THREAD
AGE 11-13
How do you space out your MBTP curriculum?
Jennifer A c
5 years ago
Hello! we're excited to begin the comprehensive curriculum but I'm curious as to how other families space the lessons? Some lessons have a number of days suggested next to them and others do not. I'm guessing a whole lesson should last a week or slightly more?
Rachael W c
5 years ago
Hi Jennifer, we use the "suggested days" as a guideline. Depending on whether or not we decide to skip an activity, or conversely, to delve deeper into a subject, the time it takes to finish a lesson will vary. In general, we try to pace ourselves so that we do not take any longer than 4 - 6 weeks per unit (we are on the year-round schedule). Along with MBTP, we also study a foreign language, math program, and other extra courses, so it is rare that we are able to complete all of the MBTP lessons according to their suggested timeframes. Additionally, you will find that it may take shorter/longer for certain lessons or activities to be completed depending upon your child's abilities (writing, reading comprehension, planning skills, etc.). One thing you won't have to worry about with MBTP is that your child will run out of challenging things to do--the program is chock full of enrichment and extension activities.
Samantha M c
5 years ago
One lesson per day is how it is designed. If the lesson has a day 2 etc it means its a longer lesson and goes over an extra day. If you do a lesson a week you will never finish the course in a year.
Carolyn L c
3 years ago
I also like to make check marks as I complete the activities (some activities are skipped). I wish they had boxes for the lower grades. We have more than one person in our house (college student daughters) leading the lessons. So it helps whoever that is helping with leading a lesson know where the last person left off.
Cherrye M c
3 years ago
We are new homeschoolers and new to MBTP. I am following the suggested guideleines of one lesson per day and allowing two days when it is stated. It looks like at this pace we'll finish Science before LA. Is this typical or am I missing something?
Carolyn L c
3 years ago
Yeah often you finish one subject before another. Not timed perfectly. At least that we have noticed.
ANGELA B c e
3 years ago
Hi! The curriculum is designed to be three weeks per unit; however, there is a bit of wiggle room built in for things like field trips, days off, or if your students runs long on an assignment like a project or paper.

My family often takes that extra time to work on their final projects or have a light day to pursue other activities.
Hilary W c
2 years ago
We are new to MBTP and it's still a bit of a struggle to get in one lesson per day PER SUBJECT. We are trying to stick with the suggested schedule in the book but finding it's taking twice as long to complete each lesson. I am working with 8-10 force and power semester and 11-13 atoms semester. I'm finding myself going back and forth between them all day helping them with lessons. It's more stressful than I think it's supposed to be! Should we set a timer and just stop wherever we are for each suggested subject or only plan to do 2 or 3 lessons per week in each subject alternating days? Help!
Angela D c e
2 years ago
Actually the Age 11-13 can also be completed in a school year by doing four lessons a week per subject so there is a bit of wiggle room there as well. There is always a transition period where your kid will learn to work more independently. Homeschooling requires a much higher level of autonomy than a more traditional school setting. You may also want to consider the grade levels and if they may be too difficult (8-10 is fourth grade and 11-13 is seventh). If you need to talk this through feel free to call customer service as well. We are here to help.
Hilary W c
2 years ago
Thanks for the info. The curriculum seems to be good for where they're at. It just seems to be a matter of slowly speeding up independent work and getting them used to the flow of the curriculum.
Karina K c
2 years ago
Where is the suggested schedule for the 5-day schedule? I keep getting the same basic 1pg Unit schedule. Thanks!
ANGELA B c e
2 years ago
Hi Karina! At this time, the simple 5-day schedule that you're seeing is what is available. Each unit takes about 3 weeks, so you can plan those three week blocks easily in that format. Please let us know if you have more questions.
Crystal M c
5 months ago
My 6th-grade daughter is using the 1st semester 11-13 level, as well as a few units from the 10-12 (science/literature). She wanted to learn about ancient civilizations like her friends in CA public schools are learning, so we split the 11-13 semesters over 6th and 7th grade. We filled in with some extra units from the previous age level. In retrospect, I am not sure I made the best decision. I do think she could have benefitted from one more year of alternating science/social studies, instead of doing ALL subjects every day. After two years of using MBP, we are still struggling to keep up with the pace. We are using Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies and that is HARD to manage all lessons each day, especially because I am teaching two different children at two different age levels of the MBP curriculum. I am starting to trust myself more as a teacher and picking/choosing what will benefit my kids the most out of the longer lessons. Some of the activities are redundant, so we limit them to maybe 1 or 2 of the activities instead of ALL of them. We try to stick to getting all of the reading and reading questions done for each unit but rarely have time to get all activities in these 3 subjects done in a day. We also do separate math, handwriting, grammar/writing in addition and it makes for a very long day.
Categories
Giftedness and Creativity Forum
Considering Moving Beyond the Page
Homeschooling Twice Exceptional Children
Age 4-5
Age 5-7
Age 6-8
Age 7-9
Age 8-10
Age 9-11
Age 10-12
Age 11-13
Age 12-14
Forum
Welcome to our community forum! Feel free to participate by responding to existing posts or initiating a new thread where you can ask questions to Moving Beyond the Page or other homeschool families.
Add Your Comment
You must be logged in to add comments.
Edit Your Comment