Earlier this week,  I wrote about folding in Missy into our learning days.  I said that this year would be full of trial and error as we tried to find the right fit for all of us now that there will be three little people to teach.  It appears that the period of trial and error has officially begun.

    The same day that I posted about teaching three,  I came upon loop scheduling on The Well-Trained Mind forum.  If you are so inclined, you can do a search for loop schedules on the curriculum board and you will find a few threads on it. 

     We have enjoyed our year with block lessons.  It worked very well for us but there were a few things that I am afraid will not work with blocks.  When we were doing block lessons, we didn't get done school until 2:30 -- that is with only two children.  I didn't know how I was going to fold in another person into that time without pushing back our finishing time.  That is just crazy!   I didn't like that idea at all.

     With loop scheduling we will be finished (theoretically) school at noon.  There will be time scheduled into that 3 hours for time with Missy, so she will not be shortchanged on 'mama time.'   That is important to me.   So, let me tell you how it all works.  You make a list of all of the skill subjects (or core subjects) that need to be done everyday.  You make a list of the content subjects.  You make a list of the subjects that your children can do independently.   For each day, you make a list of the skill subjects and then pick one or two content subjects. 

     At 9:00 (or whenever you want to start)  you sit down with all of your kids.  You take one child and work on a subject with that child.  While you are doing that, the other children are either working on independent work or are occupied with an acitivity.  When you are done with the first child, you give them their independent work to do and then you work with the second child on the same subject.  You work through that subject with all of the children.  When that subject is done, you move to the next subject on your list and work through it with all of your children.   While you are working with a child, there should be independent work or activities being done.  For that entire three hours,  the children are busy working.  There are no breaks.    Now, this is where the loop comes in.  If at the end of the three hours, you have not reached the end of your list,  you will then take those subjects and start with them on the next school day.  This will push back  your schedule but it will also ensure that you will get to those subjects that, at times, get pushed back to the point where they are never done.

      Let me personalize this for you.  We will start our days at 8:30 so that we can get Bible reading, circle time and read alouds done.  At 9:00,  we will sit at the table (this will be hard as we are not table people.)  We will do math first.  I will teach Mia her math lesson first.  Missy and Rocky can play a math game together  or do some math activity like pattern blocks, tally sticks, etc.  When I am finished with Mia, I will give her her math worksheet and then I will teach Rocky his math lesson.  Missy will find something to do on her own like playdough,  puzzles, etc.  Then it is Missy's turn for math.  After math, it is reading.  Rocky will go first to give Mia more time on her math.  Then it will be Mia's turn. ( We are going to start literary discussions this year.  We will be doing that during this time.)  Then Missy will have her turn with Mom.  Writing comes next, then Grammar.  These are our skill subjects.  Then we will go through our two content subjects.   The content subjects are history, science, geography, form drawing, art, baking, and nature study.   Let's say on Mon. we have gone through our skill subjects and we have done art  but we don't have time for history.  Tuesday will start with History, then we will move on to math, reading, etc.

     I will also write out a list of independent subjects so that Mia can work through this on her own.  If these subejcts aren't done by noon, then she can work on them during quiet time right after lunch.

     As I was figuring out our schedules,  I am not sure if this will work out.  If you push a subject back to the next day, then you will always be pushing back.  So I don't know how this will turn out but I talked to the kids about this and they are eager to try it.  We are giving the loop a week trial period during our first week of school starting on Aug. 25th.   We will try it for a week and see how it goes.  I am looking forward to this.  I have realized that  I am a girl who needs variety.  For the four years that we have been homeschooling,  I have never done the same schedule two years in a row.  We don't change curriculum, we just change schedules and philosophies.   This is what adds excitement to our learning. 

     If you need a visual on how this loop schedule will play out, here's a link

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Posted by Jacqueline