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Homeschooling Philosophy
I started off as a Charlotte Mason homeschooler. I still believe in much of the Charlotte Mason philosophy for learning, but I've added in some elements from the Classical model that mesh well. I also hold to some tenets of child-directed learning and following your child's learning style.
I began to experiment with a modular schedule this past spring as I was nearing the end of my pregnancy with Josiah. It was difficult for me to plan and prepare too many different subjects or activities at once and I found in the process that Jonathan thrived on fewer transitions during our school time. Jonathan has a better attention span if he doesn't have to change subjects as many times through the day. He's a little boy and still needs breaks, but he likes to immerse himself in whatever he's learning.
Moving to a Modular Schedule
Beginning with this school year, I'm moving away from the short lessons recommended by the Charlotte Mason method. Instead, we're moving homeschooling with a modular schedule. You could also call this a block schedule. This school year, we started with Bible, math, and science. We do each subject every day, Monday through Friday. Our day looks something like this:
- Read Bible together.
- One math lesson.
- One or more science sections with notebooking and laptbooking.
- Read one chapter in an assigned book.
- Possible read-aloud with notebooking or lapbooking.
- Additional free time for typing, books, or games.
This schedule is currently taking us around 2-3 hours of focused time with me plus around an hour of additional time alone for reading or completing notebooking. Sometimes we go a little longer if we really get into reading something together.
My current plan is to rotate science, history, spelling, and writing/grammar every 4-6 weeks when we hit a good transition point. I'll also give some math breaks at points between chapters. If he gets to the end of the math 3A before Christmas, we'll take an extended formal math break before beginning math 3B.
Your Turn!
What changes are you making in your homeschool this year? Have you tried a homeschooling with a modular schedule? Share in the comments.
Original Photo Credit: The LEGO Store – Aventura Mall by Ines Hegedus-Garcia (CC-BY)
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It’s good to be able to modify the schedule as needed and what works for your family, isn’t it? I’d like to read your thoughts after you’ve used this plan for a few months, too!
Caroline, I’ll have to remember to post an update about our schedule own the road. We’re a few weeks into our school year and it’s working very well so far.
I just do a traditional school at home with an out of the box / dvd based curriculum that spells it all out for me. Since myself, my husband and a helper (aka MIL or daughter) assist in the schooling of my younger kids, it keeps us all on the same page, teaching the same thing and not missing a beat. We also use Workboxes which were all the rage back in 2009. Since my kiddos are used to this traditional school setting, it’s been efficient for all of us. However, trying some new curriculums out as sort of a summer enrichment may be fun. http://homeschoolandwork.blogspot.com
Great tips, Nita!
We’re doing a bit of a “block” schedule this spring, as we are rotating subjects based on the day (i.e. Tues/Thurs = Math and Science & Wed/Fri = Worldview & Writing). I like the block scheduling better because it doesn’t feel like we have as much to get through on any given day, yet we’re able to move through the curriculum at the same (or faster) pace as if we were hitting every subject every day.
I also like your way of doing the modular sections throughout the school year… I may keep this in mind for the summer/fall. This would be a good way to fit a few more subjects into our school year without adding length to our school days.
It’s been very freeing in many ways. I don’t feel like we’re rushing to fit everything in each day. We do more of a particular subject and have the time to dig deeper when the mood strikes. Not very Charlotte Mason of me, but I’m following Jonathan’s lead in many ways.
I know that this is the middle of the school year now… but we did something different this year too. We have a Two Week rotation, and we split our days between “traditional school” and “hands-on/projects”. It looks like this: My 7th grader does formal school work like Math, Latin, History, and Science 4 days in week A, Having Friday for special things like nature study, projects, and other things. The History and Lit readings must all be done before Monday in week B, in Week B we focus on socratic discussion of his History, Literature and Bible . this frees him up for things that are a little more “out of the box” like Math Challenge where he spends a large block of time either working ahead in his math course, or working challenge problems, or woodworking projects. I use the “slower” week to incorporate a more Charlotte Mason feel and to get in all the “extras”… Art lessons, Music theory, etc.
For my little kids in 1st , K, and PK we have “Morning Time” two to four days a week in week A, then traditional school, In week B we have traditional 3R’s and Charlotte Mason type topics: nature study, art lessons, composer studies.
Having this split week plan has really helped me. It helps in two ways: I am the sort to get stuck in a rut and be so bored I throw it out the window… this shakes things up, plus it allows my Junior High kid to be more involved with the littles every other week, while still having ample time in week A to work independently without distractions from the little kids’ antics.
I think this is sorta like a modular schedule… what do you think?
I would say yes. I think any format that doesn’t try to fit every subject in every day is a form of modular or block scheduling.
This sounds perfect for us! And we were kind of doing it, but not knowing there is a name for it, and also not as planned out. This works for us because my daughter goes to Classical Conversations once a week, and she has two jujitsu lessons per week, plus drum lessons and piano lessons. So, there’s really not time to do everything every day!
In our homeschool schedule we have 3 days set aside for home learning (M,W,Th,) one co-op day and fun Fridays. On M and Th we concentrate on literature, while W are reserved for composition. One entire week we focus on Science, and the next week is our History week. I love only having to bring out experiment kits, timelines, map books and other supplements one week at a time, and feel the kids retain more from the focused learning time. The things we do every day are devotion, math, Awana and penmanship/keyboarding. It’s out seventh year and I feel like we’ve finally found out groove!