att Large families!

[lisaha1]

How does your day go with multiple guides with 6 or more children? I have 3 school age, 3 not yet school age and I so hope the Lord will bless us with more! It does make school a challenge at times though! LOL! How does HOD work for you, and have you used other cirriculums-why didn't they work so well?
I'm praying about HOD! I LOVE the CHrist base of it, bc I am homeschooling for HIM!

[leimarie]

Well, I'm not a been-there-done-there momma just yet, this will be our first year using HoD. We have 5 children (#6 due this September) and three are officially school-age. My 4yo will be tagging along in LHFHG this year to see how she does. I don't think I will begin reporting for her to the state though since I still have another year before her attendance is mandatory. As a family we're making the switch to HoD because my husband sees that when I do all the planning our schooling is very stressful. HoD presents a carefully thought and well-balanced plan that will help us reach our family goals as well as academic goals. We will begin implementing HoD the first week of June (we're starting our semester then so that we can have a baby-break this fall) and I look forward to sharing our adventures throughout the coming year in our HoD guides.

hopefully some of the veteran moms will give their feedback soon.

[8arrows]

I have 8 children; 7 (one will turn 5 in Nov.) which are school age. I also have a 2 year old and hope for more if that is God's will. I currently separate the children into three groups: high school, 4th/5th/8th, and 4/5 and 6 year old. My high school boys have been combined except for math. This year I may separate out their science as well as I graduate the oldest next year and need to attend to college scholarships and admissions and I need to prep the next oldest for PSAT and ACT tests next year. The middle boys I only separate for math; their older sister does her own math and English and some extra science. She also does the HOD extensions. With these divisions I am able to run three programs. I would struggle with more than that. Next year's schedule gets us up at 7 for 20/20/20--20 minutes to get ready, 20 for devotions, and 20 for chores. We start breakfast and family Bible at 8, rest of school at 8:30. That gives me 4 good hours before lunch at 12:30. The youngest group gets a 1/2 hour of direct teaching from LHTH with me and another 45 minutes with me for math and phonics. Two siblings take 1/2 hour with them that includes a school activity from mom. They play and get to watch a short movie during the school time. I read to them at rest time and later in the day. The middle boys are done by lunch (12:30) including piano. The older of the two does not take time with the little girls until after lunch so he has more time. The 8th grader will not finish her day until 2:30 or 2:45, but that is with piano,violin, and 1/2 hour with the girls. She also just helps me and this lengthens her day. The older boys are done with the classes I teach by 12:30 (next year--Bible, English, Am. HIstory/Gov, and Physics), but they do have 2 additional college courses in the afternoon. I have to have a schedule. I have individual daily meeting times with the children (just 3X per week with the oldest 2) and I have a group meeting time with the two younger groups each day. Fridays are lighter. We are all done by 12:30 for lunch on Fridays. The older boys may have a service project in the afternoon. We try to avoid any appointments or outings before 2, but of course we have to schedule one now and then. This of course is the plan, but it is similar to other years. Life does happen to us. We just pick up later in the day or the next day if that is unavoidable. Our intent is to homeschool for the glory of our Savior. I hope this is helpful in some way. NOTE: I am not sure how old your children are, but high school math and science really add to my time commitment. You can see with my LHFHG group that I am only instructing around 2 hours a day and that includes their naptime story. Their siblings do do some additional work with them. My 4th and 5th graders are also done by 12:30. It is those older ones with hard classes that really add time to my day. So, if I did not have the high schoolers, I could have everyone else but the 8th grader done by lunch. In case you are wondering about the 2 year old, she is frequently right beside the 4 and 6 year old, thinking she is doing school. She also goes and visits everyone else and gets lots of attention as the youngest of 8. She is always welcome one my lap (OK, not during Alg. II or Pre-Calc--these two classes still make my head hurt!!!!)

[lisaha1]

The thought of highschool hurts my head! lol! I'm not even sure what I'll do for math in those grades as I was terrible in that area of school! YIKES! Don't they have videos or something to teach high school math???
By the fall we will have a 10 year old DD, 8 year old ds, 6 year old ds, 4 year old ds, 3 year old ds and a little one that will be 1 in Nov. so 5th, 3rd, and 1st.
I agree with you, we homeschool for the Lord Jesus! To train up our children for Jesus!

[my3sons]

Here is a past thread that may be helpful too...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5290&p=38869

In Christ,
Julie

[momofgreatones]

How does your day go with multiple guides with 6 or more children? I have 3 school age, 3 not yet school age and I so hope the Lord will bless us with more! It does make school a challenge at times though! LOL! How does HOD work for you, and have you used other cirriculums-why didn't they work so well?
I'm praying about HOD! I LOVE the CHrist base of it, bc I am homeschooling for HIM!

We use three guides, and this coming year may be using four. The older guides (CTC and up) only take as much individual time as you choose. The child can read all the material themselves if they are able or you can do the teacher-directed boxes with them. I try to do this as much as possible because I like to spend one-on-one time with each child (or in my case two on two sometimes) no matter what the age. High school level science, English and math can take additional teaching time with mom no matter if you use HOD or something else. I haven't spent much extra time with my hs age girls in science and math thus far since they are doing well in those areas, but I have spent some extra time teaching writing. I wish I could hit fast-forward and have HOD's high school guides here now...sigh...

Yes there are DVD programs for math. Teaching Textbooks and Videotext are two big ones right now. We have been enjoying TT for several years now with my olders and is working for us. There are many different ways to get help with upper level math if necessary so don't be intimidated! Also, I believe that a child who is allowed to get a strong math foundation through one-on-one tutoring at home, with a good math program, will have drastically fewer problems understanding advanced math when they are in high school. Rather than being pushed through the grades with poor understanding, like I was. I know of homeschoolers who even successfully "teach themsevles" calculus in high school because they've always understood math, and calculus is no different. Not saying this automatically happens of course, just saying don't be afraid of high school math!

We start schoolwork at about 8:00. We actually get up at 6, because our family enjoys having a fairly long devotional and family read-aloud book first thing in the morning. Also, my oldest three are girls, and rushing them through their morning primping does not make for happy campers. Things go much smoother when they are having a good hair day. So all this, plus breakfast, takes a good two hours in the morning for our family.

Then I have the oldest two help me by taking 45 min with my two in Little Hearts, while I work with my middle two on their dictation, English, and Dithor. My two year old watches a video (this is the only time during school that she gets to watch TV) and my baby naps.

Then I take over and finish 45 min with Little Hearts. The others move on to their individual work, and each child takes 30-45 min turns with the 2 yo throughout the rest of the morning. My baby is blessedly a wonderful sleeper and sleeps all morning through school right now. However this will change of course as she gets older so I will have to change up our schedule when that happens.

Then I meet back with my middlers and do history, science, Bible, and I try to do the read-aloud from Bigger with them too. This isn't necessary (you can combine everyone into one read-aloud even when doing multiple guides) but we are weird that way and I like to do this. This is another 45 min to 1 hour chunk.

Then I move onto time with my olders, and we do the teacher-led parts of CTC (which we are about done with) and read with them, and check their science, math, and writing if there is time. This takes about an hour as well. Sometimes I have to do work-checking at another time.

This takes us to lunchtime at 12:30 or 1. I hand out snacks at about 11, and this makes everyone happy. Everyone is done, with the exception of my olders often have some reading to do after lunch.

I'm not sure how old your dc are, but you may have to do things differently if your oldest aren't old enough to help much with the youngers. In that case naptime is your best frined. Use naptime for the littles to do teacher-led wwork with the olders. If they are nap age but don't like to nap, I still make mine be in the habit of stayig in their room or crib/bed quietly when they should be sleeping.

So I want to encourage yo that multiple guides is nothing to be afraid of. It really is true that the guides are written to be used this way. I will say that when I first started HOD, my days were very long and I struggled for quite a while, until I realized that the problem was I wasn't organizing my time well. I was opening the guides and just starting at the first box and moving through with one pair and then starting with the next guide. I also didn't have a rotation where the kids were helping me with the two year old. So when I looked critically with a problem-solving eye, I realized I needed to group the boxes into independent work and teacher-led work, and stagger independent work for one child with teacher-led work with another child, and rotate help with my 2 yo (which my kids love to do anyway). In short, I needed an organized time schedule for me and each child to follow. I'm not naturally organized so this kind of stuff comes slowly to me. But once I did this it was smooth sailing. So a schedule will be your best friend. Now I am amazed at how much gets done in each day and how accomplished I feel at the rich education my children are getting, all on their level, in such a relatively small amount of time each day. This is because of the genius (not exaggerating here, it is truly genius) with which the guides were written, thought through, and laid out. We are blessed indeed to be benefitting from Carrie's talent. I shudder to think what my homeschool would look like without HOD.

Hope something here helps!

[water2wine]

We have six. I have one in there that is special needs with learning delays and challenges. I say that because it adds a lot to my day and truly with her it is like we run 4 programs because of all the extra I need to do with her. We use though 3 HOD programs. I have had my dd with special needs with the middle group and she is now moving to the lower group. I believe we will be able to keep it at three programs and most people with larger families seem to be able to do that. I have found that HOD is easier even with having to separate into 3 programs and I would say even 4 programs would be much easier than trying to fit them into a one size fits all curriculum. Our day really flows with HOD. I run it by a schedule sort of but more like an order to the day without time specifications. We do very well with finishing our day fairly early even when we get a late start or have to fit in appointments. With a large family it is not just getting school done it is getting all the other stuff in life done and I find with HOD we are really able to do that.

But beyond having our day flow well and being able to get to everything in life there is one huge thing that HOD does that I find can be challenging to do on my own with a larger family and reach all my kids on the level they need. That is spiritually leading them to not just a knowing of Who Christ is but how to live for Him and make Him real in their every day life. Now you can have Bible time together where you read from the Word and get God into every day but it becomes hard to have them applying what they have learned individually with a larger family. One size fits all programs claim that they do this but in practice I have not found that to be the case. When helping them come to a real faith there is just not a one size fits all way to do it. They really need that on their level and they need to see God in everything to understand He is sovereign and to see Who He is to them and their life and heart individually. Now they are better served academically this way as well and I could go on and on about how HOD does that but for me this is the absolute most important issue. So it is for us all around much better to do HOD and know we have everything at their level and a day we can actually pull off than to try to have them all in the same book at the same time learning the exact same stuff. I just do not feel in the end that will really amount to much in their life compared to what HOD brings for us.

Praying you find the best for your family.

[Rebecca]

I have a large family. Next year, if you count kindergarten- which is not "school age" in my state- I will have FIVE students k-6 and baby twins. I will actually have 4 children who are considered "school age" have to be accounted for and tested: spring 2012.

I love what water2wine wrote about nurturing children's hearts spiritually. I have really found HOD to be key in this area. Also- I briefly skimmed some of Carrie's "common questions" threads- and also agree that having age appropriate/skill appropriate expectations for children is so important and a really special part of HOD.

I think when you have a lot of students- you do need to expect full school days regardless of what curriculum you choose/use.

I have almost completely stepped off of the combining mentality for my family- with the exception of my 5 and 7 year olds who are in LHFHG right now but doing grade level work in LA and Math.

I have found that this works so much better for us. I am not overwhelmed. I am not going crazy.

My Preparing and RTR son are working with the expectation of independence. When my Beyond son moves to Bigger- I will also begin transitioning him into more independence. I make sure I choose guides appropriately, based on the chart, and what I know they can handle successfully and well.

I had to separate my two oldest sons as it was actually more work to combine them than to separate them. It is much better for them to fly solo in their own guide.

My day with multiple guides is great! I love that I can "half-speed" right now - now that I am at the very end of my twin pregnancy and still keep us moving forward. I love that I don't have to think about planning, discussing, following up, etc. It is all right there. I love that my older sons can produce quality work in every area of their guide with oversight from me and no one is overwhelmed. Mostly, I love that I am making sure, every day, I am meeting with their hearts. I hope this helps! Rebecca

[Carrie]

Ladies,

I just have to say that the wealth of advice in this thread is amazing! Thank you so much for taking the time to share, as I know each of you are incredibly busy mommas. I know your tips will be so meaningful to so many. I am thinking this would be great to link on the scheduling thread too!

Blessings,
Carrie

[lisaha1]

Thank you so very much! I have been trying to get back online to post back, but everytime I got this post pulled back up, someone needed nursing, a diaper change, snacks, nap time, dinner time....ex.....you all know how it goes! LOL! I so appreciate all of your wisdom-just like Carrie said! I keep praying everyday for guideance on what to use for next year. My 10 year old-oldest DD wants to do HOD, she says she can do more and work faster without waiting for the little boys! LOL! I do have to say I do like the idea of her being more independant before 7th and 8th grade-it would give me more time with the little ones and I can see where we have forgotten to teach a younger child something! LOL! I do have to admitt though that I also have always combined them and I'm used to that too! Although I know that even with combining them, I can't do that for much longer, there is such a huge age spans.
I love hearing how homeschooling works for larger sized families. I'm hoping to be blessed with more, and I want to raise these blessings for the Lord! I like how the guides tie in Jesus with all areas of study, because He is in everything in our lives and all we do we need to include Him in. I want my children to be raised knowing this and doing this!
Blessings,
Lisa