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Planning Your Term Help
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Hello! Our family is moving back toward a CM approach. So I have pulled out my copy of Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education. Here’s where I am hung up:
I am planning to use BiblioPlan Year 1, Ancients. That resource is 34 weeks worth of work, divided into 5 units. Unit 1 is 7 weeks long. Unit 2 is 7 weeks long. Unit 3 is 6 weeks long. Unit 4 is 5 weeks long. Unit 5 is 9 weeks long. History always forms the backbone of our schooling around here. So I’m hesitant to break up those units, just because of “flow.”
HOWEVER, I am also planning to use several SCM resources, as well. I always like to do some Morning Time, together school work and read alouds, etc. In my Morning Time plan, I have been putting a Loop Subject. This upcoming year, I’d like to do 5 six week long loops, where we just focus on one subject for those 6 weeks:
Loop 1: SCM Picture Portfolio – Velazquez
Loop 2: Composer Study – SCM Music with the Masters – Bach
Loop 3: Hymn Study – SCM Singing the Great Hymns
Loop 4: Shakespeare – SCM Shakespeare Kit – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Loop 5: Poetry – SCM Enjoy the Poems – Robert Louis Stevenson
So. If I am wanting to create terms with breaks that make sense, how do I mesh my Morning Time Loop subjects with the natural breaks that occur irregularly in my History? I wonder if I align my Loops to the length of my 5 history units? If so, which of these SCM resources need more time, for example? Maybe the Shakespeare? Should I do that one during the 9 week History Unit? Actually, I’d prefer not to, bc that is the unit on Rome, and I think my 9th grade son will have to read Julius Caesar, so if we had done Shakespeare earlier, it would benefit him more come the last unit on Rome, to have had some Shakespeare experience previously. Hmmm. Maybe put Art Study in that 9 week unit, so that we have enough time to read I, Juan de Pareja? Maybe do Poetry just in the 5 week unit, because we do a lot of poetry in our language arts, and we like to do Poetry Tea Time too.
Does anyone have any great suggestions for me? I’ve got my thinking all tangled up!
I would align everything else to the history terms: 7 weeks, 7 weeks, 6 weeks, 5 weeks, 9 weeks. I don’t understand the loops schedule you have planned. Could you please explain it further? It does sound like a good idea so far though.
Hi Wings2fly! What I mean by loop subjects is that we just do the next thing on the list. And then we keep looping through. So this year, during our Morning Time, the items on our loop were: Art using Child’s History of Art, Geography using Minn of the Mississippi, Faith studies using Heroes of the Faith, Shakespeare using a random book of Shakespeare stories I had on my shelf, and Hymn Study using a website I found: http://contentedathome.com/hymn-study-homeschoolers/. So each day of the week we did just one of those things, and then the next day I did the next thing. In this way, we looped through the subjects, and no matter what, even if we skipped a day, we just picked up where we left off. It was great, and the kids liked doing something new during that time each day. BUT they were having a hard time remembering what had happened the last time we had studied that subject, and furthermore, my brain had a hard time remembering. So this year, for our “Loop” subjects, we are doing longer loops, focused on just one thing for a longer time, and moving to the next subject.
So I was jotting down some things, trying to align my loop subjects with my history units. But my only problem is this: since the setting for A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Athens, it would be fun to study alongside our unit on Greece. But that unit is the shortest – 5 weeks! I wonder if I can get through the Shakespeare study in 5 weeks? Approximately 4 days per week of work (bc we have a co-op on Wednesdays), gives me 20 days. Idk! But since the unit that comes after the 5 week unit is the longest one of 9 weeks, perhaps if the Shakespeare bleeds into the 9 week unit, that would be fine…
Sigh. My thinker is thunk out.
I think you are over thinking this. I personally wouldn’t worry too much about lining things up. None of our subjects really match and it doesn’t matter at all. If there are connections between the subjects, the kids will make them regardless of how they line up. If there are specific things you’d like to finish before something else, like the Shakespeare, then arrange that, but otherwise, just go with the flow.
Just my 2 cents.
I understand what you mean by a loop schedule, I have used one this year for some of our subjects and plan to next year as well. I think a better word for what you want to do is a “block schedule” – study a specific subject for a block of 6 weeks or so and then move on to the next one. Are you planning to take a break from school in between each of your history units? If so, I would schedule the other things for those term lengths as well, but if they happen to go a little longer or shorter, I wouldn’t stress about it. I like your idea of starting your Shakespeare study during your 5 week term and letting it continue into your 9 week term until you complete it, then moving onto another subject. I can’t imagine you needing 9 weeks for any of your other loop/block subjects. Hope that helps a little!
Okay, I think I understand a little better. You need fewer subjects in your loop, true. What about spending 14 weeks, 11 weeks and then 9 weeks on 6 subjects (2 per term). So you could do Shakespeare every other day and picture study every other day, for example, for term 1. You would have a 2 subject loop instead of 5 subjects, but still some variety. I think the point of the loop schedule is to add variety without planning it to a tee or stressing about it, right? We do something similar but I have day 1 poems, day 2 Shakespeare, day 3 artist picture study, day4 Shakespeare & usually off day 5 (or catch up).
Rebekah – Yes! Precisely, I have turned my loop into a block. This year we did it as a loop and it was good, but retention was tough. So next year, those subjects will be blocked out…several weeks on each, but always coming in the same time slot of the day. This is what I think I have decided on:
Term/Unit 1: Composer Study (7 weeks)
Term/Unit 2: Artist Study (7 weeks)
Term/Unit 3: Hymn Study (6 weeks)
Term/Unit 4: Shakespeare (5+ weeks)
Term/Unit 5: Shakespeare/Poet study ( less than 9 weeks)
Thank you all for your input! I just needed to write it out and process!
I will use my history units as my guiding timeframe. And yes, after several of them, we will take breaks. Though I cannot seem to work it out exactly to break after all of them.
Blessings to you all!
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