jumping in... loop schedule

[Ohdanigirl]

Ok, I have been following all the threads about Loop Schedules and visited all your blogs as well. I think I am ready to jump in, or at least dip my toes in the water. I have found this year a little more difficult to really get much done. I have a first grader and a 5 month old. The older two are fairly independent, aside from WWE, grammar and Logic with my 6th grader. We have pretty much followed a block schedule, but I have found that we have been skipping Art, music and even Science at times. Even after trying to devote one day to these subjects, I find we use the day to work on anything else we may not have done. I just need to stop pushing other subjects back, so here I am.

 

So..... where do I start.

 

I figure a modified loop is best.

 

Daily:

Math

memory work (10 minutes)

Spelling (only about 10 minutes)

Latin

 

Loop:

depending on each child

 

But what if there are subjects we do not need to do more than twice a week? I would like to be finished by 12. Do lunch and then quiet time until about 3PM. Is this really possible? Has it worked for all of you?

 

Also, I saw that one of you ladies posted about calculating the hours needed per subject each year, and dropping it once the hours were met (is that right), but I can't find the post. Does anyone else do this?

 

Lastly would any of you like to attach you schedules? I would love to see them and possibly even tweak one for myself. I have come to realize that most of you are a lot more creative than I.:lol:

 

Danielle

[LanaTron]

I figure a modified loop is best.

 

Daily:

Math

memory work (10 minutes)

Spelling (only about 10 minutes)

Latin

 

Loop:

depending on each child

 

 

 

Sounds good.

 

But what if there are subjects we do not need to do more than twice a week?

 

Only put them in your loop twice, then.

 

I would like to be finished by 12. Do lunch and then quiet time until about 3PM. Is this really possible? Has it worked for all of you?

 

Lastly would any of you like to attach you schedules? I would love to see them and possibly even tweak one for myself. I have come to realize that most of you are a lot more creative than I.:lol:

 

It might be possible, but it depends on what time you start in the morning, and how efficient you and your dc are at getting your work done.

 

It looks like your daily work would be about 1.5-2 hours, right? If you are starting at 8 a.m., that gives you from 10-noon for your loop subjects. I'm not sure what those are, but you could determine if 2 hours per day is enough to accomplish what you want to accomplish in the week.

 

Here's how I see if my plan will work how I want it to or not:

 

I use an excel spreadsheet, and have a column for each day of the week. In each day's column, I list the subjects I expect to get to on that day. I count each cell as 30 minutes, so if something takes more time than that, I list it in mulitple cells. So, taking your daily subjects, and assuming the loop subjects are science, history, art, and language arts, Monday might look like this:

 

Math

Math

Spelling/Memory

Latin

Science

Language Arts

Art

Art

 

Tuesday might look like this:

Math

Math

Spelling/Memory

Latin

History

Science (starting the loop over again)

Language Arts

 

When actually working the loop, I just use a list of subjects, and not the excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet just shows me whether my idea is feasable or not. Some people use a flowchart, and those capture the essence of loop scheduling better than my spreadhsheets. But I love excel, with all the neat rows and columns. :tongue_smilie:

 

BTW, at this point, I am only using a loop for my older two dc, in 9th and 8th grades, but they do have to finish the day's work each day. I have an hour blocked for each subject, and if they don't finish, then it will be homework (or I suppose a better term would be "after hours" work). If you'd like, I can share that, or I can share some of the previous loops we have done when they were a little younger. Just PM or e-mail me.

 

HTH

[Ohdanigirl]

:lurk5:

[Mosaicmind]

Here was my loop from last year. I haven't made one for this year yet, but I am thinking it maybe better than trying to work out a MOTH schedule, which I am about to pull my hair out over.

 

Won't let me post it, sorry.

[AKMsMom]

I don't know if my schedule qualifies as looping, but here is what I am going to try this year. I made a list of what I want to get done each week, divided in to each day. We will start on Monday morning and work for 3 hours and get as far as we can. If we get done with all our work that day we will continue on to Tuesdays work until our 3 hours are up. If we don't get done after 3 hours we will continue where we left off on Tuesday. I am hoping that it will balance out and we finish everything by the end of the week.

 

So, my schedule looks something like this.

 

Monday

Math

Grammar

Spelling

History

Reading

 

Tuesday

Math

Grammar

Science

Handwriting

Reading

 

etc. That is how I allow for the subjects I don't do every day. We don't start school until Wednesday, so this is just a theory at this point. I hope this helps and isn't too confusing.

[chadzwife]

I came up with a MOTH idea about the same time she did. I called it Children at a Glance. Columns where each child is listed and what they are doing, who's w/me at any given time, etc. Where do I have time to do this or that, like cook dinner, shower, etc. It worked really well. The heart of MOTH is blocking out ur time and seeing ur limitations; and options too of course. Hslers tho, seem to need to see their limitations. They try do too many options. But options as in I could start dinner at noon in the crockpot on Thursday b4 piano lessons and cook a big breakfast on Tuesdays as we're all home that day and it's lowkey, are good options to have pointed out :).

Question tho on my end---Looping sounds like rotating to me....what am I missing? Rotate science 2-4 on MW, and HST 2-4 TTH and piano lessons 2-4 on Fridays for example. What is the genius in that...

[Mallory]

Looping sounds like rotating to me....what am I missing? Rotate science 2-4 on MW, and HST 2-4 TTH and piano lessons 2-4 on Fridays for example. What is the genius in that...

 

A "true" loop doesn't schedule a specific class for a specific time.

 

It is a list of your classes

 

Math

Grammar

Spelling

Latin

Writing

Reading

Music

Science

History

 

Then each day you work for a set amount of time say 9am- 12, then 1-3. You start at the beginning of the list and go until your time is up. Then the next time school starts you start where you are in the list, looping backt to the beginning when ever you need too.

 

So you might start with Math today and get to Music, tomorrow you'd start with Science. If you wanted to do Science 2x, History 2x, and Piano 1x then you could put them on the same slot in your loop and rotate during that slot, but it might not (probably wouldn't) be during the same time of day all week.

[Hedgehogs4]

our loop starts with Bible, Math, and LA, which in theory should take 1.5 hours. then we can have history, geography, science, latin, etc. on the loop. it is my hope to spend up to 2 hours on each of the looped subjects per day, getting us done by 12:30 with quiet time for independent reading and then piano practice in the afternoon.