Time per day for 8th or 9th grade cores?

[bean]

Good afternoon and Happy Thanksgiving!

I know most of you are busy with family activities this week. We are on a much needed week long break and I'm regrouping, getting organized and trying finish up some projects. We had a family wedding last weekend (third kid married in 18 months), so our Thanksgiving will be relatively quiet.

For those of you who use full cores for 8th/ 9th, how much time do you spend per day? How do you handle music and sports? How much music/ sports/ youth group/ co-op/ 4-H, etc do you do? Do you allow screens during the week?

We don't fit into a full core (because of a co-op class and being crazy off of schedule in math and science), but I've tried to make equal subject swaps. We're changing around some extra-curricular activities around Christmas, and I'm trying to set some reasonable, but rigorous, academic expectations for the rest of the year.

Thanks for your thoughts!!

[pickandgrin]

Re: Time per day for 8th or 9th grade cores?

A lot of this is going to depend on the specific child. Can you tell us about this student...self-starter/feet-dagger? Early to rise/sleeps late? Quick worker/needs time? Easily on task/easily distracted? Etc.

I have a current 8A and would be happy to share more.

[KF2000]

Re: Time per day for 8th or 9th grade cores?

Hello, Bean!

I wish I had a really easy answer for you but my kids fluctuate a lot. They tend to hit different subjects on different days, so that can really make a big difference on their average length of school day. Plus, they are your typical kids where some days they are just more sluggish overall, don't get as much done, and then realize they have to work harder the next day to finish up their week on time. Some days they are up and at 'Em at 7:30, and other times it's more like 9am. I can't fault them too much because I am the same way myself!

I would say, "they start in the morning, and they stop before dinner." Ha! How's that for unspecific? On days they work straight through, they will get done around 3, 3:30. But other days they take breaks somewhere in there and end up working until dinner.

One thing I do help them with is to know time per subject. I try to write those into their planners and really emphasize that at the beginning of the year so they at least know what a healthy expectation is. But sometimes they go over that on their own simply because they really want to figure something out, they are writing an essay, doing two days at once, etc.

We don't have a lot of extra curriculars right now because we just moved here and have not found people or work for them yet. My daughter used to be able to work at a farm two days a week during the school year though, and she was able to get her schoolwork done in four. And right now my son sort of gets his done in four because I take him in to the city one day a week for piano lessons and he doesn't get a ton done on those days. What has been true for us is that if the activity was something good enough for them, they put in the effort to make it work. If they didn't keep up with school, then the activity would have to go.

It really does depend on your kid though. There was definitely an adjustment to the higher expectations once we started those upper school grades, with the frustration that comes with that - which makes it a bit slow in the beginning. But that is how they grow (as you know) so I am sure that you will figure out a good pace for them. I am sorry to not be more specific, but this is how things have gone for us!

AMDG,
Sarah

ETA: We have a general rule about no screens during the week - but for these bigger kids we do let them watch movies here and there. Or my husband will ask them to race on the Wi-U with him But most nights they read, play board games, draw, do legos, etc. It would be very rare for them to do school work at night - so if you had more activities, I could see how that might become necessary. But I was a kid who was at school at 7am every day, had 6 honors classes (we had to have religion too), had sports after school, came home to eat dinner, and then did homework until I crashed at 12, 12:30. I think my kids have it pretty easy comparatively!

[Mom2mthj]

Re: Time per day for 8th or 9th grade cores?

Good evening, Bean! Glad to hear you are having a nice, quiet Thanksgiving. My daughter is not doing a complete core, but I have tried to follow the 9th grade core. I don't know exactly how much time she spends on schoolwork, but she does have to spend some time on the weekends. I also assume that some will spill into summer. Her activities are a homeschool choir on Tuesday afternoon (I will count that as a fine arts credit), piano lessons on Wednesday afternoon, American Heritage Girls twice/month, and swim team. We also got sucked into a science group on Wednesdays after piano, but I don't know whether we will drop that after Christmas. I did allow her to drop violin this year because she didn't have time. Below is her class list, just for a feel for what she is doing.

5:30-7:00 swim practice, she also swims Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon
7:00-8:00 breakfast
8:00-9:00 piano practice

High School Comp 3 with MPOA
Henle 2 with MPOA
Greek 2 with Lukeion
Geometry with the MP plans (she started in August and is about week 13-she just took chapter 6 test)
Traditional Logic (contemplating MPOA for second semester...the videos could use updating)
Book of Ancient Greeks/Iliad/Odessey - this was a hang over from last year. She decided to start over and is participating in the Delectare discussion group.
ASPC was just started (only on chapter 2), but she did do a week of biology and chemistry labs earlier this fall. She likes it so far and I think it will get done. Not quite sure how to list that on a transcript.

Literature hasn't been getting done. I guess Iliad/Odessey count as literature or history, but somehow MP manages to fit a full lit package into the core. She did the summer Romeo and Juliet class so maybe that balances things out. We also need to get back onto a formal religion program. She has read some of the Story of Christianity book from 9th grade core, but we need something more. Greek really eats up the time, but she loves it. It is over in early May so that will free up a lot of time to wrap other subjects up before summer.

She does get to watch Jeopardy if she has a good day and then goes to bed at 8:00.

Hope that helps a bit.

[bean]

Re: Time per day for 8th or 9th grade cores?

Thanks all. She's not so much a feet dragger as busy bee. She can find 9000 other ways to spend time. She practices piano and flute in the morning and getting her started on school before 9 -9:30 is challenging, and then there a dozen things she thinks of that she needs to do. We dropped flute for a while to help this, but to didn't help, so I added back.

She swims 3-4 evenings a week but I'm pretty sure it's time to drop that. She will need something physical to do, though. She is active in 4H and our youth group. She's giving a 6 year old piano lessons.

We are out of the house by 1pm three days a week, one for a co-op LA class, one for music and one to go to work with me. She can study at work with me, but DH gets her at 3, and things don't get done after that.

The problem is that she mostly gets her work done in that time, but the quality is not great, and she's only reading things I explicitly assign. She's pretty much doing the equivalent to the 8 core, with geometry and physics, except religious studies (she was supposed to do confirmation at church this year, but our pastor had a family tragedy and the group was small).

She is also doing French and a jr high leadership class through a university that requires regular essays.

I feel like she's coasting. I split her math in half last week and told her she didn't need to do the other half of each assignment if she got 100%. And she only had to do the other half once. Usually she runs about 80%.

So I know we need some efficiencies here and there, but I also want to be able to say school is "in session" x to y time... or no screens during the week and all assignments need to be 90%... or something solid.

She'll go along with whatever we decide, but I need to make sure whatever parameters we set are fair and consistent. That's why I'm curious what works for you all. Thanks!