Block scheduling content subjects

[ajfries]

Chelli wrote a great post yesterday on this subject & I've been contemplating doing something similar. Basically, instead of doing history 2 days a week & science 2 days a week (and throwing geography in whenever), I think I would prefer to do history four days a week for two or three week chunks, and then science for 2-3 weeks, etc. We school year round 6 weeks on, 1 week off so it should be fairly easy to implement.

 

What I'm wondering, though, is if the kids will retain what we learn (but they're so young I wonder if that's a moot point). I think that focusing on one content subject for a couple weeks will allow us (ok, me) to really dig in and be consistent, and (maybe this is wishful thinking) do more hands on things than I'd be able to do if we were switching back and forth within a week.

 

Thoughts? Experience? Any 'it can't hurt to try, they're so young it's all extras at this point' encouragement? :D

 

 

[silver]

That's what we're doing this year. We're a couple months in and I'm liking it. I do 3 weeks science, 3 weeks history, 1 week break from school; lather, rinse, repeat.

 

I was a little worried the kids wouldn't remember what we had covered the last time we looked at history when we came back to it 4 weeks later, but it wasn't a problem. Since I schedule by week instead of day, things feel less cluttered to me this way. It doesn't feel as disjointed as it did when we did history and science on alternating days. It feels more relaxed than last year, but we're covering the same amount of content and it's easier to dig deeper.

I didn't take the time to schedule it as such, but it would be simple enough to make each 3 week block into a mini-unit (3 weeks on Ancient Egypt, for example). A possible way to do science with this schedule is 1 week on a single life science topic (ex: life cycles or adaptations), 1 week on a single earth/space science topic (ex: the structure of the earth or Earth's rotation and revolution), and 1 week on a chemistry/physics topic (ex: what is matter or what makes things move). Choose a topic, get some library books, and read and discuss.

[mama25angels]

I've also been pondering block scheduling the content subjects as well, off to read Chelli's post.

[mama25angels]

Chelli wrote a great post yesterday on this subject & I've been contemplating doing something similar. Basically, instead of doing history 2 days a week & science 2 days a week (and throwing geography in whenever), I think I would prefer to do history four days a week for two or three week chunks, and then science for 2-3 weeks, etc. We school year round 6 weeks on, 1 week off so it should be fairly easy to implement.

 

What I'm wondering, though, is if the kids will retain what we learn (but they're so young I wonder if that's a moot point). I think that focusing on one content subject for a couple weeks will allow us (ok, me) to really dig in and be consistent, and (maybe this is wishful thinking) do more hands on things than I'd be able to do if we were switching back and forth within a week.

 

Thoughts? Experience? Any 'it can't hurt to try, they're so young it's all extras at this point' encouragement? :D

I ay try it, that's what we're thinking of doing this year!

[Coco_Clark]

It appeals to me. We do 4 10 wk quarters, so I've even considered splitting it by quarter (10 weeks history, 10 weeks geography, 10 weeks history, 10 week science).  I worry, though, that they would get bored with such an intense focus.  Especially when we got to subjects they didn't prefer.  

 

I'll try to remember at the end of the year to ask how it went.  Unless anyone has BTDT for a year or two?

[Chelli]

It appeals to me. We do 4 10 wk quarters, so I've even considered splitting it by quarter (10 weeks history, 10 weeks geography, 10 weeks history, 10 week science). I worry, though, that they would get bored with such an intense focus. Especially when we got to subjects they didn't prefer.

 

I'll try to remember at the end of the year to ask how it went. Unless anyone has BTDT for a year or two?

That's exactly why I split mine the way I did. I LOVE history and geography and would spend all year doing just those two, but my kids want science. The thought of spending an entire semester or quarter on science made me bummed, so I went with weeks.

[JubilantNest]

That is what the Waldorf schools do.  :)

 

[pitterpatter]

We're trying block-scheduling for the first time here for second grade. We are doing six, six-week blocks.

 

Daily

 

Dictation - The Modern Speller

Vocabulary - A Word a Day, Grade 2

Grammar - Preparing to Build, English 2

Composition - Good English: Oral and Written, Book 1

Reading - The Elson Readers: Book One, then Book Two (Blocks 1, 3 & 5), Historical Fiction (Blocks 2, 4 & 6)

Spelling - All About Spelling, Level 2

Math - Singapore Math 2B + Miquon

Logic (Friday only.) - Primarily Logic

Spanish (Tuesday & Thursday only.) - Song School Spanish

 

Electives - Blocks 1, 3 & 5

 

Composer Study/Music (Monday, Wednesday & Friday only.) - The Story of the Orchestra

Chemistry - Building Blocks of Matter + Hands-On Chemistry Experiments + Fizz, Bubble & Flash!

 

Electives - Blocks 2, 4 & 6

 

Artist Study/Art (Monday, Wednesday & Friday only.) - Picture Study Portfolios + Home Art Studio

Early Modern History - History Odyssey: Early Modern, Level 1