Homeschool World Forum

Yes, I'm struggling with adjusting our schedule also and letting go of the guilt. I made a daily schedule with the time range for each subject. It went well for the first few weeks when there was a lot of review and the material wasn't as in depth. But now I am finding that some subjects, math in particular, can go much longer...as much as twice as long as scheduled. I was starting to stress out and feeling like we were "falling behind" and taking too much time because we were going until later in the afternoon. I finally realized that I needed to change. I needed to be flexible. The schedule is just a guideline. I brought my son home this year so I could adjust to his timeframe. He is also ADD and needs extra time to accomplish things. I am tempted to just remove the times that I wrote on our schedule and follow a general plan of order for the day. We will finish when we finish. We will take as long as we need. It's hard for me, but I need to be more flexible and patient and follow my son's timeframe.

I really struggled with what schedule to have for my first couple of years, but the one that has worked the best for us for a long, long time is really similar to what you say you're doing: getting done around 3 pm, taking a good lunch break, taking time each child needs, and as Kristy says letting each lesson be as long or as short as it is.

I really try to go by what feels right at any given time. If math is taking a long time because DC is rebellious and dawdling, then I'm willing to still be working on it after supper. OTOH, if it's taking a long time because it's a hard lesson and DC has worked diligently and is exhausted, then I'm willing to just close the book till...maybe next week sometime.

If DD says she loves history today and wants the next 4 lessons, that's what we do. If she says she hates it and whines, we do one.

Ramona

As usual Ramona, your advice is so helpful! Thanks again!

You might get a laugh out of this, my ideal schedule was to be done by lunch, the other day, it took 2 1/2 hours to do spelling! We were battling, I won, but we were done with school for the day! We always have to change our schedules, that's the beauty of homeschooling, FLEXIBILITY!

I was getting stressed out so decided just to do phonics today. My kids actually asked to do more work so I told them they didn't have to but could if they wanted to! Wow! Is this what some call "unschooling"? Anyway, thanks for your input-nice to know I'm definitely not alone.

I try to make sure getting up time and bed time is scheduled,meals scheduled,then each day,fit around that what I can,I follow what the boys are interested in.
we usually manage to work with eachother,so everyone is doing what they need to do at a tuime they need to do it.
at firsat i felt weary,only natural,we do something new,it can throw us a little off balance for sure.but now I have a much more relaxed attitude about it.
the tiredness can be hard,but since I got the basics scheduled,life is getting easier...hooray!!!

Hi all, I'm a student at Purdue Calumet University and am currently researching the topic of home schooling vs. public schooling. I am in favor of home schooling, I feel as though there are many benefits. However, throughout the research that I have done, I have found that it is absolutely necessary that children have a break throughout the day so that they can improve their quality of their readiness to learn. After reading some of the posts on this forum, I have got a basic idea of how long a typical school day is. I am curious to know whether or not some of you that home school your children agree with me or not? Do you think that children need a "recess" during the day? Feel free to take a look at my podcast to hear some of my ideas, provided below is a link. Thank you!

https://sites.google.com/site/jilljones ... me/podcast