Bigger Hearts 1/2 Speed Schedule?

[momtofive]

It's been a while since I've written anything on the board! We've been enjoying our school year so much with HOD, and are looking forward to another wonderful, fun-filled year. We'll be doing CTC, BHFHG, LHFHG and LHTH! That said, I thought I had a sample schedule thread for doing half-speed Bigger in my bookmarked threads. For whatever reason, it's not there! So I was hoping someone here wouldn't mind sharing your schedules for doing Bigger at half-speed!

I tried locating it using the search feature, but wasn't having any luck finding it! Thanks so much for the help!

In Christ,

Lisa

[my3sons]

Hi Lisa! I'm not sure if this is the post you are looking for, but I shared my half-speed BHFHG schedule in this one:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5600&p=41232#p41232

I'll also link my schedules here too, as I am doing multiple programs, and maybe it would be helpful. I've done full-speed and half-speed with BHFHG, so I'll put both here, the second one being the half-speed one:



HTH!
In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Lisa,

We're doing Bigger Hearts at 1/2 speed right now. I'll type below how we're doing it, but remember there are many ways to do this and so you wouldn't need to do it like this. We alternate Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 and do the basics daily as shown below.

Daily:
Copywork of poem for the unit (approx. 2 lines/day for 10 days before moving on to the next poem in the next unit) (10 min.)
Math Box (We have a different tab in the guide to mark his spot in math each day and just move that tab daily) (15 min.)
Language Arts Box (We do the grammar lesson one day (schedule 1) and practice the spelling words the next day (schedule 2). (15 min.) Sometimes there isn't any spelling scheduled in the Language Arts Box, but we just do it anyway using the words for the unit and writing them on a markerboard. This way we can stay on the same page for grammar/spelling as the rest of the daily plans, so when we do move to full-speed Bigger Haerts, I won't have a separate tab for Language Arts too. )
Emerging Reader Set (in Appendix) (15 min.)

Schedule 1:
Reading About History Box (10 min.)
Bible Study Box (10 min.)
Poetry Box (5-8 min.)
Bottom Left Rotating Activity Box (15-20 min.)

Schedule 2:
Corresponding Music Box (5-10 min.)
Storytime Box (15 min.)
Science Box (20-25 min.)

That's it!

Blessings,
Carrie

[momtofive]

Carrie,

Thank you so much for taking the time to include your 1/2 speed schedule as well! It's much appreciated. I'll be spending some time going over possible schedules soon, and am thankful that you thought to include times as well!

I cannot express enough what a wonderful year we are having with HOD! My children have a REAL love of learning. They gladly anticipate starting school each day and are really learning so much about the Lord! HOD very gently leads them in learning God's Word and as a result they're growing spiritually! I thank the Lord DAILY for HOD, and pray that the Lord lays it on your heart to continue writing such a God honoring curriculum.

May God bless you and your family! Thank you!

In Christ,

Lisa

[Tabitha]

I just saw this and hope I can get some advice from Carrie or another.

We are in unit 20 this week of BHFHG. My dd will be 9 yo in May. She is behind/moves slower in her spelling/writing. She's been a slow starter due to medical issues. Looking ahead, Preparing is gonna be too much for her next year.

Right now we have a co-op once a week, which I will not be doing next year. Due to co-op, and dr appts., we are not where we need to be in our units. I am rushing through. We only have 4 days a week to get things done, and if 1-2 dr appts happen, that takes me down to 3-3.5 days during the week...it hasn't been a fun year for me this year due to all the issues that have infringed on our school schedule. I am so thankful that co-op will be done in about 5 weeks!

I was thinking of starting here on out at doing Bigger at half-speed for her. That would give her more time to work on her spelling and enjoy all that we are doing. We do about 1/4 - 1/3 of the English orally (we didn't start out that way, it was all written), and this would also allow for that to be done manually.

Is there a reason to not slow down half way through? We do watch some dvds from time to time. I try to pick up those that are somewhat related to her history topic. We've watched Walking Thunder, Seven Alone, Drive Thru History, etc. I would like to integrate this more into her schedule if we do take this at half speed.

Another thought is that my oldest is in CtC. She does most on her own due to my time constraints. Freeing up some time would allow me to do more with her curriculum as well.

I would appreciate any thoughts/advice.

I feel a bit strange at the thought of doing half speed half way through, if you couldn't tell. I'm just uncertain what would be best. I have never had our schooling to move this slow before as it has this year. That alone is really bothering me as well.

[pjdobro]

That sounds like a wonderful idea to me. If you feel rushed and you feel like your dd isn't progressing in the skills as much as you would like at this point, it makes perfect sense to slow down. You can slow down to half-pace for a while and enjoy the program. When life settles a bit and you feel she is ready, then you can pick the pace back up if you want. This way you'll probably be finishing up Bigger at the start of next school year (if you take a summer break and start in fall) and that will give her confidence when you do move into Preparing later on in the year. It sounds like a win-win situation for everyone involved.

[my3sons]

I agree completely with Patty's good advice! One goal of mine is to have my dc able to fully complete everything in an HOD guide well by the end of the school year. This has made moving up to the next guide go seamlessly. I also look at Bigger Hearts as an important training year, especially in beginning reading, writing, comprehension, listening skills, and work habits. For this reason especially, your idea to move dd to half-speed and really hit those skills is an excellent one. Not to mention, you will want time with your CTC child as well, especially on the "T" directed boxes as they keep our dc's hearts close to us, while still making sure to give us time to teach those important skills for that age. I actually did CTC and half-speed Bigger Hearts last year (along with half-speed LHTH) - very manageable. And I, like you, wanted to be very sure my ds did not get to PHFHG too quickly. Sound like your making a good, solid decision here to me!

In Christ,
Julie

[Tabitha]

Thank you ladies.

Next week we will start from Unit 21 onward going half-speed. Things I want to focus a bit more on from previous lessons, I will take any lull time to go back and do those portions again/add to them.

We plan to take the summer off for the most part, but perhaps I can just do things lightly with her so that in the Fall we may be able to start Preparing at half-speed until she is ready for it full force.

I feel better taking it slow and in full, than rushing with the weight of what wasn't being done properly. I wish I would have thought to do half-speed with her from the beginning of this school year. It would have went much better for us.

I really opened by eyes to the havoc that a one day co-op does to our schedules. It just hit on a bad year (with dr. appts/health issues and all). I look forward to just being at home next year and focusing more on our studies.