Finished Unit One of Bigger - Finally!!

[abrightmom]

Ladies,

After months of turmoil I finally began Bigger last Monday. It took us 7 school days to wrap up Unit One (and get everybody's 3 R's done along with our usual morning time reading routines). We have not started DITHOR yet as I decided to ease in with that....I need BABY steps. My son is nearly done with his first book on the DITHOR list though and he has LOVED it (Amelia Earhart's bio). I intend to plan a DITHOR unit for our next genre so I can try out DITHOR in these 6 weeks. I have already refined our daily routine/schedule for Unit Two. Whew! Clinging to grace daily ...

I am going to follow Carrie's counsel and give Bigger a good six week trial and then assess! Just wanted to say that the ball is rolling (3 months later than I'd planned!).... I am experiencing placement hiccups that have revealed themselves this first week. Giving us a few more weeks (hitting that 6 week or 6 Unit mark) will give me a better handle on whether or not those hiccups need to be addressed!

Eggleston is a hit here!

[annaz]

I agree with the 6 weeks. I found that taking the first week and make it two and I only have one kid! It makes me less crazy, which means I feel like a winner, not a failure after that.

[pjdobro]

Yeah! I'm glad you are having success. I really understand baby steps too. That's a great idea. It does take a little time to get the feel for the program and get your schedule flowing. I bet you'll feel like a pro by the time you get to unit 6!

[acts29stl]

You'll love doing Bigger!!! Such a wonderful program and so much fun

When I first started Bigger, we went half pace. As we moved along, we picked up the pace and ended up doing 1 unit in 7 days. We will finish up Bigger this week! It always seemed something came up and I had a newborn too! Having this pace kept things flowing at a good speed but I didn't stress out if I couldn't get all of day3 done in one day! We are doing DITHOR half pace as well.

[John'smom]

Just now seeing this!!! Yeah for you!!! Are things still going well for you? I've been praying here.

[abrightmom]

Thanks Edwena .

It's going fine. We are wrapping up Unit Two and managing everything very well. My son isn't having any trouble with the workload or the writing at this point. If I only ever had to use ONE HOD guide we'd be GREAT...adding guides is where I don't want to go but we'll have to in order to use HOD for all of the children. I am committed to using Bigger for six weeks before evaluating . Sigh....

[my3sons]

Bigger Hearts is a meaty guide that does take some time for dc to grow into, but I always think of it as my prime teaching year before my dc begin to mature into taking more responsibility personally for their schooling. I just wanted to encourage you that when you add LHFHG, you won't be adding the same amount of time as it takes to do Bigger Hearts. LHFHG takes about 1 1/2 hours or less to do, so that will be about half the time it takes to do Bigger Hearts.

I tend to be a mom that "hovers" over her dc, and me doing multiple guides has helped me step away and allow my dc to gradually blossom in their independent skills too. I know I would not have ever done this if I had not focused first on one child's needs, and then let them finish out some things on their own to move to focusing on another child's needs. My oldest ds (approaching 12 yo) especially appreciates being able to grow and mature in his schooling. He loves being responsible for his own reading, and the time we do spend together is special. There is rarely a struggle with attitude with him, and I really do think it is the combination of him having some breathing room to grow into a young man, while also having some 1:1 heart to heart time with me for deeper, Biblical discussions and fine-tuned teaching focused on specific skills befitting his age.

I am just now reflecting on this as I have taken up my 'hovering' tendencies now that school is done, and it has not been a positive with my oldest ds especially. He needs room to grow. I realized this once again today (how is it I tend to forget lessons learned in the past?!?). Anyway, today after spending the morning together in close quarters (which we did enjoy for a spell but then had a need of some space), I knew we had a man coming to remove a treestump from our backyard. I had Wyatt practice introducing himself, showing the man how my dh wanted him to back in, where the tree stump was, and then finish by thanking him for his work. He will own a house of his own someday, these are important lessons. He practiced and had a limp handshake and quiet voice. After a few tries, he squared his shoulders and did much better. When the man arrived, I heard him step outside and introduce himself with confidence, shake the man's hand, and show him what my dh wanted. He did so with capability and good manners. I went out and thanked the man myself, and he shook my hand. He told me he thought a lot of my ds's behavior... so did I.

I then asked my ds to head outside to take a look over the swingset and note what repairs need to be made to it (i.e it needs to be stained, a screw needs to be screwed in, the tire swing needs fixing, etc. - and these are just the things my very untrained eyes have noticed ). I then told him he can write up a plan for the repairs, and give me an estimate of payment for completing the tasks. I don't pay our dc for around the house tasks (just a choice dh and I have made), but for larger tasks such as this, I am willing to pay him something. We'll see what he comes up with for an amount. I heard him talking it over with Riley, a term of $30 came up, but then much whispering followed. We'll see what the final estimate is.

Anyway, school is much like this. Older dc are searching for their wings, while we try to keep their roots. Doing different guides with my dc has helped my older ds and I navigate this well. It also has helped me plant strong roots with my younger dc, the same as I did for my oldest when he was their age. LHTH plants the seeds, LHFHG helps young plants take root, Beyond helps plants begin to grow taller, Bigger Hearts helps us hold them up and teach them to reach their hands to the Son. PHFHG begins to give dc their wings, while firmly holding onto their roots. This growth continues bit by bit until by the end of their years of HOD, they are standing strong and tall of their own accord, bearing fruit so they can begin to prepare to bless others and eventually - plant seeds of their own. HOD helps dc grow and mature, and recognizes the needs of individual dc through the years. I think you will find, given time, this is a beautiful way to plant a garden filled with different varieties growing at different rates, but still creating one lovely garden to be enjoyed by all.

In Christ,
Julie

[momofgreatones]

What a beautiful allegory of how HOD works! I love it! You have such a talent with words, Julie. And I loved how you taught your little man to go out and take care of the worker at your house. That is true socialization .

[Carrie]

Katrina,

Thanks so much for the update, I was wondering if you were underway. It sounds like you are off to a good strong start. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread and especially loved the allegory my3son's shared of how HOD helps kiddos grow and mature.

I'm so glad that you are enjoying Eggleston and love to hear that Amelia Earhart is a hit! It was at our house too.

From the title of the thread, I'm wondering if your days may be going a bit long right now? It may be that you are just settling in, which really does take time, and it's important to give yourself that time to adjust. Our days go long whenever we start a new guide too.

One other thing that I often ask moms (who find their days in a guide are going a bit longer than we recommend) is what you're currently using for language arts and math? While it is fine to use something other than what we recommend, we often find that language arts and math programs can add much time to an already full HOD school day. So it's always wise for all of us to weigh how much of our day is being taken up with language arts and math and how much time is truly being taken up with the HOD program.

As a general guide, we plan for Bigger Hearts to take 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours daily, including all areas of language arts and math. So, if you do happen to be using a different language arts and math program from what is scheduled in the HOD guide, it will be helpful to compare the time it takes to complete those programs each day with our time allotments. In Bigger Hearts here are the approximate times we allot for the following language arts and math areas:
Spelling: 5-10 min.
Grammar: 10-15 min.
DITHR: 25 min.
Vocab.: Once weekly 15-20 min.
Writing (copywork, notebooking, writing assignments, poetry): Across the curriculum, integrated within other subjects
Math: 20-25 min.

Another reason I share this is because we often discover as we visit with moms at convention that it is the length of their language arts and math programs each day that robs them of the time to be able to do more than one guide eventually with their children if needed. Intensive language arts can take much teaching time and correcting time, eating up our day until there is not time left to do the little people in their own program if needed. This is why we strive for balance at HOD, because in balancing your day, we're actually allowing for the needed time to give the little people the same attention that the older ones are getting. This may not be a problem at your house, but I did find it was a problem at mine!

During my oldest son's third grade year, I was amazed when I added up how much time I was spending on just his language arts and math each day. It was no wonder I hadn't had time to teach my next little one in line, as there was no time left in my day! That was when I started reading more about CM and really started working toward a better balance in language arts and math for my family for the long haul. I cannot tell you what a difference it has made in our homeschool each and every year. It has provided my kiddos with just as strong of a language arts and math path, but in much less time. What I realized during that time is that with the path I was on I would either be choosing to teach to my olders, and mainly doing language arts and math only with my youngers, or I would need a more balanced language arts and math path to enable me time to do more with my youngers than only the 3R's.

I also ruled out having my youngers just listening in to my much older son's history/science/Bible readings as I realized that would again be catering to my older son and not really addressing the needs of my younger(s) coming up skill-wise. Age and maturity are definite factors here! I must tell you that at that moment in time for me, "not combining" my kiddos was a big dawning for me. I had plans made on how to combine my four children (one with whom I was pregnant and another that was yet just a prayer at the time) all the way through high school. I had file folders of elaborate combining scenarios, and never once did I consider separating my kiddos, even though they were 3 and 1/2 to 4 years apart each. So, later when we started writing our HOD guides, we wrote them with combining smaller age increments in mind (which works well), but we also wrote them with a plan for families to be able separate children if needed and still be able to teach multiple guides.

This is a long way around of addressing the concern you shared about teaching multiple guides, and also for providing some thought for those moms whose days may be going a bit longer than desired. I may be off-base here, and if so hopefully it will be of help to someone else who is reading this thread. As we're just returning from 3 conventions in a row, and after talking to so many moms, I just felt led to share this here in the hopes that it may be of help.

In closing, I will share that for those who do desire to use a different language arts and math, simply keeping those programs closer time-wise to what I'm listing above will give you that same balance. And for those who have kiddos closer together in age-range than mine, we do fully expect and encourage you to combine your children if at all possible!

Blessings,
Carrie

[holyhart]

Julie and Carrie, both your posts are beautiful and very encouraging. I think these might just need to be a sticky somewhere. I might even print these ones out and put them in the homeschool section of my home keepers binder.

[abrightmom]

Carrie and Julie,

Thanks for sharing your hearts and for giving practical encouragement. We finished Unit Two early in the week and have been enjoying the beautiful spring weather here in Oregon...school has fallen by the wayside the past couple of days with the exception of math & stories!

Since we are merely "testing HOD out" I haven't made any huge changes to our LA paradigm. My oldest is using the studied dictation for spelling practice but we're wrapping up 2nd grade grammar with FLL since it has gone well for him. If we stay with HOD we'll pick up with R&S 3 this fall. FLL takes no more than 10 minutes daily. I haven't "added" anything to my son's routine yet though I do feel strongly that he needs and can handle more writing so we'll see where we end up on that one. After we decide whether or not to stay with Bigger or move up to Preparing (or move on ) then I'll decide on the writing situation. So far so good with Bigger's requirements though we aren't doing the written portion of DITHOR at this time. He uses Math Mammoth and again, he was already well underway with it and it's a great fit for him. We set a time limit for how long we work on math each day and we do as much as we can in that time . I'm a very reasonable Mom . My youngers are using Singapore a la HOD and it's going very well for them.

I honestly cannot say where we will end up. I do believe that HOD is a strong, Christ centered program full of enriching literature and fun things to do! Our family is facing a heart desire to pull together in our studies around the Bible, history and literature as much as possible. Whether or not I can make that happen with HOD remains to be seen! We'll begin Unit 3 of Bigger tomorrow or Monday (it's going to be sunny again tomorrow). I have decided not to start Little Hearts at this point and just focus on Bigger with my oldest. My littles are still pretty content to do their 3 R's, hear a story and run along to play!

Thanks again for the enduring support and prayer. I do find the home school journey to be most humbling and sanctifying!

[my3sons]

Hi Katrina! I have a moment this Saturday morning and was reading through this thread with a fresh eye (my dc are all fishing with my dh today - it is amazing how clear my thinking becomes when I am alone in a quiet house ). I had a few questions come to mind as I was reading this through. The title of your thread and your description of it taking 7 days to wrap up 5 days (1 unit) of Bigger Hearts made me wonder a few things. Without DITHOR, BHFHG takes around 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day to do usually, and as the younger dc are doing just their 3 R's right now, I was wondering why BHFHG may be taking longer? It seems that you feel your ds is quite capable of the work in BHFHG, but then you'd mentioned some "hiccups", so now I'm wondering what the hiccups are? I would love to help out with those if I could in some way.

I also read your comments about wanting the family feel of doing school, and I will say that the family feel of doing HOD begins for us when I'm doing all of an HOD guide with each of my dc, as they each have me for not only the 3R type skills - but for history/Bible/science/storytime, etc. and for the hands-on fun, activities, and discussions too. Each child then has things to discuss with the others throughout the day, but they each feel like they had me all to themselves too. There is such a cohesiveness when we are all doing school at the same time, interacting with each other on the main floor. I usually reserve the 1:1 time for things of either a private nature (i.e. personal Biblical discussions where sharing is very personal), or for important skills I am teaching (i.e. things that are more difficult in nature or for books dc need to truly focus on to be able to do the follow-up skills well). Otherwise though, we are all within earshot of one another and commenting on each other's schooling, joining in on this or that once and awhile (i.e. eating the history project someone made, re-enacting the crossing of the Red Sea with Emmett, following the trail of torn cloth pieces left behind through the house as Daniel Boone did to find his daughter, etc.). So, we join in on this or that 5 minute type thing, but keep the day steady and moving along for each child, so they can continue with the things they are responsible for learning for their age skillwise.

I guess I don't feel that because I am teaching separate guides I am unable to create a family feel to our homeschooling. I actually feel like I am creating a family feel to our homeschooling very well in our days, and I can tell because our dc are very close to one another, and they share about their school all of the time. This kind of balance in the day helps our family enjoy school all together. Anyway, I just thought I'd share that as I believe it makes a big difference in the day overall. I want to encourage you that doing multiple HOD guides with dc does result in a family feeling of homeschooling, but that you may not be able to truly see that until each of your dc is doing an HOD guide. I can see how it does not feel like a family way of learning when ds is doing Bigger Hearts with you, and other dc are just doing mainly doing their 3R's and then having free time. I just want to encourage you that I think this feels very different from doing an HOD guide with each child. (I can relate because I started with just 1 guide one year early for 2 weeks and not with the other dc - other than phonics for them - and it did not feel like a family learning situation to me either until I had started an entire HOD guide with everyone.) Anyway, if you get the chance to share more about why it is taking longer to complete Bigger Hearts, and what the hiccups might be, I would be glad to try to help in any way possible! I hope something here can help, but I have prayed for clarity for you as well.

In Christ,
Julie