If you want your kiddos to learn all the things but simply don’t have the time, creating a simplistic homeschool loop schedule with fun homeschool loop activities is a must!
Creating a Homeschool Loop Schedule
If you’re anything like me, you want your homeschool kids to learn all the things and have all the experiences.
The most realistic way to accomplish that without losing your mind is by creating a simplistic homeschool loop schedule.
With that said, if looping through extras is part of your current homeschool plan, these fun homeschool loop activities can help you get started!
Homeschool Looping Fun
While our personal homeschool loop schedule is based on our 3-day school week, you can easily adjust these lists of fun homeschool loop activities to fit your current homeschool schedule instead!
Check out some of my favorite homeschool loop activities to lean on during our afternoon quiet time.
Elective Homeschool Loop Activities
Using your homeschool looping time for electives can help your homeschoolers 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 through 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 totally where it’s at!
Simple Homeschool Electives to Loop:
- 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 homeschool electives for the day, looping your children through something new to discover each and every homeschool day!
Core Subject Homeschool Loop Activities
I don’t do this type of looping very often.
However, when I do, the kids thoroughly enjoy it!
You can easily simplify your homeschool schedule 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 often.
However, you can utilize your core subject loop time to focus on core subject extras, such as multiplication practice, writing activities for kids, or structured essays instead.
That said, I typically focus on science and history lessons for our core subject looping.
If you decide to use your homeschool loop schedule for core subject learning, you can easily do this one of two ways.
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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?
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As Partial Lessons
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 do on the weekend.
Because of our personal homeschool schedule, science tends to be the only core subject that ever makes an appearance in our homeschool loop schedule.
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!
Science Extention Examples:
- When your child is learning about the 5 senses, extend their learning by setting up a sensory table or bin during 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 such as popsicle sticks, toothpicks, legos, etc.
- Teaching about plant life? Take your looping time outdoors to plant a garden or look at plant life under a microscope.
The ideas are practically endless you guys!
Simply use your loop schedule for lesson experiments you haven’t gotten to or STEM challenges that go along with current units that are being studied!
Have fun with it and encourage your children to learn independently!
Project-Based Homeschool Loop Activities
To piggyback off my last point, looping time works amazing as a bonus project time, you guys!
You can literally do anything from simple unit studies and 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!
Utilizing your homeschool loop time for project-based learning means children can easily explore new topics and get creative, completely on their own.
Homeschool Projects to Loop:
- 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 animal encyclopedias or other animal books on your 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!
Project-Based Homeschool Looping Checklist:
- Set up a table with books that are specific to a topic. Add some lined paper and art supplies.
- Leave instructions for your child (give oral instructions for nonreaders) to read about their topic, write a required amount, and create a model.
- Always add a second option to the table because children learn in multiple different ways! Second options could include creating a PowerPoint, reading an oral report, or acting something out.
Encourage independent learning fun and creativity with projects!
Creative Homeschool Loop Activities
My kids go crazy over these kinds of homeschool loop activities you guys!
Creative whimsical fun that has absolutely no boundaries always has my kids screaming, yes, please!
We do these types of activities often.
Creative Activities to Loop:
- Blind Drawing – Set up a 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 blindfolds, 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 teamwork and can showcase your children’s different artistic abilities. Encourage older children to teach younger children along the way!
Hands-on Homeschool Loop Activities
Sometimes a little hands-on time is all your homeschool schedule needs!
This simple list of hands-on activities is perfect for younger homeschoolers who simply don’t have the attention span for complex projects or for older children who enjoy a little downtime!
I personally use many of these items for our homeschool loop time.
Hands-On Activities to Loop:
- Marble Maze
- Magformers
- LEGO
- Engineering Set
- Gravity Maze
- Lazer Maze
- Geo Trax
- Magic Tracks
- Kinetic Sand
Encourage independent play with hands-on looping!
Toddler Homeschool Loop Activities
Looping is the perfect way to cycle through toys and preschool activities, allowing your toddler to continually be engaged week after week.
If you have little ones who love a toy when it’s shiny and new, but lose interest after a few days, looping them is a simple fix!
Create a bin of items your toddler loves and each day during your homeschool loop or quiet time, pull out 1-2 activities!
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.
Little Kid Activities to Loop:
- Playdough
- Blocks
- Sticker Books
- Color Wonder
- Sorting Pie
- Noisy Books
- Pom Poms & Large Tweezers
- Lacing Beads
- Train Tracks
Most homeschool parents already have a number of these items on hand to tuck away.
Free-Range Homeschool Loop Activities
This is my absolute favorite type of looping, you guys!
Having a free-for-all time in your homeschool literally means anything goes.
These types of homeschool activities can be planned out ahead of time, or put together on a whim at the very last minute.
If the idea of creating a homeschool loop schedule intrigues you, but you don’t have a plethora of extra subjects and electives to lean on, consider setting up multiple fun zones for your kiddos instead.
This simply gives them a few fun activities to choose from every day!
Free-For-All Activities to Loop:
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Board Games
We absolutely love utilizing board games for looping time!
Busting out the board or strategy games for your homeschool loop time can work wonders on a hectic homeschool schedule.
Not only are they fun, but they can also encourage teamwork and thinking skills.
*Pro Tip: If you have an odd number of homeschoolers like I do, picking games they can all play together (while getting along) is essential!
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Ipads & Osmo
While I’m typically a fan of limiting screen time and leaning on non-screen activities, tablets and educational apps can have a great value for your homeschool!
With that said, Osmo kits are our number 1 pick for this activity.
If you haven’t heard of Osmo yet, you are totally missing out!
It has truly been one of the best additions we have made to our homeschool loop time.
The best thing about it? 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 totally new.
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Puzzles
Yes, yes, yes!
Puzzles are seriously awesome for looping time you guys!
You can easily pick 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.
Plus, puzzles can be a great stress reliever and are one of the best family bonding activities.
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