One of the things I figured out the hard way, is that school is VERY simple to start. Math, reading, writing and lots of read aloud’s is all you need until they are proficient readers. Otherwise, you will spend hours spoon-feeding them everything else.
Once we hit that point, though, block scheduling has been the best strategy ever for getting to all our subjects. Here is how it works.
1. Schedule the Main Daily Subjects
In our house, two subjects are worthy of daily scheduling–math and language arts. The actual work done changed by grade but language arts includes things like spelling, grammar, or copy work.
2. Schedule Daily Extras
Occasionally, I have supplemental activities that are best done daily. For instance, I love the Daily series from Evan-Moor. We did Daily Science & Daily Geography last year. Next school year, we will be doing Building Thinking Skills in this spot.
3. Create Your Block Schedule
Because we have co-op on Mondays, our other school work needs to fit into the other 4 days a week. You need to decide how many days you want to block schedule.
Then, divide out the subjects over the days. If you have busy days, try to divide the work appropriately. Here is an example of how we work this. I work two mornings a week, so I have two more intense days and two easier days.
(Work) Day 1 – Science (reading, independent experiments & nature study)
Day 2 – Art & Music Appreciation
(Work) Day 3 – Social Studies & American History
Day 4 – World History
These will probably be different for you, but you will know what makes the most sense for your days. Maybe it will be a literature study or geography.
4. Adjust
Like with anything, a new plan requires a little adjustment. Your little one might hate history and prefer to do a little a day. Or they might prefer to do all their geography in one day. Or maybe, you have too much in one day. Homeschooling in real-life always requires a little adjustment :).
If you have littles, block scheduling might not work for you. But, if you just can’t manage to remember every subject every day, block scheduling just might be the key to preserving your sanity.
Do you do any form of block scheduling in your homeschool?
