Half Speed Full Speed, Left Side Right Side Ack!

[MrsMandy]

Could someone please explain to me what half speed vs full speed is? Doing Left and Right sides of 2 different years, why would you do this? I am new and don't have any guides yet so please don't laugh. I am so confused. I just assign my kids their work and work with them until they get it. Maybe I just have a knack for getting the right levels or my kids are as flexible as Gumby or something but I guess I have not encountered having to really tweak levels on anything other than taking time to get my kids to get it. I want to place them right but am really confused at these "new" options for placement I never realized until I started reading the forum here. I am planning for Fall so a DS 15-9th grader doing CTC with extensions and beefing up, a DS 8 (9 in July)-3rd grader doing Bigger, a DD 2 doing LHTH.

[countrymom]

Your plan looks fine given your children's age ranges. When you get the guides you will see that math, reading, and language arts are all on the right side. Parents who want to combine children will sometimes combine them into the left side (history spine, Bible, activity box, poetry, etc.) of a guide and then split them up for the right side with each child doing the right side of the guide that best fits them. This puts children at appropriate grade levels for math, reading, and language arts, but allows combining for other subjects. Some parents choose to go 1/2 speed for a variety of reasons. The most common is probably either to make sure a child does not hit the next guide too early, or, if the child is right on the line for placement a parent may choose the higher guide but go 1/2 speed to allow the child to grow into it. Half speed can be done different ways, but the general idea is you do the left side of the page one day and the right side the next day, thus taking 10 days to complete one unit. We are going 1/2 speed in Beyond right now so we won't hit Bigger too early and I actually do math and reading everyday. If you children are solidly placed and you are fine with not combining, you will be fine to just do the guide as is. With the age range you have it would be hard to combine, so I believe you have a solid plan. Welcome to HOD!

[countrymom]

I was interrupted in my other reply. Editing to add that going 1/2 speed in LHTH for your 2 yr old might be something to consider given her age.

[alydar]

countrymom - How do you do the reading everyday without getting ahead? Do you split up the assigned reading or add in more from another source? Or am I missing the mark completely here?

[1blessedmom]

I am just starting to research HOD and finding the correct placement.

I really have to say--the whole left side, right side thing.....genius!!

For those who have done this, does it take away from the cohesiveness of HOD if you do this?

[pjdobro]

I am just starting to research HOD and finding the correct placement.

I really have to say--the whole left side, right side thing.....genius!!

For those who have done this, does it take away from the cohesiveness of HOD if you do this?

No, it still flows really well. The left-side (Learning through History) all works together well and should be done together. The right-side (Learning the Basics) is not tied to the history for the most part. We did the left-side of LHFHG plus the storytime from LHFHG (which is actually on the right-side ) with the right-side of Beyond minus the storytime in Beyond for 1st grade. Then for 2nd grade, we did the left-side of Beyond plus the storytime with the right-side of Bigger. This year we are doing Bigger fully for third grade just using R&S3 instead of R&S2 for English and using the schedule for Singapore 3A/3B. Each year has worked well. Hopefully that is not confusing to you. I just wanted to tell you that yes it does work really well and it is not as confusing as it sounds!

[countrymom]

countrymom - How do you do the reading everyday without getting ahead? Do you split up the assigned reading or add in more from another source? Or am I missing the mark completely here?

I just do the assigned reading as is. When you are in a phonics program, you set the pace. Once you are in the emerging readers there is a reading schedule in the back of the guide. and I just follow it. So, potentially I would be ahead of the guide. I am actually not ahead right now because we were not done with the phonics book when we started Beyond. Reading is really something you can just take at your own pace and you do not need to worry about being at a certain place in a certain guide.

[MrsMandy]

So I think I understand and agree Genius! I was planning on going through LHTH slowly just doing whatever my daughter wanted to do for each day. I never thought to actually purposefully plan it out to take 2 days for each day. Although that is kind of what I am doing this year it seems, unintentionally, with MFW.

[alydar]

countrymom - How do you do the reading everyday without getting ahead? Do you split up the assigned reading or add in more from another source? Or am I missing the mark completely here?

I just do the assigned reading as is. When you are in a phonics program, you set the pace. Once you are in the emerging readers there is a reading schedule in the back of the guide. and I just follow it. So, potentially I would be ahead of the guide. I am actually not ahead right now because we were not done with the phonics book when we started Beyond. Reading is really something you can just take at your own pace and you do not need to worry about being at a certain place in a certain guide.

Oh, oh, oh! I didn't realize you meant reading as in "learn to read/phonics". I was thinking about the Storytime reading. Silly me!