How many subjects does your child do each day

[hpymomof3]

I make a "to do" list every day for my 2 children (4th and 7th grade). As we complete each subject they cross it off. Lately it seems like our list is getting longer and longer. At times I feel like we are doing too much but on the other hand I want to cover a lot of subjects.

I'm curious how many subjects you have your child do each day. We typically have 14-16 items do do per day M, TU and TH and about 10 on Wed. and Fri with an occasional Friday off.

[JFS in IL]

Math, spelling, grammar, reading 1 (oral with me) reading 2 (silent - different book), science, geography, history,writing, Wordly Wise, music practice and most days also one or more of: logic, band, music lesson at public school, speech (2x week), martial arts (2xweek).

The only things (besides martial arts and speech/music at public school) that take more than 20-30 minutes are math, writing, reading, history. So it is not as "bad" as it looks on paper ;)

Let me add - this is for almost 12 yr-old dd, 5/6th grade.

[Sweetpeach]

Probably on the light side, but here it is. My kids are 9, 7 and preschool.

We only do school 4 days a week, with Friday being piano and art class.

In this order, M - Th


Copywork or Aesop or Poetry
Math
Latin (Thank you Lively Latin for the lovely download for vocab/chants)
Spelling for youngest / GWG for oldest son.

Lunch

Science or History (academic writing - narrations get done here)
Bravewriter for fun writing.

Current games: Latin/Greek root words to play Connect 4. Mult/Div games for both boys. Hit and miss -- logic games, puzzles, art appreciation.

Lifestyle: three word french commands - range ta chambre, brosser tes dents, lave les mains, viens manger, etc.

I've purposely chosen "less" because I still want the Peachlets to have time to explore their own interests. For ie, my oldest has been collecting snippets of information here and there about Harriet Tubman; The Underground Railroad; Civil Rights; Martin Luther King; racial diversity . . . it's been fascinating to watch the process of self-learning, especially over such an important topic.

For a chronic non-planner, this little schedule above feels like FREEDOM. I am always attempting to span the bridge between the classical S & S and the CM lifestyle.

Cheerio,
Tricia

[Deece in MN]

I have found that combining subjects as much as possible really helps move the day along.
We don't do writing as a separate course, for example. My dc write within other subjects (history, science or literature) and we talk about the mechanics of writing as they come up. This way they get 2 things done at once and the writing makes more sense to them rather than some of the silly assignments I have seen in some writing curriculums that I have looked at.
We had been doing grammar as a separate subject, but are now combining that in with the writing. If I see something that needs to be addressed, we use resources we have on hand to go over the concept and then apply it to the writing. Things like geography and logic are covered in history, science or literature.
By doing this we end up with math, literature, history, science, PE and foreign language.
We also don't always do History and Science everyday. Math and lit. are usually about an hour, sometimes less, PE is about 30 minutes and FL is anywhere from 15-30minutes. So most days we do about 5-6 hours of work.

Anyway, would you mind listing your subjects? Is there a way to combine some of them?
Just some thoughts.

[Excelsior! Academy]

I make a "to do" list every day for my 2 children (4th and 7th grade). As we complete each subject they cross it off. Lately it seems like our list is getting longer and longer. At times I feel like we are doing too much but on the other hand I want to cover a lot of subjects.

I'm curious how many subjects you have your child do each day. We typically have 14-16 items do do per day M, TU and TH and about 10 on Wed. and Fri with an occasional Friday off.

Would you mind listing these? I am curious to see how you itemize. Our list seems fairly small compared to yours. Most days we accomplish Bible, Latin, copywork, English grammar, math, history, piano, and science. The girls are doing art and reading on their own, so I am not including that as part of our school day. We also do current events, writing, and other subjects once a week.

[Tracey in TX]

5X/wk
Math
Spelling
Latin


3-4X/wk
History
writing
research
music
alpha phonics (dyslexia program)
logic
Italian

1-2X/wk
science

[Quiver0f10]

Highschoolers:
math
grammar
vocab
writing
lit
science
history
spanish
latin

8th on down:
math
grammar
spelling
science 2X ( 7th grader doe sit daily)
history 2X
latin
phoncs ( 8 yo-daily)

[hpymomof3]

Ds 4th grade:

math, spellilng, grammar, Megawords, Phonics workbook (he still had a little difficulty reading at the beginning of the year), geography workbook, Handwriting Without Tears, Science, Vocabulary, Scoring High (we just started this today to help him ease his fears about taking the Iowa test in the spring). Report writing. We haven't been able to find a writing curriculum that works well with him so we are using this. He reads a book on a particular topic (for example frogs) and answers questions on a worksheet. Then he writes 1 or 2 paragraphs with the information that he found. We are also currently reading/discussing Stone Fox together and he reads about 20 minutes on a book of his choice.

For dd 7th grade:

math, grammar, Lightening Literature, spelling, vocabulary, science, geography workbook, Jump In writing, Test Best (prep for the Iowa test). She is also reading from the Bob Jones american history book about 10-15 pages a week as well as reading 10-20 minutes from a book of her choice. Most of the time she is also reading literature for the Lightening Literature book.

I also do Mystery of History, English From the Roots Up and Star Spangled Workbook with both of them.

We usually work from 9:00 until approximately 2:30 with 1/2 to 1 hour break for lunch. Wednesdays and Fridays are often shorter.

[KAR120C]

I make a "to do" list every day for my 2 children (4th and 7th grade). As we complete each subject they cross it off. Lately it seems like our list is getting longer and longer. At times I feel like we are doing too much but on the other hand I want to cover a lot of subjects.

I'm curious how many subjects you have your child do each day. We typically have 14-16 items do do per day M, TU and TH and about 10 on Wed. and Fri with an occasional Friday off.
The way we do it is to have five "courses":

Science
Math
History/Geography
Literature/Comp
Foreign LanguageWe spend an hour on each every day. If we do a whole hour of history then we skip geography and vice versa -- or preferably we do about half an hour of each. All the language arts we do is under lit/comp (but this year we're focusing primarily on the composition part and less on the spelling and grammar outside of writing)

Then after all that he practices his flute and does some extra reading, and we try to do something active for an hour at least three times a week (tap dance class, swimming class, go play some tennis or shoot hoops...) but those are more or less on "his" time.

There may be several items within any of those "courses" but grouping them like that has really streamlined how our day goes. So for instance if he's not working on a paper at the moment, we might take the time to do some extra spelling or vocabulary, or diagram some sentences, but if he is working on something then it's just that -- edit the paper he's writing, use it for typing practice or handwriting, etc.

We also have outside things, and some of them I allow to "count" for a course... so if we have Latin class on Fridays we won't do another hour of language on top of that.

[Laura Corin]

I'm curious how many subjects you have your child do each day. We typically have 14-16 items do do per day M, TU and TH and about 10 on Wed. and Fri with an occasional Friday off.

It depends so much on how you define subjects though. Today Calvin has English, maths, history, recorder and Chinese. Tomorrow he'll have English, maths, science, Latin, handwriting and Chinese.

Laura

[GLOWAcademy]

Jacob does
Math,Spelling,Grammar,reading,Biblical

[EKS]

6th grader:

Language Arts (spelling, writing, grammar)
Math
Latin
History
Science
Geography (4 days/week)
Violin practice

Kindergartener

Language Arts (reading, spelling, grammar, vocab., writing, handwriting)
Math
History
Science
Art
Violin practice

So that's 7 and 6.

[Lorna]

We always do English, maths, reading, French, p.e., and science.
Our son does history every day.
Our daughter does history three days a week and Latin two (although she does history reading most days).
I have our schedule on my blog under 'Our Typical Day'.

[Tammy in Germany]

Here's our schedule in a nutshell:
Bible with music which is hymns
Reading
Penmanship
Grammar
Spelling Power
Math
History
Science
PE...running with our border collie, trampoline, walking 2.5 miles
The only class that is occasional is art at about once or twice a week.

Our school day takes 6 hours and he's in 4th grade.

12th grader:
Business Math
Econ
English 12 with Vocabulary
Spanish II
Marine Biology
Every subject, everyday. She finished up Speech last semester.

[Deb in NZ]

Each subject is a 45 minute block done daily, unless noted.

15yod:
English (Spelling, Composition, Literature discussion)
Languages (Latin, Spanish)
Math
Biology
Lunch
Geography (M/W/TH)
Literature readings
Flute Practice

13yos:
General Science
English (Spelling, Composition, Literature discussion) + Latin
Math
French + Typing
Lunch
Geography (M/W/TH)
Literature (RAs & readings)
Drum Practice

10yos:
Typing + Japanese
Math
English (Spelling or Grammar, Phonics, Penmanship, Writing or Vocabulary) + Latin
Science
Lunch
Geography (M/W/TH)
Literature (RAs & readings)
Violin Practice

Blessings,

[astrid]

Wow. My dd (5th grade) does:
math
language arts
spelling
history
latin or science (we alternate days with these subjects)
music (flute and piano practice, some days public school band and instrument lessons)

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

Everyday

Math
Grammar
Spelling
Reading
Spanish (5th grader)/Typing (4th grader)
-snack-
IEW 3xs/Swim 2xs
-lunch-
History 3xs/Science 2xs

PE (Swim 2-3xs a week) Karate (2xs a week)

We squeeze in logic.

We schedule school from 9:30am - 3:30pm - we take a snack break and lunch. So we probably work 4.5 hours.

[Chloe]

Let's see....math, reading, writing, grammar, piano and Bible daily. History is 3x a week and art is once a week. We'll do science over the summer.

[Patty Joanna]

We cut waaaaay back a few years ago, by combining. My son has a very slow transition time between subjects so doing writing, literature, grammar and spelling took an additional hour a day to accommodate the transition time. This resulted in waaaaay too big liquor bill for me, and so I did Classical Writing, which combings writing, grammar and spelling, and when he was on his last sentence, I started reading aloud to him and that made it all go a lot better. History got combined with dictation/copywork/penmanship for awhile, and then I switched the handwriting work to church history. See what I mean? Plus it is a lot more integrated, and it doesn't take too long to figure out how to make this all happen.

[Amy in Orlando]

I agree with Laura, it depends on how you define subjects. We're using Trisms for History (8th & 9th grade) this year. It covers a lot of writing, literature, history, geography, some science, rhetoric and philosopy. I count it as history, some days it takes 3 hours, other days only 1 hour. They also have math, Latin, science, more reading, art, music and PE. For the most part my kids don't count music or PE as part of school, just stuff they like to do.

[RoughCollie]

My DS, grade 8, spends 2 hours on math, 2 hours on language arts, 1 hour each on history and science, 1/2 hour on typing, 1/2 hour on Spanish. He goes to karate 2x (sometimes 3x) a week for an hourlong class. He spends another 2 hours a day doing things like reading literature, geography, and studying to master the material he has been working on.

He has started going to a lunch group at the public school which is geared towards 8th graders who are not interested in sports, and I am hoping he will make some friends from this group. Right now, every boy we know is interested in sports, Family Guy, and video games, mainly, and DS is made fun of for being a geek/nerd.

My other 3 DC spend 6 hours a day in classes at their school, have 2 hours of homework & studying a night and spend about 4 hours every weekend doing homework and studying. They are in grades 7 and 8.

DS doesn't think I am requiring too much of him. The dear boy has always been a compliant child, although outspoken when he feels his needs, wants and rights are being trampled upon.

Next week, he will begin learning to build his own literature website. He is interested in anything to do with technology and is very excited about this. We also plan to begin a study of the book of John, at DS' request. He also wants to write a term paper on ancient Rome. Something's got to give, so it will probably be the 2 hour session at the end of the day & I'll make time for lit discussions during language arts.

I would like to add logic and music/art appreciation, but there isn't time for it yet. DS is completely uninterested in learning to play an instrument and in applied arts. Right now, he's behind in math and wants to get caught up, which is why we spend so much time on it.

RC

[Suzanne in ABQ]

These are the headings in my planner:
Piano - 5x (15 min)
Math - 5x (30-40 min)
Grammar - 5x (30 - 60 min)
Cursive - 4x (10 min)
Memory - 5x (5 min)
Spelling - 1 or 2x (15-20 min)
Bible - 4x (10-15 min)
Latin - 4x (20 min)
History - 2 or 3x (unless we do Science) (1 1/2 hour)
Science - 2x (unless we do History) (30-60 min)
Reading - 5x (independent)
Typing - 3x (10 min)
PE - 2x (hmmm. I don't really know)
Art/Music - 1x (1 hour - chorus)
Life Skills - whenever something new comes up

It looks like a lot, but some of it only takes a few minutes. Some of it we only do once in awhile. And, some of it is kind of fluffy. :)

[freethinkermom]

Ds10 does 5:

Algebra (30 minutes - 1 hour)
French (15-30 minutes)
Vocabulary (VfCR) (15 minutes)
Alternating blocks of history, science, literature; Currently doing History Odyssey Early Modern Level 2 (3 hours)
Cooking (with lunch)


Ds6 does 4:


Math
Handwriting
Alternating block of history, science, grammar, literature: Currently doing Ancient Civilization History Pockets.
Cooking (with lunch)


We are done by 12:30 with the academic stuff, have a cooking lesson to make lunch, and the rest of the day is free.

[Kris]

When we were using Calvert, we worked through the lesson manual and when we were tired, we quit. Sometimes we got a half way through the daily lesson plan -- some days we seemed to breeze through two or more lessons.

I'm trying to "give him his head" the past few months and that seems to be working for him. I give him a list of what has to be done for the week and pretty much let him decide when he wants to do things (he's 15). As I predicted, he does all of his science on the first day. He'd be a happy guy if I could figure out how to let him do nothing but science.

About the only thing I really insist that he do every day is math -- because if I didn't, he probably put it all off until Friday. :-)

[Anne/Ankara]

I always think of our school work in broad categories of six subjects, which are then broken down into sub-sets, so for example, we study:
Math
English
History
Science
Foreign Language
Music & Art

Then each subject has its parts (English has vocabulary, writing, grammar), (Science has vocab, problems, labs), (Foreign language can be Latin, Turkish, French, listening, writing) so each subject is not covered each day, but the main subjects are... does that make sense?

[petree]

The thing that has helps us stay on track (2 girls ages 10 & 13) is noting a set amount of time per subject:

5th grade:
1st) Saxon Math 1-1 1.5 hr.
2nd) Rod & Staff Grammer (apprx. 2 lessons) 1 hr.
3rd) Spelling Workout 15-30 min.
Lunch
History (Story of World: Reading, Outlining, Map or Timeline work) 1 hr.
Handwriting workbook 2 pages 15 min
Latin (memorize 5 new words ea. wk: English from Roots Up) 15-30 min
Outlining workbook 2 pages 15-30 min.
Music (Violin ) 30 min.
3 days a week: Science(reading, research, experiment or sketch)1-1.5 hr.
2 days a week (if possible): 1 page Book Report or transcribe/dictation

Anything left incomplete is evening "homework".
One hour of pleasure reading at bedtime.

Similar program w/ 7th grader subbing Logic & Poetry Memorization for Handwriting & outlining workbooks. I give them the choice of order for after lunch schedule.


Generally keep this schedule 3-4 weeks in a row with one week off year round. (I try to get some type of field trip in during an off week.)