How We Use Block Scheduling

If you are the parent of a child who goes to school at home, you know what a difference scheduling can make in how smoothly your day flows.  Now that you understand your child's learning style, it's time to consider her personality traits.  Ask yourself questions like, "Does she transition easily between subjects & activities?", "Does she loose interest in activities after a certain period of time?", "Does she feel overwhelmed by the number of classes she has to take?"  Knowing the answer to these kinds of questions will help you decide what type of class schedule will work best for your child.  If you have more than one child, remember, they may all be different.

My daughter does not transition easily between classes, but my boys do.  However, she can stay interested in a topic much longer than my boys (unless we're talking about video games or military history & weaponry).  She is also more likely to feel overwhelmed by having too many classes to complete each day.  Because my children have such different personalities, they also have very different schedules.

I don't really have to do much scheduling for my boys because they are capable of scheduling themselves...which is the ultimate goal.  From time to time one or both of them may put off one class so that they can work longer on another class. They will do this when they are in a groove and don't want to stop, but for the most part they follow a pretty traditional school schedule, working a little on each class every day.  They are both the type of person who feels like he is getting more done if he can quickly cross things off his to-do list.  Give them a longer list of quick things to do, and they breeze through it.

My daughter is just the opposite.  If she saw a list of seven classes to be completed, it wouldn't matter if you told her each class would only take five minutes, she would be overwhelmed.  For her schedule, we use much larger blocks.  Last year, she only worked on one class each day, completing a week's worth of lessons at a time.  That was actually a little too big.  This year she decided she would like to have two classes each day, completing half a week's work for each class. Bigger blocks allow her time to get a lot of work done in a subject without having to "change brains" too often.  Here is our plan for this year:

One of the perks of schooling at home is having flexibility in your schedule.  If after a few weeks of school, we realize that this schedule isn't quite right, we can tweak it a little...or completely trash it and start from scratch.  If you aren't sure what type of schedule is right for your child, check out this free ebook from The Education Alliance at Brown University.  It is written for schools systems, but starts with some great examples of various versions of block schedules and lists pros and cons for each.

What kind of class schedule do you use in your home?  What type of schedule does your local school use?  How is it working for you?

Karissa