More adjustments

The girls have been taking a long time to get their school work done and it is because they are not focusing.  My schedule has been to take a 10 min. break between each subject, but sometimes the subjects are too long.  So I've decided to try different schedules this week. 

Today I had them work for 90 minutes, then take a 20 minute break, back and forth.  It seemed to work a little better.  Savannah was done with her work before lunch time today.  I squeezed in Recitations during one of the breaks.  However, 90 minutes is still a long time to focus for these girls.  So tomorrow I'm going to try 60 min work time with 15 min. breaks.  Tomorrow will flow like this for Savannah and Charlotte:

800-900- Work

900-915 – Break

915-1015- Work

1015-1100 – Snack/Recitations

1100-1200pm- Work

1200-100- Lunch/free time

100-200- Read/sleep

200-300- work

300-315-break

315-415-work

That is 5 hours of work.  I'm hoping that they will be done in 3 to 4 hours, but we'll see.  The ultimate goal is to help them focus when it is work time and have enough breaks throughout the day to rejuvenate their minds.

UPDATE: I guess 4-5 hours of work is average for 3rd/4th graders, according to Susan Wise Bauer: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/schedules/  That makes me feel a little better.  I suppose we are entering a new phase of schooling.

More research on the writing for Savannah: at the moment I am leaning towards putting off Classical Composition and saving it for 7th or 8th grade at an accelerated pace (which is an option listed in the book).  The reason being is that I have been reading on the homeschool forums and in Susan W. Bauer's Writing With Ease: The Complete Writer,  and have found her progression of writing to make more sense.  Grades 1-4 consists of narration, dictation, and copywork.  Roughly grades 5-8 consists of sentence structure/diagramming, outlining, and writing from an outline.  Her middle school curriculum, Writing With Skill, is supposed to be really good and written to the student with lots of help for me as the teacher.  Then in high school is when students should begin the Progymnasmata, which is what Classical Composition is.  She argues that until students have the basic skills of grammar, sentence structure, and outlining, that they aren't ready to build on their writing skills with exercises contained in the Progymnasmata.  Though I don't know that I will wait until high school to teach the Progymnasmata, I do think I should delay it for a while.  An online writing class would be good for that stage as well since I feel so incapable of teaching that subject.

If I do this, I will need to add in copywork, narration, and dictation to our day.  Plus Rod & Staff English 4 has easy writing assignments that I can spread across the curriculum.  Anyway, that's where my thoughts are today on the subject.

Update: Everyday is a new day, right?  So I have been reading and thinking about SWB's writing curriculum and I think I will pass, even though it sounds really good.  After reading reviews of some people finding it to be torture, and pulling out my own copies of WWE, and remembering the feeling of torture trying to do those... I think I need to find a different path than SWB's stuff.  I don't think I will like WWS.

I think I will continue on with Classical Composition - Fable.  I do need to add in copywork and dictation though, so those will be starting next week.  I've got to think of a creative and pleasant way to do that. 

As for learning how to outline, that is what Google is for.  I'm sure I can find something.

And I'm purchasing Classical Writing cores Aesop and Homer, just for fun (used of course).  I want to look at them.  They incorporate more than just writing.  They contain grammar and analysis of some sort.  I want to see and compare.