Looping Activities for Your Homeschool Schedule

How to Fit Looping Into
Your Homeschool Schedule…

If you’re anything like me, you want your homeschool kids to learn all the things. The most realistic way to accomplish that with out losing your mind? Looping. Not familiar with the concept of homeschool looping? Check out Kids Activities & Homeschool Looping for ideas on how to get started!

Already added looping to your homeschool schedule? Perfect! These sample schedules are designed to make your homeschool looping time even easier!

Looping
Sample Schedules…

While our personal homeschool looping schedule is based on a 3 day school week, these sample schedules can easily be adjusted to fit any homeschool schedule!

Want to learn more about how to transition to a 3 day school week, like we did? Check out How To Homeschool 3 Days a Week to get all the tips on how we make it work in our home!

#1 Electives Schedule

Using your homeschool looping time for electives can help your older homeschooler transition into middle school or high school with ease. Skip the overwhelming feeling of trying to fit all those extra subjects in every single day, simply by looping through 1 elective each school day instead.

Looping electives can be a wonderful option for littles as well. If you want your young child to experience and learn as much as they can in a small portion of time, looping is where it’s at!

Great Elective Ideas
for Your Homeschool Schedule…

• Foreign Languages
• Sign Language
• Art
• Musical Instruments
• Wood Working
• Nature Studies
• Typing
• Wilderness Survival Skills
• Creative Writing
• Coding
• Bible
• Apologetics
• Photography
• Engineering
• Physical Education

Simply select and set up your electives for the day, looping your children through something new to discover each and every homeschool day!

#2 Core Subjects

I don’t do this type of looping very often. However when I do, the kids thoroughly enjoy it! You can easily set your homeschool schedule for success by looping through specific core subjects.

Math and language arts are typical everyday subjects, so I wouldn’t suggest adding them to your looping rotation. Science and History however, would work great for looping time! If you decide to use your homeschool looping time for learning core subjects, you can easily do this one of two ways!

• As Full Lessons

Let’s say you decide to loop science and history each week. Based upon a typical 4 day homeschool schedule, you can use your looping time to teach full lessons of both history and science 2 times each week! Simple right?

Stuck in a 4 day school schedule and still feeling overwhelmed? Check out How to Homeschool 3 Days a week for tips and ideas on changing up your homeschool schedule even more!

• As Partial Lessons

This! This is my absolute favorite way to use homeschool looping time for core subjects. My kids work on most core subjects 3 days a week. With the exception of History, which we only do once on the weekend.

Want to learn more about how we learn history in our home? Check out Teaching History to Your Homeschooler for more information!

Because of our personal homeschool schedule, science tends to be the only core subject that ever makes an appearance into our homeschool looping time. When my children get to a lesson in science that can’t easily be completed in the time allotted or has some extra extensive learning I can tack onto it, looping to the rescue!

Simple Examples of
Science Lesson Extension…

• When your child is learning about the 5 senses, extend their learning by setting up a sensory table or bin for looping time.
• After finishing a unit on the human body, have your children create their own model of one of the body systems.
• If your student is studying engineering, set up a challenge with household objects… Popsicle sticks, toothpicks, legos, etc…
• Teach about plant life? Take your looping time outdoors to plant a garden or look at plant life under a microscope!

The list is endless you guys! Simply use this time for lesson experiments you haven’t gotten to or added activities that go along with current units that are being studied! Have fun with it and encourage your children to learn independently!

#3 Projects

Looping time works amazing as a bonus project time you guys! You can literally do anything from simple unit studies, creative story writing, to fun animal projects!

If your kids have a ton of different interests, but you aren’t sure how to meet their needs or keep them entertained. This is the type of looping for your homeschool! Your children can easily explore new topics and get creative, completely on their own.

Not sure how it’s possible?

Check out my looping project check list!

1. Set up your looping table with books that are specific to a topic. Add some lined paper and art supplies.
2. Leave instructions for your child (or give orally for non readers) to read on their topic, write a required amount, and create a model.
3. Always add a second option on the table. Children learn in many different ways – Second options could be something as simple as creating a power point on their topic, reading and giving a oral report, or even acting something out.

Simple Ideas for Setting Up Your
Homeschool Looping Projects…

• Unit Studies – Pick a unit you would like to cover as a family, choose a handful of books on the subject (or a specific curriculum if needed), and whatever other supplies you may need. Encourage your children to read through the unit study on their own, creating whatever final project you desire in the end.
• Creative Story Writing – Gather a handful of unique household items to place on your looping table, then add lined paper and embellishments. Instruct your children to pick an item from the table and write a creative story about it! Fun art supplies and embellishments can be used to add illustrations.
• Animal Projects – Lay out animal encyclopedias or other animal books on your looping table with lined paper and clay. Instruct your children to read about an animal of their choosing, then write simple facts and create a clay animal. You can easily take this one step further by having them create an entire ecosystem for their animal out of a shoe box and nature items!

Encourage independent learning fun and creativity with projects!

#4 Creative Fun

My kids go crazy over this kind of looping you guys! Creative whimsical fun that has absolutely no boundaries always have my kids screaming, yes please! We do this often.

Fun Ideas for Your
Creative Looping Time…

Blind drawings are a fun activity for everyone involved.

• Blind Drawing – Set up your looping table with art supplies, a list of drawing prompts, and at least one easy to use blindfold. Then, encourage your children to pick a prompt and draw blindly! If you have access to multiple blind folds, your children can set a timer and compete! If you don’t, simply encourage your kids to prompt one another and take turns!
• One Line Story Telling – Clip a piece of lined paper to a clipboard and instruct your children to create a story together, writing one line at a time. Starting with one child, instruct them to write the first line. Then, have them pass the clipboard to their neighbor. The second child would then write a follow up sentence. Have them continue passing the paper with a new author for each line, until the paper is full or the story is finished!
• All Hands On Board Art Projects – Gather art supplies and a large piece of paper or canvas. Pick a subject or a scene and instruct your children to work together to create it. This helps build team work and can showcase your children’s different artistic abilities. Encourage older children to teach younger children along the way!

#5 Hands on

Sometimes a little hands on time is all your homeschool schedule needs! This simple list of hands on activities is perfect for younger homeschoolers that simply don’t have the attention span for complex projects or for older children that enjoy a little down time! I personally use many of these items for our homeschooling looping.

Top Items for Hands On Looping

• Marble Maze
• Magformers
• Legos
• Engineering Set
• Gravity Maze
• Lazer Maze
• Geo Trax
• Magic Tracks
• Kinetic Sand

Encourage independent play with hands on looping!

#6 Toddler Time

Find a schedule you love for your older children, but stuck when it comes to the younger ones? Looping is the perfect way to cycle toys or activies in an out, which allows your toddler to continually be engaged week after week.

Ever notice how kids always want to play with their new toy most, but then loose interest after just a few short days? Simple fix.

Create a bin of items your toddler loves and each day during looping time, pull an activity! If you keep these toys secluded and only available during looping time, your child will be much more likely to stay put and engage for a period of time.

What to Put in Your
Toddler Looping Bin… 

• Playdough
• Blocks
• Sticker Books
• Color Wonder
• Sorting Pie
• Noisy Books
• Pom Poms & Large Tweezers
• Lacing Beads
• Train Tracks

More interested in turning your toddler’s looping time into a homeschool quiet time? Check out Homeschool Quiet Time for tips on how to create a successful quiet time for your homeschool!

Looking for homeschool looping ideas specific to your Kindergartner? Check out my Top Kindergarten Supplies for Homeschool Looping to get the full list!

#7 Free For All

This is my absolute favorite type of looping you guys! Having a free for all time in your homeschool can literally mean anything goes! These type of looping homeschool schedules can be planned out ahead of time, or put together on a whim at the very last minute. That’s the beauty of a free for all type schedule!

My Top 3 Free For All
Items…

#1 Board Games

We love board games for looping time! Not only are the fun, but they can also encourage team work and thinking skills! Busting out board or strategy games for looping can work wonders on busy homeschool schedule!

*Important Tip: if you have an odd number of homeschoolers like I do, picking games they can all play together (while getting along) is essential!

Need Game Ideas for Your Homeschool? Check out Top 10 Board Games for Summer for our list of favorites!

#2 Ipads & Osmo

If you haven’t heard of Osmo yet, you are totally missing out!! Osmo has been one of the best additions we have ever added to our homeschool looping time! Not only do my homeschool kids love Osmo, but secretly (shh don’t tell) mom and dad do as well! Both my husband and I have spent a little time playing around with the Osmo Creative Kit, so much fun you guys!!

Best thing about Osmo? The kids aren’t just mindlessly staring at screens! They are actively using their minds and their hands together to work on, create, or build something new!! Osmo is perfect for looping!

Want to know even more about Osmo? Check back soon for these upcoming posts!

• Homeschooling With Osmo
• Osmo Genuis Kit
• Osmo Creative Kit

#3 Puzzles

Yes! Puzzles are awesome for looping time you guys! This can either be smaller individual puzzles that your children work on during a single looping time, or you can bust out a larger family puzzle to work on over the course of a week! Puzzles can be a great stress reliever and bonding time. Definitely a must have for your homeschool schedule!

Another Way to Make the
Free for All Schedule
Work for Your Homeschool…

Simply mix and match any item or activity from an above schedule to create your very own free for all schedule! Like the idea of setting a hands on activity with a unit study? Do it! Want to set up the iPads and an art project? Go for it! The free for all homeschool schedule is totally amazing you guys!

Looking for Other Creative Ideas
for Your Homeschool?

Check out these top helps!

• Homeschooling at the Library
• 10 Minute Homeschool Workouts
• The Kindergarten Spelling Box
• Homeschool DEAR Day
• Summer Reading Challenge

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