Scheduling Help for Beyond/LHTH

[rogmisbailey]

I am planning on doing LHTH with my 3 daycare kids (2,3,4) and Beyond with my 2 girls. I also have a baby who is getting ready to turn 1. Last year I did part of LHTH with my daycare kids and LHFHG. It was a little hectic but we managed. I am a little nervous since the baby will be older and I know Beyond will take more time. I start our day at 8:30, and the littles nap from 12:30-2, I would really like to be done by 2. Any insight into scheduling will be helpful. Thanks!

[Robbi]

Well, I did Beyond/LHTH this year with my 2. I don't know if my "schedule" will help you much becuz I didn't have extra kiddos or little ones. We did half of Beyond (I had DS 4 play games, sometimes he'd pick, sometimes I would.) Puzzles, blocks, etc, usually he just played w/ his super hero toys. Then i'd do LHTH with him while DD7 played (she said it was never enough break but oh well) then finished up 2nd half Beyond. During this time I usually let DS4 play computer games or watch PBS. We started 9ish and done by 12:30ish. HTH!

[lissiejo]

I would save anything that needed your undivided attention for the older girls for naptime. Sometimes we did History then or during lunch so that I could really talk with my daughter about it and not get distracted by my younger two daughters. It may be a different area, but I think each child has a portion of their curriculum that provides a greater challenge and will require more attention from you. Beyond is such a nice relaxed curriculum I'm sure it will work well with your Daycare kids.

[my3sons]

Beyond and LHTH are not hard to do at the same time - in fact, we enjoyed it very much! LHTH takes around 20-30 minutes a day, so no worries there. For Beyond, here are the suggested time allotments for each box...

Reading About History Box: 10 min.
Poetry and Rhymes: 5-10 min.
Bible Study and Music: 10 min.
Rotating Bottom Left Box (Artistic Expression, History Activity/Timeline, Geography, Science twice weekly): 15-20 min.

Language Arts Box: 15 min. (spelling/grammar)
Reading: 15 min. if doing the Emerging Readers and 20-25 min. if doing DITHR 2/3
Math: 15-20 min.
Storytime: 15-20 min.

Beyond has a great ebb and flow of sit down type things and get up and move type things. If you could read the Reading about History book and Bible study (sit down things) while the little ones are eating their snack and drinking their juice, then you could have the little ones all march around to the Music with the older ones a few times. After that, everyone can enjoy the poetry, and it is short. You can then have a play dough time for the littles (or something hands-on at the table), while you do the hands-on rotating box with the olders. Wah-la! You then have the left side of the plans of Beyond done already! For the right side, if you could have the littles watch an educational video (i.e. Barney), during that time you could do the Math Lesson and Storytime with your olders. Then, each of your olders could take a turn playing with the youngers, while you individually did their LA box and Reading lessons. I'm just throwing out some ideas, but you can see how you can manage several ages well this way, and enjoy your days together! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie