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Raise your hand if you are using a loop schedule this year.


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I looked at the link and have a question. When you are doing say "Latin with L" from the example, what are the other's doing? Do they do their independent work then? Am I understanding that the 4 letters are 4 different kids, and that's the order she teaches them in?

 

I only have 2 and so far so good; however, we haven't started all of our subjects yet. My parents have been planning on taking my dd on a vacation later this month, so we're not starting science until September because her first unit has a lot of plant experiments. I'm also adding in another at the same time. I know 2 more subjects will make our day longer.

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:hurray::hurray::hurray:

 

Me!!! I started a Yahoo Group called Home School Loopers if anyone is interested. We haven't implemented a full schedule yet to test out my loop schedule, but we are working on it.

 

I probably won't ever go back to how we did school before.

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We are and I'm hooked. I sat down last night and planned out the remainder of the year, it was so easy and felt great to have it done. We are on week 6 of our school year and my loop/flow combo has helped us be more efficient and less stressed.

 

Michelle,

Are you part of the yahoo group? Your name sounds familiar, but I haven't been good about keeping up with the group and have lost track of people.

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I don't plan on stopping at a certain time but I did need someway to figure out how to teach 3 kids this year. It seems like I am always putting the youngest (L) on the back burner. This isn't finalized (I haven't even bought the Latin yet) but it is my plan. The stuff below is what my oldest 2 can do if they are waiting for me to work with them. Some of this is not every day, in that case they would just go to the next thing. The oldest 2 each have a schedule of what needs to be done each day and they know how to check it.

 

Loop Schedule

 

 

 

 

 

1st

 

Latin - A & C

 

 

q

 

 

 

Workbook - L

 

 

2nd

 

 

 

q

 

 

 

Math - A

 

 

q

 

 

 

Math - C

 

 

q

 

 

 

Math - L

 

3rd

 

 

 

q

 

 

 

English - A

 

 

q

 

 

 

English - C

 

 

q

 

 

 

Reading Lesson - L

 

 

4th

 

 

 

q

 

 

 

Writing - A

 

 

q

 

 

 

Writing - C

 

 

q

 

 

 

HWOT - L

 

 

5th

 

 

 

q

 

 

 

Spelling - A

 

 

q

 

 

 

Spelling - C

 

 

q

 

 

 

SWR - L

 

 

6th

 

 

 

q

 

 

 

Reading Lesson - C

 

 

q

 

 

 

Bible Ă¢â‚¬â€œ A (3x per week)

 

 

q

 

 

 

Bible - L

 

 

7th

 

 

 

q

 

 

 

World Cultures - A&C

 

 

q

 

 

 

Read Aloud - L

 

 

8th

 

 

 

q

 

 

 

Science - A

 

 

q

 

 

 

Science - C

 

 

q

 

 

 

Science - L or Read Aloud

 

 

 

 

Independent Work

 

ALEX: Mindbenders

Reading

McCall-Crabbs

Typing

Cwp

 

 

CHRIS: Bible Reading

Reading

McCall-Crabbs

Typing

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I looked at the link and have a question. When you are doing say "Latin with L" from the example, what are the other's doing? Do they do their independent work then? Am I understanding that the 4 letters are 4 different kids, and that's the order she teaches them in?

 

I only have 2 and so far so good; however, we haven't started all of our subjects yet. My parents have been planning on taking my dd on a vacation later this month, so we're not starting science until September because her first unit has a lot of plant experiments. I'm also adding in another at the same time. I know 2 more subjects will make our day longer.

 

Yep--the 4 letters are my 4 oldest boys, and you are correct that is the order I teach them in.

 

Ds9(L) and ds7(Z) work on their independent work during the time I'm teaching another boy. So for Latin, I teach L and then he works on his Latin worksheet. During the time I'm teaching L, Z would work on his copywork or other independent work.

 

It's his or miss what ds6(J) and ds4(M) are doing during that time. Sometimes they are working on schoolish stuff and sometimes they are down the hall in the playroom playing. I don't expect them to stay in the school room like I do the older 2 because they don't have as much independent work to occupy them as the older 2 do.

 

Let me know if you have other questions :).

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I like your schedule, but when do they do their independent work? I don't see it on the schedule so I guess I am assuming that it's done later?

 

They work on it after lunch, during quiet time (1 hour) or during any free time they have while I'm teaching another boy. I place it in their binder in the order they are to work on it, so I'm able to rotate through their independent work as well if they don't complete it all. For example, in ds9's binder I might place any leftover work from the morning (Latin or Math or Grammar), Spelling, Assigned Reading, and then Science, Maps & Geography, and Presidents (these are the 3 I typically rotate through--icing on the cake subjects, if you will). If he doesn't complete the Presidents sheet, it gets bumped over to the next day and I would place it before Science & Maps & Geography.

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This is very interesting. I'm still working it through in my mind how it would work for our family, but I think it might help me feel like we're not missing something. one l michele...i love your idea of the weekly planner, record keeper etc. and with our new curriculum choices, it will be much easier to schedule!

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I don't get it either. It just looks like a schedule to me. What makes it specifically a "Loop?"

 

I have one student, as well. Maybe it's something about having singletons that keeps the Mommy Brain from developing in a manner consistent with Loop Understanding.

 

I created it because I've got 5, with 3.5 schooling. It seems I was always shortchanging the younger boys with my time. This is a way to make sure they get their fair share of me and my time. Also, with so many to teach, I was always skipping History or Science or other "non-core" subjects because the days were so long with just core subjects.

 

It's a Loop because we only school for 3 hours, and we pick up where we left off. So we might start with Latin one day, History the next, Language Arts the next, depending on how far we made it through the rotation.

 

We don't do everything everyday, but we hit everything often enough that we are constantly making progress.

 

With our old schedule, we would get Latin, Math, and Language Arts done, but would never get to History or Science because the days were too long, and every morning we would start with Latin, then do Math, and then do Language Arts, then it would be lunchtime and we'd be too tired to hit History or Science again.

 

I can see how this wouldn't be helpful for singletons.

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Really for a family with one child this isn't a schedule that would benefit you. It is really geared towards families with 2 or more imo.

 

I agree with JudoMom, that before some things just didn't get done and that was frustrating to me. Now, all the core subjects are done each day and our afternoons are filled with extras and leftover work the dc didn't get done in the 4 hours we do school.

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:seeya: Hi Lisa! Loop failure here...

I just went & posted on the Yahoo group. So far the year is going really well, but I'm just not a loopy homeschooler. :glare:

 

You are not a loop failure.....:001_smile: Just loop challenged. Please don't leave us on the group. I know it takes extra effort to check in every now and then, but maybe you can gain some good ideas to implement some of the things the loop can do for you to make things easier. Just a thought.

 

I am still working on my loop schedule. I have been saying for a month now that I will get it posted and I have yet to do it. We won't get things done in 3 hours so I am going for 4 and it maybe even 4.5 by the time we are done, but it's better than last year when we were spending 6-8hrs a day on school work.

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We're still on our summer schedule, using a loop, with our new year set to start either the day after Labor day or October 1st (haven't decided).

 

One issue that is a pro and a con, though, is that I am finding it difficult to keep us working for three hours. That is not about the loop, but about us and the fact that we are coming off of a difficult year (dh was unemployed/marginally empolyed), and the fact that I'm really suffering from burn out. Okay, that and the fact that I am not known for my self-discipline. ;) So there are days that we only do 1 hour, and days that we do none. And I am okay with that, because we are all thriving.

 

So, even though we are not getting as much done as I would like (i.e., we don't get a "week's worth" of work done in a week), we are making progress and we are working more efficiently. Usually we take the whole month of September off, but I don't think we will this year. I think we are shifting from 9 weeks on/4 weeks off to year round, with breaks as needed. So, because we are just working through our loops at a leisurely pace, but pretty much working most weeks, I won't know for a while if we are "getting enough done" throughout the year.

 

I will say that doing school this way allows me to actually take care of household management stuff, so overall I am much less stressed. I like the looser structure, so that I can decided each day what we need to do based on the needs of that day, instead of being a slave to a schedule, and feeling guilty if we didn't do everything on the daily or weekly list.

 

Here is what we are doing now:

 

Science

Math

Latin (Phonics for the younger 2 dc)

Language Arts (Grammar, writing, lit for the olders; FLL, handwriting, ETC for the youngers)

Logic (older 2 only) OR Art, alternating

 

In addition, they have reading time and the older two practice their instruments. Our fall loop will be a little longer, and I am still making decisions about it, or I would post that, too.

 

Overall I think we are all happier with this type of scheduling. It certainly has freed my thinking about home schooling and what I want it to look like.

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I was always skipping History or Science or other "non-core" subjects because the days were so long with just core subjects.

 

It's a Loop because we only school for 3 hours, and we pick up where we left off. So we might start with Latin one day, History the next, Language Arts the next, depending on how far we made it through the rotation.

 

We don't do everything everyday, but we hit everything often enough that we are constantly making progress.

 

With our old schedule, we would get Latin, Math, and Language Arts done, but would never get to History or Science because the days were too long, and every morning we would start with Latin, then do Math, and then do Language Arts, then it would be lunchtime and we'd be too tired to hit History or Science again.

 

:iagree:

 

Not only are we getting to art and science with our loop, we are enjoying it too, and taking as much time as we need for the lesson, project, or activity.

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I am trying to make a loop schedule that works for us. I am not setting a time limit on school for the day because there are certain subjects I feel we need to do daily. I am mainly using my loop to make sure I don't skip anything or put off a subject. I am schooling 4 this year with a preschooler who wants scheduled time, too. I think the loop is going to work great for me once I work out all the bugs. So far (only 4 weeks in) I haven't completely skipped a subject for over a week for lack of time. This is progress for me!

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Somehow I missed this when it came up in May. I have never heard of loop scheduling before, but you have snagged my inerest. We carry out our day with block lessons a la Waldorf and it has worked out very well for us but we are still working till 2:30 p.m. That was just with two kids. I am folding in another child in a few weeks and I was afraid that I wouldn't have time to spend with her. I have talked to my kids about doing school this way and we have decided to do it for one week (the last week of Aug.) to see if we like doing it this way.

 

I had my schedules already done for block lessons for the month of Sept. now I may have to re-do them. sigh It's a good thing that I like scheduling and planning. ;) I have joined the yahoo group. I am excited about all of this. Even more excited that my children are interested in this as well. That doesn't happen too often.

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Here's a link to a long thread about this from back in May.

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29240&highlight=loop

 

I was curious how many people decided to implement it for this school year.

 

Hi Michelle,

Well, I started to make a schedule, than I decided to go back to the old way...basically I chickened out. I realized before we started, that the old way was not going to work. Fast forward to last weekend. I did it. I have them listed as Day1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5 (Game Day). I made a family schedule of what I do with ALL of them and then a small individual schedule.

It's been an absolutely amazing week so far. Yesterday, we got a surprise visit from Nana. We just completed what we could, and then started today where we left off. I think think we are working more efficiently:). Thanks for the whole "loop" concept.

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This is something I will have to remember as my two get older. When my older is 6th or 7th grade and my younger is 2nd or 3rd, there will be two boys needing my help in a pretty big way. Right now, little one finishes while big one does math and spelling himself. That surely won't work forever. I will have to store this one in the bank and pull it out later! Thanks!

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  • 1 month later...
Really for a family with one child this isn't a schedule that would benefit you. It is really geared towards families with 2 or more imo.

 

I agree with JudoMom, that before some things just didn't get done and that was frustrating to me. Now, all the core subjects are done each day and our afternoons are filled with extras and leftover work the dc didn't get done in the 4 hours we do school.

I love looping with one! We don't always get through everything, and this gives us a chance to just start where we stopped the next day...this means we don't ever just keep skipping science (or whatever).

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I was looking into how our schedule would work with doing this. What do you do if you have 1 child do something on M-W-F but then does a different subject on T-Th? How does that work into the loop? Do I need to write different loops for different days?

 

Also - how did you guys make your nifty looking flow charts? lol They look so professional! All I know how to do is make columns and rows and maybe a table if I spend some time at it (I'm using Open Office tho).

 

:D

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  • 3 weeks later...

These posts have really interested me- especially as I was seeing so many families with four or more thriving... but I confess- I have not been able to figure it out???

I looked at some of the charts people created/linked... and I still couldn't get it.

Also- I have multiple toddlers/preschoolers... I don't think I can keep it going for three hours without interruptions?

 

How is this helping you not to neglect your younger children?

Do you just list your subjects and work through them and then pick it up the next day?

If someone could REALLY BREAK IT DOWN and explain it in a very simple way- that might help me...

I don't know if anyone has time though.

I will say, I find it very intriguing!!!

Rebecca

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My questions are the same as Rebecca's, though I'm only schooling 3 at the moment. My main struggle is that my oldest does way more school than ds3... so should he just have his own loop that he follows daily that is separate? Then maybe he could stop and join the rest of us when the main loop comes around to things like reading time and science? I'm trying to wrap my brain around this...

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I can see how this wouldn't be helpful for singletons.

 

Really for a family with one child this isn't a schedule that would benefit you.

 

I disagree. We have just started a loop here with a singleton. (ETA: my younger dd is in playgroup while the older homeschools).

 

We do math, bible reading and violin practice daily and rotate through the rest of the schedule. I've got subjects that require writing followed by read-alouds or hands-on activities to vary the routine.

 

The rotation makes it possible to spend as much time as required to finish something rather than rushing through to the next thing just because its scheduled. The idea is just to follow on down the list from the previous day. This means that things like composer study, longer read-alouds and other add-ons get done in addition to the basics.

Edited by Hannah
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These posts have really interested me- especially as I was seeing so many families with four or more thriving... but I confess- I have not been able to figure it out???

I looked at some of the charts people created/linked... and I still couldn't get it.

Also- I have multiple toddlers/preschoolers... I don't think I can keep it going for three hours without interruptions?

 

How is this helping you not to neglect your younger children?

Do you just list your subjects and work through them and then pick it up the next day?

If someone could REALLY BREAK IT DOWN and explain it in a very simple way- that might help me...

I don't know if anyone has time though.

I will say, I find it very intriguing!!!

Rebecca

 

I do something similar but now quite the same. If I am wrong someone correct me.

 

What is being done is following the list of items. LA for child 1, then child 2, then child 3..ect...Then switch to math. Math with child 1, child 2, child 3, ect...Switch to Latin...on and on.... And with the parameters of specified time. So you start working down the schedule, and when time runs out you stop. The next day you just pick up where you left off and continue down the list till it is all done and you start back at the top again.

 

A lot of people get to working with one child and then the second and then the third...then they run out of time and don't get to the 4th or 5th a little too often. This solves that buy working with all of them in a day, but not necessarily hitting every subject every day.

 

Heather

 

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Thank you so much Heather!!! That makes a lot of sense...

HMMMM... more to ponder...

 

So as you move to each child the others begin their independent work?

 

Rebecca

 

If they can. I have two readers who can work independently and two who cannot. The two who cannot play while I work with the others. They tend to stay in the room and play with Legos, pattern blocks, Toob toys, base 10 blocks.

 

Right now I am doing more of the one child at a time, but I have done the loop thing in the past when I just couldn't get it all done in one day, and it worked.

 

Heather

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I only homeschool one now and I use the loop schedule. I have actually used this for several years now, but didn't call it a loop. The reason a loop is helpful to me is that we have a varied schedule and don't always have a certain amount of time each day. We take what time we do have to do school and then stop and pick up where we left off the next day.

 

I am probably slightly OCD in that when my dd was little and we didn't get Monday's work done on Monday, my whole week would be ruined cause I would be stressed out about catching up and getting each day's work done on the right day. Now, since there is no Monday's work per se, I can just pick up where we left off and feel like we are at least progressing. At the end of the year, if we aren't finished with the year's work, I'll either keep going a couple of extra weeks, or move the extra over to next year.

 

This is strictly a mental shift in thinking more than anything else for me. Oh, and it does help us to not leave off entire subjects because we didn't get to it on a certain day.

 

Julie

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Rebecca, I think everyone does their own version of a loop schedule. One that fits their lifestyle and family. I only have three children and they are young. Once they get older, it may change a bit.

 

Here is how our days go:

 

8:30--9:00 Circle (Bible reading, sing songs, poetry memorization, etc)

 

9:00--12:00 implementing loop schedule

 

Math--Child 1

Child 2

Child 3

 

Reading--Child 1

Child 2

Child 3

 

Writing--Child 1

Child 2

Child 3

 

Grammar--Child 1

 

Art--everyone together

 

History--everyone together

 

This is the schedule for Mondays. If we don't get through this rotation, say we miss History, then on Tues. we start our loop time with History and continue on with Math, Reading, etc. Every day has a schedule. Every day starts off with the core subjects: math, reading, writing, grammar. We, then, have two content subjects that change depending on the day. On Tues. we have baking or handiwork and science, on Wed. it's geography and nature study, etc.

 

As I am working with a child, Child 1 and 2 will work on independent work be it ETC, math drill sheets, Vocab-u-Lit, cursive, etc. Child 3 is in K this year so if I am not working with her she will find something else to do like puzzles, playdoh, books, painting, etc or she will just go and play. I don't have any toddlers or infants so I can't help you with that. Sorry!

 

As I have been looking at others schedules, everyone does theirs differently. This is just how our family does it and it is working out very well.

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How long do you designate for each subject per day?

Thanks,

Rebecca

 

I just do one lesson of each subject--however long that takes. Math usually takes us a half an hour for the two oldest. Grammar only takes us 10--15 minutes. I would go crazy if I designated time frames for each subject. I think that defeats the purpose of the loop.

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I was looking into how our schedule would work with doing this. What do you do if you have 1 child do something on M-W-F but then does a different subject on T-Th? How does that work into the loop? Do I need to write different loops for different days?

 

Also - how did you guys make your nifty looking flow charts? lol They look so professional! All I know how to do is make columns and rows and maybe a table if I spend some time at it (I'm using Open Office tho).

 

:D

 

So that LA and Math get put on the list 4 times and art only twice. Therefore, the frequency with which I get to certain subjects is the same as if I were doing M/W/F or T/Th.

 

Here's my weekly list for this year:

 

AAS Spelling

Reading - see list

R&S 3 Grammar

R&S 3 Math

Memory Work

Poetry/Hymn study

Geography/Science

Narration 1 from Lit - WWE

AAS Spelling

Reading - see list

R&S 3 Math

Memory Work

BJU 3 Music

Geography/Science

Dictation from Lit - WWE

Reading - see list

R&S 3 Grammar

R&S 3 Math

Write a Friendly Letter

Art

Geography/Science

AAS Spelling

Reading - see list

R&S 3 Grammar

R&S 3 Math

Memory Work

BJU Music

Geography/Science

 

The Geography/Science section is a separate schedule with daily things to do. I'll just work through that each day and then start the next item.

 

HTH

 

Julie

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