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Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:35 pm
by my3sons
As I was getting things ready for starting Bigger Hearts tomorrow (and as I am stuck inside and love taking pictures), I thought, why not snap some pics of it, so anyone starting it can see how easy it is to do? This is my second time doing Bigger Hearts, so it felt like coming back to an old friend. Anyway, here goes...
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First thing, I reread the "Introduction" in the Bigger Hearts guide and jotted down what I needed. I wrote on the top of some sticky notes and marked each section I wanted to in the Bigger Hearts manual. These are the headings on the stickies:
Daily Plans, Storytime, Narration Tips, Dictation, Poetry. In the day to day, I really only need to move the Daily Plans, Dictation, and Poetry notes, but I like to mark the others at the start of the year as reminders. :)

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Next, I labeled composition books, one for R & S English 2 and one for Dictation. I also got a small binder to put in his index cards he copies his Bible verses on.

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Then, I got a recipe box with ABC tabs and put some index cards in it for vocabulary cards.

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Next, I got out my Storytime book and divided the total pages by 20, since that's how long we read it, and put a sticky note in that reminds me to read about 10 pages a day to finish within 20 days.

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I got my DITHOR book choice and Student Book out next. I decided to have him read it all 15 days, so I divided the total pages by 15 and filled in the calendar for the month.

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I made the timeline next. Since my little guy is starting Bigger Hearts half-speed and is young, I doubled the size of it for him and made it fold out and fit in a folder. When my older ds did Bigger Hearts years ago, he did awesome with the timeline the normal size, but my middle ds is still working on his writing skills, so I'm using the same idea, just making it bigger. :D

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I put together a binder with clear plastic sleeves and tabs next. I have always done the binder and sleeves, but never done the tabs. :shock: I was at Carrie's house one day and saw her son's binder with tabs and with all the clear plastic sleeves counted out and already in there. I do NOT know why I never thought of this, but I'm so excited to do it this way from now on. My tabs were Poetry Copywork, History Notebooking, Science Notebooking, Science Experiments. I also made a folder with the "Question", "Guess", etc. for the lab written out and copied 35 times, just because my ds is again on the young side and unable to write as much as my older ds did when he did Bigger Hearts.

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Finally, I put all of the things he needed now in a big blue tub, and put all of the books he'll get to later in the year in a small clear tub.

AND THAT'S ALL! This took me maybe a tad more than an hour. When I think of how LONG I used to take to prepare for school before I found HOD, I am soooooooo glad I no longer have to do that. Anyway, just thought I'd share in case it helps someone else, and my ds and I are VERY excited to begin BHFHG tomorrow! :D

In Christ,
Julie

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:43 pm
by sharonb
Wow, what a great post, Julie! We are going to start Bigger in May or June, so I appreciate seeing how easy it is to get set up!

Thank you for sharing!!! :D

ETA: Since this thread got bumped up, I figured I'd update my response. We ended up not doing Bigger that year, but we will be using it starting in 2012 for the oldest three. So, I still appreciate this thread! :D

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:04 pm
by dawntx
Julie,
You are so good at letting us all get a glimpse of how easy HOD can be! Thanks for that- cuz I'm the kinda girl that likes to see how others do it- it's always great to get a new idea. We are finishing up unit 18 in Bigger on Wed. and have LOVED it. I think I may add a few more stickies to my tm for the narration tips (good idea) AND I really like the idea of the blue/clear tubs. How great is that? I have been on my ds for just throwing books any which way on our hs shelf when he is done for the day. :roll: It does tend to make me a little crazy so that may be just the ticket in this home! I can have everything ready for the day and he can just carry his tub to put it away when we are done. In the future, each child could have their own color tub, too!

Hope you have a fun start tomorrow- thanks for the pics and ideas!

Dawn

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 10:53 pm
by my3good&perfectgifts
Julie, I love to read your posts. Our boys are very close in age. It helps to have ideas from someone else that has boys the same age. I've used several of your ideas for after school activities. Thanks for sharing your family with us.

What a great idea! I will be using the storage container idea for sure. Our school stuff is in my ds closet. We have a shelf for PHFHG, and another for LHFHG. We are always going back and forth to get something. I think I will buy containers tomorrow. Then we can just carry the whole thing into the dining room. The boys won't like it though. They like to get up and act crazy if I have to leave the area to get something out of the closet. :lol:

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:39 am
by water2wine
Julie you are such an amazing organizer! :D You are making me excited about doing Bigger again. It was such a fun program. Thanks for your pictures. It really is simple but it is nice to see it all laid out like this and to know if I want to do it just like Julie did I can. :D

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 8:14 am
by mamayi
LOVE the tub idea!! Two of my dc have a hard time placing things correctly on a shelf. A tub they could do!
Also very easy to transport to a different area of the house if need be.
Thanks for sharing your great ideas!
Andrea

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 9:12 am
by Kirsten
Wow! Thank you for posting that. I'm still trying to decide to stay with what we are using and have to come up with all my own hands on activities or switch to HOD. This makes it look so easy!

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 11:26 am
by Busymomma1
That's great! We'll do Bigger next fall, so I'm glad to see how you prepared! Makes it easy for the rest of us! I may have some questions for you once we get there, about binders and such!

Thanks!

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:33 pm
by my3sons
Thanks, ladies! You made my day! :D I'm so glad some of you found it useful. We are doing BHFHG half-speed until the end of this school year now; we will be doing DITHOR 2/3 daily as well as Storytime daily (reading the pages one day, reading and doing the Storytime box the next day). So, today we did the Left side of the plans, along with DITHOR 2/3 and Storytime (reading only today - this cuts down the # of pages to be read each day nicely for me right now).

Anyway, WHAT A BREEZE! Our first day went awesome, and my little Riley was beaming that he made the transition just fine. I cannot believe this, but even with CTC, half-speed BHFHG (first day nonetheless), and half-speed LHTH (and another toddler tantrum thrown in for good measure :lol: ), we started at 8 AM and finished by 11:30 AM. I could not be happier with HOD. Now, if I could just get my toddler and middle ds to learn to play better together... :wink: That's the next hurdle to hop. :D

In Christ,
Julie

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 9:45 am
by crlacey
I'm glad to hear it went well. We are looking ahead to making that transition and your organizing post is a huge help!

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:05 pm
by Carrie
I have to say I love this thread! I am a visual person, and this is a great way to break down the steps for getting ready to use Bigger Hearts. :D Great idea! :D

Blessings,
Carrie

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 10:54 pm
by my3good&perfectgifts
Julie, my oldest son loves the container idea for his books. He even had to show his younger brother. Today he told me, "Mom, this was a great idea." I had to be honest and tell him I got it from you. He then called me a cheater. Oh well, whatever works. :D

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 11:54 am
by my3sons
Beth - that's great to hear! I'm so glad he liked it! :D :D :D

In Christ,
Julie

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 12:57 pm
by dawntx
Hey, Juli or anyone else... Silly Question -- Where did you get your blue tub? I looked at walmart only to find clear (I would like colors :) ) and they were either too big or laundry baskets and I'd rather not have that. I know, I feel a little silly even asking- :oops: Oh, well. I would love not to drive all over town to find tubs if you could help- it would save time and gas! :lol:
Dawn

Re: Pics of Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:50 pm
by my3sons
Hey Dawn - that is not a silly question! :D I actually did get them at Walmart, but it was a very long time ago. When I did a search for them just now, they don't come up anymore. :? I will say that the hard plastic cube has been great because it is sturdy, holds over-sized books, holds a LOT of books, has built-in handles and still fits in a cupboard on a shelf easily. If you can find any hard plastic cube like that, you'd be set! :D Sorry I can't help more!

In Christ,
Julie