Starting HOD in January!

[Samuel'sMommy]

I am so excited! I talked to my DH and we decided to go ahead and drop what we are doing and switch to HOD in Janaury. We are about to break for Christmas anyway so this is the perfect time to switch. My son used to love school and love learning and he has completely lost that. What we are currently doing is taking 5-6 hours a day so even though I have found fun stuff to add to it, we never get to it because the normal stuff takes too long. He ends up in tears almost every afternoon, asking how much longer till he is done. If he was in the upper grades, I wouldn't have a problem with it taking that long, but he's only 3rd grade! Plus, last year we were finished in about 3-4 hours each day (usually by lunch) so this is a significant jump in time. I just don't have it in me to push him through this the rest of the year. After praying and talking it over, we decided to order Beyond even though it will be a little on the easy side for Samuel. I want to go a little easy on him and restore his love of learning. We are going to double up and do 2 days in 1 so we can finish it this school year and then start Bigger next year for 4th and then we will be on track from there. We were already using All About Spelling, Saxon Math, and Apologia Science so I'm going to continue with those through this year and make a decision in the fall about what to switch and what to keep. So basically we will just be doubling up the Bible, history, poetry, storytime, and the rotating box. I'm also going to add DITHOR at the regular pace. We just finished First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind 2 so I feel like he's got a firm foundation in grammar. Instead of moving on to Level 3, I think I'm just going to use Carrie's gentle grammar in Beyond as a review for the rest of the year and then start Rod & Staff next year. I told him today that we would be doing something new in January and showed him some of the projects and things that you guys have posted on the weeks in review and he is super excited to start. He loves hands-on stuff so he is glad that we will have time to get some of those things added in. I hope this brings back the happy, joyful boy that I've been missing in school!

[Molly]

I pray you will have a successful year to come. I am doing Beyond with my wee guy and we are loving it. It is such a joy to watch them have such fun with school.

[psreit]

That's great! If I still had Bigger I would finish that this year. We had done a good chunk of Bigger last year. Since I don't have it anymore, it is not practical to buy it again. I thought about starting Preparing sooner, but I really need to give my dd time to grow in her reading skills since that guide begins some independent work. So, I need to be patient and wait for next fall. I look forward to reading your posts after you get started. Please post some pictures.

[raindrops]

Wouldn't doubling up Beyond and using the All about Spelling, Saxon math and the other science make your day still last around 4 hours? How long do those 3 subjects take with those rescources?

At least at first, maybe you could do Beyond at regular speed and ease into it. I would rather do school through summer than rush. Maybe I am mistaken about the time it would take though.

[Samuel'sMommy]

Wouldn't doubling up Beyond and using the All about Spelling, Saxon math and the other science make your day still last around 4 hours? How long do those 3 subjects take with those resources?

All About Spelling, Saxon Math, and Apologia Science will probably not take more than 45 minutes to 1 hour total. I will not be doing the spelling or math in Beyond so those should cancel each other out. Saxon might take 10-15 minutes more than Singapore, but the spelling is probably the same amount of time (about 10-15 minutes).
Basically we will be doubling up on Bible, history, poetry, the rotating box, and storytime. We will be doing DITHOR, copywork, math, and spelling at normal speed.
From what I've read on the boards, most people seem to finish Beyond in around 2 hours. I think we will be finished in 3-4 hours each day, probably more towards 3 unless we have a big project or experiment. That is still 2 less hours than it is taking us now and will have us finished by lunch. Right now we are doing school from 9-12:30, breaking for an hour for lunch and then doing more school from 1:30-at least 4pm and sometimes longer. It's ridiculous! My son is in 3rd grade so Beyond is going to be easy for him and I don't want to draw it out too long. I'm basically only using it to restore his love of learning and ease him into the HOD way of doing things before moving on to Bigger. Next year we will probably drop All About Spelling & Apologia Science and just stick with Carrie's plans.

[MelInKansas]

This sounds great, and it sounds like you have a good plan.

I only have one question. How can you do the guide 2X speed and copywork 1X speed? Well, this will only work if you do one poem a week as suggested, and then you would only get through 1/2 the poems. Often the poem connects with the history readings, though I suppose you could find a poem in the list and do your best to match it with 2 weeks of history. I think it's workable, just wanted to point that out.

Another possible problem is Bible study and Bible verses - the child is supposed to memorize the key verse each week. Going 2X speed you are giving your son only 2 1/2 days to memorize, or do you plan to slow that down also?

Best wishes to you and your son as you go through Beyond!

[Samuel'sMommy]

We will do 1 poem per unit, he just probably won't get the whole thing copied each time. I will probably just set a timer and have him copy as much as he can in the allotted time each day.

We will work on the verses. He's pretty quick at memorizing, but he also has memory verses for AWANA so if he doesn't get the Beyond verses done it will be OK. We will go over them, discuss what they mean, etc. but I'm OK with possibly not getting every verse memorized.

[momtofive]

Samuel's Mommy, I think you've got a GREAT plan for your son!! He's very blessed to have a mommy that will see his need of change and find a way to accomplish it! Restoring their love of learning is SO important. Enjoying learning makes school a lot more fun, and opens doors of new adventures for them!

I like your plan to keep on with what's working well for the remainder of the year. All About Spelling and Apologia Science are great. We've used them here as well. It won't add that much to your day, as Beyond really doesn't take too long, especially with a 3rd grader. The year we did Beyond, we had a 3rd grader and a 1st grader doing it together. Many times they finished the copywork during the second day of the week, so your schedule will work great for this. Your son should do just fine with the Bible memory too. I know when our son (3rd gr.) was doing it, he found the Bible verses to be fairly simple and picked them up easily. If he didn't though, I wouldn't get worked up over it. I think that exposure is SO important, as well as discussing the verses and drawing out the truth in Scripture, and applying it to their hearts. This can be more beneficial than complete memory of the verse.

I just want to encourage you not to worry about adding in other programs that your enjoy. HOD can work beautifully with AAS and Apologia Science. While Carrie has written wonderful plans for all the subjects, sometimes we need to find just the right fit for each child. That can mean another spelling or math or science. It really doesn't take away from the benefits of using a HOD guide, and if they are curriculums that you enjoy, they'll just make your learning times richer!

[MelInKansas]

Depending on his capacity, and the poems do vary widely in length, generally it's not expected for them to copy the whole poem anyway. They are supposed to copy as much as they can do neatly and well, you would just be cutting in half the number of days he has to copy it. I suppose the purpose of copywork as handwriting practice is still being achieved, and the learning of great poems that go along with your history for that unit.

You will find repeat in the verses in HOD and AWANA, I just don't think my kids would be able to memorize a verse and really keep it with only 3 days of practice. There are review weeks too though, which will help. I am sure it will be fine, I was just confused and I didn't know if you had thought through those things. If Beyond is an "easy transition" for your child probably doubling the speed will not be a problem for him.

[my3sons]

Hoooray, Stephanie! I'm so excited for you and Samuel! It sounds like the plan you have will work, but if it gets to be too much to double up on the things you are, you can always slow it down and start Bigger Hearts a little later. Joy - delight - that is what I want for you two! If doubling up gets in the way of that, just slow it down. HTH, and I can't wait for you to start!

In Christ,
Julie