How to scale back....or going at a slower pace

[Tami]

I'm trying to get our routine figured out (starting back to school in August) and I'm rather overwhelmed. I've searched the "schedule" threads and know how much time will be required....which is where I have a problem. According to the schedules posted by Carrie and Julie, I need a minimum of 7 1/2 hours a day (one on one time) with my three children. That doesn't include lunch, laundry, answering questions, checking work after it's done, etc. Ummmmm......no.

I've already cut out DITHOR (which I don't want to!) to save time but there is no way I can be at a constant teaching post for that long each day.

So, is there a good way to divide the work when you know you won't finish it each day? Right page/Left page? It could be that we will get closer to that goal but with 2 dyslexics and 1 with a dysfunction with the symbols of language (and their individual daily therapies) I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Help, please?

Tami

[Tami]

I should let you know that my twins are almost 14 and will be doing Res to Ref while the youngest is almost 10 and doing Bigger.

[Nealewill]

I see that you have some learning disabilities going on here making this very challenging. If it were me, and time was an issue, I would personally look to only do one story time. And honestly, at this point, if you felt like it was just too much, I would drop that box. I love that box and do think it is a great tool and helpful in grown a child. But if you have to read everything to them, well, that changes everything.

I would also try and utilize the 5th day. This is the first year I will not be doing a full on day of co-op and I am very excited! In the past, I have had to get school done in 4 days. Well, now I don't. I plan to take full advantage of this.

With Res to Ref, there are several of the main texts available on audio books. I would also look into that. I believe you can get mystery of history on audio, the astronomy book on audio, and the Shakespeare book on audio.

Other than that, it would be up to you how you would want to handle what you did and what you didn't. I will pray for you for wisdom.

One last thought - I know for myself I work a lot from home. For me, I never get cleaning and laundry done during the day time. We almost always clean the house on Saturdays and my husband helps. I have several pets so I do sweep almost daily now and I make my kids pick their toys up. But full on cleaning waits till everyone (hubby included) is available to help. I also make all my kids fold their own clothes. Carrie recently posted on the facebook page that she keeps a laundry basket in each child's room they that child's laundry separately each week. I am highly considering moving to this for simplicity sake. This way I don't have to sort it. However, in the summer, their clothing for a week doesn't even fill up half the washer LOL. Another thing I do is have my kids unload the dishwasher every morning. My kids also fix their own breakfast and lunch several days a week. If it were me, this is where I would be trying to save time too. I am sure with the ages of your kids that you probably have them help around the house. But the more they can do, the less you need to do giving you more time to spend doing other stuff.

[Tami]

Thanks, Daneale!

It's really a matter of instructional time that is the issue. I have all books on audio that are available for the twins so they can read along with books (yay for independence!), all the kiddos have chores to help maintain the household, and the twins do their own laundry (having each bedroom assigned to a different day has saved my sanity!)

The youngest is not able to do much school work on his own yet; he can read words but sentences and paragraphs get twisted, turned, and don't usually come out the same way. He will be using AAR and I'm hoping this will help his fluency/comprehension. He will take the most of my time.

The twins cannot (effectively) do the grammar on their own and Medieval writing is going to take some oversight, as are all the narrations, etc. Their remedial lessons take 45 minutes each....not something I can do with them together. They are also boy/girl twins so the 2x weekly devotions have to be done separately. We are using Teaching Textbooks for math which helps but one of them struggles mightily so more of my time spent.

I need to spend roughly 3 hours with the youngest, and at least 2 hours with each of the other two....I know it will work out, though certainly not perfectly. It may not require as much time as I'm allotting, too. I just know that if I don't have a few minutes to refresh myself (working with struggling learners is not for the faint of heart!) throughout the day, I'm going to have nothing left by the evening...which makes for an unhappy husband. He is willing to help with anything but he also likes to spend time enjoying our family instead of working constantly.

We also have one afternoon a week taken up with choir and our kiddos are successful with sports (late afternoons and a few evenings) so we make that happen for them, too.

I'm going to try to do it as is to start with and see what happens. I'm just hoping that it works out better than expected but want to have a plan in place in case it doesn't. I really think that it will get easier as we go....I won't always have their remediation time and they will be able to do more after we complete it. Right now it's just a lot.

[Motherjoy]

With kids needing remedial work, focus on that. The other stuff is so much less important. Do RTR at half-pace, but do the remedial work daily. I agree about housework, it just may need to be done at other times. You can still do a quick 30-45 minute cleanup before daddy gets home, but teaching the kids is your job. And it gets infinitely harder with kids who needs need extra help.

[queenireneof3]

I will be following this thread as I need to figure out how to teach three kiddos separately (with a new baby in tow) as well!

[Tami]

Thank you for the responses! I am so blessed by all of you on this board!

I need a clarification, however. I've read elsewhere and some of you mentioned this about going half-pace.

What exactly does that look like? Do you do right page one day, left page the next? Or is there a better way to divide it out?