How much time to schedule for this?

[Kathie in Va]

I'm looking at using CW Diagenes next Fall with my (to be) 8th and 9th graders (after we finnish CW-OB this year). About how much time should I plan for this in our schedules? Homer seems to take a lot of time, does this level take less? I read some where that it take about 45 minutes, 4 days/wk (much les then Homer) ... but is that only for my time with them or does it include all of their time on this subject? I'm not sure but we might take the online class (possibly the one that combines Maxim and Creia if my kids are up to it... else just the Maxim one). If the grammar is a separate time to schedule then does anyone have an estimate for that also?

I'm really asking because I'm trying to determine what I want to use for history/literature and there is only so much time I want to schedule in their day for school.

tia

[greengables]

Kathie, my daughter (13) spends about 45 minutes three days per week on Maxim and Harvey's combined (not including reading the literature selections). Although I don't have her do all of Harvey's since she is studying Latin and Greek, she does work slowly, so I think it is a fair estimate. She is doing the online class, so that adds another 1.5 hours on Fridays.

Kathy

[Kathie in VA]

Wow, really? That's much less then we are spending on Homer {Older Beginners} now. Right now I have scheduled about 1.5 hrs 4 days/wk (Tues-Fri) plus about 15-20min for Harveys on Mon & Tues. (okay, sometimes we don't need all that time but I rather block it out, kwim?) {~30min A&I lesson, ~30min workbook, ~30min WP}

If Maxium will only take about 45min - 1 hr, 4 days/wk (we'll probably do all of Harveys so I'll plan it for 4 days) then it should be easier then I thought to fit in other work ... like VP Omni 1, which I hear takes about 3 hrs/day, 5 days/wk.

Thanks for taking the time to respond! I know we will all vary on the amount of time spent on any specific curriculum but I find it very helpful to get estimates when planning what might fit into our schedules.

thanks again!

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

Kathie,

The standard form for all CW courses is 4 days per week. Our idea is that it is impossible to be fully committed to a 5 day week. Stuff just happens, and it leaves that Friday free to do catch up work if we lose Tuesday without having to ruin the whole weekly plan.

My kids also spent about 45 mins in Maxim when they did that book. It varied because I am an extreme stickler when it comes to the Writing Project. They probably spent 20-30 minutes on the lessons, and sometimes more on the Writing Project depending on the week and how much I had time to require of them that week.

When it comes to those essays (writing projects) you should do whatever suits your schedule. There are weeks when we don't have much time and I announce, "This week's writing project is a timed essay. Take 60 [or 30] minutes on Friday, follow the instructions and write it all up at once. " And then I just grade it after one writing.

That is valuable experience (indeed we have lessons with that format) for essay writing for standardized testing, which the CW student will do more of in Herodotus and Plutarch. It is also an 'easy out' for an essay during a week when you don't have time for a full 4 step essay week.

Lene

[Kathie in VA]

I'm glad to hear that Diogenes should only require about 1hr/day, 4 days/wk. That should allow us to do the other stuff I'd like to do.
However, as I read more about Diogenes levels I'm wondering about the assigned literature readings and the optional ones. I know there is another post about whether the lit here is enough or if it is in addition to a literature prgm. (I think you said it was supplementary reading, not a separate lit credit?) We too are thinking of history w/ Great Books study (maybe via Omnibus also). However I wouldn't want to gather more materials then are needed nor more then we will be able to handle. So does the estimate of 1hr/day include the literature readings? If not about how much additional time might I want to block out in prep for this part of the prgm?

tia

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

Diogenes students spend about 45 minutes - 60 minutes per day doing their lessons (analysis or imitation, or discussion or essay writing), and then they read the assigned reading.

My experience with assigned reading is that the student reads it faster than Diogenes schedules it. My daughter just whipped through The Prince, for example, though it is still scheduled in Herotodus, the book she is currently in.

Also, essay writing is discussed and planned, but how long it takes your student to write his or her essay, I cannot tell. Most public school high schoolers take home work and work on the essays at night. My homeschool students get most of that done during an 8 hour work day. Often I wonder if I am not working them hard enough because their public school friends are laboring late into the night where we have most nights free.

So I am not clear whether you're counting homework in here or what?

[Kathie in Va]

Homework? hmm, only if they can't or won't get their work done during the day. ;D Actually that's why I always ask these types of questions. I'd like to try to gather the right curriculum so that they can get their work done in about an 8hr day. I could, if not careful, get stuff that will take them much longer

So the assigned reading tends to occur after the basic CW work. Okay that makes sense. Is it daily or occasionally? I know they might choose to read ahead but if they just stuck to the schedule, about how much time might it take or how many pages tend to get assigned?

Thanks for your help.
Kathie in VA

[Lene Mahler Jaqua]

I feel the same way about homework. We kind of run homeschooling like a 'job'. When Dad comes home around 5:30 the homeschool is done.

My kids do read in the evening before bed (in fact, my daughter does all her reading in bed: her choice!) and on occasion if an essay was uninspired or a kid was wholly uninspired during the day, work may spill into the evening, but it is rare.

The reading is scheduled daily, but in Maxim and Chreia there are times when there are no readings scheduled, probably (don't shoot me I haven't counted) about 25% of the time. I just find that my kids read faster than the schedule.

F.ex. in CW Herodotus, Herodotus' Histories were read for Unit 1. My kids were so enthralled with the Landmark Herodotus with all the notes and pictures and maps, that both of them read it way faster than scheduled, just out of personal interest.

How many pages are assigned depends too much on the content to generalize.

Herodotus is an easy narrative read of what the "stupid" King of Persia or the Pharaoh of Egypt or the BRAVE Greek soldiers did. but when we scheduled Athanasius' "Against the World" which is a fairly concentrated work of theology of sorts (showing why Jesus was both man and God), we assigned tiny sections because of its difficulty.

My daughter says to tell you that it takes her 15 - 45 minutes per day to read for CW, depending on the work (and on her interest).

Now the readings are 'optional' of sorts. If you don't want to read Spenser's Fairie Queene but would rather do Mallory's Morte D'Arthur, you can make the substitution. Yes we do pull models from the reading and of course it's better to do the reading, but it's not disastrous or impossible if you sometimes choose other books.

Lene