schooling all day long. It seems to me that we should be able to cover everything needed and be done in about 3 hours.

Any suggestions?
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mama251ders
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Posted: June 10 2008 at 11:30am | IP Logged Quote mama251ders

We just work for 20 minutes and then call it a day for that subject. Sometimes it takes more than one day to finish a particular lesson, but I feel like this makes school so much more enjoyable and productive.

That said, I think that if she is really engrossed with a particular subject, you could stay on it for as long as she tolerates it. I have found that if I interrupt somethings my kids are intent on, they get very surly. However, if I make them go longer than the 20 minutes on something that they like less, they also get surly! I think whatever works for you is great!

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missionfamily
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Posted: June 10 2008 at 12:02pm | IP Logged Quote missionfamily

I think there are two things to remember here:

We don't have to get too wrapped up in the exact number of minutes. 15, 20, 30 is not as much the point as training the child to commit his full attention to something and work with sustained effort...and to call it quits before he wears down into frustration, inattention, and lack of diligence.

For reading aloud and subjects that we are doing in unit study style or blocks, I do not follow this rule of thumb. But for math, copywork, dictation, grammar work...our nuts and bolts subjects, I do. I try to take my cues from the child, not the clock. If a child has given good effort and done good work for a while and we are nearing our 15 or 20 minute mark, I give him a point at which he can stop...when you finish that problem or that sentence or that page.

Some kids like to keep working until they finish, others are thrilled for the rescue. If I feel like they really need to accomplish more in a particular subject that day, we do a second short lesson later in the day.

Hope that helps.

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JodieLyn
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Posted: June 10 2008 at 12:38pm | IP Logged Quote JodieLyn

I agree with Colleen.. I've also been known to add on just one more section for those that are whipping through whatever..

But I've had one child that I've done learning to read stuff in as little as one minute increments. She wanted to read so badly but literally could not remember phonics from one minute to the next. We went with flash cards and sight words to give her success but because of how frustrating the phonics had been.. we would literally only work as long as she could manage.. and at first it was a few words and about a minute of time.. but as she gained confidence we would work longer.. very much like Colleen said.. you watch the child not the clock.

I would seriously look at what you're requiring for a days worth of work. 1.5 hrs on math for instance seems rather excessive. If that is only one lesson worth.. perhaps you need to break each into 2 days..

You don't mention what age/grade it is you're dealing with though. The higher grades will take more time than the lower grades.

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DianaC
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Posted: June 10 2008 at 2:22pm | IP Logged Quote DianaC

Thank you for the replies.

My daughter is 8. We do spend the most time on math because that is her favorite and along with the day's lesson, we play a math game or two. Often she asks "can we play again" and we usually do.

With history, she is much the same: can we read another chapter, can we listen to another chapter (audio tape), and she enjoys the mapwork and narration for history, so she'll ask to continue.

Most days I tell her "no, that's it for today", but I feel torn because if she wants to continue, I don't want to discourage her.

Her reading has improved tremendously this year, so I've increased the number of books that we pick up from the library for each topic that we're studying and I let her choose lots more pleasure reading selections. (This way she can continue in a particular topic on her own through independent reading)

Now, the opposite is true for any writing/workbook work/coloring. Getting her interested in any of this work is akin to drawing blood from a turnip. But, any kind of reading/hands-on/interactive work has her full attention.
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missionfamily
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Posted: June 10 2008 at 3:09pm | IP Logged Quote missionfamily

Diana--Perhaps you could give her a list of what you would like her to accomplish that day and decide an appropriate time to be finished, then say something like, "If we finish the work on our list by _____, we'll take an hour this afternoon to work on anything you would like to."

How does she feel about nature study/outside time? If she likes that, maybe that would be a way to coax her to finish up more quickly?

It sounds as though she may like the learning, but in addition the structure and attention she gets from you. IF that is the case and you really need to wrap up because you need to move on to other tasks, maybe inviting her to participate in those in some way would encourage her to move along.

And as she becomes a more independent reader, it could work itself out, because she will be able to just spend a lot of her time reading independently once the work of the day is done and it won't require you to be present to her all the time.

Hope some of this helps.

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cathhomeschool
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Posted: June 10 2008 at 9:05pm | IP Logged Quote cathhomeschool

DianaC wrote:
Now, the opposite is true for any writing/workbook work/coloring. Getting her interested in any of this work is akin to drawing blood from a turnip. But, any kind of reading/hands-on/interactive work has her full attention.


Well, I can't say I'd blame her! If I were used to hands-on, interactive work and living literature, I wouldn't be interested in workbooks either. (Unless my personality was built that way, and hers isn't.) Writing and coloring -- There are many ways to "narrate" without coloring or writing. If she's having trouble forming letters, then I'd have her practice a bit each day. If it's not a mechanical issue but merely an interest issue, I'd leave her alone. If you would like "documentation" of what she's doing, then type for her as she speaks, make collages, use stickers, print out pictures, take photos of projects and let her dictate a caption...

Editing to add that, yes, if she's happy spending a large block of time on something, don't cut it off. Habit of attention is the goal, not short lessons. Short lessons help form the habit of attention because you stop the lesson before they get distracted.

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