Loop schedule

[SereneHome]

Another poster mentioned loop schedule to me and I am thinking of trying it out. If you have done it - what was good, bad and evil? What was the biggest difference?

Thank you!!

[Slache]

We did this and my kid started stretching things out so he had less to do. Now I have things on MTWThF, things on MWF and things on TTh.

[bensonduck]

It didn’t work for my kid either. My oldest kid prefers a list of assignments. When they are done, they are done. They like the possibility of working quickly and getting done early, or opting for a shorter lunch, or whatever. Plus as they get more independent I think it’s hard to manage. I give DD11 an assignment and I may be in another room teaching one of my younger DSs. I need to be able for her to move from thing to thing independently. 

[Porridge]

Our “morning basket” was on a loop, but the biggest challenge I’ve had is my own discipline. We’re doing Three Musketeers as a read aloud (we were looping with other stuff), but it’s so incredibly good that we dropped everything else and we’re only reading Three Musketeers!  I think loop schedule (for me), would be best for optional “extras” - stuff that’s nice to do, but stuff for which there is no pressure to finish a certain amount of content in a certain amount of time. 

[Not_a_Number]

I think this would probably make me frustrated. On the other hand, I do more of a "set time" than a "set amount" for the more intensive subjects (right now, those are Russian conversation and math.) But there's also definitely a daily minimum of what has to get done... 

[SereneHome]

Oh interesting about kids stretching things and never-ending reading. I can see how we would be doing nothing but read-alouds.....

[sweet2ndchance]

I did loop schedule a little differently I guess than most. I didn't put non-negotiables like math and reading on a loop schedule. I put our extras on a loop. So music, art, logic, crafts, ... you know the fun stuff lol. I never had a problem with things being stretched but even if I did, it would become homework. You waste your own time, not mine, was always my answer to the whining that came with homework. 

So I would have say math for 30 mins, then reading for 30 mins, then loop subjects for 30 mins. Sometimes we would get through more than one subject in the loop, sometimes we would only get through one. But stretching to not have to do more work, whatever they were dwadling on would become homework that they had to do in the evening or on the weekend while everyone else played or did their own thing. It didn't take many homework sessions for them to realize that dwadling only hurt them.