A little schedule change, and WOW

[mindywp]

Julie,

Thank you so much for your detailed reply, you really helped me understand how to "work" the older guides. I guess I felt like I was doing my dd a disservice by sitting with her so much, when in reality I was helping her learn the routine of the guide. This is only our second year homeschooling, so I still question myself a lot! (maybe that's a mom thing too)

I have one more question....when your ds is doing his independent work, how often do you check on his progress & understanding of the material? Do you check on him periodically, or have him place his work aside where you then review it?

I completely agree with you on the Devotional time. We are really enjoying Beautiful Girlhood & I can't believe how relevant the information is. We also refer back to chapters we have read when they apply to something going on in our life. Not only does the information apply to my dd, but to me as well, I wish I would have known about this book when I was her age.

Thank you again for all your help.

Mindy

[my3sons]

I am glad something helped there!

...I have one more question....when your ds is doing his independent work, how often do you check on his progress & understanding of the material? Do you check on him periodically, or have him place his work aside where you then review it?

He hands in his work on the counter in the kitchen, and I check it as time allows. I have recently figured out he doesn't like to interrupted with changes in the middle of his other work, so I have gone to just jotting a note to him on top of the work and setting it on his work table for him to fix and hand back in on the kitchen counter. Or, if the changes are more involved than can be easily conveyed in a note, I wait for our checkpoint time in the schedule, and do it then. I do once and awhile ask him how it's going and if he needs anything informally in between other dc's school, but usually he just smiles, says things are going fine, and keeps on working. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[mindywp]

Julie,

Thank you again for your response. I will implement your ideas and let you know how we are doing.

In Christ,
Mindy

[daybreaking]

I love the idea of having a shorter school day and how HOD is designed to be able to be completed in a few hours. I just wish there were some way I could make that work for us. Unfortunately, we live in "regulation heavy" New York and are required to homeschool for an average of five hours a day at the 1-6 grade level and five and a half hours a day for the 7-12 grade level (i.e., 900 or 990 hours a school year). I was looking at Riley's schedule and oh, would my 8yo ds love a schedule like that! I do include my ds's violin practice and nighttime reading as part of our hours, plus we do some homeschooling over the summer, but even with that, he still seems to have quite a long day. Perhaps I'm too careful about what I include for hours. For instance, both of my dc take an hour quiet time in the afternoon, where they listen to audiobooks of (what I consider to be) good literature, plus both enjoy an occasional educational video. I've never considered them as part of our hours. I'd love some suggestions for being able to use HOD, while also abiding with state regulations for required hours.

I would be glad to help you out with this, so here is a past thread with good tips about this very thing!
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6114&p=44730

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you Julie (and psreit & christina101902, too ) for your responses. I guess I was thinking the five hours had to be the actual "academic" type of work, such as HOD, R&S English, math, etc. I was trying to get five hours of those, plus all the extra things I wanted to do. If I include the other areas (chores, recess, quiet time w/audio books, PE, extra read alouds, etc.) in our hours, we actually homeschool for over 9 hours a day!! Hmmm, maybe this is why my precious ds seems to have such a full schedule. On a similar note, I was wondering how much playtime many of your dc have each day. (I don't mean playtime that's part of school, such as recess, HOD activities, structured playtime (such as when I have my dd scheduled to do puzzles), etc., but actual freetime, where your dc can choose anything they want to do. My ds has about 2 1/2 hours a day completely free and I was wondering how on track I am with that. He does have other playtimes, such as when we take a walk or exercise or when he helps my dd with her LHTH fingerplay type activities and he considers quiet time to be a type of playtime, but with our schedule, I haven't been able to give him more than the 2 1/2 hours unstructured time.

[christina101902]

With my little girl, who is 4.5 our days fluctuate but ussually its about 2-3.5 per day of free time. Ussually 30 min after breakfast, an hour before lunch , midafternoon another hour. As she gets older and her schooling requires more of her time it will lessen. Although her playtime is not solitary as she has two younger friends who are here, which help with her socialization skills. 2.5 freetime hours seems fine to me.


Christina