There is such freedom in homeschooling, just one of the many things I love about it! One such freedom is all the options we have to decide what our kids study and how they study it. An option that many who homeschool highschool students may not be aware of is the “block plan” also nick-named the “Colorado Plan“.

As you might guess, this concept took root in Colorado at Colorado College in 1968. Their motto: “one thing at a time.” At a committee meeting, professors were discussing their concern that students were feeing pulled in too many directions at a time, i.e., spread too thin, depleting them of both time and energy. As a result, they felt that students were spending more time juggling schedules than learning. (Kind of sounds like public highschool students, doesn’t it?)

They wanted their students to have the time to be able to deeply grasp the subject they were studying, rather than doing only what had to be done in order to meet the requirements of all their other classes.

And so the Colorado Plan, which has come to be known as the Block Plan was born. 40 years later it is still used and considered a great success. As listed on the Colorado College site, these are the benefits they believe the Block Plan offers: Read the rest of this entry »