Bigger and Little Hearts/Beyond schedule

[renee]

Hello. I will be finishing up Bigger next year but will also be adding in my first grader. I will be doing Little Hearts with first grade options. Anyone have a schedule they can share with me. Honestly, I am finding it hard to see when I would squeeze in my first grader for teaching time. Bigger requires a lot of teaching/guidance time.
Any advice would be wonderful! Thank you

Blessings,

Renee

[creekmama]

Sorry I don't have any advice to offer. My son is in Bigger, and my daughter will start Little Hearts for kindergarten in August. So I'm going to be following this thread with great interest. One thing I do know--the ladies on this board will help us out!

[creativemommy]

I'm doing Bigger & LHFHG (with 1st grade options) this year and it is going well.

Our schedule looks like this:

My dd begins LHFHG around 9 am and is done in about an hour. If she has an art project that She will spend a lot of time on, we save it for last so she can work independently while my ds starts Bigger.

My ds begins Bigger around 10:30 and is done in about two hours. On days when an art project or science experiment is planned that may take awhile, we will often save the project to complete after lunch.

[MomtoJGJE]

I trained my Bigger child last year to have some things that were independent work. Any copywork, vocab, timeline, history notebooking, science notebooking, half of math, cursive... these were all independent work. So I would start the day with her, explain anything that needed explaining for any independent work, read anything that needed reading, and then send her off to do her work. While she was doing ind work, I did LHFHG with Grace. I was pretty well able to get finished while Jayden was doing her work, but I always had her AWANA book for her to study, her geography (enrichment/coop class) to work on, or a book to read if I was still working on LHFHG.

It's also working really well this year with Preparing, Beyond, and LHFHG half speed... I start with Preparing, do any reading on the left side, explain any work that's semi-ind on the left side, and send her off to do all the semi-ind left side, and all the ind work, as well as her AWANA and geography and DITHOR. During that time I do Beyond. Then Preparing child comes back, we go over everything on the right side, then I send her off again to finish Grammar, math, and study dictation, and during that time I do LHFHG work. We are done in about 3 hours total.

[renee]

Thank you for sharing with me!

Renee

[Larissa]

I did Bigger and Little Hearts last year.

I would have my son who was doing Bigger start with Cheerful Cursive. He was able to do that without my help. While he started that, I started LHFHG with my 2nd son. I would do as much as I could with him and then send him off to do his handwriting by himself, while I taught the older one his math lesson. I would send the older one to do his math work and then finish whatever was left with my 2nd son in Little Hearts. At that point, I could focus completely on Bigger with older son. I never typed out a schedule and followed it, but we pretty much did it the same way each day.

This year we are doing Preparing and Beyond. There is enough independent work in Preparing, that I can get a lot of Beyond done with my 2nd son before I do anything with my older son. I have tried printing out sophisticated schedules and sticking to them, but it just doesn't work for me. Interestingly enough, I am a very routinized and scheduled person, but those rigid schedules just don't work for me. Maybe it's because I am so rigid... that they don't work!

I look for windows throughout the morning. There are times that each child will be working on their own ... and that is a window to work with the other child.

Next year should be even more interesting for me ... since I will be running 3 guides!

[renee]

Thank you Larissa. I've read so many posts about moms doing three guides and making it work! It amazes me!!! Thanks again for your input. I appreciate it.

Blessings,

Renee

[Carrie]

Renee,

I'll paste my schedule below from the scheduling thread. This may be of help to you. My schedule included all of my kiddos though. Here goes:

I am finally going to get to this, but remember this is what worked for me and your approach to scheduling may vary MUCH from mine, which is fine! We designed HOD to work for any family, which is why I don't put a schedule in the guide. Each family has to find their own way that works best with the HOD daily plans. Also, the schedule often changes from year to year, as the needs change within my homeschool. So, I'm going to post last year's schedule when we did Bigger Hearts for grade 3 and LHFHG at half-speed for my 5 year old. I'll also post my then 6th grader's schedule, so you can see how he fit in the mix. Then, I'll post my this year's schedule with LHFHG full-speed and Preparing Hearts. So, here goes.

Our kiddos eat breakfast at 8:30, must be dressed/groomed, have rooms picked up and beds made and be down to start school by 9:10. The 5-6 year old, goes back upstairs to play for an extra hour after eating/grooming at 9:10 to play until 10:10. This keeps the house quiet for the older boys quiet time and harder subjects which are scheduled first. I work very hard to stay on schedule in the morning and to start on time (which makes a HUGE difference in our day). I am very guilty of letting the kiddos play too long at recess (which I love to do) but then having to work a little later in the day to compensate (which the boys do not love)! So, my schedules always reflect me working hard to teach a lot in the morning, leaving the kiddo's more independent subjects for after lunch!

2007-2008 Shaw Grade 3 "Bigger Hearts..." Schedule
9:10-9:30 Quiet Time: Read one Bible story. Do one page of Greek. Do one page of Cheerful Cursive. (in morning room)
9:30-9:45 Chores: Take out garbages, put away silverware, wipe baby's tray, dust bust kitchen rug/floor.
9:45-10:05 Level 2/3 Drawn into the Heart of Reading (with mom at the kitchen table)
10:05-10:25 Math (with mom at the kitchen counter)
10:25-11:00 Bigger Hearts Reading About History box, Bible Study box, and bottom left activity box (with mom in morning room)
11:00-11:35 Computer CD (from among my pre-selected choices)
11:35-12:20 Recess (everyone outside unless it's raining)
12:20-12:50 Bigger Hearts Grammar, dictation, poetry (with mom in morning room)
12:50-1:15 Lunch (Sing hymn prior to eating and mom reads aloud Storytime box at lunch) Chores: Clear table after lunch.
1:15-1:35 Bigger Hearts Science (at kitchen counter)
1:35-2:05 Play with Greyson (educational games from cupboard)
2:05-2:35 (at kitchen table with mom and other boys) Mon.: Poetry, Tues.: Art Appreciation, Wed.: Color the Classics, Thurs.: Nature Journal

2007-2008 Greyson's Pre-K/beginning K Schedule for "Little Hearts...." at half-speed
9:10-10:10 Play in his room
10:10-10:20 Clean-up room and come down
10:20-10:55 Choose educational video off my list of choices (in living room with Beau)
10:55-11:35 Mon/Wed.: Little Hearts left side of plans, Tues./Thurs. Little Hearts right side of plans (with mom in morning room)
11:35-12:20 Recess
12:20-12:45 Book on tape (Listen to one story from books that I've recorded for him.)
12:45-1:15 Lunch (sing hymn with other boys and mom reads aloud) Chores: Dust bust after lunch
1:15-1:35 Educational computer CD (from my pre-selected choices)
1:35-2:00 Play with Shaw (at table - educational games from cupboard)
2:00-2:30 Join us for rotation listed on Shaw's schedule up above

2007-2008 Cole's 6th Grade Schedule
9:10-9:20 Chores: Unload dishwasher
9:20-9:45 Rod and Staff Bible Study and one page of Greek (in morning room)
9:45-10:30 Literature Study (in mom and dad's bedroom, joining us downstairs as needed)
10:30-11:15 Math on computer (Teaching Textbooks 6 upstairs in his room)
11:15-11:25 Chores: wipe bathroom counters
11:25-11:35 Dictation (with mom in morning room, done while finishing up with Greyson)
11:35-12:20 Recess
12:20-12:45 Mon./Wed. State Study, Tues./Thurs. Student Writing Intensive DVD (living room)
12:45-1:15 Help prepare Lunch (from standard list on fridge) (sing 1 hymn) Chores: load dishwasher after lunch
1:15-1:45 Scheduled reading for History and 1 written narration on the reading (in morning room)
1:45-2:05 Rod and Staff Grammar 4/5 (with mom at kitchen table)
2:05-2:35 Follows rotation schedule with Shaw and Greyson
2:35-3:05 Science (I made a schedule with readings and experiments) (kitchen)

2007-2008 Beau's 18 month old schedule:
8:00 comes down and eats, toodles around until 9:00
9:00-9:40 Plays in playpen (Mike and I often meet during this time to discuss any needed business/what the day holds)
9:40-10:25 Walks around or plays with toys (while I work with Shaw at kitchen counter)
10:25-10:55 Watches educational video with Greyson in living room (usually Barney)
11-11:35 Play in crib in his room (while listening to a tape I recorded for him of me reading the Bible stories, nursery rhymes, counting, saying the names of family members, etc.)
11:35-12:10 Eats in high chair (while boys are out at recess)
12:10 Goes up to nap for his long nap
12:15-3:15 Nap

Blessings,
Carrie

[renee]

Thank you Carrie!!

Renee

[mom23]

We're doing Bigger, just switched from LHFHG to Beyond today, and LHTH. I've also found it to be most manageable for me to teach my daughter in Bigger to do most of her work independently. That gives me ability to focus on my other two boys (one at a time) and work straight through each of their programs. Occasionally I will be able to start LHTH while my middle son is working on math or copywork, but basically it works best for us just to get all of his stuff done before I'm trying to work with the next kid. At the end of the boys' school I check in with my daughter, and hear about what she learned that day in History, Science, Bible, etc. Look over the notebooking and work through her grammar, math and dictation together.