Schedule - How much time each day and #days/week

[Sheila in OK]

How much time does it take to do Adventures?

I'm sure it varies some, but I'm wondering if anyone can give me a general idea how long it takes to complete Adventures each day?
TIA!
Sara

Sara,
We are using Adventures this year with a 7yo (2nd grader) and at the MOST we spend around 2 hrs/day on schoolwork. We are using most of the recommended resources including PLL and Spelling by Sound & Structure. We just started doing I Can Do All Things for art and plan to add foreign language after Christmas.

HTH a little.

[Heather (WI)]

Sara,

We are using MFW Adventures with an 8yo (3rd grade). We only have one child, and she LOVES MFW and always wanted to read more and do more than one day's work.

That said, if you do it as written, I think the 2-3 hours is pretty accurate including everything.

Hope this helps!!

[Fly2Peace]

We are on week 17 with Adventures. I have a 7yo DD, and a 3 yo DD. I work from home in the mornings. We begin school after lunch. It usually takes us around 3 hours.

BUT we READ LOTS!! Anything on the recommended list that we have or is at our library, we read it. We also do every activity that is listed. Not because we "have to", but because they are always a fun, hands on way to learn.

We have just recently started doing some "self-directed" morning school time. By that I mean, the 7 yo reads something to the 3 yo. There may be a spelling workbook page assigned, or singing a song, or finishing an art project... some task that I know she will succeed at on her own. The confidence I have seen and enthusiasm just continues to grow.

I will admit, I had an interest in MFW, but after taking the 7yo to a show, and having to drag her away from the booth repeatedly, there seemed to be no question, this is what we needed. Her depth of knowledge of the basics has been wonderful, but the indepth look at Jesus and His names and what that means have been even more than wonderful!

There is a lot of flexibility with the program. Optional activities, things that can be done independently (depending on the child, of course), reading lists to pick and choose. Also, keep in mind Friday's contain very little assigned tasks, so if you need to, you can "make up" some time there.

Well, how is that? :)

Fly2Peace (versus flying 2 pieces)

[Fly2Peace]

How much time each day does it take to do Adventures - roughly - with the 3R's or without - let me know which you are talking about and if you use what they recommend for the 3R's.

Also is it scheduled for 5 days per week? We don't school 5 days per week, so I'm wondering how or if we would have to adapt this. Thanks for your help.

Dawn -- wife to Jim, Mom to Elijah 8, Isaac 7, and Rachel 5

We did it last year, and doing everything took 2.5 to 3 hours tops. Many days were shorter. The TM schedules 5 days, but the fifth day is VERY light. We generally added to other days, and only did coop stuff on Fridays. It was a wonderful year for us. We did every project / science experiment there was.

For Math we used the recommended Singapore, and liked it, and for language arts we used the recommended PLL, and liked it too. Art was really the only thing we changed from the recommended items, just because it worked better for my child.

[caod]

I would say ditto to everything in the previous post. We are doing Adventures this year. We have not done every experiment and project. For some reason I take longer to do some of the other work.

I don't always follow the days as they were scheduled but I do the work on the whole just on our time table. It is working quite well. We like the study of the birds. (I have done MOST of the projects). We also traded out the art.

Some days go really fast and others take longer. We do co-op on Friday so we don't do any school on Friday. On the weeks that we have a fieild trip and co-op it gets pretty crowded. You find that you give and take with what you know your childs strengths and weaknesses are. Afew times we stretched one week to two weeks and other times we just manage to get it all in.

Connie

[Toni@homezcool4us]

We school from 9:30-2:15p, but this includes a preschool and pre-K student doing their work as well, a 30 minute lunch break, 30 minutes of computer time, and book basket time as well.

We also do extras; What Your Second Grader Needs To Know, Patch the Pirate devotions (for church), and sometimes others.

So, how long does the actual Adventures work (with extras) take us?
3 hours.

[Heidi]

We did Adventures last year also.

We started around 9:30 and ended around 1-3pm (including all homework) depending and only did school M-TH. This includes an hour lunch break and and hour break each as follows - I worked with oldest ds (then 8/9) on basic RR while dd (then 5/6) and youngest ds (2/3) played, then vice versa. Dd was doing MFW-1 for RR.

We did not do every project or experiment. We used all MFW stuff except for math. We do a foreign language (another 15 minutes in the routine). We loved the study of birds also and had the older Dover workbook. I can not think of any other exceptions.

I will say, I did this in spite of 3 surgeries last year and taking it all with us to the many doctor appointments. We listened to several of the family readers in the car via library book tapes.

[TurnOurHearts]

Hi Dawn~

We are doing Adventures & MFWK this year. On a day not filled with many extra activities, we are done with table time in 2-2.5 hours. We haven't added foreign language yet, but here's a breakdown of what we currently do in a four-day week in Adventures:

Table time consists of:
Math (Singapore 1B)
Language Arts (PLL)
History
Memory Verse
Spelling (Spelling by Sound & Structure)
Reading portion of Science
Any "table" activities

Other portions of the scheduled school time are added in other places as follows:

Bible - done at breakfast (as we're feeding our physical bodies in the morning, we feed our spirits as well)
Science projects - done after lunch (when possible) before rest time
Book basket - the kids choose 5 or 6 books to take with them for rest time in their rooms (my 5 yr old still falls asleep) :0)
Art - we added Draw Write Now instead of recommended art. We haven't had to schedule it this year, as my son draws with it many times throughout the week on his own (he is a MAJOR art person)
Read-alouds - we do at bedtime. My kids actually look forward to settling in for story time at night now! We've even added other books on the weekends so we don't get ahead in our assigned reading.
Music - we listen to the scheduled selections while we fold laundry!! It helps curb the complaining & sparks good conversation; also, my sister & I get together once a week for what we call, "Music Adventures," where we use a music curriculum we've added to our Kindergarten year ("It's A Zoo Out There! Animals A-Z") & a hymn/praise chorus selection.
Additional reading - my son reads a book to my daughter each day (well, most days...), encouraging his reading & blessing their relationship.

This is a lot of info, but I know when I was trying to decide it helped just seeing how another person's actual day went. That said, I hope this helps! :0)

Paige in NC

PS - We are VERY fond of the 4 day week! We do a Mon/Tues, Thurs/Fri week, with "Music Adventures," our nature walk, & a visit with the Grands on Wednesday. This schedule has been beneficial with our MFWK year, in that we do the six-day units MT, ThF, MT. It stretches the year a bit, but it WORKS for us!

[claraskids]

Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2007 9:39 pm
In the last three weeks, I have spent one day in the ER, had emergency surgery, hospitalized for complications for 5 days, and restricted to very light activity at home. Tomorrow it's back to the clinic for more procedures.

Anyways, during all this time, we still managed to get two weeks of Adv. done. It is so family friendly and flexible. Although we may not have done every detail of every lesson, the general learning still occurred.

My favorite moment was a few days ago. I was in too much pain to do anything but stay in bed. My dd8 brought in Sarah Noble and asked if we could read it together. We were on about ch. 4 and only scheduled to go to ch. 6 for this week. The whole story has now been read in one sitting! We both got so into it and it was the only teaching I was capable of that moment. Now, did I follow the lesson plan? No, but did I follow the heart of MFW? Absolutely!

Hopefully in the near future we'll be back to full steam with homeschooling; but for now we are just so thankful for MFW!

[TurnOurHearts]

Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 10:45 am
ADV starts off slowly to give you time to adjust to the different type of day. When we did it, I was also doing MFWK. Before we started, everytime I thought about school I started to panic! Those first couple of weeks were not smooth necessarily, but they moved slowly enough that God helped me find my groove. Once we got a little farther into the regular pace of the year, I had a little confidence built up & we had a blast!

In the beginning, we'd be done after about 2 hours. By the time we were in the regular days, it took 2.5-3 hours tops. That being table time. We moved a couple of things around to lessen the table time since I had a K'er in the mix. We did all our Bible at breakfast and did our read-alouds at bedtime.

All that is to say, it's very doable in real life! My number 1 recommendation would be to pray. God will totally provide you with just the right balance for your family. We absolutely LOVED ADV and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

I'm hoping some of those who are good at linking will chime in here ~ there are lots of good posts about ADV. :)

Have a great year!

[dhudson]

Do you find the TM to be accurate as far as the amount of time/subject? Is 10 minutes for spelling enough time? Is 40 minutes for math too much?
Schelean
completed MFWK and MFW1
excited to begin Adventures

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:48 am
I find it's dependent on the child. The TM is a good general guideline to go by but if you have a child who's more math minded that will go by quicker or a child who enjoys language, spelling may take less time.

I have twins so I have seen this demonstrated on a daily basis. It all seems to even out in the end though and you finish in the approx time the TM mentions. Unless, you're like me and get off on rabbit trails... most often in Bible or read an extra chapter in the read aloud when the kids beg you to or do two science experiments to make a "control".

Generally speaking though, ADV took us on whole about 2-2.5 hours a day.

[Lucy]

We follow the suggested schedule and are finished in 4 hours, plus read-aloud time later. In the intro of Adventures, on the last page before the lesson plan of week 1, there is a "possible schedule." It starts at 8:00 and ends at 11:45 with a 15 minute break for snack. It does say that art/music and foreign language are optional. We have the art and music from the Adventures curriculum, so of course, we are doing those. And I'm just doing the foreign language flash cards when we have time; the suggested schedule says 15 min. for foreign language.
jessica

Dear Jessica,
The newest manual does have the schedule that you referred to which would be 3 1/2 hours of school, if it took the full amount of time for each subject [including optional subjects] on any given day. So I would say that if you are doing everything and are done in 4 hours with your break you are doing well. The break is not included in the 3 1/2 hours of "school" time. Times will vary depending on how long it takes each child to work through each subject. I always found that some days took longer than others but usually we were able to complete the upper programs in 4 hours of on task time.

Once my kids hit 7th and 8th grade it took them usually 1-1/2 hours of extra time to complete all subjects.
Lucy

[dhudson]

I'm excited about this curriculum and plan to switch my daughter to it for 2nd grade. I wondered how much time was average per day to get it all done? I'm planning to get the deluxe kit so I would especially like to know how long if you are including music, art, etc . . . Thanks so much!!
Tara Kayali

It took us about 2 - 2.5 hours a days to do a full Adventures including math, LA, Spelling, Handwriting. We did our read-alouds with Dad in the evening to add another 20 min or so.

[Jami]

We take about two hours or less also. We manage to do K and ADV while my baby girl takes her two hour morning nap (I'm not sure what I'll do when she grows out of it!) That two hours does include art and music but we don't do music as in depth as we probably could. We are not doing a language yet either. We also do our read-aloud chapter book later in the day. My ADV-son doesn't require a lot of help with math or spelling though, both of those are pretty much on his own most of the time (which is how I can do K with K-son while doing ADV).

We love ADV and am so glad that God led us here!

[RachelT]

Hello! We are enjoying Adventures this year. My dd is also K age and has already completed MFWK, but I'm waiting to start MFW1st, so I use other things to work on phonics and reading with her for about a half hour.

I would say that including that time with her it takes us about 3 hours and we are not doing the art curriculum. We always take a little on the longer side than others that post times, but every family is different. I've taught MFWK twice and MFW 1st last year. I like the way that Adventures is organized with a sheet I can glance at for the whole week and I make lots of notes there. It's a great curriculum!

Rachel

[KimberlyND]

Ditto for us. It usually takes us about 2 hours for everything. We don't do the foreign language. And we have a preschooler in the mix.

Loving ADVs!

[Michelle in WA]

We go at a much slower pace. I am splitting each day of ADV so it takes 2 days. With a Ker a pre-schooler, & a 9 month old, it's hard for dd to concentrate and me to stay focused. If we could sit down & do it straight through it would be about 2.5 hours, not including foreign language time. We also do the read-alouds at bedtime.

[wisdomschool]

It takes us between 2-3 hrs. a day, but we split it up a bit. Also, we are not doing the art program or Rosetta Stone.

My son does math during his morning routine, and then I check his math and we do SbSS/PLL together. Everything else we save for afternoon nap/quiet time(it is nearly impossible to do the rest while my 2 1/2 y.o. ds is up!!)

My 6 y.o. dd has recently started sitting in with us as we read Bible/History/Science/ Read Aloud. She is also doing MFW A-Z with my 4 1/2 y.o. dd.

I am really looking forward to my children being in just one program in a couple of years!

Blessings,
Debbie

[Jami]

I would be interested in knowing how others fit the entire curriculum into just 2 or 2.5 hours per day. I don't see how that's possible although it would sure come in handy after the baby is born!

I guess for us things just don't take as long as on the schedule they used as an example. We do Bible (includes praying and 'Jesus Songs') (20 min), Spelling (5 min), Math (10-15 min), English (10-15 min), History (10-20 min), Art/Music (5-10 min), Science (10-20 min), Celebrate America(5 min).
We don't take a break for snack and he does Book Basket after lunch. No foreign language either. Again, Read-Aloud is later in the day also.

I think Math is where we cut a lot of time. My son is pretty strong in math. We don't use the text book usually. When I do, my son complains that he doesn't need me to teach him because he already knows it, which he does. He does 1-3 exercises a day and is already in Level 3A in Singapore Math. We also drill times tables some days, but later in the day.

Our History time is a lot less also than recommended when there is not an activity to do. We are on Week 23 and most of history recently has been state sheets or reading which don't take up a lot of time.

We do Science 2nd to last because we have to get up from the table to do it when we do experiments and it is my son's favorite subject to do so keeping it at the end helps to keep him on track. Celebrate America gets done on the floor in the living room, which is why it is last.

I like to do everything that is 'table work' together so we stay at the table for the whole chunk of time that we need to. Otherwise it is hard to get my son back to sitting down, physically and mentally

Before my baby girl was taking a regular nap in the morning, things were pretty crazy and we'd be doing everything scattered all over the day. She was a really fussy baby and I had to do school while holding and bouncing her, often while she was crying (my poor kids!) She had health problems which contributed a lot to that. Now she takes a good morning nap and I know that I have to make it a priority to get everything done during her nap, because I know that it would be close to how it was before with having to fit things in throughout the day. Thank God it works for my kids.

Like you said, if you need to get things done sooner because of an appointment, you can. When your baby comes you'll figure out what works best and if things are crazy, that just goes along with this season in our lives!

[RBS in OH]

Hi. We definitely are on the longer side here--about 4 hours. Probably a few reasons for that--I tend to want to do everything "by the letter", so it gets done the way I understand it's "supposed to", but can take more time; we're doing the deluxe pkg., and art can take us a long time--especially if we are painting; our math takes longer than I understand Singapore Math would take (am switching for next school year); different LA too; being 6 y.o., my kids are on the young end for this. If they were older, maybe we'd be able to move through things more quickly?? On days with when we do a narration, it always takes longer. We do the read-alouds in the evening like many others. My two in ADV. are my only children at home and I absolutely love doing this with them, so I'm not in a rush.

[beastgal]

For those who have taught or are currently teaching ADV, how strictly do you adhere to the suggested time schedule? Or in other words, do you choose to complete all of your days work before lunch?

No we don't finish before lunch everyday. Some days we do, but most we don't. I tried to in the beginning but my son was not enjoying it. He prefers to have breaks and then comes back to work refreshed and willingly! I would prefer to finish before lunch and be done for the day but I finally realized I needed to be flexible for my son. Also somedays we combine subjects and do two days in one. This helps when we have things going on and one day will be busy.

Best Wishes

Wendy

[schoolmom2]

I have two boys, and we are never done before lunch! They need a couple of short breaks in the mornings to either run around outside or run around the coffee table, if it is raining. This year in ECC, I decided to try to stick to the suggested schedule more strictly. It was too stressful. My kids cruise through math, but anything LA-related takes twice as long as it should. And one son reads really slowly while the other is a speed reader. We also count AWANA as part of our Bible time, so it always takes 15-20 minutes longer to get through that part of the day. After a couple of months, I just wrote down the order of subjects, and we take as long or as little time as we need on each one. If LA things are taking too long, I just cut them off at a certain point, and say that we'll pick it back up tomorrow. The schedule is just a suggestion, and each family will have to experiment with what works for them.

[beaglemamma2008]

I tried a strict schedule, but it made everyone miserable! I have learned that what works for us is to have a very, very loose schedule (actually, just a certain order that we do things in). We do Bible at breakfast, "academic things" (math, English, spelling, book basket) in the morning, read-aloud at lunch, break for a while to go run/bike ride/free play time, and then do the "fun things" (art, science experiments, cooking projects) later in the afternoon or at night. I'm not a very nice mom when I'm stressed, and for us it works to have a loose schedule like this. Everyone knows what to expect, but there isn't a time frame attached to it.

The one thing I am strict about is start time. The TV goes off at 8:00 and school starts at 9:00. So if you wake up at 7:30, you have 30 minutes to watch TV. If you wake up at 8:00, SORRY! From 8:00 to 9:00 we eat breakfast, get dressed & ready for the day, and do hot spots (assigned chores). It's just what works for us. (This year, anyway. Next year it might be something totally different!)

[cbollin]

Oh, so good to hear! With many little ones I feel like there are so many "interruptions" during my day that I was beginning to stress a little about how to get everything finished before lunch for next year. Although I still think that can be a goal, I'm glad to hear about others being more flexible with their schedule.

I only have 3 kiddos and getting done by noon is not a goal I need to have in my family. We tend to get it done in about 3-4 hours over the day, but not 8-noon. It's just not our life or needs right now. Well, ok, on ballet day, we sorta kinda have to get done by noon....

We have a flow and routine has it goes, but not restricted to get done by noon.

-crystal

[jhagberg]

My son loves to be done before lunch, but it doesn't always happen. He's a clock watcher, and a perfectionist, so I have to remind him, "It's okay, it's no big deal."

We have never even tried to follow the schedule in the book. We stack everything to be done on the kitchen table, and then we work our way through it in any order we want. Usually we do all of our "couch books" first: Bible, English (PLL), Pathway Reader, History, Science. Then we move to the table to do workbooks: State coloring page, Spelling (SSS), Math. We always save our Read-aloud for last, and that usually happens right after lunch.