#2 "BLOCK schedules and 4 day school weeks" in: 10 TRICKS OF THE TRADE when Teaching School with a crap ton of kids everywhere- lol:

  This is the second in a series about teaching school with lots kids, multiple ages and grades and little ones about. These 10 things would have revolutionized my life had I done all of them from the beginning.  Enjoy and hopefully they help you a bit too!

#2 BLOCK schedules and 4 DAY school weeks

     This is a concept that has really evolved over the years for me, I certainly didn't understand it all when I first started.
     In the beginning I think most homeschoolers try to "public school at home".  Its what we know, so its what we do.  Trying to fit that in to a homeschool schedule is definitely not easy.  There is so much trial and error put into figuring out your homeschool life.  There are something that I had to learn like block scheduling, whereas a 4 day work week just happened.
     I pretty much have always had a 4 day school week but in the beginning, I would still try and "make up" that 5th day.  I could not figure out how we would actually accomplish stuff without that 5th day BUT I NEEDED that 5th day to be a non school day.  That 5th day was co-op, or shopping, or playdate, or homeschool group, or whatever.  Anything but school.  We were drowning in our lost day though the other 4 days.
     I did not block schedule in the early days.  I wish I had listened to my friend Lydia (HI LYDIA) when she explain block scheduling to me, but I didn't. I have since learned my lesson and learned the key to the 4 day school week was block schedules!   Block schedules and 4 day work weeks just fit so nicely together... like.... like... like peanut butter and chocolate!

Lets fist deal with a block and what it is:  
     This is when you combine a large period of time to cover one subject.  For instance, instead if doing 1 hour of History and 1 hour of science everyday.  You instead do 2 hours of the subject at one time and cover 2 days of material during that time.


HOW is it actually blocked out?

There are 2 different schedules that are used for blocks:

1. Block/Block: where you combine your blocked hours into blocked days. EG: Mon/Tuesday are Block A days.  Wed/Thurs are both Block B days.  You complete 2 hours each day of whichever subjects you are blocking together.
2. BLOCK/ALTERNATING: where you block the subject hours but do every other day of it.  EG: Mon Block A, Tue Block B, Wed Block A, Thur Block B.

I have done both and have chosen op #1 as the winner in my house.  Here's why:

1. It means we can wrap our brains fully around that subject and submerge ourselves in it without interruption.
2. Its less confusing.
3. It makes planning my week easier.  If I need to go out on Monday and miss part or all of our blocked class, I can make sure the following day is free to "get 'er done". 
4.  With an alternating schedule I had to think to much to organize my weeks and the lesson. 
5. Because it just works better.

This can look VERY different in everyone's household.  Some people like to block all subjects and some pick and choose- like myself.
In my house we block schedule:

• Science
• History

And do not block:

• LA
• Math
• Additional topics

  I picked those subjects to be split that way because:

• Math and LA should be done everyday.
• My kids would get way overwhelmed doing a block math schedule- too much at one time!
• Often with HIS and SCI we would get caught up in the lesson and "get behind"Wwith HIS and SCI I was taking a lot of time to prep some things and it was cutting into my school day
• If we missed a day of HIS or SCI I felt like my mojo was screwed for the whole week.
• My days always seemed rushed but if I removed HIS and SCI then they were okay.  I decided they were the culprits and therefore I would deal with them differently!

Now that you understand that let us look at the week as a whole.

4 day school week- now known as 4DW (4 day week).  

Pretty self explanatory.  and works well with a block schedule.   You school (idealy) Monday-Thursday and Fridays you can do as you wish with it.

We do co-op.  But in the past I have also used that day for field trips, make up work, as a "check in" day, a project day, etc.

The 4DW works so well with BLOCK scheduling and BLOCKS work so well with ONE ROOM SCHOOL HOUSE teaching!  So how it is all connecting?

What does MY week look like?

I will gladly share!

• 7-8:30 the oldest kids get up and get to their math on the computers (TT and KHAN).  Its quiet in my house and the littles are still in their rooms so this is a great time to get math knocked out!
• 8:30-9:30 we do before breakfast chores, eat Bfast and do after Bfast chores.
• 9:30ish- 11:30ish we do: M/T science; W/TH history
• 11:30-12:30ish we finish our block that day, straighten up, eat lunch, do after lunch chores
• 12:30ish-1:30ish older kids start their independent work in LA/additional subjects and I do about an hour of stuff with the k-3rd/4th crowd at least 3 times a week.  Sometimes an older kid does it or will help out.
• 1:30-3ish the oldest kids junior high/highschool will continue to work on stuff as needed.

CURRICULUM CAN BE KEY!!!

All the curric I use can be EASILY worked into all of this.  MOH (mystery of History) actually has several different schedules in the fron of their book to look at and a 4DW is one of them.  I learned a lot from using that!
QUEENS stuff is usually written as a story and 4 applications.  So combining the story to 2 application days is no problem at all.

     It is also ok to cut out some applications!  You could do 2 lessons but only do 1 application.  Or do something short and combine it with something more indepth.  There is a lot of freedom.

Sometimes I will do both "lessons" and then do one application. Or both lessons and then both applications or  Other times I will do one lesson and one application and then the second and the second.  It really depends on the subject and what is being covered.
     You will QUICKLY figure it out and find the right rhythm for your family within a week.   

 That concludes this blog post.   I hope you have enjoyed this overview on ORSH teaching!  Other topics to come in this series, in no particular order, are:

One Room School House Teaching

block scheduling/4 day school week

3 hour limit

schooling when they are ready- don't stress until then

sickness in the house and new babies

utilize your team (aka older kids)

schooling with toddlers and babies

FEED the people

Making an "unschedule" for your home

FREAK OUT!

#1 One Room School House in 10 TRICKS OF THE TRADE when Teaching School with a crap ton of kids everywhere- lol:

   This is the first in a series about teaching school with lots kids, multiple ages and grades and little ones about. These 10 things would have revolutionized my life had I done all of them from the beginning.  Enjoy and hopefully they help you a bit too!

One room school house... what?

gathered in the living room for school

  My dear friend Laura and I (HI LAURA!!!!) were just discussing this topic the other day.  Both she and I have large families, with children the same ages.  We started off having babies together, schooling together and large families together.  We were discussing things we wish we had known "way back when" and "schooling multiple grades at one time" came up.

  In my home, we call that "One Room School House" teaching; from this point on ORSH.  This is much like it was back in the beginning days of public schools where a teacher would have 10-20 students of varying grades and had to teach them.  There was no way this teacher could teach all the grades separately and so there was much combining.  Its the same today in many a homeschool household.

  ORSH teaching is very simple and basic.  You teach the same material across the board but the application of what is being taught is different depending on ability (notice how I did not say "grade").  For instance:

science drawings

  Lets say, for the sake of conversation, you have 4 children in grades 8th, 6th, 4th and 2nd.  Your history lesson today is on the Painter, Michelangelo.  You present the content of the lesson.  Who he was, what time period, look at some paintings on line, etc.  Then during the application portion the 8th grader is too do further research and write a 2 page essay on who he was, his influence on the world and most famous works.  The 4th and 6th graders perhaps are working together.  They are going to also do some research and create an advertisement for  a showing of his art.  On their advertisement they need to include key information that states who he was and some of his paintings.  The second grader is going to do a coloring page of one of his works and dictate to you at least 3 things he remembers about the Artist and you will write them on the back of his paper.

SEE HOW EASY!!!

learning about Pompeii
and building a volcano 

There are lots of  subjects that you can easily combine:

• history
• science
• geography
• bible study
• health
• PE

  In my home we combine History and Science into ORSH and then LA and Math are separate. There have been a few times where the youngest ones were just too squirrely to sit and so I let them go play.  Out of 180 days of school, if the k-2nd crowd misses say 7 days, I really do not think they will be educationally defunct for the rest of their lives.   

Sounds simple but, how do you actually make it work?

    Well, one thing that is key in making it work is choosing curriculum that it works with.  I have found that Queens Curriculum, Mystery of History, Story of the World, Apologia, Answers in Genesis, and Trail Guide to Learning to all be great ORSH applicable curriculum.  Some, like MOH and AIG, are written in ORSH style.  It has the story and then 3 different applications based on younger/middle/older students.  This makes it easy for me because I am not trying to figure stuff out.  My options are all laid out for me and I can pick!

making nosegays

    Another way it to pick curriculum that hits the medium grade you are teaching.  So like with Queens, if I was teaching science to the same above grades, 2nd/4th/6th/8th; I would pick a science book that hit about 5th-6th grade and all of them would do that booklet.  It does mean that sometimes I might be telling the 8th grader to do additional work to "beef up" her end or I might be telling the younger kids to skip an application or just color me a picture on the subject; "dumb down" for lack of a better phrase, applications for them.  This way might seem more complicated but it really is not, you just need to give yourself the freedom to add to or take away from the lesson plan without feeling like by doing so you will screw your kid up for life.

more volcano buddies

  Winging it with a mid range curric or even with something written as ORSH is actually very easy.  I have had no problems easily making things work with my favorite curriculum.  Often I will even wing the pre made lesson plans and do something totally different just because... well.... I can!

  Besides picking great curric,  combining several subjects together to teach across the board will greatly streamline your school day. We do about 2 hours of ORSH schooling a day and then there is another hour for me to teach one on one stuff with the k-3rd/4th crowd.  The older kids have anywhere from 2-4 hours of additional schooling each day depending on their grade and work load.  1 hour of that is math (which they do before breakfast between 7 and 8 in the morning) and the other hour is LA.  The additional time would be used doing science or history assignments that requires more work, or additional topics being covered that year.... in general, its kinda like homework time ;)

How does this work if you have much older kids and much younger kids?

  This is a wonderful good question!  I finally faced this problem last year when my oldest 3 homeschoolers were in 5th/7th/9th and my younger 4 were prek/prek/1st/3rd.  It was a pretty big gap between the youngers and the olders.

F15g is in the back ground doing her
 own science while
H13g is working on a
 group project (last year)

reading lesson ;)

  I still approached it from the perspective on what could I combine and then had to ask with whom.  This year and last year have both looked a little different.  Last year I combined everyone for history AND my oldest had an additional history book to read on her own (but not do assignments for).  We combined sci except for my oldest, she had her own.  This year I do one science with the the 4 youngest.  The middle kid has her own and the 2 older ones are doing one together.  The only one I teach is the younger group.  History is ORSH except the oldest, she has her own.  So on science days I gather my ORSH in the living room, the lone wolf goes to the dining room and the older girls gather their ORSH in the kitchen.  On history days it looks much the same.  Those who are ORSH'ing with me meet in the living room and those that are not do their history elsewhere.

You named many ORSH doable subjects, 

but you only do 2, why?

making posters

  Another good observation!  Some of bible is ORSH (for the younger kids) where as the older ones have their own.  PE is something that naturally happens in our house and my kids all swim throughout the week.  Geography I do not stress out about.  They get a generalization through history and then I assign geography work as additional work for older grades (more or less 8th +) using Queens geography books.  A good overview, done as an upper level students, as a one time thing, is more worth it to me than trying to fit in another subject with lower grades.  It just does not need to be that complicated.


 That concludes this blog post.   I hope you have enjoyed this overview on ORSH teaching!  Other topics to come in this series, in no particular order, are:

One Room School House Teaching

block scheduling/4 day school week

3 hour limit

schooling when they are ready- don't stress until then

sickness in the house and new babies

utilize your team (aka older kids)

schooling with toddlers and babies

FEED the people

Making an "unschedule" for your home

FREAK OUT!