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Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Loop Scheduling? What's that?

I've about to start my 13'th year of homeschooling and I just heard about Loop Scheduling.  What is Loop Scheduling?  Good question. But first let's have a chat.

Your weekly schedule isn't getting completed?  You ask yourself, why do I put together a schedule and then not stick to it?  Why in the world do I do this to myself?  Maybe I'm asking too much out of my children.  I work so hard to put together a weekly, monthly and / or yearly schedule and then I don't stick to it or don't get everything finished? When IS the last time we did science anyway?  

Does any of this sound familiar?  It does to me.  I try to have a weekly plan in my head, get it down on my lesson plans and then we don't accomplish it so I erase and basically write in what we did.  So instead of a 'lesson plan', I should call it a 'what we accomplished this week' log.  lol.  

Well, Loop Scheduling can help.  This is what a Loop Schedule looks like:

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(Sorry about the quality of the ink.  My printer was on the fritz when I printed this.)

So, on the top I have written down what I want my son to accomplish on a daily basis.  So Math & Unschooling Journal are the only two things that he must do daily.  Now down below, on my Loop schedule, is what I need his accomplish with no time frame.  For example, we will on Monday, start at the top of my Loop.  Map / Geography is first, so we will (after his daily work is finished), start on this subject.  He will work for 45 minutes (or whatever time frame you choose for your child).  When that time is up, he will go to the next on the list which is science.  Now, if he doesn't have time for science, he will start there on Tuesday.  So if Tuesday morning comes and we have to be away from the home and he doesn't get to science, it's ok.  He will start on it the next available day.  The goal is to make it through the entire Loop.  Once you made it through, you start from the top and repeat.  

I chose to use this because I had our weekly schedule as Monday and Wednesday science and then Tues. and Thursday for history.  Well, if our homeschool group has a co-op or event on the next 3 Tuesdays, we will be getting behind in history and not where I want to be as far as his accomplishments.  

Let's face it, life gets in the way.  Last year we went a whole entire month without doing any history.  Every day I had it scheduled, something came up and we didn't get to it.  With this Loop Schedule, you will ALWAYS get it.  You won't miss out on any subject.

I found this Loop schedule idea from a homeschool mom, Sarah Mackenzie.  She has a web site with the idea and how she uses it in her life.  She also has a Quickstart Guide to Loop Scheduling on Youtube that you can watch.  It shows you in detail on how to create your own. 

The great thing about this Loop Schedule is that you will never forget about something as long as it's on that Loop and you can add, remove or tweak it anytime.  One of the recommendations she makes is not to put too many on the Loop when you start.  You don't want 10 items on the Loop because it will overwhelm you and you will feel like you'll never get through the Loop.

As you can see, I only have 4 things on my Loop. (Note:  Our history is in our unschooling journal.)

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I laminated this so my son could make a check mark next to the finished subjects in the Loop.  He will know exactly where to start the next day.  Once he is through the Loop, he'll erase those checks and start over the next day.  I also put it on a clip board so it will be easy assess for him and won't be misplaced.

So there you have it, Loop Scheduling.  You can use this for Looping your housework as well.  You can Loop just about anything in your schedule to make sure things get done.  

Pretty cool hey?  


HAPPY LOOPING!






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