Doing only two subjects per day....

[Veritaserum]

My sister started homeschooling this year and she said they only do two subjects per day but do multiple lessons of each subject. I'm wondering about trying that since it's overwhelming to do all subjects for all of my children every day.

I was thinking:

Monday
Writing
Grammar

Tuesday
This is our day for co-op, piano lessons, etc.

Wednesday
History
Handwriting

Thursday
Math
Science

Friday
Geography
Music or Art

I would do Spelling and Reading every day. What do you think?

[mom2moon2]

The potential problem with that, especially for the skill-based subjects, is that children might forget a concept which is not reviewed continuously during the week. I find it effective to just do short lesson on every skill-based subjects everyday.

Content-based subjects are okay to do once a week (that's what I'm doing, anyway).

Here are subjects which we do everyday, for a first grader:
- reading from readers (15 m).
- math (30 m, combination of oral math, games and worksheet).
- SWR for spelling, grammar, vocab and writing mechanics (30-40m).
- cursive (10-15m).
-----------
TOT: 1 1/2 hrs.

Then content subject (1 subject/day): 30m -1 hr.

Dian

[matermagistra]

We have three things that are a must every day...Bible, Math and Latin, usually in that order.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, we do Language Arts. We try to do a whole week's lessons on those two days.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are History days.

Fridays belong to science, field trips, and catching up on anything we didn't get done previously in the week.

I feel like focusing on just one main "theme" for a day leaves my mind so less cluttered.

However, since everyone seems to be raving about the loop schedule, I am considering trying that. But then I wonder if I'd just be changing to try something new that everyone is raving about instead of just continuing on with what is working already.

**Marita**

[Sara in AZ]

I've modified my schedule this year because of baby #3 that should come any time. We do Math/spelling/grammar/handwriting on Mon. and Wed. and history/science on Tues./Thurs. I also try to do math and some kind of art project on Friday but that doesn't always happen. I would try to do math and some kind of writing at least two or three days. (and of course reading as much as possible like you said you do that every day.) But otherwise I think it's okay not to do everything every day. I sure feel more relaxed that way! And I'm sure my young 1st grader does, too.

[sweetbaby]

Sounds like block scheduling which didn't fair well with my littles when we tried it. As previous poster had mentioned, little ones will forget concepts if not taught daily but weekly. However, as they get older such as in high school, it may work out a little better. Some college courses are set up the same way. I think core subjects such as math and language arts should be taught daily for young children.

[elegantlion]

We tried block scheduling for about two weeks in my house. It did not fare well due to some of the reasons already mentioned.

If that does not work for you another option to look at is "The Latin-Centered Curriculum". LCC has you do a few subjects everyday but some, such as science and history are done one time per week.

[Calming Tea]

but for me math, and spelling would be every day.

I could see doing writing only once a week, because it's not necessarily the repetition that's important there.

But before I adopted your schedule here, I would just get rid of all the extras and focus on 3R's every day- Reading, Math, and Writing/Spelling, and take out history, geography, music, art, etc. all together and just "unschool" them. In fact this is what I am doing this year and it's going pretty well.

[kathymuggle]

I do a version of this and it works out fine. We are quite relaxed, though;)

I do not find they lose skill, but my kids are older.

I am careful to bring language arts and math into whatever we are doing (say history or science). I think it is important for kids to see connections anyways. We are doing Ancient Greece, and we talked about Greek contributions to math - and did a bit of work with the Pythagorean formula.

As we tend to be project oriented, I find it takes a while to get into projects - and small amounts of time just did not work for us.

I say do what works!

Kathy