TyraTooters Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 I'm not really sure block scheduling is the right term but has anyone done a certain number of weeks/lessons with one subject like history and then moved to science, health, and so on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Sorry, I don't understand the question. Do you mean each of those subjects each week for the school year or do you mean doing history for a certain number of weeks and then not doing history at all but instead doing science for the next X number of weeks? Examples: a. A 36 week school year with: History 3 times a week (M/W/F,) Science 2 times a week (T/TH,) reading 5 times a week, math 5 days a weeks, health 1 day a week... b. 36 week school year with: History for the first 9 weeks, then Science for the next 9 weeks, then health for the next 9 weeks, then Science for 9 weeks reading, writing and math daily for all 36 weeks. c. Something else? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenneinCA Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 I am planning on doing two days of history, two days of science, and one day of art with my sixth grader next year. Math, English, and foreign language are done daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Next year will only be our second year of homeschooling, so I have no real experience with that type of scheduling...but that is my plan for next year. We're going to try a Latin Centered Curriculum type schedule. Skill subjects will be done every day and content subjects will be done weekly-ish. Instead of doing all the content subjects once a week all year, however, we're going to do some of them more frequently for the first semester and others the second semester. My plan is to "set the stage" the first semester by studying history and geography. Then, the second semester, we will study science and art and put extra focus on scientists and artists from times and places that we learned about. Wendy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeriJ Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 We're starting something like this. We just finished a geography study that lasted about 3 weeks. Now we are going to do a science unit for a few weeks, and then move on to history. Then come back to geography, and so on. I get burned out with a repeat of every week, so I'm hoping this will help. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 This is a blog post I wrote about how I block schedule our content subjects:http://www.theplantedtrees.com/2014/08/from-type-to-schole-creating-table-time.html 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyraTooters Posted June 2, 2015 Author Share Posted June 2, 2015 Sorry, I don't understand the question. Do you mean each of those subjects each week for the school year or do you mean doing history for a certain number of weeks and then not doing history at all but instead doing science for the next X number of weeks? Examples: a. A 36 week school year with: History 3 times a week (M/W/F,) Science 2 times a week (T/TH,) reading 5 times a week, math 5 days a weeks, health 1 day a week... b. 36 week school year with: History for the first 9 weeks, then Science for the next 9 weeks, then health for the next 9 weeks, then Science for 9 weeks reading, writing and math daily for all 36 weeks. c. Something else? A set up like option B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PamJBA Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 Next year will be my first time homeschooling. I've thought about doing something like this though. I've planned until the end of the year doing every subject every week. The second semester I might try sticking with history for a stretch and then science. I feel that at least a little math has to be done every day. I feel the same about reading, but I suppose focused language arts could also be done this way. If we get on a role with a subject I'd like to be able to stick with it if that works best for DD. Flexibility is one of the reasons I'm homeschooling after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliseMcKenna Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 We're starting something like this. We just finished a geography study that lasted about 3 weeks. Now we are going to do a science unit for a few weeks, and then move on to history. Then come back to geography, and so on. I get burned out with a repeat of every week, so I'm hoping this will help. Ditto to this. My children are all so young, I'm planning on keeping our science and history studies very much focused on fun for this year. I want to do things that I know interest them, so I'm trying to stockpile ideas for unit studies. My hope is to do: science for 3 weeks history for 3 weeks 1 week off (from all of "school") science for 3 weeks health for 3 weeks 1 week off repeat the whole cycle. Purposely extra rotations in science because I know that's their interest right now. Art 1x/week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 science for 3 weeks history for 3 weeks 1 week off (from all of "school") science for 3 weeks health for 3 weeks 1 week off repeat the whole cycle. Purposely extra rotations in science because I know that's their interest right now. Art 1x/week. This is what we did last year (with history in place of health) and I liked it so much that we're doing it again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliseMcKenna Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 So, silver, do you plan it out using unit studies? Or do you follow a curriculum and just break it into chunks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 I just break it into chunks. For 2016-17, I may try unit studies for science, but for history I'll stick with SOTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 This is what we did this year. Each block was six weeks. I think we'll try it again next year with a few modifications (not sure what those will be yet...I keep thinking about how colleges set up their classes). I felt like there ended up being too much music and art. Not sure what I was thinking there. Science being every day bogged me down a bit by the last block. I was well sick of demonstrations/experiments. Somehow we got a little behind and we forfeited art this last block. Our reading block didn't end up as planned because I reluctantly decided the remediate with AAR the last half of the year (possible vision issues and/or dyslexia). DD was supposed to read historical fiction that complemented history on the even blocks. We were going to use Elson on the odd blocks, but she outgrew what Elson we had and so I switched to literature study and then everything became AAR. Blah. Daily Vocabulary - A Word a Day, Grade 2 Grammar - Preparing to Build, English 2 Writing - Writing With Ease, Levels 1 & 2 Reading - The Elson Readers: Book One (Block 1), historical fiction (Block 2), literature study (Block 3), All About Reading, Levels 3 & 4 (Blocks 4-6) Spelling - All About Spelling, Level 2 Math - Singapore Math 2B & 3A, Didax Daily Mental Math, Grade 3 Logic (Friday only.) - Primarily Logic, and then Mindware Analogy Challenges: Level A, Perplexors: Basic Level Spanish (Tuesday & Thursday only.) - Song School Spanish Electives - Blocks 1, 3 & 5 Composer Study/Music (Monday, Wednesday & Friday only.) - The Story of the Orchestra (and then applied music with rhythm instruments) 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 ETA: For what it's worth I'm toying with the idea of either quarter or semester classes. Each session will be designed to work through a certain curriculum to completion so there will be no coming back to that particular curriculum later. Physics is up for us this fall in the four-year rotation, so I think I will divide the material into 3 or 4 distinct sections/units and then use a different "brand" of curriculum to cover each. Or, we may cover science first semester and history second. I don't know...still thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meg4 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 This is a blog post I wrote about how I block schedule our content subjects: http://www.theplantedtrees.com/2014/08/from-type-to-schole-creating-table-time.html Chelli do you plan your blocks for 1 week at a time? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meg4 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Following ...very interested in learning more about block scheduling.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meg4 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 This is what we did this year. Each block was six weeks. I think we'll try it again next year with a few modifications (not sure what those will be yet...I keep thinking about how colleges set up their classes). I felt like there ended up being too much music and art. Not sure what I was thinking there. Science being every day bogged me down a bit by the last block. I was well sick of demonstrations/experiments. Somehow we got a little behind and we forfeited art this last block. Our reading block didn't end up as planned because I reluctantly decided the remediate with AAR the last half of the year (possible vision issues and/or dyslexia). DD was supposed to read historical fiction that complemented history on the even blocks. We were going to use Elson on the odd blocks, but she outgrew what Elson we had and so I switched to literature study and then everything became AAR. Blah. Daily Vocabulary - A Word a Day, Grade 2 Grammar - Preparing to Build, English 2 Writing - Writing With Ease, Levels 1 & 2 Reading - The Elson Readers: Book One (Block 1), historical fiction (Block 2), literature study (Block 3), All About Reading, Levels 3 & 4 (Blocks 4-6) Spelling - All About Spelling, Level 2 Math - Singapore Math 2B & 3A, Didax Daily Mental Math, Grade 3 Logic (Friday only.) - Primarily Logic, and then Mindware Analogy Challenges: Level A, Perplexors: Basic Level Spanish (Tuesday & Thursday only.) - Song School Spanish Electives - Blocks 1, 3 & 5 Composer Study/Music (Monday, Wednesday & Friday only.) - The Story of the Orchestra (and then applied music with rhythm instruments) 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 ETA: For what it's worth I'm toying with the idea of either quarter or semester classes. Each session will be designed to work through a certain curriculum to completion so there will be no coming back to that particular curriculum later. Physics is up for us this fall in the four-year rotation, so I think I will divide the material into 3 or 4 distinct sections/units and then use a different "brand" of curriculum to cover each. Or, we may cover science first semester and history second. I don't know...still thinking. I love how you scheduled your reading! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 We do history, art, Shakespeare, science, and interest-led blocks. I do not use unit studies, I just parcel out our curriculum into chunks that make sense. So a quarter goes...2 weeks history 2 weeks science 1 week artist/composer appreciation 1 week interest-led 2 weeks history 2 weeks science 1 week Shakespeare 1 week interest-led Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 I have just started radical Waldorf style main lesson blocks, even for the 3R's. I'll let you know in a few months how it goes. I've switched to one hour a day textbook work. PERIOD. And usually am just teaching EITHER math or grammar. Past blocks and current blocks will be extended and reviewed a bit during journaling and during conversation, but most explicit instruction will be limited to one subject and topic at a time. Daily: One hour 3R's textbooks One hour journal writing and drawing One hour instructor chosen reading One hour student chosen reading Two hours movement: Walking, work, chores, volunteering, 4H, scouts, etc. For ONE hour a day, I want a student's FULL attention and I want to tackle ONE topic. Then the rest of the day will go a bit easier for the student, and allow more choice, and require more independance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Chelli do you plan your blocks for 1 week at a time? I did a week at a time when I first tried it out but now we are doing 3 weeks at a time: 3 weeks of history, 3 weeks of science, 3 weeks of history, 3 weeks of geography. Repeat 3 times. We do a 40 week school year (just because I like it!) so for the 4 weeks we have left at the end of the year we either finish our history, science, or geo studies if we got behind and/or the kids do interest led learning for those 4 weeks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 Main Lesson Block Teaching in the Waldorf School http://www.waldorflibrary.org/rudolf-steiner-resources/articles-by-rudolf-steiner/1115-main-lesson-block-teaching-in-the-waldorf-school Waldorf-Inspired Homeschool Planning: The Year and Your Block Plan http://lavendersbluehomeschool.com/waldorf-inspired-homeschool-planning-the-year-and-your-block-plan/ Video on planning with a big piece of art paper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrightmom Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 I did a week at a time when I first tried it out but now we are doing 3 weeks at a time: 3 weeks of history, 3 weeks of science, 3 weeks of history, 3 weeks of geography. Repeat 3 times. We do a 40 week school year (just because I like it!) so for the 4 weeks we have left at the end of the year we either finish our history, science, or geo studies if we got behind and/or the kids do interest led learning for those 4 weeks. If a BF guide is your history framework are you able to study thru the entire guide in the 6 history blocks? I am trying to grasp finishing a school year of history in 18 weeks but maybe this is possible with the focus being just history those weeks. Are you trimming your science to fit into 9 weeks? That is really such a short block of time! I love block scheduling and focusing on one area deeply but I haven't grasped how it comes out at the end of a school year. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 If a BF guide is your history framework are you able to study thru the entire guide in the 6 history blocks? I am trying to grasp finishing a school year of history in 18 weeks but maybe this is possible with the focus being just history those weeks. Are you trimming your science to fit into 9 weeks? That is really such a short block of time! I love block scheduling and focusing on one area deeply but I haven't grasped how it comes out at the end of a school year. 18 weeks of history x 5 days a week = 90 history lessons. Beautiful Feet has 70 lessons scheduled in their ancient history guide. I aim to get 4 lessons done each week which still puts us at 72 history lessons over the course of 18 weeks. As for science we are spending 9 weeks of science x 5 days a week = 45 science lessons. For the first 15 lessons we are studying chemistry using a combination of resources. For the last 30 lessons we are using Apologia's Zoology 2 which has 13 chapters and I'll spread those out doing 1 chapter over the course of 2 lessons so still coming in under the 30 lesson maximum. For the last 4 weeks that I have tacked on to the end of the school year, my girls have already said they wanted to do a science focus those 4 weeks (an ecology/endagered species unit) so we'll technically be getting more science. Hope that makes sense. And honestly, if we didn't finish it all in the time I have scheduled, I'd just continue on into the next school year. I'm trying to get out of the mindset of this has to be completed in one school year which stresses me out. ETA: I forgot to add this. Each time we sit down to do our content subjects we are averaging about an hour and a half or two hours a session. I don't schedule this we just go until we're done or the girls interest has waned. I actually find we are spending more time learning history, science, and geography doing it this way than when we had more days scheduled in our year. In previous years I would have science scheduled for two days a week and we'd spend about an hour on science. In a traditional 36 week school year that comes out to 72 hours of science, give or take. We are getting in 90 hours (figuring a two hour average) of science over the course of our school year with less days. I crunched all of these numbers before I started to figure out if block scheduling would be shorting my kids. In fact, it's the opposite. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrightmom Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Chelli, Thanks for laying out the details. I am on my phone and I can't hit the Like button :)! I'm sure your explanations are useful to all. Fewer transitions from subject to subject allows more focused learning time. It takes so long some days to get distractible kids moving from subject to subject. Once the stuff is out it is nice to stay with the work for awhile. A simpler to do list is liberating. Your approach is wise! I do wonder if the history programs I'm drawn to are too intensive. I can't see this working with Biblioplan or MFW quite so neatly. I am going to do the math on it though :). BF looks very good but I'm not sure how it will fit what we want to study the next two years ... Maybe it is kid dependent. Some kids do seem to thrive with short lessons while others settle in for an open ended learning time. I'm not sure about my kids and I'll have to think on it ... ;). They are a tough crew to mesh together. How do you do your geography blocks? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Not Chelli, but in case you don't mind other people jumping in with thoughts ;) ... I do wonder if the history programs I'm drawn to are too intensive. I can't see this working with Biblioplan or MFW quite so neatly. I am going to do the math on it though :). BF looks very good but I'm not sure how it will fit what we want to study the next two years ... You could switch your block schedule after a longer book, or after a unit of History on a particular country or time period. For example, set aside Science and just do History -- Ancient Egypt for the 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 9 weeks or whatever that Biblioplan or MFW schedules for Ancient Egypt. Complete that time period -- and at a faster pace, since you're not doing Science during this time. Then break from History, and do a segment of Science for approx. the same length of time, until you hit a natural "break point" in the Science topics, and switch back to History. If your students seem to be forgetting what was learned, try shorter blocks and more frequent switching back and forth -- only 2 weeks at a time focused on Science or History, and then switch back. And don't worry about natural break points -- just pick up again where you left off. Or, whenever you finish a "spine" book for History or Science, switch back to the other subject. We did a very "modified block" schedule every week, by doing some subjects only 2-3x/week, but for a longer "block" of time. Example: 1 hour, 90 min., or 2 hour block (depending on age/attention span of students): Mon/Wed = History Tues/Thurs = Science Fridays = finish up History or Science, or History project, or Science experiments for the week... How do you do your geography blocks? Similar to the alternating History/Science blocks, we alternated Grammar and Geography -- Grammar 3x/week, and Geography on the other 2x/week, same day as the History, so from History we easily just flowed right on into Geography (or vice versa). If you wanted longer blocks, you could do 9 weeks of Geography and cover an entire unit (or several units) of material, and then switch to a 9-week block of Art, or Vocabulary, or other subject that you usually only do 1-2x/week... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Lori's right. That's kind of what I did with BF. We studied Mesopotamia and Egypt our first six weeks, we'll do Greece the next 6, and Rome the last 6. BF already had the guide divided up that way. I believe that Biblioplan only schedules history for 3 days a week for 34 weeks (at least the one guide I bought had it scheduled this way, but they might have changed it since then). It would be very easy to say that we will do 5 days a week for 18 weeks and you would almost completely cover the guide in that time. As for MFW, I have no idea how they schedule their history (if they do it every day or alternate it with science), but I have been seriously considering using Wayfarers next year just so I have some ideas about planning science and geography beyond the things I make up. However I'm really enjoying the freedom I have using BF for history so I would hate to give it up. Anyway, when I think about using Wayfarers, I would probably follow the history plans (scheduled 3 days a week) for three weeks doing it every day, then go back and pick up the science thread and follow it for three weeks doing it every day, and then go back and pick up the geography thread and follow it for three weeks (probably doubling up lessons since I believe the geography is scheduled every day). So it would work, but it would definitely require some sticky tabs in the guide to mark where we were with each thread. Now if MFW ties its science to history like HOD does, it would be much more difficult to do that because now the cohesiveness that most people love about MFW and HOD is lost unless you view the science as kind of a review of what you'd already learned. I tried using HOD briefly with a block schedule and it was a disaster. Everything is too intertwined in the guide to make it work. As for our geography, it is more of a cultural geography study of one country each week. People, religion, food, art, myths/tales, famous people, etc. I am making this up on my own using books and resources from our local library for the most part. I started this a couple of years ago with my girls (I called it Globe Trotting Girls), but we never got to finish it so now I work it into our regular studies with a geography block. I am using Geography of the Holy Land as our spine this year, but usually I don't have a spine. I needed a spine because there is very little on countries of the Middle East out there in most geography programs. We don't cover every country this way, but just the main countries of a region. For example we're doing Turkey, Israel including a 1 week study of Judaism, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, a 1 week study of Islam, and a 1 week study of Legends and Leagues (the old version) to round out our geography year. To cover every country we are using Visits to the Middle East by SCM this year and we do that in our Morning Meeting time. It is very quick and short, but by the end of the year my kids will be able to label every country in the Middle East along with bodies of waters and major land forms so that is more the physical geography part. Next year since we are doing the Middle Ages, we'll do the geography of Europe and Asia (if it's out in time) using SCM's books and the cultural geography of Asian countries since we did the European countries two years ago. HTH. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmasc Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I don't want to hijack, but just wanted to tell Chelli I found her blog on this thread and love it! My afternoon plans now consist of reading your post and working on calendar/planning using your method. :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy M Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I am using MFW and was wondering to myself how block scheduling could work with it, but I haven't tried it nor really needed to yet. It does sound like something that would work better with older, more mature kids who don't need the 15-minute time period CM talked about. My initial thoughts, with the disclaimer that I'm not looking at a TM right now and that I haven't actually done this, are the following: With MFW, I think block scheduling would mainly apply to history and science. You could perhaps put art/music into another block, but that might be harder, and art seems like it should have more consistency and practice. ? As for geography, MFW kinda already block schedules that into its own year on the history cycle, so I guess you wouldn't necessarily need to put that into a block schedule every year. I also like tying it in with the history. I think the only year where block scheduling wouldn't work with MFW would be ADV, because the science is integrated more with the Bible that year. Perhaps ECC would also be difficult to separate the geography and science, but not necessarily if you used shorter blocks as Lori described, e.g. do all the cultures and countries of North America, then go back and do the habitats or ecosystems of N. America for science. MFW usually schedules only 4 days a week. I wondered if shorter blocks of time like doing 2 weeks of history at double pace, then 1 week of science maybe would work. For the historical cycle, the science is very loosely tied to the history, sort or like SWB suggests in TWTM, so you don't necessarily need to keep them together. In CTG, you could go through a certain time period, then go back and do all the science connected to the first day of creation, then back to history, etc. I'm not sure how much time would need to be spent on each subject? But it does appeal to me not to be so "busy" as the TM sometimes looks with history and science scheduled 3-4 days per week, with multiple books for each subject. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threeofakind Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I have enjoyed reading this, thank you for all the ideas and op for starting this. This has given me ideas and I think I will try the block scheduling, less stress is better! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Ok, this has inspired me too. Thank you Chelli! Working on figuring out how to do some of these things for next year. We started with morning time last year and loved it but somehow it fell by the wayside when other parts of our schedule didn't work as planned. My kids and I have missed it! We will incorporate our Narnia study into that time, along with memory work, hymns and whatever of all the other stuff fits. The block schedule for content subjects is very appealing. Science is easy because I had already planned to do it all together. History is trickier because Dd will be using K12 HO and Ds will be using SOTW, but I am sure someone has done a schedule to match these up or I can figure out how to work out the topics so we are generally together. I find that we do best with a schedule that doesn't vary too much. Balancing my time 1 on 1 with each child and things they can do independently is crucial and also dynamic. It can vary with the skill being taught, the mood of my students or their actual jumps in ability. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Splash Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Our local high school does block schedule where they complete an entire subject per semester. For example my daughter will take Geometry, English, History and some yet to be determined class. She will receive 1 credit each. The next semester she will take English, Algebra 2, chemistry and another class. For another 4 credits. Some kids only take one math a year but she feels a bit behind so that's why the overlap. They just go at a faster pace. With only four or five classes at a time you just spend longer each day on each class Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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