nellecv Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 My daughter and I seem to work best when we can focus on one subject at a time. Trying to balance 5 subjects is a nightmare for my ADD brain. Does it seem reasonable to do 6 months of history followed by six months of science, and then switch back again? Or do you think DD would forget too much of each subject in between semesters of it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suppleasthewind Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 This was my first full year of homeschooling and I realized that I liked to have large blocks of time for one subject. I was thinking maybe that winter is for staying inside and doing history and fall and spring for doing science outside. Some people have two week blocks for history and science. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 I've never done six month blocks before, but we did do 4-6 week blocks one year and it worked quite well. I would definitely encourage you to experiment and find what works for your family. There's really no reason but convention that certain subjects get covered daily. Now with skill areas like math, reading, and writing, small incremental daily lessons makes perfect sense. But with subjects like history and science, it's really not necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Waldorf block scheduling only tackles one main topic a month. Not only do they alternate between science and social studies, but they even only introduce a main new math or English topic about once every 4 months. I don't know about now, but I know the old full program CLE offered the option of alternating science and social studies light units, instead of doing them both at the same time. One of the things I have done over the years, is just teach an intensive combination of geography and environmental science as the main content area, and then use videos and living books to fill in the rest. I've always been incredibly skills focused, but with an almost unschooling focus for the content areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 My daughter and I seem to work best when we can focus on one subject at a time. Trying to balance 5 subjects is a nightmare for my ADD brain. Does it seem reasonable to do 6 months of history followed by six months of science, and then switch back again? Or do you think DD would forget too much of each subject in between semesters of it? I rotated 2 chapters history to one chapter science when DS was 5th grade, and the rotation worked well for us. We used standard school texts as a spine and it worked out to 3-4 weeks history with 2 weeks science with a lab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 For the past couple of years, I have alternated science and history/geography. We have school 4 days per week, so we have 2 days of science and 2 days of history/geography. It has worked very nicely for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 At the elementary level, it is common to alternate science and history. Yes, she'll forget some of it, but it doesn't matter, because you'll surely be teaching almost everything again multiple times over the years. Each time she'll remember more. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 I've never given it much thought, but on the afternoons we do science projects and reading we tend to skip history. And vice versa. I usually try to have history 3 days and science 2 days. I like the idea of focusing for about a month at a time though. I can imagine it would make the week feel less rushed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 Never mind just not doing both subjects every day--at least for formal instruction--I think it's best to alternate for weeks or a month, for many families. I tend to lump science and social studies together with a lot of other things, into "content". Skills need to be practiced daily. Content can be taught in chunks, willy nilly:willy_nilly: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 We do history MTW and science Th, F. Works well for us that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmoe Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 This year we worked on history along with all of our other daily subjects everyday. Every 6 weeks we dropped everything and worked on just science for a week. I loved it. We could focus on just science and time to do multi-day experiments. And it was a nice break without taking a break! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angiegal Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 This thread was helpful. I've been feeling overwhelmed trying to do too much at once. Maybe this change is just what we need! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALB Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 I think its pretty common. My ds teaches ps and she alternates between 9 week unis of social studies and 9 weeks of science. Unless I'm mistaken, BJU intends their early elementary curriculum to include a semester of history followed by a semester of science. Since they're not skill subjects, I wouldn't think it would hurt anything even if they do forget some of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 My daughter and I seem to work best when we can focus on one subject at a time. Trying to balance 5 subjects is a nightmare for my ADD brain. Does it seem reasonable to do 6 months of history followed by six months of science, and then switch back again? Or do you think DD would forget too much of each subject in between semesters of it? Last year we had a slot for history or science, not both each day. Sometimes, here, it is hard to tell whether something is history or science if it is history of science so the one or the other slot made sense. This summer we have only science, no history. Similarly we have a slot for music or art. Hence each day of the regular school year had the 3 R's plus history or science, and music or art, for 5 total slots. That still seems to be 5 subjects, but is at least not 7 subjects. I think 6 month blocks would be fine. Much will be forgotten no matter how you schedule it, but that is not so important as with a skill area where it needs to stay in practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nellecv Posted June 7, 2012 Author Share Posted June 7, 2012 Thanks for all the replies and reassurance! We are hyper-focusers around here. Last Friday we started SOTW 1 and we've already done the intro, two chapters, 5 related picture books, and 3 projects! This is why I can only handle science OR history at once. When we are interested in something, we become totally absorbed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 Waldorf block scheduling only tackles one main topic a month. Not only do they alternate between science and social studies, but they even only introduce a main new math or English topic about once every 4 months. I don't know about now, but I know the old full program CLE offered the option of alternating science and social studies light units, instead of doing them both at the same time. One of the things I have done over the years, is just teach an intensive combination of geography and environmental science as the main content area, and then use videos and living books to fill in the rest. I've always been incredibly skills focused, but with an almost unschooling focus for the content areas. I've never done six month blocks before, but we did do 4-6 week blocks one year and it worked quite well. I would definitely encourage you to experiment and find what works for your family. There's really no reason but convention that certain subjects get covered daily. Now with skill areas like math, reading, and writing, small incremental daily lessons makes perfect sense. But with subjects like history and science, it's really not necessary. Hmmm...:huh: You guys have got me thinking as to whether or not this would work for my family. Rotating by months, or 6 weeks blocks. I could totally see that working. We're also "skills focused, but with an almost unschooling focus for the content areas." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 I do something like this. I do one until we lose steam, then I go back to the other. During the science times, I do read some historical read alouds at bedtime. Right now I'm reading the Drama of American History aloud. But not *studying* it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 My daughter and I seem to work best when we can focus on one subject at a time. Trying to balance 5 subjects is a nightmare for my ADD brain. Does it seem reasonable to do 6 months of history followed by six months of science, and then switch back again? Or do you think DD would forget too much of each subject in between semesters of it? Well this is timely...because this is the exact plan that I came up with for this year. Since we are afterschoolers, I was finding it difficult to balance so many subjects. I am planning on doing the same, i.e. focusing on History and Science in alternating blocks of 3-4 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 I talked to my kids and husband about this idea last night, and they loved the idea! I think it would actually make a lot of sense for us because: 1. I could fit in more read-alouds that had to do with science during science months. Many of our past read-alouds have been more history focused. While we're going overall for a more lit-based approach than anything else in the upcoming year, some more science to read would be nice. 2. I could fit in both history and science projects since they wouldn't all be happening at the same time. 3. It would give us a chance to really delve into various topics, rather than skimming through to fit it all in. What we're thinking at this point is alternating by month. IF we do this, that is. I haven't quite decided yet... thankfully I've got a couple more moths to figure it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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