Do you and yours fizzle in the afternoon?

[Musical Belle]

We start school at 8:30, take a lunch break for 30 minutes (or longer, if I get distracted), and then continue until about 2:30-3:00. After that we all start to lose focus and school goes out the window. Next year ds will start 5th grade (dd 2nd), and I know his schedule will intensify and we'll need the afternoon time. Any suggestions or sympathy?

[Scarlett]

I only have one child and he is 8, and yet I still fizzle in the p.m. Ds too. Today was terrible with the time change, I didn't sleep well, but was up at 6:00 as usual but ds didn't get up til 9. Then I had a terrible time getting him going. We finished but just barely...then had to run a few errands that took about an hour. Wow. Now we are home, ds is out playing (with renewed energy I might ad :rolleyes:) and I'm about to drop. Yet I still have to straighten up and cook dinner. Waaaaahhhhhhhh.

[training5]

We certainly do! I try to have us done by 1pm because we all get too tired and cranky after that. I know I need to change it because we are barely getting the basics. I feel like we are just skimming. We start at around 8:30/9am.

[Beth in Central TX]

Hmmm...a very timely post considering I just woke up from a late afternoon nap; I'm blaming the time change on this though. Usually, we school until about 3pm, and for the most part, everyone tolerates it well. This is only for the older boys though. My little caboose finishes in the morning.

[mcconnellboys]

We're similar. We try to start at 8, take an hour for lunch, and finish by 3. We turn into pumpkins after that, LOL. Next year, I do have ds scheduled until 3:30 in order to try to get in all his reading time. I'm hopeful that this will work!

Regena

[hwfquilts]

We ran into the afternoon wall this year doing 5th and 2nd grades. My solution was to start earlier. We do best if we finish by 1:30 or 2:00, so we start by 7:30. It's amazing how being done with the "hard" stuff (Math, Latin, Grammar) by 11:30 helps my boys' morale. We eat an early lunch, then read history together until 1:30. They have independent reading to do after official school time is over.

I have always struggled with getting up early, but the joy of being done early in the afternoon has literally propelled me from bed each morning. :)

Heather

[ABQmom]

You've just described my family. We too get the hard subjects out of the way in the morning before lunch. Otherwise, the work is likely to not get done. We can usually handle another 30 minutes after lunch, but that's it.

I just try to keep our limitations in mind when buying curriculum for the new year. If we can't get most of it done before lunch, then I have to eliminate something from our schedule. I look at my plans and pare them down. My oldest is in 6th grade this year, and so far, working from 8:30 to 12:30 is still an okay schedule. We do Science for 30 minutes after lunch, but only 2 days a week. Other than that, we have her ballet class and piano lesson in the afternoon.

[Verena]

Yeah- afternoon is only for content subjects, lots of play, and soccer. My 4 yo still takes naps- and it's amazing how one less child helps with getting school stuff "done". We're usually done by 2:00, then it's time for a big coffee break.

[ThelmaLou]

I start running out of steam around 1:00. I try to do as much one-on-one before this. After that the kids usually work independently, and I grade math, grammar, etc...

[Musical Belle]

You all are very comforting! We hit the books hard early on, but in the afternoon our science experiments and history projects tend to fizzle out, and music and art go by the wayside. I'm glad we're not alone (or even worse, abnormal)!

[Scarlett]

We ran into the afternoon wall this year doing 5th and 2nd grades. My solution was to start earlier. We do best if we finish by 1:30 or 2:00, so we start by 7:30. It's amazing how being done with the "hard" stuff (Math, Latin, Grammar) by 11:30 helps my boys' morale. We eat an early lunch, then read history together until 1:30. They have independent reading to do after official school time is over.

I have always struggled with getting up early, but the joy of being done early in the afternoon has literally propelled me from bed each morning. :)

Heather

I have found this to be true as well....As soon as we setting into the new time I'm going to get back on track for getting ds up at 7:00 and started by 7:30 or 8. The days we do tht just makes us both so happy. :)

[Sue G in PA]

and then I'm DONE. That's why we're so behind in History and Science. I'm rethinking our schedule as we speak. Timely post. If we did History/Science together in the am (when mom is fresh), the kids could do the core subjects in the pm b/c most are independent anyway. I'd be available to help teach new math concepts, but wouldn't have to "hold hands" with any particular dc (except ds9!). I could also do K with my ds5 in the am b/c we'll have more time. Hmmm...I'm thinking....

[OhElizabeth]

Do you eat snacks? We eat bananas for a mid-morning snack and regular fruit (apples, oranges, juice, etc.) for our afternoon snack. Your brain can't work when your blood sugar is low. ;)

If it's taking you much past 3, maybe you need to trim your day, find things he can do independently, or in other ways become efficient? Just a thought. 5th + 1 would mean to plan 6 hours a day.

[Wendy in ME]

I will second OhElizabeth. Even with a 5th grader, we are done by 3:30 at the latest unless we intentionally take the afternoon off. We have been known to put in a couple of hours in the evening if we take the afternoon off. We do this occasionally in the winter so the boys can go out when the sun is high in the sky. I will also agree that snacks help a lot.

[LG Gone Wild]

I'm only schoolin' a 3rd grader and Ker. I don't get it all in, try as I might. My only partial solution is afternoon naps (for me and the Ker) and reading time in the evening. Sonlight is hard!

[Laura Corin]

I'm just working into using the afternoon. It was hard at first but we are getting more used to it. Things I do:
- Start at 9am
- Half hour break mid morning
- One hour for lunch (eating plus rest/reading/playing for all - no-one disturbs Mum in that time)

Best wishes

Laura

[Kris]

I can't offer any solutions -- but you do have my sympathy! We fizzle in the afternoons, too. If I really feel like we need to plug along, we'll try to get up, out, and get some fresh air or just move around and take a break for fifteen minutes or so. That will usually buy us up to another hour, but that's about it.

[elegantlion]

We are sort of the opposite. I only have one, but neither one of us are morning people. In the morning he does some independent work, then at 11:30 we start for the day. It was his idea, based upon a long discussion on study habits, and has worked wonderfully for us this year.

My dh thought we were nuts when we started that, but it has really helped our focus level throughout the day.

[Musical Belle]

Do you eat snacks? We eat bananas for a mid-morning snack and regular fruit (apples, oranges, juice, etc.) for our afternoon snack. Your brain can't work when your blood sugar is low. ;)



You are so right there! We have snacks in the morning because we don't eat lunch until 12:30, but I forget about afternoon snacks until the kids raid the crackers. I need to give them something better and energize us all. (I guess I can't live on coffee. . . .)

Besides running down physically, we just kind of lose momentum. There comes a point in our day where we kind of say, "Finished or not, we're DONE!" I think you all have reminded me that I should be able to do what needs to be done before 3:30 or rearrange.