How many times have you wished there were more hours in the day? More time for homeschooling? More time to spend with individual children? More time for household projects? Time for fitness and exercise? Time to work on hobbies? More time with your spouse?
With block scheduling, you can actually get your wish!
Okay, the schedules don’t actually make the day any longer. But, using them really does make it seem like they do!
Busy parents have long known the benefits of the block schedule. These may seem intimidating at first, but once established, they literally run themselves.
Do schedules work all the time? Of course not. But for seasons of life when schedules make sense, block schedules set the gold standard for getting stuff done!
In a nutshell, here’s how block scheduling works:
- First, you imagine the perfect day, and identify what every member of the family should be doing at every point throughout the day.
- Then, you figure out the number of hours in the day that are available in for scheduling (from rising until bedtime).
- Next, you choose the length of time for every “block” (15-60 minute blocks are common)
- Finally, you draw up a chart, so that every family knows where he or she needs to be, when, throughout the day.
Sound daunting? Actually, it isn’t.
If you start out small, and schedule the first few hours of every day, you’ll have a great beginning. Once you get the hang of things, you can expand your schedule even more. Or not. It’s up to you.
Look at this portion of a block schedule for a mom and 2 children:
| Sarah | James | Mom | |
| 8:00-9:00 | Breakfast, reading | Breakfast, reading | Chores, get math ready |
| 9:00-10:00 | Spanish | Math with mom | Math with James |
| 10:00-11:00 | Math with mom | History | Math with Sara |
| 11:00-12:00 | Science with James | Science with Sarah | Chores, Calls, Emails |
| 12:00-1:00 | Lunch and rest | Lunch and rest | Lunch and cleanup |
| 1:00-2:00 | History with mom | Outside time, hobbies | History with Sarah |
| 2:00-3:00 | Outside time, hobbies | English | Gardening or sewing |
| 3:00-4:00 | English | Music practice | English with Sarah |
| 4:00-5:00 | Chore time | Chore time | Laundry, dinner prep |
Imagine now this schedule organized into 30 minute blocks instead of 60 minutes. Then, imagine the schedule starts at 7:00 a.m. and runs all the way until bedtime. Finally, imagine adding more kids and blocks to the schedule, until everything is accounted for!
Turns out, block scheduling is one of my most requested talks. That’s because they really, really work!
Think block schedules are too restrictive? I have found a way to make them work for everyone. Even you!
Are you using block scheduling already? SHARE your results! (Linky is now closed.)
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You might also like:
Block Scheduling Tutorial (video) Part 1
Block Scheduling Tutorial (video) Part 2
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tori says
Nice. This type of scheduling is very much like the system I bought… it provides a chart that makes it “easier” to see the time chunks and schedule everything in correctly. I don’t use it well, though… I’m not strict enough in that way. I definitely want to be.
I thought you were talking about block scheduling the curriculum… like more of a high school (PS) way of doing classes than elementary Public School schedule. Block scheduling of this kind has really worked well for my eldest. She does a few things every day, but the main subjects are heavily focused on for one day each week (doing the same amount in one day as she’d do in 4-7 depending on the course). We both prefer this way, I think. It just seems so much less hectic and she actually focuses better.
I so appreciate both your Facebook posts as well as your blog(s)! 🙂 Thank you for being such an awesome homeschool advocate!!!
QuickStartHomeschool says
Awesome, Tori! Would you please share the name of the chart system you have? Would love to hear about it! Come back soon……..
Melissa says
We do the 30 minute schedule from 6am until 9 pm daily. We got our system from Manager’s of their Home, by the Maxwell’s. Its worked really well for us. We are are in the process of switching things around now, just to see if it works better for us. The system is really similar to what you did on the white board, in your video.
QuickStartHomeschool says
Great Melissa! The white board is just one way to make up the schedule, as you already know. I only used that as a demo in the movie 🙂 Glad to hear that block is working for you! Thanks for stopping by.