So, my question for all of you is what kind of schedule do you keep. Or do you? Do you do Free School everyday? Or maybe a Block Schedule?
I really want to know what you all do and how it works for you. I am very interested in Block Scheduling expecially for my older two. I know that at least a few of the high schools around here use Block Scheduling and I am intrigued. No, we are not putting the girls in public high school, at least that's not our plans. We'll see what God has in store for the years to come. :-)
Give this somewhat desperate, going cross-eyed Mom some help. Will ya? If you have posted about this leave your link in the comments and I will check it out! Or you can leave a comment with what you do for your school.
5 comments:
Renita,
We don't block schedule our older kids, mainly because they forget so much when we try it. The ps here has gone back to traditional scheduling this year because kids are doing so poorly on standardized tests. I make up an assignment sheet for each class (similar to the syllabus I sent you). The kids know what has to be done by Friday of each week. They can choose to do all of one subject in one day or a little of each everyday. The scheduling ahead helps them be able to work independently and allows freedom to work when needed around appointments and practices. Hope that helps! Email me if you need any more info. Sarah Dugger (from the crew)
I am going to do a full post on this next week, but our basic schedule goes like this: Bible together at Breakfast, then I do preschool/K work with the littles while the big kids do all their independent work. Then the littles play while I do one-on-one stuff with the big kids. Then it's break time until nap time. While the littles nap, we conquer history, science, and read-alouds. That's the basic summary, anyway, and it works well for us!
What is block scheduling? I've never heard of it, at least not formally...
Best wishes as you work out what will fit your family!
Erin, Block Scheduling is like what they do in college. You have a class once or twice a week for seeveral hours and then the rest of the week you work on your own if you have anything else to do. So Monday would be History and Math, Tuesday would be Science and Language, etc. Does that make sense?
I consider block scheduling to be what our local high school does, four classes per semester, 90 mins. per class per day. Second semester is four different classes, so you'd have 90 mins. of algebra every day for one semester, and no math again until next year. O_O (And since they count just 140 hours as a credit, it explains why kids end up with one credit in Alg. I part 1, and another credit in Alg. I part 2 the following year. Ugh.
Back to hsing. What if you assign the girls rotating time during the day to be in charge of Bug? They wouldn't have to entertain her the entire time, just to keep her distracted or occupied while you work with another child or two. I remember hearing from others who would keep different baskets of toys available for each day of the week to be played with only on that day during school time.
My kids always liked when I scheduled in "Free Time." Depending on how full their daily schedule was, I'd even out the rest of the day with Free Time, where they could pursue whatever they chose. Of course, they didn't need to have time set aside for that, but for some reason, they liked seeing it on their schedule.
I have a weekly schedule for Trevor (8th grade) that charts out what he needs to complete each day. He's always been good about working through it. Holly (10th grade) has a schedule each week that lists what needs to be completed during that week. When she does it is up to her. Sometimes she gets wrapped up in her own pursuits, so she's doing a bit of summer school. (humpf) Which just goes to show I still don't have it figured out, lol.
Our method is simple. We have our daily list of assignments and we work through them until we're finished. The order changes according to our mood and our toddler's demands. LOL
I do "school" with the tot first thing after breakfast, around 8, before starting real school with my oldest.
Giving her my undivided attention first eliminates some of the interruptions. She's more likely to play independently if she's had the attention first.
My oldest, who's ten, tends to do her more independent work first, leaving read alouds and working with me for nap time. This allows me to attend to chores and the toddler as needed.
Lunch is always at noon so that gives us a one hour break before nap and getting back to work.
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