There are lots of great ways to schedule your homeschool. Two of the main scheduling methods are block scheduling and loop scheduling. This post is going to focus on block scheduling but if you are interesting in learning about how to create a looping schedule and how it might work for your family head over here.
What is a Block Homeschool Schedule?
A block homeschool schedule is what we tend to imagine when we think of a traditional homeschool or a traditional school in general. Every day there is set work and subjects that need to be completed before the day is finished. Subjects are assigned to certain days and times and are generally unchanging. For example on Monday and Wednesday we do science and on Tuesday and Thursday we do history and on Friday we do art.
How to Create a Block Schedule
A block schedule is a little more complicated to produce than a looping schedule, but none the less it will be worth it in the end.
- Write down all your subjects to be covered during the week. Include in your extras such as morning baskets and read aloud books also if you wish.
- Write down any regular weekly commitments you have such as co-ops, or meets that occur during the day.
- Assign each subject or task a time period.
- Decide on a start time for your homeschool.
- Start by slotting in each subject into the day. Remembering to allocate time for lunch and other breaks.
- Once you have all your time slots filled and organised all there is left to do is put it into practice.
Sometimes things need a little tweaking as you go a long. For example you may notice that your children do much better if they get math done first thing in the morning or that an afternoon basket works much better for your family than a morning basket.
Scheduling with multiple grades can be a bit more tricky and requires a bit more thinking to really get everything working smoothly. It can be a real headache! You can read this post here about how to homeschool multiple grades which goes in depth with ideas on how to juggle the needs of several children while still staying sane.
What are the Benefits of Block Scheduling?
There are several benefits for block scheduling your homeschool. One it the foremost benefits is that it offers predictability. Many children, mine included thrive on knowing what to expect each day. Not only is it good for the children to know what is happening it also helps the one teaching to be prepared also.
Block scheduling helps you to stay on track to be sure that everything is done each year. You can easily plan out how many lessons are in each year and schedule them accordingly. Each year I look at my children’s work books and see that there are a certain number of lessons. I can then schedule in enough days to be sure they are completed. I always add in extra days to account for sick days and those days when nothing goes right and you just need to quit while you are ahead like when your toddler paints the entire living room floor with glitter paint while you are in the shower…true story.
I have found that block scheduling is vital for me while teaching multiple grades. I need to carve out time each day for sit down work with each child. Even if I am not teaching them I still like to have that time to go over their completed work to mark it and to talk them through any struggles they have had. While I am doing this I want my other children on task with other activities. If I didn’t have a block schedule going, there would be a lot of time wasting happening. I feel like a looping schedule would work much better if you had multiple oder grades but the younger ones I have discovered work better with a block schedule. This is just my own experience though.
The Disadvantages to a Block Schedule
The main disadvantage to a block schedule is the lack of flexibility. It is so each to drop things from the schedule because the day just got away from you and you ran out of time. Or some days crazy things happen and you don’t even manage to start school let alone finish it that day.
Last year I totally bailed on science. It was scheduled during the afternoon twice a week and it was always the first thing to get dropped each week. This years schedule is a bit different so I am hoping I can redeem myself!
The guilt of missing subjects is terrible too. You just feel down right bad about it. I get a little panicky when I can’t tick everything off my list each night. I am sure many of you can relate.
One of the results of missing a subject one day is that in a block schedule it isn’t just picked up again the following day. Many times you will have to wait until it comes up again in the schedule to do it again, and often you had already planned something else for that lesson. It just puts you behind.
Can I Combine Block Scheduling and a Looping Schedule?
Yes of course you can. It’s your homeschool you can do whatever you like and whatever works.
There are a number of different ways that you could mix the two methods together. The way in which I marry the two together is that I loop my morning basket and read aloud books. These are the two areas where I am not at all as consistent that I want to be. I think by looping these parts of my homeschool I will accomplish much more than I have in the past year.
Another way in which you may want to combine the two is to block schedule your children’s individual subjects and the subject they need to do with you, and then loop your family style subjects.
A third way would be to schedule all core subjects and loop all other subjects. So in this example you would schedule math, language arts, science, history etc and loop art, music, read aloud, project work, morning baskets, bible study etc.
Do I Need a Homeschool Schedule
Whether or not you need a homeschool schedule really comes down to what method of homeschooling you are embracing and your personality type. I am an organised list maker and planner by nature so a schedule is a much for me, otherwise I will probably be running around in circles and rocking in the corner before the week is out!
Some homeschooling styles don’t really work well with a schedule and that is absolutely fine. Unschooling is definitely one that would tend to lean away from scheduling. You could schedule part of your day and leave the rest of the day free for whatever you decided to do on that day.
Ultimately it is completely up to you on how you want to run your homeschool. I can almost guarantee you that whatever you schedule you make the first time will not be what you end up with. It will inevitably need a bit of tweaking a long the way and that is just part of the process and journey.
