Tell me about loop scheduling

[Wholesomemomma]

I keep hearing about this "loop scheduling" and how it's so great. Do tell.

[Ms.Ivy]

It's basically for people who have too many good things to do and not enough hours in a day to do them all. Usually math and phonics aren't looped, but stuff like history and science and geography. So for example, I might have 3 resources for English that I want to do with my 4th grader. Instead of trying to do all of them each day or even individually on assigned days, I just rotate through each of them whenever we sit down for English. So if my plans get derailed by an ER visit or grandma, I can just do the next resource on the list the next time we do English. Or say I usually have three days each week to get history or science done... but some weeks I only have one day and some weeks I have four. Each day that I am able to do a history or science lesson, I choose what to do based on what I did last time, rotating through books. As opposed to always doing history, but never science, because I scheduled history for Monday, and science for Friday, but I always end up doing extra laundry on Friday instead.

 

I'm sure someone else can explain it much clearer than I can at the moment! I'm typing while my daughter does diagramming and I have to keep it short.

[abba12]

Here is an interesting blog post I found

 

http://edsnapshots.com/loop-scheduling/

 

I am a block scheduler myself, loop scheduling would drive me, personally, nutty. But I can see how it would work great for others. 

[Coco_Clark]

I prefer block scheduling for things like science/history. Right now we do 2wks science, 2wks history, 2 weeks child-led, rinse and repeat.

 

BUT looping has been great for all those bitty "extras" like Aesop fables, nature journaling, literature analysis, poetry teas, picture study, art appreciation, logic puzzles ect. You want to do them but aren't sure WHEN. We do our morning read aloud and memory work and then "one more thing" loop style. If you want to do a certain thing more often then others, you can put it in the loop twice.

[Mystie]

Loop scheduling is great if your schedule doesn't always happen consistently for whatever reason. It's sort of a way to make a plan for "do the next thing" rather than tie certain tasks to certain days or times.

 

So, for example, I plan to do Morning Time 5 days a week, but it usually only happens 4 days a week, and which day we miss varies. So, instead of "making up" for the day we made or skipping whatever was on the plan, I can just pick up where we left off. 
 

I think it makes planning easier because I can just make a list instead of tying everything to a schedule.

 

Pam Barnhill & Sarah Mackenzie did a really helpful free video workshop on how to set them up and what they do and don't work well for: http://amongstlovelythings.com/looping-webinar-signup/

[Wholesomemomma]

Thanks y'all!

[beka87]

The loop schedule is a way of getting to things that one often does not get to, without feeling stressed about missing one subject vs another.  Instead of plugging subjects into days, one puts them in the loop.  First, you decide what your daily must-happens are.  Everything else (or not, up to you) can be looped.  Then decide how long, approximately, to spend on loop subjects each day.  Then decide on proportions.  For example,  if I wanted to do History three times for every one time I taught Science and Geography, but Art two times the loop would look like this:

 

History

Science

History

Art

History

Geography

Art

 

Then, on my daily schedule, instead of listing those content subjects I would just write Loop Time.  Then I do the next thing in the loop, whatever that may be.  It allows us to move forward in all of those subjects in proportions we can live with without feeling behind in any one thing.

 

I love loop scheduling because it really takes the mental pressure off.  Right now we have a morning loop (either geography or logic) and an afternoon loop (history or science).  This is a very simple way to do it.  I also loop some enrichment things and will probably have a morning time loop at some point, too.  I predict making good use of this approach as my children get older/I have more children.

 

Pam Barnhill at edsnapshots and Sarah MacKenzie at amongstlovelythings have lots to say about looping.  That's great info with lots of examples, if you want more.

[My3girls]

We are accidental loopers. lol  DD1 is a bit pokey.  Yesterday, she did science, German, math, flute, and read.  So today she started with what she didn't get to yesterday English and history then she will roll into science, etc...  Tomorrow, she will pick up with what didn't get done today.  We try really hard to get math and reading done everyday.

[swimming-duck]

I did not know there was a name for this. This is my natural tendency. I've always loved the idea of block scheduling, but our plans are always foiled that way. So I'd say we have a messy, unintentional loop right now! I like the idea of structuring this into an intentional loop!

[Holly]

We just started a loop schedule.  I think I'd been somewhat doing this for years, but after watching the podcast from Amongst Lovely Things, I made some changes.  We've only been using it for a week, but I really like it.  My schedule is a bit complicated, but we have our daily subjects, and 3 loops going.  

 

Daily subjects: Bible reading or story, MUS, phonics, and Latin

 

Content Subjects Loop: history (4x), geography, science living book reading, CKE lesson (2x), Signs and Seasons (2x)

 

Fine Arts Loop: Harmony Fine Arts lessons (3x), Character study, hymn study, Sol Fa singing, Paper Sloyd, Compass Drawing, Shakespeare, Poetry, composer study, Folksong

 

Language Arts Loop: Copywork (2x), ELTL (3x), Spelling Wisdom (2x), ELTL poems & memory work (2x), Write On!

 

It basically comes out to our daily subjects plus two items from each loop being completed each day.  They are arranged differently than I've written out...we always have a science and history/geography selection from the Content Subjects Loop, so I have them alternating on the schedule.  I have more than 10 items for Fine Arts, so twice a week we have a 3rd Fine Arts selection, but I combine two shorter subjects into one.  Some of our Fine Arts only take 5 minutes or less.  For LA, I tried to alternate shorter programs with longer programs, so we wouldn't have two time consuming programs in the same day.  I keep track of where we are in each loop with a post-it tab.  I used Pam's free printables for creating a loop and have the pages stored in a binder. 

Edited January 20, 2016 by Holly

[Chelli]

I'm all kinds of messed up! I loop schedule our block schedule!

 

:lol:

[gypsymama]

I never knew there was a name for this. We've been on a loop schedule all along. Dh worked off for a long time and he was either on a 2wk on/2wk off or a 3wk on/1wk off schedule OR he was traveling and we traveled with him. Crazy times! There was no way I could keep on a "normal" schedule and we didn't want to be doing school work on the few days dad had off work just because of what day of the week they were. Instead we did school regardless of the day of the week and we took off whenever we needed too. I guess I'm so use to this now that it's still how I plan! Never knew I was on a loop schedule  :laugh:

[Ravin]

We used a loop schedule for everything in 5th grade.

[fdrinca]

Loop scheduling saved our homeschool this year! It is a lifesaver, and my first advice to anyone starting out.

 

I started using it because we were never getting to the fun "extras" of our curriculum. With so many little kids, there's always a field trip, doctor's appointment, play, play date, errand...our schedule is somewhat choppy and unpredictable, and it felt like we were never getting our core curriculum finished, let alone the extras.

 

But, the kiddos were getting burned out on the core, and wondering when the "soon" I promised would arrive for cursive, math games, logic problems, Draw Write Now, or programming. 

 

So, we loop all of ELA and math. I have a list of around 8 items for each school-aged kiddo, and we cycle through those. My daughter knows that she'll drill addition and multiplication today, but in a day or two she'll get to do math art and watch cool YouTube math videos. It's hugely motivating for them, and, moreover, it speaks to the reason we homeschool our children anyway. 

 

We also loop our Fine Arts and Religion studies, which were similarly neglected. I had "play composer of the week" on my list for months, but it's assigned day was the one day of the week we almost always seemed extra busy. (Mondays, I'm looking at you!) Now, we get to the composer of the...er...biweek. 

 

School has slowed down in a lot of ways, as the kids are going broader and deeper, but we're not running a race. 

 

ETA: We also schedule an off week. We school year-round, and the kids know that the first week of the month is our off week, as it's the week we have extra outside activities and commitments. We do extra field trips, play more chess and other math games, and do extra read-alouds that week. Having a set "off" week has been HUGE for all of us as well. 

Edited May 13, 2016 by fdrinca

[Wheres Toto]

I THINK I may do a loop schedule for next year.  I have a lot of supplemental, fun stuff I want to get to but certainly don't expect to do everyday.  Setting things for a certain day of the week won't work either because our schedule changes. 

 

I'm actually looking at a few different loops - one for each kid working with me, one for each kid working on their own, then one for things we do together.  Science and History/Art are also going to be block scheduled in that we are going to do a unit of science, then a unit of history.

 

So, here's what I've worked out so far. I'm sure it's going to be tweaked a million times before September:

 

Vicki w/mom loop:
Mosdos
Struggles/Drill
Beast Academy
Mosdos
Struggles/Drill
Logic

 

George Independent Loop:
MathMammoth
Beast Academy
Spectrum Writing
Reading
Math Mammoth
Logic
Vocabulary
Reading
Math Mammoth
Beast Academy
Reading
Math Mammoth
Logic
Reading
Math Mammoth
Brave Writer
Cursive
Reading

 

Vicki Ind Loop:
MathMammoth
Spelling
SS Math
Spectrum Writing
Reading
MathMammoth
Spelling
SSMath
Vocabulary
Reading
MathMammoth
Spelling
Reading
MathMammoth
Spelling
Cursive
Reading
MathMammoth
Brave Writer
Cursive
Reading

 

George w/mom:
Mosdos
Struggles
Jousting Armadillos
Mosdos
Struggles
Zaccaro
Mosdos
Struggles
Jousting Armadillos
Mosdos
Struggles
Zaccaro

 

Together Loop:
Science or History/Art
Spanish
Brave Writer
Science or History/Art
Spanish
Drawing
Science or History/Art
Spanish
Music
Science or History/Art
Spanish
Health
Science or History/Art
Spanish
Geography
Science or History/Art
Spanish
Games

 

ETA: The Brave Writer together is introducing and doing background for a project.  Their individual Brave Writer is to work on whatever project is in progress.

Struggles is anything they are having trouble with and need help on.

Edited May 13, 2016 by Where's Toto?

[Mama Anna]

I really appreciate this thread!  I've thought of a loop schedule before but have always dismissed it out of hand because it hasn't made sense to me.  After watching most of the video linked above, I'm back to being very intrigued.  I have a question, though:

 

How to you make sure you complete a certain curriculum if you're doing it in a loop?  If the main point is to not stress about missing occasional days, how do you make sure you get in all 112 grammar lessons or the full 41 history lessons?  (Is loop scheduling only for those who aren't obsessed with "finishing the book?"  :sad: )

 

Mama Anna

 

Edited May 14, 2016 by Mama Anna

[Wholesomemomma]

I really appreciate this thread! I've thought of a loop schedule before but have always dismissed it out of hand because it hasn't made sense to me. After watching most of the video linked above, I'm back to being very intrigued. I have a question, though:

 

How to you make sure you complete a certain curriculum if you're doing it in a loop? If the main point is to not stress about missing occasional days, how do you make sure you get in all 112 grammar lessons or the full 41 history lessons? (Is loop scheduling only for those who aren't obsessed with "finishing the book?" :sad: )

 

Mama Anna

Good questions!

[barnwife]

I really appreciate this thread!  I've thought of a loop schedule before but have always dismissed it out of hand because it hasn't made sense to me.  After watching most of the video linked above, I'm back to being very intrigued.  I have a question, though:

 

How to you make sure you complete a certain curriculum if you're doing it in a loop?  If the main point is to not stress about missing occasional days, how do you make sure you get in all 112 grammar lessons or the full 41 history lessons?  (Is loop scheduling only for those who aren't obsessed with "finishing the book?"  :sad: )

 

Mama Anna

I am probably not qualified to answer this, but I'll try.

 

I don't think the main point is necessarily to not worry about missing occasional days. I think it's more about making sure you actually get to everything you want to. With loop scheduling, you aren't "behind." You are just on a different part of the loop (does that make sense?).

 

So you will eventually finish the book or whatever. You just keep working through your loop until you do. 

 

Now, if you are concerned about finishing a book by a certain date, that's another story. You would have to pay more attention to how quickly you move through the loop. But even so you can plan your loop accordingly.

 

Assuming you are looking at looping for a 5 day week. If you want to loop history and science and do history twice as often because there are 100 history lessons and only 50 science lessons for the year, I think a loop would look like:

 

history

science

history

science

history

history

 

Then, as you plan your schedule, you try to allow time to do one loop thing 4 days a week, and twice as much time for loop that other day.

 

I hope some of that is helpful, or that someone with experience can chime in. 

[MotherOfBoys]

I like our little loop but I am one that worries about finishing completely by a certain time. For my accountability I guess.

 

To answer Mama Anna: We only do it with short curriculum. Ellen Mchenry sciences are only about eight lessons so looping them with art and Mind benders (we do a couple pages at a time) works well so I "can check the box".

 

I block schedule every other month sotw history with eltl english because both require alot of reading.

[fdrinca]

I really appreciate this thread!  I've thought of a loop schedule before but have always dismissed it out of hand because it hasn't made sense to me.  After watching most of the video linked above, I'm back to being very intrigued.  I have a question, though:

 

How to you make sure you complete a certain curriculum if you're doing it in a loop?  If the main point is to not stress about missing occasional days, how do you make sure you get in all 112 grammar lessons or the full 41 history lessons?  (Is loop scheduling only for those who aren't obsessed with "finishing the book?"  :sad: )

 

Mama Anna

 

We school year-round, so that doesn't become an issue for us. 

 

The stress of finishing by a certain time would make me  :banghead:

[RootAnn]

I love getting books finished, but I admit that I am more interested in increasing skills, interest, and meeting the needs and desires of each kid.

 

I personally only loop extras or supplements because we wouldn't get to them otherwise.

 

The main stuff we do, we work until we achieve the level of skill we are reaching for. Most of the time with my kids, that takes longer than what the curriculum would say it would.

[Ravin]

I really appreciate this thread!  I've thought of a loop schedule before but have always dismissed it out of hand because it hasn't made sense to me.  After watching most of the video linked above, I'm back to being very intrigued.  I have a question, though:

 

How to you make sure you complete a certain curriculum if you're doing it in a loop?  If the main point is to not stress about missing occasional days, how do you make sure you get in all 112 grammar lessons or the full 41 history lessons?  (Is loop scheduling only for those who aren't obsessed with "finishing the book?"  :sad: )

 

Mama Anna

 

For us one of the strengths of loop scheduling was to work at DD's pace. So we finish when we finish, if we take a break we pick up where we left off.

[Chelli]

Another thing to consider about trying to finish books or curriculum within a certain time is to design your loop for that.

 

So if you need to do three lessons of grammar a week to finish the curriculum in 36 weeks, then make sure grammar shows up in your language arts loop three times. 

 

If you are really concerned about finishing I would not try to loop anything that must be done 5 days a week for 36 weeks because you would not be able to finish that in 36 weeks on a loop schedule.

 

The only thing I'm looping right now subject wise is language arts for my oldest. The goal is to complete the loop four times in a week. IMO, language arts and extras make the best loops. 

[arliemaria]

Another thing to consider about trying to finish books or curriculum within a certain time is to design your loop for that.

 

So if you need to do three lessons of grammar a week to finish the curriculum in 36 weeks, then make sure grammar shows up in your language arts loop three times. 

 

If you are really concerned about finishing I would not try to loop anything that must be done 5 days a week for 36 weeks because you would not be able to finish that in 36 weeks on a loop schedule.

 

The only thing I'm looping right now subject wise is language arts for my oldest. The goal is to complete the loop four times in a week. IMO, language arts and extras make the best loops. 

 

Could you share what you do for your language arts loop?  I am working on creating a daily and loop for our reading/language arts.  Daily we do a reading lesson either from 100EZ Lessons (with DH) or from I Can Read It! Books and Word List (with me) and then homemade copywork and I'd like to begin daily spelling lessons as suggested by Ella Frances Lynch in Educating The Child at Home and finally Poetry Memorization must be daily.  Then I have a list of other things like FLL that I want to have in our loop.

[lanalouwho]

We do a super relaxed loop. I have a kinder and a toddler, so I don't really push them too hard yet. Ours looks like this:

Daily-Read aloud

Math

Loop-Geography

STEM

Library Day!

Art

Science

During toddler's nap- Phonics, Handwriting, or Spelling.

 

Sent from my HTCD200LVW using Tapatalk

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I'm going to second what others have said:  If you feel you absolutely MUST finish a particular book in a set period of time, don't put it on the loop.  Make it a scheduled, daily event.  So, for example, we don't loop math, spelling, or handwriting.  We do have a LA loop, writing loop, and content loop.  Each of those occupies a time slot, and we fill that time with the next item on the loop.  So our day (let's say a particularly good day, lol) might go like this:

 

Block One: The Frogs:

- French LA (according to schedule, either exercises in grammar or conjugation, or a dictation)

- Math

- DuoLingo German (kids alternate with who has a math lesson and who is doing DL independently)

(short break)

- English Spelling

- Handwriting

 

Block Two:  Memory

- Memory work, as well as odds-n-ends on a loop (picture study, art, etc.)

 

LUNCH

 

Block Three: Content

- loop of history and science, which are both also taught in blocks of six weeks.  LOL

 

Block Four: Writing

- Loop of writing assignment types (notes, narrations, task cards, reports, creative, BW projects, etc.), and in addition I have a block schedule of writing lessons for a while, followed by "just writing", in addition to specifying which language to write in any given time.  So... writing is sort of complicated in our house and I hope to simplify this actually.