A little uncertain now

[StacyinOhio]

I was decided to begin HOD with my children in the fall and VERY excited about it. I have devoured the message board to gain as much prep and wisdom as I can and it has been very helpful! I did become concerned though when I read that the Beyond program which I plan to use with my 7 year old takes just 45 minutes. I am not looking for a lengthy program and I know at times what we do now is too much but I am (per our state law) agreeing to homeschool my kids for 900 hrs a year. I'm not expecting that my 7 year old is going to sit and to work for 5 hours but at his age and ability I would expect a couple of hours of actual schooling to be going on and a little more so for my older boys who will be in Bigger and Preparing.

I guess that I am looking for assurance that I am making the right choice in choosing HOD. 45 minutes for my 2nd grader just freaks me out a little and with so many kids I don't want to have to worry about adding things. One of the things that drew me was the ease of use that gives me confidence that I can run 3 guides plus my kindergartener at half speed in Little Hearts.

Any wisdom out there for me?

[MomtoJGJE]

I"m the one who said it only takes me 45 minutes... Evidently I'm not the norm

But even with it only taking 45 minutes we still get at least 5 hours of educational stuff done in a day easily!

You could read extra books, like at bedtime.
Anytime they read something by themselves.
Any time they use the computer
Any time they play any sort of educational game on another device.
watch an educational tv show
playing outside
at a church class
do any sports
help you cook
help you clean
get dressed/brush hair/teeth
do chores
eat a meal/snack
play with siblings
listen to music
play music
pretend play/dress up
make up songs/stories

Does that help? I'd say that even though my 7yo only does 45 minutes worth of book work that she is easily getting 8? hours of educational stuff in any given day. I'd actually say more than that, but I wouldn't want to document every minute of her life.

[MomtoJGJE]

Oh, and the guides get progressively more... So like last year with Bigger, it took us 1.5-2 hours and this year with Preparing it's taking us 2-2.5 hours.

[John'smom]

Hello! I'm also from Ohio. I know Beyond took us more than 45 minutes, but we use our own Spelling and Math. One thing I love about HOD is options. Anyway, here's a post by Carrie talking about the est. times for Beyond. That includes HOD's suggestions.

I guess I wanted to encourage you that there's things in ps that they count as school, but isn't. Things like lining up, taking roll call, getting the class to come to order. It's just inherently more efficient to homeschool. The result is you'll get more done in less time because you don't have 30 kiddos. It's a positive thing. I hope that makes sense. Agreeing that things like Sunday school, youth choir, music lessons, science videos etc., all count.

[deltagal]

Beyond is a complete curriculum. You can "count" it as meeting your hours requirement even if it takes you less or more time than required. I think, in this case, the focus should be more on - are you covering all the basics needed for appropriate age-level instruction? The answer is YES! So, you've met the requirement.

[StacyinOhio]

I'm not worried that I have to only count "schooling" hours towards those 900 hour, but I do want to be honest and 45 minutes of school time just concerns me for my 2nd grader. I just want something more for him because I know he is capable of it. 45 minutes seems fine for Kindergarten but I think I would spend the whole year feeling like I short-changed him if that is all the instruction I gave him.

Thanks for the link to Carrie's post....I'm going to check it out!

[StacyinOhio]

Ok...Carrie's breakdown made me feel much better! Thanks again for the link!

[MomtoJGJE]

My K'er does maybe 15-20 minutes

Honestly, it all depends on how much they are retaining. Once my 7yo hits 45 minutes she stops listening and retaining even though she does the work, so it's pointless, you know? She is capable of doing all the work required in Preparing, but she wouldn't retain it because she would get tired of doing it. Just because they are able to do more doesn't mean they need to if what you are doing is working and they are progressing and retaining most of the information.

Like I said in another thread, I'll be able to tell you more about how awesome HOD is even with short times each day after next Tuesday. If you'd like me to give you numbers from my oldest when she was in Beyond and had her testing I'd be glad to She was only 3/4 through Beyond when she did her testing, and DD2 will only be halfway through.

ETA: ok, I know you didn't ask for them, but I have to run for the day so I thought I'd post the broad numbers for DD1 at the end of 1st grade (1. testing. She had just turned 7 two weeks before the test and was 3/4 of the way through Beyond.

Broad Reading: 2.8
Broad Math: 2.3
Math Calculation: 2.4
Overall Academic: 2.7

I fully expect DD2 to be way ahead of this in math even though she isn't as far in the books just because DD1 doesn't learn steadily... she learns in spurts. If this test had been done a month later she would have scored about even with reading in math. In the next year she jumped from those levels to mid-late 4th grade... and all we did was the rest of Beyond and the first part of Bigger (10 units?) half speed just because of the timing of the testing.

HOD works. I do it as written and it works. Just because my time might be faster than others, they are doing the same work anyway, and they are getting it and retaining it.

Basically don't discount HOD because it doesn't take as long as a more rigorous program. It works.

[StacyinOhio]

I'm not out to offend anyone and we homeschool because we want to be in charge of our children's education, right? I was merely talking about what I was comfortable with for my kids! You are free to school however you want...there is no judgement from me!

[tiffanieh]

FWIW Stacey...it took us MUCH longer than 45 minutes to do Beyond. We started at 8:30 every morning and we were never done before 11:30 each day. We acted out everything, read everything to it's fullest, stopped along the way to get questions answered, narration done, wiggle worms out, etc. I'm honestly scratching my head how you could complete everything you need to complete in 45 minutes?! Just the read aloud alone took us easily 20 minutes... then Bible, and History, and Science, and math, and, and,.... So I really don't see how you could accomplish everything in 45 minutes.

PLEASE don't let that dictate you away from HOD! It is SUCH a rich, and FULL curriculum! Seriously.

[MomtoJGJE]

I'm not out to offend anyone and we homeschool because we want to be in charge of our children's education, right? I was merely talking about what I was comfortable with for my kids! You are free to school however you want...there is no judgement from me!

I'm not offended I just didnt' want you to think that just because it takes us 45 minutes to do Beyond that it isn't enough or that it would even be that short for you

And that's another thing I said in another thread... my kids for some reason don't do discussions and ask questions and all those things. Today we did everything except not copywork or art and it took 30 minutes. The art was weaving an indian blanket, and Grace has woven things before so I explained what she was to do. She was done, start to finish with that in less than 5 minutes and that included discussion with Julianna about how it was for a real indian, just an example of what it would have looked like. My kids just don't take extra time with it for some reason. If yours were to discuss everything out and ask questions, then that would EASILY add an hour!! haha

I was just trying to show you that even though it doesn't take long that that's no reason to discount HOD... I wasn't offended and I wasn't trying to offend

[psreit]

I have not actually kept track of how long Beyond takes us on a given day. If we sat down and went from beginning to end with no break, it wouldn't take long, but my dd needs to have breaks or I lose her. I wasn't too fussy this year about what she did on her breaks, but next year in Bigger, I want to make sure she is doing something productive......practicing piano, a PE activity, educational computer game, outdoor fun, cooking, cleaning, etc. I like to have bookwork done by noon, but that doesn't always happen. We usually don't begin HOD work until 9:00-10:00. Some days Math may take longer, and even storytime can take longer some days, depending on the length of the book, and also art projects can sometimes give extra time. Fortunately, in PA, we can count 900 hours or 180 days. Obviously, I will go by days. But, with hours, I would count all the extras like I mentioned above, and more. Just some suggestions for recording time, but I'm sure you know what to do. Personally, I would have a very hard time keeping track of hours.

[StacyinOhio]

Fortunately we do not have to turn anything in...I just want to be honest!

[Carrie]

Laura,

I just wanted to encourage you that for most families Beyond takes around 2 hours a day (if you do not take any breaks). The right side of the guide alone takes an hour or more typically, even though families may vary. The left side of the guide takes anywhere from 35-45 min., depending on whether there is an activity that takes a bit longer on that side of the guide. On a short day, it may take an 1 1/2 hours total for the guide (but that would be if you were really moving quickly through every part of the guide and it happened to be a short activity day).

LHFHG usually takes 90 min. a day, and Beyond is intended to be a step up from that as it raises the level of learning in many ways. Beyond needs to prepare kiddos for the upped level of rigor required to complete Bigger Hearts, and Bigger is intended to take around 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day. So, Beyond is written to be a stepping stone in that direction both time-wise and skill-wise.

We pray you enjoy your year with Beyond as much as we have in the past with our own kiddos. We've done it with two very different kiddos now, and they each really learned so much from it! My youngest is doing LHFHG this year, my third son is in Preparing, my second son will be doing our new guide Missions to Modern Marvels, and my oldest will be a junior in high school.

I love the short school day that comes with my younger kiddos, as it is a breath of fresh air! Yet, we want to be sure we are preparing our younger ones for what is to come. So, I want to assure you that each guide prepares a child well for the next guide in line.

Here's a breakdown of typical times allotments for each box of Beyond:
I need to be up front in saying that I am a no-nonsense, check-it-off type teacher and don't stray far from the planned lessons, so these times can vary widely depending on whether or not you enjoy going off on bunny trails with your lessons.

Reading About History Box: 10 min.
Poetry and Rhymes: 5-10 min.
Bible Study and Music: 10 min.
Rotating Bottom Left Box (Artistic Expression, History Activity/Timeline, Geography, Science twice weekly): 15-20 min.

Language Arts Box: 15 min. (spelling/grammar)
Reading: 15 min. if doing the Emerging Readers and 20-25 min. if doing DITHR 2/3
Math: 15-20 min.
Storytime: 15-20 min.

Blessings,
Carrie