Daily schedule, alternating weeksAs my 13-year-old daughter and I wrap up our first homeschool year, we are taking inventory of all we have accomplished vis-à-vis the state curriculum frameworks--and I am amazed. Starting last September, we comfortably met all the academic requirements by April 1. In December, Allegra passed a seventh-grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test with only three incorrect responses. She’ll be taking another standardized test in June. Meanwhile, we have moved on to eighth-grade materials. We follow a schedule, but we don’t adhere to it strictly. The alternating two-week lineup is shown above.
The four-hour morning block is more fluid than it appears on the schedule: sometimes we spend more time on Language Arts, other times more on World History and often the two meld. The same applies to math and science. We’re flexible about taking field trips and attending programs of interest. Some homeschoolers eschew a schedule, but I find it keeps us organized and on task. The beauty of homeschooling is that your child can work at his or her own pace, while exploring his or her particular interests. The downside is lack of student interaction. Homeschooling can be isolating.
Allegra's take: It’s true that homeschooling is isolating; lack of interaction with peers is really the only major limitation homeschooling has. Although a few of my extracurricular activities are taken with other children my age, the fact remains that it is only my mother and I in the “classroom” all day.
The variety of the schedule is good and keeps things new: one week we have more English and history, the next week we focus more on math and science. As I have been in public school all of my life before this year, at the beginning of homeschooling I found the fact that we didn’t study all major subjects every day disconcerting. I have gradually become accustomed to the new way of doing things and am now quite content with it.
The schedule also gives us the chance to meld our classes into one. For example, when we were studying the ancient Greeks and Romans, we learned the history of the people, the literature of the time, and Greek and Latin root words all morning, combining English and history into one long class. On math and science days, we discussed contributions the Greeks and Romans made to the sciences and mathematics. This type of learning, which is often not available in public schools, prevents much confusion and puts concepts into context.
The four-hour morning block is more fluid than it appears on the schedule: sometimes we spend more time on Language Arts, other times more on World History and often the two meld. The same applies to math and science. We’re flexible about taking field trips and attending programs of interest. Some homeschoolers eschew a schedule, but I find it keeps us organized and on task. The beauty of homeschooling is that your child can work at his or her own pace, while exploring his or her particular interests. The downside is lack of student interaction. Homeschooling can be isolating.
Allegra's take: It’s true that homeschooling is isolating; lack of interaction with peers is really the only major limitation homeschooling has. Although a few of my extracurricular activities are taken with other children my age, the fact remains that it is only my mother and I in the “classroom” all day.
The variety of the schedule is good and keeps things new: one week we have more English and history, the next week we focus more on math and science. As I have been in public school all of my life before this year, at the beginning of homeschooling I found the fact that we didn’t study all major subjects every day disconcerting. I have gradually become accustomed to the new way of doing things and am now quite content with it.
The schedule also gives us the chance to meld our classes into one. For example, when we were studying the ancient Greeks and Romans, we learned the history of the people, the literature of the time, and Greek and Latin root words all morning, combining English and history into one long class. On math and science days, we discussed contributions the Greeks and Romans made to the sciences and mathematics. This type of learning, which is often not available in public schools, prevents much confusion and puts concepts into context.
