Do you cover all subjects everyday?

735 Views 20 Replies 20 Participants Last post by darcytrue, Sep 4, 2009

AmyB736

Discussion Starter · Sep 3, 2009

Hey everyone!
We're 1st year homeschoolers here. My daughter is 6 and is technically K because we got a maturity waiver last year so we could "start" late. We started school this past Monday and I made a Record Keeper for all of our subjects.

The first day we covered Language Arts, Reading, a little Math, a little Social Studies, a little Music, and Art. Yesterday we covered some Lanuage Arts and Science. Today we did Language Arts, a little Reading, Science, Art, and Social Studies. Well, it's been pretty difficult getting all of our subjects in on one day.

So my question is...do you do every subject everyday and if so do you have any trouble getting all of the subject in? Or do you split it up throught the week, for example, Language Arts 3 days a week, Science 3 days a week, Social Studies 2 days a week, Math 2 days a week, and so on.... AND, if that's how you do it are there any subjects that you make sure to cover everyday and others are on alternated days?

1 - 20 of 21 Posts

elizawill

· #2 · Sep 3, 2009

no, we don't do every subject every day. when my dd was in kindergarten she was also 6. this was our schedule: http://mytwomonkeys.webs.com/20072008schedule.htm

my ds is 5 1/2 and in kindergarten this year. he does handwriting, math, and phonics daily. he learns other subjects alongside his sister. he does school for 30-60 minutes a day. my daughter is about 2 hours a day. hth.

PGTlatte

· #3 · Sep 3, 2009

Our oldest is 6.5. No, I would not attempt to cover every subject every day. I aim to get some writing practice, some reading practice, and some math of some sort in three days a week. The other two days, if there is a lot of time spent on science (ie field trip or science-related class) or anything I consider "social studies" that takes a major part of the day then I will skip all the other subjects. If the science or social studies are small portions of the day then I will try to work on one of the other areas that day as well, but if all three is pushing it too much then I'll just do one or two. And for us, music and art happen whenever they happen and are totally child-led at this point.

MeadowSong_

· #4 · Sep 3, 2009

Not even close haha! My son is 6 also, my other boys are 4 and 2. They just follow along with whatever we are doing.

I think it would be very hard to do so with a younger kid honestly. We have certain things I like to cover each day (such as independent reading, journaling/writing, math, and phonic practice) but everything else is kind of come and go. Some days we don't do anything and we go somewhere like our local nature center or a historical place. Somedays we spend all afternoon reading books on different subjects. Others we do baking or kitchen science stuff. We just take it as it comes

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completebeginnings

· #5 · Sep 3, 2009

They don't cover every subject in public school every day. I wouldn't worry.

dotnetdiva

· #6 · Sep 3, 2009

We are doing K/1 this year.

Not really. The only ones would be the important 3 R's - reading, writing and math, but not one particular curriculum everyday. I might do our main reading lesson 4x a week, but then do something fun on the 5th. Same with math. Handwriting is officially only covered 3x a week, but the other days it is picked up by some other program that touches it.

I'm still fleshing out our schedule, almost done, but so far it looks to be 60-90 minutes on the weekdays for all the sit-down/think subjects, including art, drawing, music, but not read-alouds, field trips or nature walks.

MaWhit

· #7 · Sep 3, 2009

Nope!

onyxravnos

· #8 · Sep 3, 2009

nope. and with K and even the other early grades I think it's sill to try.

Cover 'reading skills' daily. (IE reading to her or with her if she is reading)
Cover 'practical life' daily (an easy one as practical everything counts

)
Go outside everyday.

everything else find a 'schedule' that works for her.

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pageta

· #9 · Sep 3, 2009

There's this thing I've heard of called the "loop" schedule. We do something like that. I have our core - phonics, reading, handwriting and math - and then everything else. Especially with our core, if we don't get through it all, I just start where we left off the day before. That way we don't get way ahead in phonics while lagging in math, for instance. With history and science, we have a certain goal to get done every week, but it doesn't have to be done every day. Poetry and literature can be done anytime so they kind of get their own schedule. I've been having to really break it up recently due to a 2-year-old who doesn't always take a nap.

MyLittleWonders

· #10 · Sep 3, 2009

We don't either. We have our core as well - reading (phonics), spelling, math, and writing (copywork) that tends to be done every day (except no spelling on Wednesdays because we leave for PE before lunch and don't have time). For history, I try and read to them 3x a week from our books (Story of the World, Our Island Story, Usborne Encyclopedia). I also try and read a couple times a week from our nature/science topic (right now we are into learning about birds, so we read books about birds throughout the week). Sit-down history or science/nature work is at best 1x a week each (and typically only my 8 year old). Art is usually 1x a week. Poetry happens when it happens (they are usually working on memorizing a new poem at any given time but actually just reading poetry for enjoyment doesn't always happen). So, my goal is our core every day, and then at least reading/activity from one "elective" each day.

Geerbabe

· #11 · Sep 3, 2009

My daughter is in grade 2 this year. On a daily basis we do silent reading, updating our calendar, math, piano and read aloud (stories before bed). For our other subjects, we have written them out on little flags (eight in total) and put them in a cup. Each day my daughter picks out two to work on then moves them to the "Finished" cup. That way we cycle through all the other subjects in about a week. When all the flags are in the "Finished" cup we switch them back and start over again. It works well for us!

AmyB736

Discussion Starter · #12 · Sep 3, 2009

3

Well now I feel pretty silly for even trying to fit everything in in one day.

I didn't buy any curriculum, just a few learning games and a few activity books for now. Most of the stuff I found on the internet so I don't know what these boxed curriculums have kids doing everyday. But the way I planned out our week we would need a whole Month to fit everything in. I've made all of the lessons really fun, there's nothing in there that's unenjoyable, and my daughter could probably do everything I planned out, I just can't keep up. The activities I planned out are taking three times as long as I anticipated.

I appreciate everyones responses. I feel so much better now!

If anyone else wants to add go right ahead...I love hearing about everyone else's routines.

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craft_media_hero

· #13 · Sep 3, 2009

What we do every day:
Music (to start the school day)
Calendar (just look at it, note lunar phases/important dates)
ASL/Spanish--just about 5-10 minutes with singing and roleplaying, fingerplays, etc.
Read-aloud poetry
kinesthetic, non-pencil based writing practice (tracing sandpaper letters w/ finger, etc. until she feels ready to do it with a writing utensil)
a reading activity (starfall, reading game, or words from Phonics Pathways--I'm going to start using activities from Peggy Kaye's book)
math---either workbooks (miquon and singapore) or I just make up "word problems" with manipulatives and we incorporate them into imaginative play, all 4 processes

Science and Social Studies do have slots on our "official" schedule, but since Social Studies is mostly just great read-alouds (Peter Menzel and "Children Just Like Me" and similar), it actually gets addressed pretty frequently in our house, like 2-3x/wk.

Science is floating, like Social Studies. I usually count nature observation on the weekends or free play with Science "manipulatives" (she just got Snap Circuits, and we are digging it! going to base a week block around electricity next week). We have the Singapore science workbooks, but science is mostly just talking about the world right now, and if we have worksheets that go along, then we pull them out. We also read the Burgess Bird Book (along w/ Comstock's Nature Study section on birds), listen to bird calls online, and do bird coloring sheets or just free drawing of the birds we're reading about. We also pick up science-y books from the library and do experiments from those.

Science gets counted about once a week, but for a longer session than the short SS sessions thru the week.

Our overall schedule goes like this: 2 wks focus on math, 2wks focus on literacy, 1 wk focus on Science/Social studies (or "other" like music, art, etc.) lather, rinse, repeat. We still do the 3Rs every day, but will shift our main focus so that we can get deeper into a SS/Sci subject. We also only "school" 4 days/wk.

*Oh, I forgot to add that she just turned 6, and we are doing 1st grade, although had I known about "maturity waiver", then that would've been great to postpone K one more year. She's doing really good, though. I guess that in many ways we are doing a K/1 year, esp. w/ reading/writing.

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LilyGrace

· #14 · Sep 3, 2009

It depends. I think just this year we've gotten to the point where we're doing 6 subjects a day, and that's just because it's a busy year for us where we'll be moving, visiting, and being without books for a while - The Kid needs help in writing skills still and he likes the rest of his subjects (he makes the schedule) so that's what we do. Every day we do Math, Language Arts, Reading, Science, and History, and then we alternate art and Latin, with afternoons dedicated to whatever skill he wants to work on.

ocelotmom

· #15 · Sep 4, 2009

Ideally, we do reading (aloud), phonics, handwriting, and math every day. Something or other often gets neglected. Science happens every day because my son is really interested in it, so we end up reading science books, watching science videos, or performing impromptu experiments pretty much daily. However, I have official planned lessons 1-2 days a week. Social studies is also about two days a week.

meetoo

· #16 · Sep 4, 2009

2

This is my first yr homeschooling too and I also have a 6 yr old (1st). I'm trying to do LA(mainly reading practice right now and journaling), 1 math lesson, and 5 in a row, everyday. I've also been throwing in some extra things and honestly I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. My kids ar having fun and not complaining so I guess what we are doing in enjoyable but I'm just having a hard time fitting it all in plus baby care, plus housework, plus........
Like today we did,
3 pages of ETC
had dd read 1 book to me
1 math lesson (mcRuffy)
read a chapter from our chapter book plus our FIAR book
made menu's to go with our FIAR theme (something she really wanted to do)
she played reading eggs (her choice)
we did a activity from THINK!
played a question race game
I'm not sure what else, but I feel worn out. When I look at it I'm like OMG we didn't do enough, but then I feel like we did to much!

: Maybe it just takes a few weeks to find your groove? I would say all total it took us like 2.5-3 hours? We did about 1.5 hours in the morning then another hour or so this afternoon.....Not counting the time she spent playing reading eggs. I'm starting to wonder what I was thinking homeschooling.

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AAK

· #17 · Sep 4, 2009

No, we don't do everything everyday. In fact, sometimes I drop something (social studies) for a month so that I can really focus on something else (like science) and vice versa.

Amy

sarathan

· #18 · Sep 4, 2009

There a few subjects we do daily.... phonics, math, handwriting, and social studies. Science is about once a week, although I do have a little nature reader book that I read from daily. And there are others like arts & craft type things, Children Just Like Me book, Come Look With Me book.... those are about once a week too. Everything is in short little chunks so it's completely manageable for me.

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inky leeuhhh

· #19 · Sep 4, 2009

this is our 2nd week hsing k, and im starting to feel more comfortable with it. i needed to relax a little. we are sure to do reading, math, and writing every day, and we usually get a little history and science in but i dont sweat it if we dont get those in. we sort of just fit things in when we have time. id say its maybe 1.5 hrs total?

sewchris2642

· #20 · Sep 4, 2009

For Kindergarten, I covered the 3Rs every day (about 1 hour max). Social studies, science, crafts, art, and music weren't planned. They happened over the course of the day through play, cooking, arts and crafts, listening to music, errand running.

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