My state requires approx. 4 hrs of school a day

[happyhomeschooling]

My dd is doing LHFHG right now, but in Jan. we will start beyond. I am trying to plan out the year and was thinking aobut the
requirements in Co. and I am required for first grade to do school for approx. 4 hrs a day.
I noticed for beyoned it is only 120-150 min. a day. How do those of you who have time requirements supplement??
I am a CM'er So I am thinking after finishing the dailey plans that maybe we would do nature/music, art study/handicrafts.
Any thoughts or expriences with needing to suppliment??

[water2wine]

We also have a 4 hour a day requirement that we never seem to have a problem hitting. I have kids in LHFHG and BHFHG so beyond would be somewhere in between. I'll just give you a list of things that we have added last year and are adding this year. But just so you know we are not currently going to be doing all these things at once. It is just a list to see if something looks good to you. Also just a disclaimer we are doing a 4 day a week schedule and do some of these things on Fridays. I love having that freedom. In fact one of the things I love about HOD is that it gives me time to do other things. I have the opposite problem as you. I definitely have to control myself on how much extra we do. I am a CM lover but not a CMer by nature. I love all the stuff but I have not quite learned the less is more part of it. Hahaha! But you can see why we like the 4 day option and then having the fifth to explore whatever we choose.

-A nature journal with microscope exploration (this is part of our Friday)
-Crafts this is kind of non stop activity card making and Knitting seems to be the thing this year for the girls next year will be sewing if I am courageous enough
-Art lessons How Great Thou Art
-Spanish The Easy Spanish this is CM style
-Composer Lesson Simple on this one we just have a book and some cds
-Bible Reading through the Chronological Narrated Bible This is going to take us two years and possibly three if we add a topical study
-Reading the Ergermeier's Story Bible this is for my younger ones who listen to the Bible reading but I am not sure they get it all
-Lapbooks (my kids love these) some that link that are own own creation and also one that links to our Bible reading
-Leading Little Ones to God
-Pearables Character and Home Ec materials For some Marmee Dearest Young Man's Handbook (we use doorpost materials also)
-A Child's Geography (this is very CM style except that there is a lot there so you could do this for an entire year easy especially with younger children)The title is a little misleading there is some geography but I would call it more earth science in content. It is very good.
-Extra character books The Millers are very good.
-Life skill training. We focus a lot on cooking and learning how to do things around the house with all our kids but we are also moving into money management
-Health R&S has a good cheap little program on two levels.
-The squire and the Scroll and Princess and the Kiss has a little study you can do with it.
-Manners Made Easy and Our 24 Family Ways
-Homeschool In The Woods has some more structured Time Travelers mini I guess you would call them unit studies but if you were really wanting more to add to Beyond that might be a good match. But this would be adding a lot even though I think they do coordinate well. It would be something you would want to stretch over the year.
-Playing educational games could definitely fit. Things like Totally Tut and Math dice come to mind. My kids love these. Or even Building Thinking Skills type games. My kids love learning games.

That is all I can think of off the top of my head. There is so much out there that is wonderful but not really going to be part of a curriculum. It's all the things I want to teach but never had time to fit in before HOD. Hopefully you will find the ones that are a good fit and important to you. I think a lot of people have their extra time be life education and I think teaching life skills is something that is really over looked by many. Hope there is something here that helps.

[inHistiming]

Make sure you think about all the things that teachers/students do in public or private schools too...do they have recess, P.E., do they have free play time twice a week? All those things can count as 'school' time. I also think board games can count, any reading time you do in addition to the Beyond...lessons...night-time reading. Do you talk about Geography at dinner? We often have conversations about where places are and look them up on the map because we have large maps on our dining room walls. There are so many learning times throughout your day, I'm sure you easily hit the 4-hour mark. When you're teaching them to brush their teeth and hair, how to wash their hair or clip their fingernails, anytime they help you in the kitchen with food preparation, any chores they have I would say can count towards school. You can probably find a good category where all of those things would fit in. Just my thoughts, I hope that helps!

[Carrie]

Here's a couple threads that may help:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1733

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=527&hilit=crinkleroot

Blessings,
Carrie

[happyhomeschooling]

Thanks to all you ladies suggestions, I made Amazon some revenue this weekend
Great ideas!!! Thanks everyone! Blessings to you!

[jensmom]

Another thing that I add when I need more is 'Teaching Character through Literature'. I got this guide and I can add more 'reading that teaches' when I need a filler. Plus it is a great addition to her life. We also added 'Language Lessons' by Jesse Wise and an additional Bible Curriculum from Christian Light - the Menonites. These are all small additions but they add up in the long run. I also purchased Backyard Scientist books for more Science experiments but we have not had time to do those yet.

Judy