Scheduling difficulties...help?

[Sue G in PA]

We started Preparing last week with ds12, ds10 and ds9. So far, so good. I am guardedly optimistic. My boys don't "love" it, but they don't love anything school related. It is what it is. I added LHFHG with dd5 and ds7 today. Oh.my.goodness. Talk about Mom running around like a chicken with her head cut off. My tentative daily schedule was all shot to pieces. I must re-think how this is going to work. Oh, and my sweet toddler was sadly neglected all morning in spite of my goal to spend at least 15 min. of quality time with him. I know it was only Day 1 of doing both programs, but it did not go smoothly. Would it work to get most of Preparing done in the am before lunch (all the teacher led and semi-ind. work) and then do LHFHG after lunch when toddler is napping? I'm thinking my dd5 and ds7 could get perhaps math, Thinking Skills and handwriting done before lunch. After I could do Reading Lesson with each, Phonics Road with ds7 and the rest of LHFHG boxes while my Preparing boys work on Science, Ind. History Study, etc. Would this work? I know, we won't know until I try, but I'm just asking to see if anyone here has any other suggestions for me.

[tnahid]

I am thinking just as a suggestion that I might consider doing the LHFHG in the a.m. hours with the younger ones and let the older ones work independently until after you are done with the little ones. Your olders should be able to do much of their work on their own, just coming to you for asking questions/clarifications on things. After you are done with the youngers, or maybe for just a little bit after lunch, you could do your history reading, etc, with your older ones, while your younger ones have free time to play, go outside, run around, playdough, art/crafts, whatever.

Your older ones should be able to handle a bit of a longer day than the youngers I would think. You don't want the younger ones to be left hanging around too long.

Certainly no HOD expert, just a novice, but thought I might offer this to you. Currently, we are still experimenting with our days, but today went well. We were actually done by noon!

Love,
Tina

[south5]

I am doing Preparing and LHFHG too. Here is our schedule:


Breakfast- Mom reads Devotions aloud to all children
Do LHTH with Brynna 1st, while boys do chores (Blake unloads the dishwasher, feeds the dog, makes bed, gets dressed and brushes teeth. Ashton wipes down table, makes bed, gets dressed, brushes teeth and wipes down bathroom sink and toilet.)
9am- Math with all 3. (I Give Blake 100 facts sheet on own, start Ashton's lesson, and give Brynna counting frogs or lacing beads. When Blake is done with sheet usually Ashton is working on his own section, so I go over Blake's lesson and then give him problems to do on his own.) Blake is doing Saxon 6/5 and Ashton is doing Christian Light Math 1.
9:40- Review R&S English 3 with Blake and have him finish the lesson, start phonics with Ashton, and give Brynna a coloring sheet (If Blake finishes before Ashton and I are done, he will entertain Brynna)
10:15- I bought the Hide Em DVD instead of the CD, so I set it up for Ashton and Brynna to watch while I start the History reading and storytime with Blake
10:40- Blake does Independent History and Project section, Ashton does Bible Study with mom, and Brynna usually participates in throwing socks or whatever fun actibity that Carrie included. (We are having problems with Blake during this time, he is not quite ready to do it totally independent so I plan to take a few moments to go over it with him) After Bible study Ashton and I read about HIstory.
11- Everyone gets a quick snack. Blake continues projects and/or starts on Science box with my help, I do Science/Art box with Ashton, again Brynna loves to follow along in this box. I end with Rhymes in Motion.
11:30- Ashton plays with blocks/Legos with Brynna , Blake and I finish up his Independent boxes, and start Poetry. We follow up with Bible Study.
12pm- I set up Ashton and Brynna with a little "art", and Blake and I finish out his boxes with Geography/Research box.
12:30- We do not have DITHOR yet, as I already had a reading comp program so Blake does this alone while I go cook lunch with the other 2.
1pm Everyone eats Lunch and then we go outside. On rainy days I allow earlier "screen" time or if I am feeling up to it try to do some baking with the kids.
2pm- Brynna naps, boys and I try to play games here or complete history projects if Brynna didn't cooperate earlier in the day
2:30- Boys have "quiet time" in seperate rooms, so mom can get some downtime

[Marcee]

Here is a great post by Carrie.
Here is anotherpost she did.
Rebecca's schedule
Schedule from Julie

Here is the link for the whole Schedule Thread. TONS of great information:)

[Lynnw]

Hi Sue,
I say try it. The only problem I would have if I moved LHFHG to the afternoon would be would I get good enough focus from my 5 and 7 yo? Also, my 7yo REALLY struggles with math, and I've found it's best for BOTH of us to do that first thing!!

I do understand about how nice it would be to do LHFHG without the toddler. Every day this week my toddler and my 5 yo have shared the plastic kiddie table. She drops everything 100 times, gets up to get it, sits back down, scoots the table up to her and messes up his positioning. It would be funny to watch as a fly on the wall - not so funny to try and help them have patience with each other, LOL. Oh, and every mark she makes on her paper with her new fat crayons she says "See that Mom?" LOL.

Just wanted to let you know you are not alone!

[MelInKansas]

I suppose there are two ways to look at it. I am doing LHFHG with my oldest, and we do the reading lesson, math workbook, and handwriting in the afternoon when the 2 youngers nap. That works pretty well, because its quiet and there aren't any distractions. We do storytime, Bible, Rhyme, worship, History, and the science/art/etc box in the morning because DD3 can usually participate in all of those. But I do have another friend who said that her DD6 cannot focus in the afternoon or get it done. Either way I hope you figure out what will work.

[Tree House Academy]

Here is what we do (but you have a lot more kiddos than I do!):

ds11 starts on his schedule by himself. He gets up, gets dressed, makes his bed, and eats breakfast...usually before I get upstairs! Generally, I walk up to find him in the school room already starting his work. We use workboxes and he also has a daily schedule in addition to the CTC manual. We didn't use Preparing with him, so I am not sure how independent it is in comparison.

ds11 does Singapore math, all History boxes (reading, project, etc), Science, Poetry, Bible Quiet Time, and DITHR by himself. While he works on those, my younger son and I eat breakfast then start Beyond lessons (takes about 2.5-3 hours for breakfast and lessons for ds7). Once I finish with my younger ds, my older ds is ready to do English/Dictation, Story Time, Bible/Geography, and French with me. We do everything together and then I give him the assignment for English and he does that on his own. If it is a DITHR day, we go over his DITHR pages. On days that we do Write with the Best, he and I go over it together and then he will usually do the assignment independently. During the time when he is finishing up English or Write with the Best, I go over his work for the day in the independent subjects and make sure he has done them to my satisfaction (if not, he is responsible for re-doing it). Our day typically goes from 9:30am until around 2pm. If we could get up and get started really early, we could likely be finished by noon or just past.

[my3sons]

Oh my, Sue, please allow yourself some time and some grace to ease back into this as you find your groove! You have a lot on your plate with a very busy household, and this is going to take some real time to adjust to homeschooling everyone. If it went well at all in the first week, I'd definitely be optimistic. This is a real change for your entire family. I know most moms have a big adjustment period if they have just 1 child who was schooled in ps coming home, and you have a whole bunch of dc to acclimate to homeschooling again. Only one week in may be too soon to throw in the towel on your schedule if you put time into it and think it's still the best route to go. The benefits of a solid routine cannot be reached very well within a week. But, then sometimes 1 week can show a schedule change really is needed - usually not an entire change - but certainly some changes! Were you able to stagger start your guides, or did you decide to start everyone all at once? You may want to stagger start them if you didn't, as this gives everyone (including you ) time to ease into it.

Why not have your 12, 10, and 9 yo's help out? I'd have them each take 30 minutes of playtime with toddler while you do the 1 1/2 hours of LHFHG with the 5 and 7 yo. Then, each of them is spending 30 minutes of time with their little sibling, and having 1 hour to work on independent work from PHFHG. I'd finish the LHFHG and have that duo play with the toddler then too. We do this with our 7 and 10 yo - they take 30 minute turns with the toddler, and it has drawn them very close to the toddler. They enjoy that time together more now, and I can see their relationship with him is stronger. We vary what they do. I let my 10 yo choose Lakeshore boxes on 3 days, and a preschool computer CD on 2 days. My middle 7 yo ds can choose any music he loves from some tapes (Christian happy music ), and the toddler gets to choose what to play with him. I think it teaches the olders to be less selfish and focus on the toddler for a bit. It also helps them to choose playtime with him when they'd more naturally just choose each other. That's just an idea to try.

In Christ,
Julie