Block scheduling..practical or inefficient?

[Janeway]

For some small subjects, what do you think of block scheduling? Sometimes, I have this small side thing we do, such as a little workbook on maps, and then it feels like it takes forever, the book keeps getting misplaced, I have to pull the answer key out to grade very little, and so on. If we are studying, for example, government, I would rather us throw ourselves in to it and spend a good amount of time, rather than trying to schedule 45 minutes a day over a course of 180 days.

 

What do you think?

[Embassy]

Block scheduling as worked well for us - even when my kids were in elementary school.  We don't do it all the time though.  It works best for us to switch around how we schedule our days every couple months.  Block schedules are one of our working options.

[Coco_Clark]

I love block scheduling. We do 2 week stints, usually.

[Rosie_0801]

I block schedule a bunch of content subjects. I do one lesson for each, for as many days as it takes to complete it, then move onto the next subject.

[Deee]

We block schedule all through primary school, largely because we were Steiner folks back then. Steiner/ Waldorf block schedules. I loved it.

[abba12]

I love block scheduling. I took it to an extreme, as a homesxhooled high schooler I usually only did two subject a day lol!

 

But yep, everything other than math and basic language arts is block scheduled here, mostly into 'units' of 6-9 weeks, and with science and history alternating alongside that

[kbutton]

We do it, but we do it informally. Something will start to just chafe, and we'll decide it's time to throw all our extra time into it and get it over with for the year, month, week, whatever. We sometimes use it to jump-start a particular subject at the beginning of the year too. Somehow, a week of science or hands-on history that gets a big unit out of the way sounds more fun than jumping right into all the stuff the first week or two.

 

My older son is getting more independent, and he is allowed to schedule himself (within limits). This also means that if we are not going to be home, and he has to take work along, he has to have appropriate work that travels well. So, he'll block schedule himself in certain subjects to accommodate those odd days--he has to have work that goes with us and also realize that if he leaves all his "mom has to check this or discuss it with you" stuff for one day, that's definitely going to jam up the works at some point. Or, we have co-op one day a week and do no regular work that day. He will sometimes double up on other days to be sure to get everything finished. With my little one, this looks more like one long-ish lesson per day in one of the following thihgs he enjoys: history, Greek mythology, or his states study (though he can do the independent stuff related to those subjects at different times if he wants to).