I’ve played around with our schedule so much this year. I really enjoyed our schedule last year that just had us counting hours for each subject. It gave us flexibility to follow tangents without seeming behind. But it also had us not completing some subjects as often as they needed to be covered. I think I’ve finally arrived at what will work for us this year. As a teacher I need some flexibility, but I also need some time guidelines to keep us on track. Here are the bones of the schedule.
9:00-9:30 Bible
9:30-10:30 Math and Logic
10:30-11:30 Languages
11:30-12:30 Language Arts/Literature
Lunch
1:10-2:10 PE
2:15-2:45 Language Arts/Literature
2:45-3:30 History/Geography
3:30-4:15 Science
4:15-4:45 Music/Art
For each of these time periods each child has all assignments listed chronologically or resources are listed in a loop somewhat like this:
Rod and Staff English
Jump In
Handwriting
Rod and Staff Spelling Test
Excavating English
Daily Diagram
Jump In
Handwriting
Webster’s Spelling
Rod and Staff English
Sentence Combining
Copywork
Mavis Beacon Typing
Rod and Staff English
Jump In
Handwriting
Rod and Staff Spelling
Excavating English
So one day the child may get through 3 in the list during Language Arts time. The next day he would start with the fourth item on the list. I’ve listed some items more than once because I want to cover them more frequently in comparison to others on the list. Once the child reaches the bottom of the list he starts from the top again.
It has been working great for me as a teacher and for my kids. It gives flexibility to drop the afternoon if doctor’s appointments are scheduled. Now we may need a little tweaking on how often we cover some things, but I think this type of schedule is perfect for us. It allows for tangents so we can take time to explore side topics without interrupting the overall flow of our school year.
