Block Scheduling for the Win

We’re coming to the end of our block schedule trial period, and I think it has worked well.  It’s always nice when ideas are in fact as good as you’d hoped.

So how does block scheduling working for us?  I divided 6 of her classes into categories; writing and literature are in language arts, math and science are in stem, art and computer programing are electives. That way she would have some variety to what she did each day, no one wants to spend hours just writing papers or solving equations. Then I looked closer at the workload of each class. Literature has more reading than writing and chemistry has more reading than math. So literature and math are on one day while chemistry and writing are on the other.  Art and computer are pretty equal so they were randomly assigned.

History is still an everyday subject. Latin class is two days a week and assignments are done the other three days. 

I had handwritten out my assignment book, so that is staying.  It’s too much work to rewrite. But I use different colored highlighters to mark what has been done each day. Merry’s assignment pages were typed so each week I am simply rearranging the classes and reprinting. 

It’s still early in the year, but it looks like we’ve found a solution that works.

Whatchadoin? #7, staying on track

So I have already shared my lesson planning but the real question is, "Am I actually using any of it?"

Well... Yes and No.

I absolutely love the planners I got for the girls, also using colored pencils to write out the assignments is fun for me.

Ideally each week should be a block of yellow, I use the yellow highlighter to mark off assignments that are finished.

Unfortunately there have been weeks with a lot of pink!  Pink means we didn't quite get things done.  Even worse (to me) is the line of pink meaning I skipped the subject.

When that happens I go back and rework my plans.  I try to keep on top of what works and what doesn't work.

One thing in particular I realized needed reworked was "extras."  I didn't want the girls to think of them as school subjects so I didn't originally put them in the planners.  After a few weeks of being forgotten I decided that we needed a bit more accountability so I stuck them in the planners so they could be checked off.

I'm hoping to share how we are doing and some other schooling changes in the weeks ahead.