LOOP SCHEDULES!
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?
Have you collected some really great pieces of curriculum, manipulatives, educational games, read-a-louds, or other nuggets of truth you'd like to share with your children but you'r just not sure when or how to fit it all in? Yeah. Me too!
After 10+ years of homeschool, I've got a lot of great tools in my homeschool tool chest. And now that my oldest children are in middle/high school, my second wave of children are ready to repeat some of the curriculum we covered years ago. (that's why I don't get rid of my stuff people!) The problem is HOW and WHEN? Where do I find extra minutes in the day among all the other many to-dos that must get done, especially as our family has grown over the years?
Answer: LOOP SCHEDULES.
I'm not sure why I never thought of this on my own. I kind of had the idea, but didn't really formalize it or manifest it concretely until reading this book about two months ago:
This book is worth the money. Just go ahead and buy that one for yourself right now! Really.
The title of that book is a misnomer, in my opinion. So don't let that throw you off. When I first read that title I laughed! It seemed like the *ultimate* oxymoron.
I began to understand the author's use of the word "rest" as I came to the end of the book. Think of the word rest in the sense of "rest assured" or "rest in the knowledge that..."Two nuggets I'll share from the book:
1) A job well done is simply a job that is faithfully done. Faithfully putting in our best effort is enough. God makes up the rest.
2) Loop schedules!
Ok so that takes me back to my intro: How to fit it all in. Loop schedules are simply this: You rotate your way through different subjects/topics without regard to the day of the week or what you have been able to accomplish in a set period of time. you simply do what's next on the loop and pick up where you left off....however long ago that was.
Pictures are worth 1K words, right? So here's a pic of our current loop schedules. As always, it's subject to change. I actually have TWO back-to-back loops happening each morning.
Super fancy huh? With my clothes pins and all?
Ok, so every day we have our routine of Prayer, pledge of allegiance, a scripture or inspirational thought, and then we work on our memorization. Right now we are working on memorizing The Living Christ. We're not quite half way through it.
Then we move on to loop A, which really is only 15-20 minutes of our day. But it's a chance to hit on some things that I feel like we've been ignoring for too long. I have found hat our read alouds have taken a back seat since the last baby was born. I wanted to make sure they find their way back into our day so I rotate a read-a-loud (same book till it's done) regularly into our loop A. During our read alouds the girls have a craft to work on. Rightnow they are using a loom to make bracelets while I read. I got the idea on facebook.
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During Math Games/Songs we practice math facts or concepts. I use a lot of the game ideas in the Right Start math games manual. We also do math bingo or other online games I've found and accumulated. And we sing some math fact songs from Times to Remember.
I LOVE that we are back to doing Music Appreciation. I have been wanting to get back to that for a long time! We are re-using our Level 1 of Harmony Fine Arts this year, but only hitting on the composers. While they are listening to compositions I have them sketch works of art in their sketchbooks from the child size master piece cards.
So once we complete Loop A we move on the the meatier Loop B. These are the weekly group classes that we've always done, only now I don't try to squeeze them in once a week. We do them when ever they come up on the loop. And as you can see, I have a loop within a loop. When ever we get to the Language Arts part of the loop, I use sub categories to hit on different aspects of L.A. each time we do it. I think this just adds more variety and spice to our days. It keeps things interesting and reinforces what the kids are doing separately on their own in LA during the week.
Why do I love Loop Schedules?
Because they free me up from the 5-day week limitations. I no longer limit myself to just five "extra" things we can do in a week. I can add as many things as I want to my loops and know that we will hit on each subject an equal number of times as we rotate through.
I love loops because I no longer feel the stress of "Oh we had a field trip this Tuesday so we won't be able to fit in our science experiment this week". Of course we will fit it in! IT just won't be on Tuesday. Nothing gets bumped or missed or pushed back. It's just a pause int he loop until we come back to it.
This seriously has been a breath of fresh air into my homeschool-mom life. It has released me from so many constraints that I was feeling and has added some of the joy and fun back into our homeschool.
I know I didn't go over everything in our loop and how we cover those topics. I hear baby waking up from nap time on this stormy Saturday morning. I'll get to that next time...or whenever it comes up in my personal loop! :)
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