Next year with many kiddos:)

[kayben]

Hi ladies
I have had a bit of an off year and have not been here on the boards. I wasn't able to purchase new curriculum from HOD this year and ouch has it been painful! We are trudging along and sadly missing our guides and routines that are so smoothly build in to HOD. I am going to begin now to prepare for next year and am looking for some advice, and or feedback on my current plan. It looks like I have to use 4 guides. The kiddos are really spread in their abilities. The only other combo that might work would be the 5th and 8th grader, but I feel like he really needs to step up before High School and apply himself with a grade level program. Not sure she could bump up that far. She did the second half of Bigger basically independently last year when I had the baby, but she still needs guidance.

This is where we will be next year:
8th grade son (..Is there a new program still in the works that is to follow RTR?) He is currently working through the RTR time period with History and completed CTC last year)
5th grade DD Preparing or CTC. (I sent my CTC package to my dear SIL and it got mixed up in the mail..so have to purchase either one)
3rd grade DD Beyond (she reads well but she struggles with handwriting and is still doing K math, so I think this suits better than Bigger)I actually may get this for her to work through for the remainder of this year and then continue in the fall if I can swing it:)
1st grade DD LHFHG first track
K dd LHFHG K track
3.5 yr old... LHTH listening in and playing leapfrog games and starfall...etc.
1.5 yr old causing trouble

I would love any advice or possible scheduling ideas for 4 to 5 guides. Thanks so much,
Rebecca

[striving2Bprov31]

Wow!! What a question you have ! You are an amazing mother!

I can't give you much advice on this....we have 4 dc and are only doing 3 guides.

I hope you get some good answers here. Carrie and Julie would be able to help you immensely. If you don't get the responses here that you need, I would tell you to give Carrie a call. The HOD number is on the catalog and probably on this website. She is so helpful, and I know she would be eager to help you brainstorm.....you definitely have a "full quiver", and some significant decisions here to make!! I know the Lord will help you sort it all out.

God bless you!

[kayben]

Liz,
I LOVE your username! I read those verses all the time and feel so inadequate...lolol No, I just remember what a blessing it is for me to be home and take care of my family! Thank you for your note of response. I am really excited to be back in the HOD mindset. Last year was our first full year homeschooling and without HOD we would have been lost! Umm this year we are lost...lol Well maybe just floundering a little. I think I worry the most about my 8 year old. She will be nine in August and would typically be entering 4th grade here in MD. She will be in 3rd in our homeschool and experiences lots of learning struggles, therefore our whole day seems to revolve around her need for 1 on 1 through her whole workload aside from free reading. She has low muscle tone so writing is a huge struggle, she cannot spell...at all... maybe cvc words with help. She fatigues after a line or two of copywork. And our biggest struggle is math. She is not moving beyond single digit addition using numbers below 5. So we keep drilling and using manipulatives and working through K material. So... sorry to ramble. we shall see. Thinking Beyond might work well for her and I will just have to make adjustments as we go. I just don't want to underestimate her abilities and keep putting her in K-1 level programs if she is capable of more.
Thanks for listening:)
Rebecca

[kayben]

Wow, thank you sooooo much for taking the time to do this for me. It means a lot that you took the time to write out your schedule. that is exactly what I need to see. That it can be done..lol I agree that seperate guides will work best for us. I will combine just the younger two because they can fit within that guide. But I appreciate your feelings on Beyond. I am going to go ahead and order it now and begin to work through it with her. I think Carrie's Math plans will really help Cassie, and then I don't have to try to figure hands on for myself. I am going to read back through your post again in the morning, and probably a few more times to get a feel for a day. Thank you so much for the link to the new program also. I have been trying to search and couldn't find it. Too bad we don't live nearby, the kids would have a blast together!!
Happy New Year!
Thanks so much,
Rebecca

[kayben]

I just ordered Beyond.. so I am going to at least begin to work through one program with my 2nd grader and continue it in to next year. She will need the 1st grade math. I think the suggestions that Carrie gives will be just what she needs. I am so excited to at least have one program in the works.. I am off to print week one to at least start the math before it arrives in the mail.. and bible or anything that I can..lol

I continue to cherish all suggestions and ideas about how to organize my next year of 4 or 5 guides...

Rebecca

[my3sons]

Kayben - it is wonderful to see you back here! You've given such a good assessment of your dc. I am doing 3 guides this year, and I want to encourage you that it can be done sanely and happily.

HOD's upper guides are very independent, provided dc can pick up the guide, follow directions, and work quite independently. This is what makes doing multiple guides with a wide range of abilities and ages possible. So, it is very important that dc can do - or can fairly quickly be trained to do - the things in the guides that are meant to be done independently, independently.

Yes, there is a guide after RTR (it's called Revival to Revolution), and it comes out sometime in August. For your eighth grader, I'd really look over RTR and also - when the sample pages are up - Rev to Rev's as well. I'd pick the one your ds can really do well on his own for the most part, and the best way to do that is to really use the placement chart and the first week of plans to decide.

Same for your little fifth grade sweetie. I'd really look over PHFHG and CTC, and put her in the one that she can run with. You cannot be reading things aloud or explaining things step by step that a student is meant to do independently. It will draw your day out immensely. So, if you end up with PHFHG, I'd only do the extensions if your dd can really independently do them. I'd also likely have her read her own history for PHFHG, as well as the Storytime books, and just do the follow-ups with her.

This will be a year to focus on your Beyond child. I think you'll enjoy having the time to do that by placing your older dc in the guides they can work through very independently. Likewise, LHFHG will not be hard to do. I would combine the younger dc for Storytime (and have your olders read their own Storytimes). You could use either LHFHG's or Beyond's Storytime, whichever fits best for the littles.

I'd hold off on LHTH, for awhile at least, until the rest of the kiddos are in the swing of things. It also helps me to have my older dc each take a turn with the 3.5 yo. You could easily have your third grader, fifth grader, and eighth grader have 30-45 minutes with the 3.5 and 1.5 yo. Having blocks of time with each child has been such a time saver too!

For larger families especially, a ton of time can be spent on grammar and math. First off, I'd encourage you to use Carrie's LA and math recommendations; they are excellent and stream-lined for time. If you are set on another math/grammar, I'd set a timer (for 30 minutes) and be done when it rings each day, just picking up where you left off last time. Round table math and grammar works well with older students, where you teach the lesson to one start them on their independent work, start the lesson with the next child and start them on their independent work, etc. all at the same table, so you are floating from child to child to help as needed.

One last thing, if your older dc can be early risers, that shaves a lot of time off a day. My oldest ds and I talked about it, and he decided to put his Bible Quiet Time 20 minutes before the time everybody else gets up. That worked so well, that I told him he could move his independent science (which I'd purposely put at the end of his schedule) to even earlier than his Bible Quiet Time. He has been getting up to do that, and it makes his day fly. He likes being up alone in the quiet of the early morning, and he talks off and on to my dh as he gets ready for work. It has worked great!

Here is a link to the schedule's thread. Carrie just shared her schedule for her 4 kiddos (who are doing 4 different things), and I shared mine there too:
Let’s Share Our Schedules:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=95&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15

In Christ,
Julie

[kayben]

Julie,
It is always a breath of fresh air to come to the boards. The advice given is clear and considerate. The time taken to share ideas that are extremely helpful and personal is appreciated more than I can say. I appreciate that your advice does not push me to impose unnecessary expectations on my children because they are bright and capable, but to provide them with the best possible outcome in both home and education. After reading your suggestions, it has made me realize that an overextended mom and frustrated children leads to a homeschool that always feels "behind". Thank you. I know that my older two would fit nicely in to the RevtoRev and CTC, however after reading your post I realize that they can also fit in to RTR and Preparing, and then maybe their schooling would be more manageable and independent. That will definitely help to provide our home with some much needed peace and a true feeling of learning without my constant nagging and overextending myself. I have found that when I expect independence without the proper training it causes sheer exasperation for all of us and we end up falling behind. So, as I make my decisions I will not try to force a program based on other families decisions, but what works best for us according to our personal needs and abilities.
Thank you again for your thoughtful and truly personal reply to my questions.
Rebecca

[Carrie]

kayben,

The ladies are doing a terrific job of talking through your possible options. It helps so much to bounce ideas off of one another, doesn't it! As we're pondering possibilities, I had another thought that I was wondering about too. I'm wondering if your 1st grader and your 3rd grader could possibly be combined within Beyond and be together as they go through the guides? If your first grader is not ready for Beyond yet, then don't even consider this option, or if the two kiddos wouldn't be a good mix then it wouldn't be great either. But, sometimes little ones who are having a tough time can actually feel less pressure when combined with the "right" personality of child to encourage them and take some of the spotlight off of them, as well as modeling many of the skills in a childlike way. So, I just thought I would mention this as a possible option too.

If you did combine the first and 3rd grader in Beyond, then you could keep the 5 year old in LHTH with the preschooler and just add handwriting, K math, phonics, and Rod and Staff workbooks from LHFHG for the five year old to beef up LHTH. Then, the 5 year old and preschooler could possibly head into LHFHG together the following year. This would keep you from doing back-to-back years in the same guides and give you a bit more wiggle on what to do with your older two kiddos as needed.

Just a thought.

Blessings,
Carrie

[water2wine]

Just wanted to say welcome back Rebecca!

[kayben]

Great ideas... hmmm more pondering to do. I actually believe that my ker right now will easily pass by the current 2nd grader next year. Do you ever find that happening. She is our only struggling child and I wonder how many people deal with younger siblings bypassing older ones. I don't think she will necessarily care or notice, but she does get frustrated.
Rebecca

We are going to the Philly homeschool convention, and I see that HOD is listed!!!! Woohoo.

[mamaduke]

Hi Julie!

Did you know your schedule has dropped out of the sticky post you linked to? I have been very interested in following your suggestions for using multiple guides and getting it done before noon! I have been doing LHTH and Beyond and not doing a very good job getting them both done in one day. I see that many mom's jump around the boxes between the two or more guides they are using. I have been just trying to do one and then do the other. I'm trying to prepare myself for next year. I'll have a newborn (July) and ds8 in Bigger and twins dd5 in LHFHG, with a toddler underfoot. I know this is possible, but need to think it out.

Do you think you could fix your schedule in the sticky thread? That would be so helpful to me.

Thank you for your encouragement on this board.

[my3sons]

Hi Julie!

Did you know your schedule has dropped out of the sticky post you linked to? I have been very interested in following your suggestions for using multiple guides and getting it done before noon! I have been doing LHTH and Beyond and not doing a very good job getting them both done in one day. I see that many mom's jump around the boxes between the two or more guides they are using. I have been just trying to do one and then do the other. I'm trying to prepare myself for next year. I'll have a newborn (July) and ds8 in Bigger and twins dd5 in LHFHG, with a toddler underfoot. I know this is possible, but need to think it out.

Do you think you could fix your schedule in the sticky thread? That would be so helpful to me.

Thank you for your encouragement on this board.

Hi Julie!
I find it helpful to look at other's schedules too and would be glad to help. I did some photobucket reorganizing (at their suggestion) and it mixed up the old links. Anyway, all of my schedules are now under the "charts" photobucket folder at this link:
http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ ... o3/Charts/

Back when I was doing BHFHG and LHFHG together, my original schedule ended mid-afternoon. It was about mid-year of that point in homeschooling that I made the decision to finish by lunch. I felt I needed to be able to do that to be able to stay on top of the rest of my tasks as a wife, as a mom, and as a part-time worker. So, you can check out my old BHFHG and LHFHG schedule on page 2 of the charts folder, but actually my newer schedules may be more helpful if your goal is to finish by lunch time. I also at that point decided my schedule needed to fit on one page rather than 4 or 5 pages, too much flipping for me otherwise. So, that makes the newer schedules easier to follow too. Even though the guides may be different, the box titles are similar and easy to sub in. Here is my schedule for RTR, Bigger Hearts, and LHTH this year:
http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ ... hedule.jpg

Here is a blank template to get you going (though you may need to add some columns) :


A few things that have helped me...
- have the olders practice playing with the toddler in a chid-proof area that is somewhat away from where I am teaching
- if I have a baby, get the baby on a good feeding and napping schedule, and start mapping out my school schedule around the baby's needs first (i.e. I put the baby in the schedule template first, and work from there)
- if I have a toddler, schedule his day too, changing rooms and things every 30 minutes or so, and getting him a little time with me set in the plan too
- teach in blocks of time with each child the subjects which most require quiet concentration (i.e. phonics instruction, Storytime, history read-aloud, etc.)
- end a block of teaching time with semi-independent work so that child can finish out things independently while I move on to teach another child (i.e history activity follow-up, science experiment lab sheet, art project, etc.)
- jot on a marker board for the Bigger Hearts aged dc the order of work to finish out (i.e vocabulary cards, cursive, poetry copywork, math workbook)
- at the start, give each child a copy of the schedule so they can get good at moving from thing to thing too
- after a month or so, the routine order of things should be familiar, and an exact schedule of times will naturally be replaced with the flow of the just doing the routine (it is usually at this point time begins to fall off our day, and we finish earlier than the original schedule)
- teach BHFHG dc on up how to use the guide as their own and check off boxes as they complete them, hand in work at a designated place open to be corrected, and gather supplies and put away materials when finished
- give each child their own mobile set of basic school supplies (i.e. crayons, markers, clicky pencils, scissors, glue stick - we use a pampered chef turnabout for each of them ) and have one designated place/cupboard to get other school supplies (paper, paper punch, ruler, liquid glue, etc. - we have a cupboard in the kitchen) This cuts down on traffic through the house, which cuts down on wasted time getting up and gathering things.
- have the places dc are to work in the schedule too so there is no discussion over that (i.e. my RTR ds works at the dining room table for seatwork, does his audio CD in his room upstairs, and does his times with me on the couch; my middle ds works at the kitchen table for seatwork and does his discussion/read aloud time with me on the couch; my toddler is in the entry for his video in a special chair, upstairs in the playroom for his time with my oldest, in my middle ds's room for the playtime with him, in the kitchen for his computer game time with whichever older ds finished school first, etc.)

I hope I have not been overwhelming here, but maybe something here can help as you think through your schedule!
In Christ,
Julie

[mamaduke]

Julie,
I just want to say thank you!!!!

I have been spending time looking at your schedules and have gotten some good ideas. Today was a good school day! Granted, We're only doing LHTH and Beyond but we got them both done before lunch! I was so thrilled. My little girls love school and I was glad to appease them earlier in the day, and able to get on with my other duties by early afternoon.

I will need to peg down something more concrete by next fall, with new baby on schedule and toddler planned too. I think I have a good direction to go.

Thanks again.