PeacefulChaos Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 So I was thinking tonight about trying some different scheduling ideas for next year. My boys will be in 3rd and 1st/2nd grades. As it is, we do a modified year round schedule. I really like this - it gives us a lot of freedom. :) So we'll be keeping our basic schedule intact. What I'm thinking about now is, we currently do history 2-3 days a week and science 2 days a week. We do a little music appreciation a couple days a week, and we never do art. It sounds terrible, but it's a fact. :glare: I've already remedied that for next year, and decided to do Artistic Pursuits - this year, I was just trying to piece things together, and I've found that (in art, anyway) piecing together is not my strong suit. ;) I'm wondering if anyone has tried anything like this: History 1x wk Science 1x wk Art 1x wk Music 1x wk Or is that weird? Is that not enough? I was thinking we would go through the entire chapter of SOTW on the day for history; A week's worth of Science on science day; a project from art; and our main music history/appreciation lesson. We would maybe do a couple of other things throughout the week that would be loosely related to those subjects, but would spend one day per week in depth on each of them. Any thoughts? It's still just something I had thought of, and was wondering if anyone had ever tried anything similar or had any other suggestions or opinions on it. Thanks! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aprilsblessings Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I can't say that I can speak from experience because we are really just finishing up our first year and I still don't feel like I have anything together but..... I think your plan sounds GREAT!!! I love the idea to be focused on one subject each day. To me it just makes sense that you could go deep with your learning not just briefly touch on things trying to get to the next thing. Hey, if you do end up doing this next year (or start now:D) I would love to hear how you like it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 So I was thinking tonight about trying some different scheduling ideas for next year. My boys will be in 3rd and 1st/2nd grades.As it is, we do a modified year round schedule. I really like this - it gives us a lot of freedom. :) So we'll be keeping our basic schedule intact. What I'm thinking about now is, we currently do history 2-3 days a week and science 2 days a week. We do a little music appreciation a couple days a week, and we never do art. It sounds terrible, but it's a fact. :glare: I've already remedied that for next year, and decided to do Artistic Pursuits - this year, I was just trying to piece things together, and I've found that (in art, anyway) piecing together is not my strong suit. ;) I'm wondering if anyone has tried anything like this: History 1x wk Science 1x wk Art 1x wk Music 1x wk Or is that weird? Is that not enough? I was thinking we would go through the entire chapter of SOTW on the day for history; A week's worth of Science on science day; a project from art; and our main music history/appreciation lesson. We would maybe do a couple of other things throughout the week that would be loosely related to those subjects, but would spend one day per week in depth on each of them. Any thoughts? It's still just something I had thought of, and was wondering if anyone had ever tried anything similar or had any other suggestions or opinions on it. Thanks! :) Hi, I do a schedule similar to this. We do math and writing every morning, but we only do most other subjects once a week, but it's for a couple of hours. We get everything done. It really helps them focus. My kids get frustrated with jumping around from subject to subject. Also, I felt like I was rushing them to get thru something, so we could "hurry up and do the next thing on our list". I haven't noticed problems with retention or anything like that. It seems to work. We do our subjects on a Loop Schedule. :thumbup1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayne J Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 This is pretty much what the author of LCC recommends--so you have official, expert-who-wrote-a-book validation!:D He suggests doing the skills daily (math, writing, phonics, Latin if you are doing it or grammar if not) and doing one content area a day. I do this pretty much although history always overflows to at least 2 days--but we like it that way. I do geography on Monday, science on Tuesday, Greek history on Wednesday, American History on Thursday ( and usually Friday too) and art on Friday. Music is done as lessons once a week, plus listening while we drive. It works nicely for us-- an interruption only gets us "behind" in one subject, not all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3peasinapod Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 If it works, it sounds great! You could do art on the weekends from Artistic Pursuits. The children usually find it great fun, and it helps keep boredom down. It usually only takes 5-10 minutes to get it set up if you have all the materials beforehand, and then the kids can just have at it. That's what we do. Unless you want to do it with them, which then it could take about half an hour usually.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrdinaryTime Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 We do! We do phonics/reading, copywork, and math everyday. Then we do history on Monday, Geography on Tuesday, Science on Wednesday, co-op on Thursday, and Art or Music on Friday. It works very well for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeehiveSez Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 :iagree: Sounds like a well structured week with a good balance between all the subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 We do something similar, though we do official history 2x a week, and everything else once a week. We will do extra reading on science or history (or art or music occasionally, when we are studying a specific artis) throughout the week with picture books for reading or read alouds. I may also assign some work at other times during the week. If I am working one on one w/one child and the other is waiting on me for her next assignment and we didn't finish everything I wanted to do in yesterday's science or history session, I may assign them to now finish writing their narration or to write out their science definitions or something. So in that way, the topics are studied throughout the week. But I have only those one specific time periods that I set aside that I will be sitting and teaching those subjects for the most part. I also keep a science table set up during the week. We will leave any ongoing experiments there that we are watching. Or that is where we kept our rock collection when we were studying geology. Right now we are in physics. The week we did levers, I left a box of blocks on the table and a book about building levers. During the week they could experiment with them more than we did together during our official session. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julikins Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Love this idea. I've often wondered about doing this and will have to pursue it more. I've been trying to do the loop schedule, doing a couple things from the loop every day, but I haven't always gotten to it or we only get to one thing. So maybe this will be more effective for us. Time to ponder... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russiantwins Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I am not artsy at all, and so I have started Artistic Pursuits this year and find it is very simple and laid out. It doesn't take long at all to set it up and all I do is read it to the kids and then follow the instructions. Great for a non artsy person that I am. I also do a cooking class once a week, and a geography or map class. We do a little science reading every day, but only do the intensive experiment once a week, which is pretty simple too. History is the only thing we do every day from your list, not just once a week since it is more info they need to absorb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted February 24, 2012 Author Share Posted February 24, 2012 Cool. I just got a lot of my curriculum in the mail today. :) I'm thinking about trying to schedule it out and see how it looks. It's kind of exciting to think about! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicMom Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I have thought about doing this very thing! I have scribbled my little "plan" out on paper probably 5 times but I never implement it. I just can't seem to get my mind wrapped around how it would change our homeschooling. I'm also a little afraid I might burn the kids out on "The Subject" if we are doing it for 2 hours straight. For instance, I use Apologia Science. If I did a week's worth of Science in one day..... yikes.... would that be too much? I guess it can't hurt to try and find out for a day or 2. I hate switching gears 8 times within a few hours, too. I'm a list checker and I do feel like I'm rushing to get to the next thing sometimes. Maybe concentrating on less things per day would help me :chillpill:. lol I have thought it might be nice for the kids to know it's "science day" or "history day" to give them more of a sense of routine. I'm inspired! Let us know how it goes if you try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heidip2p Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 This sounds really interesting. I know I feel like I lose their focus as we switch from subject to subject. I am really going to think on this. Thanks for sharing. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I think it sounds like a good plan. I was considering something similar as I looked at our next school year: Math/LA/reading daily (Mon-Fri) Social studies - 2 days in a row (i.e. Mon/Tues) Science - 2 days in a row (Weds/Thurs) Art - 1 day (Fri) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I'm also a little afraid I might burn the kids out on "The Subject" if we are doing it for 2 hours straight. For instance, I use Apologia Science. If I did a week's worth of Science in one day..... yikes.... would that be too much? Yeah, it probably wouldn't work with little ones. The two kids who do this in our house are early middle school-age. We do this as a loop schedule. Honestly, I forgot that this schedule was recommended in LCC. I must have absorbed that info subconsciously and scheduled our semester that way. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in MS Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 This is similar to the way FIAR works: Mon- Social Studies/geog Tue- LA Wed- Art Thur- Applied Math Fri- Science You still do your own phoics/reading and math through out the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I have thought it might be nice for the kids to know it's "science day" or "history day" to give them more of a sense of routine. I'm inspired! Let us know how it goes if you try it. We have done it this way for years, so I can let you know it works well for us. I have a typed schedule, so the kids know that Mon. are art day, Tues/Thurs. are History days, and Wed. are Science days. It has always been that way. It is not as if we don't learn about them the other days. Their assigned silent reading might be from a science book the other days. My read alouds are from our history list, etc. It is just that on Thurs. afternoons we are going to read from SOTW, and do all writing: narrations, outlines, whatever. On Wed. we will be doing a science experiment and filling out our lab notebooks. The topics bleed into the rest of the week. Their dictaton sentences or copywork in writing time will be from science or history or latin. But that afternoon assigned time slot is our main focus time of when I teach the week's lesson. We do the same in our morning subjects a little bit. We do one music lesson a week on Tues. The rest of the week in that same time slot is latin. But on Tues. they know we are going to get out our music books instead at 11:30. It works really well for one of my dds that really needs routine and schedules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoo Keeper Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 We have done it this way for years, so I can let you know it works well for us. I have a typed schedule, so the kids know that Mon. are art day, Tues/Thurs. are History days, and Wed. are Science days. It has always been that way. It is not as if we don't learn about them the other days. Their assigned silent reading might be from a science book the other days. My read alouds are from our history list, etc. It is just that on Thurs. afternoons we are going to read from SOTW, and do all writing: narrations, outlines, whatever. On Wed. we will be doing a science experiment and filling out our lab notebooks. The topics bleed into the rest of the week. Their dictaton sentences or copywork in writing time will be from science or history or latin. But that afternoon assigned time slot is our main focus time of when I teach the week's lesson. This is very, very similar to what we do. Our morning work is the stuff that happens daily: math, Latin, grammar/spelling, reading, memory work--the skill stuff that must be kept fresh. Each afternoon is a different content subject: Monday is science, Tuesday is world history, Wednesday is classical studies, Thursday is American history, Friday is fine arts or review/catch up time. Our afternoon time slot can be as short as 30 min., or much longer if needed/wanted. Depends on the lesson, the kids, or me :001_smile:. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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