4 day vs 5 day week

[mendaymom]

I will be starting HOD this year with my 14 year-old daughter (WG) and my 13 year old son (Rev-Rev). As I understand it, the schedules have put 5 days of work into 4 days. This, as far as I can tell, will make for some long days especially in high school. Has anyone opted to stretch out the workload over 5 days? If so, how do you schedule the work?
Lisa

[StephanieU]

I think the estimate once you get going for WG is about 7 hours. Although that is a long day, it isn't SUPER long.

[Nealewill]

The WG guide is scheduled for 6.5 hours a day and the Rev to Rev guide is approximately 5 hours.

While my kids are younger, the guide that my oldest is in takes about 4.5 hours to complete 4 days per week. It isn't as bad as it may seem to getting it done in that time frame each day. I schedule slack in my day and it goes pretty well. We also study Latin and Greek so my oldest's day usually takes around 5-5.5 hours a day depending on how focused she is or if there are challenging things that need to be completed in a day. I find that we schedule 3 hours before lunch, take a 2 hour lunch and then finish up with 1-2 hours after lunch. All is good There is a lot of hands on things scheduled in HOD so they kids are always bogged down with hard concepts.

As for spreading it out, you could just set a time limit each day. Once your kids reach the time limit, then they close up shop and start where they left off the next day. That might me they don't do grammar or writing everyday. That is okay. They will be doing all 4 days worth of assignments over 5 days anyway. As for how much time to schedule - consider 4 hours a day for Rev to Rev (based on 5 hours per day x 4 days per week = 20 hours per week / 5 days = 4 hours per day) and the WG would be scheduled approximately 5.25 hours per day (6.5 hours per day x 4 days per week = 26 hours / 5 days per week = 5.25 per day).

[my3sons]

The living library is included in that time allotment, and that is optional (though well worth the extra 30 minute IMHO ). High school credits require that amount of time, which we did take time to explain to our high school aged ds when he began high school. He spreads the work out between early morning to late lunch, and then an hour or so at night (when he usually reads the living library book because he cannot put it down). A flexible schedule is something to take advantage of in homeschooling, especially in high school. I'd talk to your high school aged students and see what they each prefer (early morning, in the evening, spread out, all together in the day, etc.). We did 5 days' worth of plans the first year of high school, as in Unit 1 Days 1-4 AND Unit 2 Day 1 the first week, etc. because my son wanted to homeschool 'hard' through the 'hard' winter. Last year we did 4 days a week, taking 1 day a week off, but he often finished out the art project on that day. This year, he wants to go back to 5 days' worth of plans each week - he loves his spring fishing with my dh and his summers and his deer hunting in the winter! So, I guess I'd talk with your dc and see what they'd like. Much of the work for this age needs to be independent, so they should get a say-so in how the day lays out. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Nealewill]

I keep coming back to your comment about homeschooling hard during the winter. I am going to be spending some time praying about this one! DITHOR would be the only thing we wouldn't homeschool hard since I have modified this schedule a little bit to be able to teach all 3 kids at the same time. But to work on getting one guide done in year and to do it with this format seems very appealing! It always seems like by spring, no one wants to do school. So if we did this format, we could have a lot more time off once we are ready for it.

[Mumkins]

My oldest son has decided he wants to fast track highschool. So, 5 days a week, Sept-June, starting a new guide when he comes to it. He wishes to use the extra time he saves to work and save up for tuition and a car before he goes off to university.