Loop Schedules

We have a couple loops going. My kids are all ages 9 and under and these are subjects we do together (to give perspective):

1) science, history, geography

2) handicraft, hymn/music, poetry, picture study, cooking

I just instituted the enrichment loop above so we are still getting the hang of it.

I did have a couple subjects in the first loop occurring more frequently, but simplified it because of the books we’re currently using. You can always change the frequency of subjects if needed.

Have you watched the Sarah Mackenzie and Pam Barnhill video on Loop Scheduling?  It’s helpful and on You Tube. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEkMOtNkYRc

I’ll chat more about loops later, got to snuggle a baby!

Ours will probably be something along these lines:

Picture study

Composer study

Bedtime Math

Ohio short story (I have animal tales and hero tales for this)

Grammar Minute (some grammatical info of the week, could be anything)

Literary Element Minute (read a short passage from a book we’ve been reading and explain what literary element it’s showing – such as personification, setting, hyperbole, assonance, etc)

We had 3 loops going last year.  We aimed for two things from each list.

• Content Subjects: history, living science reading, history, science lesson, geography, science experiment, history, science reading, history, nature study/object lesson
• Language arts: copywork, ELTL lesson, Spelling Wisdom, ELTL recitation–I’m pretty sure I had more here, but I can’t remember!  We tried to get to 3 ELTL lessons each week.
• Fine Arts Loop: poetry/shakespeare (twice per loop), folk song, paper sloyd (our handicraft), music, harmony fine arts (was on the loop twice because we split the lesson up), folk song, sol-fa singing, Compass Drawing

I tried to have 10 items on each loop, although some were repeats.  I figured if we got to 2 things each day, from each list, we’d generally make it through once a week.  If we didn’t, I didn’t feel too bad about it, since it was next on the loop.

For the coming year, I’m going back to a regular schedule, but will probably keep the fine arts loop for our morning basket.  I do tend to treat our weekly schedule as a loop and label it Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc. instead of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.

Ditto the BOC looping idea. I like that and will steal it!

We loop composer, artist, and poet/Shakespeare.

We also loop flashcards (math, music, roots).

We also loop our days, too, using numbers instead of days of the week.

I’m going to be trying out a loop schedule for the first time this year. So far, I’m planning on only using it in our morning time. Our morning time will consist of Bible, Shakespeare, Geography, Picture Study, Composer, Hymn, Habits, and Memorization (scripture, poetry, etc.). Bible and Memorization will be done everyday, but the rest I’m planning on putting on a loop.

This year will also be our first year of keeping a BOC and I love the idea of adding it into our loop!

I also like the suggestions of numbering our days instead of going by Monday, Tuesday, etc. Thinking I’ll copy that idea as well.

I’m going to see how effective it is for our morning time and go from there.

Tristan – thank you! I’d love to find some for my state. Does the same author write similar books for various states?