First Year Still Plugging Along

[hsftheart]

Well, I thought I'd give an update on what I've decided to do. I got myself organized and scheduled or at least a routine in mind.

I am going to finish Beyond with both dc. We are doing one unit per week for 3 weeks, then I am going to try to double up on some days. If everything goes as planned, we may be finished before the end of July. That will still give us a summer break.

In the fall we are going to combine and do Bigger with extensions for dd. We are doing a co-op starting in the fall so I am going to still try to get all 5 days done in a week. It may not work but we are going to try it. I was thinking about starting ds out at half speed and dd full speed but I am not sure yet.

I scheduled us to start again in September and do 7 weeks on and 1 week off with a 3 week break in December/January. This gives us a break in October, December, February, April and finishing up in June. Just in time for a nice summer break. If all goes as planned for the year, I may just take a few weeks off in June/July and maybe start back up again sooner than later. I am feeling motivated, can you tell?

I really appreciate all of the wonderful support I got coming on here! Thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy days (I know they are busy days) to help build us up!

[Nealewill]

I think setting your plan is great!

I will also say - you asked a question about whether or not most people go full speed or half speed. I think having one child go full speed in the same guide you plan to do half speed with another will be difficult. I think that if you want to go full speed or half speed only, your year will be better. In addition, Bigger is written for about 3-3.5 hours per day. I think if you finish Beyond strong, even doubling up on some days, you will be able to do Bigger full speed with both kids within a month or two of starting. People usually go half speed with their kids when their kids are learning a lot of new skills. Since your kids probably have some of those skills, it may not take them terribly long to get moving on them. So they will be able to move forward quickly and you may be ready to bump it up quick.

I do a co-op as well with my kids. For me, we school 4 days a week most weeks. However, I also work part time and if I have a bunch of meeting scheduled for a week, I will have my kids do school work on Monday nights. Another thing we do is we school all year long. I know you mentioned you would finish Beyond in July and you could then give your kids a month off. For me, we try and take off most of the month of June because it is always a busy month. But then we are back at it after that. This is the time I get ahead! Co-op for us is 24 days total (12 in the fall and then 12 in the spring). If can get 24 days of school done in summer then we can do school on 3 days a week if I am busy working one or more of those days when we have co-op.

And finally - I think your plan of no screen time is wise You are going to have some tough days ahead for a bit and I am praying for you. But I know that every year as my kids get older I have to be more rigid in my routine. I think sometimes when people think of homeschooling, they think there is just all this time and you can do what you want when you want. Well, that is partially true. But most kids thrive in routines and with boundaries. If neither of those are in place, I find total chaos (and I am sharing with you from my experience). So we definitely make sure to schedule fun times - hey we are homeschooled and I want to have some fun - but it is okay to say no stuff too. I found this year, and every year, there are always a lot of choices with things to do. My rule of thumb was we will not do more than one extra or additional activity per week. We also would limit outside extra activities to mainly half day activities. I will do a few full day ones but I can't do to many of those and especially not when we are in the middle of the co-op year. So once a month we went roller blading, we went to 4 plays, we did a few tours of places, we went to some museums, we would see family, and we did some other stuff. But again, I wouldn't sign up for a field trip if I had a lot going on that week either. It is easy to say yes to everything and once you have homeschooled for a bit, you will make friends with others and have more and more opportunities do stuff during the day. Because we said yes to co-op, we have to sometimes say no to other stuff. Another thing we said no to was other classes during the day during the week. My youngest likes to play sports and dance. There is a lady that we know who offers homeschool ballet during the day on Tuesdays. Well, co-op is Mondays. I can't cut co-op so I can't do Ballet. It would put to much strain on my schedule. So I guess in short, I guard my schedule and always weigh the cost benefit of any additional activities. I want my kids to have fun but I will not let my kids additional activities stand in the way of getting school accomplished.

And I don't want to try and act like I am putting school above all else. But it seems like kids thrive in routines. Once you get out of the routine of getting school done, it can be hard to get back into it. Plus, I picked HOD because it is dynamic, interesting and teaches important skills. I feel like they don't go overboard on workload. And I think that setting the expectation of finishing a certain amount of work each year is important. You had asked earlier if people finished a guide a year or not. Some do some don't. It just depends on if your dc are ready or not for full speed. My plan is that as long as my kids finish their guides strongly, they will be ready for the next one. And if they are ready for the next guide, we may start half speed for the first month or so, but we want to go full speed eventually and try and finish that guide that year. And if that doesn't happen, it is okay. But my plan is 1 guide per year - especially Preparing on up because those guides are written to be completed in 4 days a week. So in closing, I do find school important at my house. Every homeschool parent has their own philosophy and goals when homeschooling. Mine was that my kids would have a rigorous education, high school years would prepare them for college, and that they would be prepared to do whatever it is they want. I feel like HOD accomplishes this for me So I make getting it done one of my top priorities.

And your last question - it is very doable to run 2 guides once your kids split. I ran 2 guides this year and it was pretty easy. I spent about 4 hours total teaching time with my kids per day and I have 3 kids (3 hours of that was teaching the 3rs with all of them). Next year I am running 3 guides and I estimate that my day will only take 4.5 hours of teaching time. With Preparing, your dd will take more ownership of the guide but not complete control. You will probably spend about 1.5 hours working with her each day.