How can I use 1 program with many children?

[my3sons]

Hi Terri! I've been off the boards for a few days doing some editing, but I was so glad to read your post now. It sounds like you have a good plan in place for your goals. I did PHFHG and Beyond last year for the second half of the year (I finished the last part of LHFHG the first half before starting Beyond mid-way), and it was a super year for us! I have my schedule for PHFHG and LHFHG on the schedules thread, but not my PHFHG and Beyond one. I'll have to post that at some point - but for now, I'd say checking out the schedules thread and starting each of your guides half-speed would really be a good way to go about beginning.

I'd start my PHFHG child first if I were you, with the goal to teach her to use the guide and check off the boxes as she goes. I'd start half-speed, doing the left side of the plans one day, and the right side the next day for a week or 2. Then, I'd start the Beyond guide half-speed next, again doing the left side of the plans one day, and the right side the next day, for a week or 2. This should give you and your dc a nice easy start to the year. HTH - and I'm excited for you to begin!

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Terri,

It sounds like you are coming along well with your plan for your kiddos. Weighing all that you've shared in your past thread, and the outlook for your upcoming year, I think I would move toward the scheduling plan I mentioned before in this thread as being your best option. I'll paste the portion below that pertains:

Combining the kiddos in Beyond and supplementing with either the right side of Bigger Hearts or the right side of Preparing Hearts (I would lean toward adding the right side of Preparing) for your older child would be the best combining scenario for all of them. It is always easier to beef up a program than it is to water one down. So, with the combining in Beyond scenario, you could easily add additional reading for your older child in the area of history to up the level of the study.

The good news is that if you get going with combining in Beyond (and using the right side of Preparing Hearts for your oldest) and are feeling very comfortable and feeling like you're getting it done easily in the day-to-day, then you could always add the rest of Preparing Hearts for your oldest. This would work because you'd already be underway using the right side of the guide for her (in the areas of Rod and Staff 3 or 4, one of the levels of dictation in the Appendix, the math schedule for 2A/2B, the science as written in Preparing Hearts, and even the Psalm study and poetry study in Preparing Hearts if desired if time allowed you to use those). Those are all very Charlotte-Mason and would most likely be enjoyed by both you and your older daughter as a separate special time for the two of you. If you did continue to keep your kiddos together for the history side of the plans as you went through the years, you'd still have an excellent supplement for your older daughter by using the right side of an upper guide for her at her own level in many important areas.

Now, here's a few additional notes: I would definitely start your older daughter on only the right side of Preparing Hearts (choosing those areas that fit her well) and then have her join your youngers for the left side of Beyond for the rest. This will give you individual time with your older child, but will allow you to combine for the history, which is what you had previously shared was your heart's desire. Your older daughter would do the science as written in Preparing Hearts, the Psalm study, the dictation, a higher level of grammar, a higher level of math, and possibly the creative writing lessons once weekly as written in Preparing Hearts. This would allow you to also begin DITHR with your oldest daughter.

Then, once you got going awhile, you could see whether you wanted to add the rest of Preparing Hearts or whether you wanted to stay with the cycle you have going. Either would work. It is so important to keep in mind each family's unique situation when finding the best fit, and for you two programs didn't seem to be the best fit last year. So, I'd definitely lean in this direction instead.

Blessings,
Carrie

[MommyInTraining]

I would definitely start your older daughter on only the right side of Preparing Hearts (choosing those areas that fit her well) and then have her join your youngers for the left side of Beyond for the rest. This will give you individual time with your older child, but will allow you to combine for the history, which is what you had previously shared was your heart's desire. Your older daughter would do the science as written in Preparing Hearts, the Psalm study, the dictation, a higher level of grammar, a higher level of math, and possibly the creative writing lessons once weekly as written in Preparing Hearts. This would allow you to also begin DITHR with your oldest daughter.

Then, once you got going awhile, you could see whether you wanted to add the rest of Preparing Hearts or whether you wanted to stay with the cycle you have going. Either would work. It is so important to keep in mind each family's unique situation when finding the best fit, and for you two programs didn't seem to be the best fit last year. So, I'd definitely lean in this direction instead.

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie,

Thank you so much for sharing this information with me. I was planning on doing both sides of Preparing with my oldest. Now, I will have to reconsider. Do you think I would need to beef up any of the history if I have her do Beyond? She went through the Pioneers and Patriots book when we did MFW Adventures and she has also been exposed to the Colonial Boys and Girls and The Stories of the Pilgrims.

I was just going to try to have her be more independent with Preparing. I know I wanted to keep them together for history, but I also want her to enjoy her schooling and to feel challenged. I would love to hear your further thoughts on whether I could make Preparing independent enough for her to be able to do much of the left side on her own .

Thanks so much for your help!

Terri

EDITED: I had written right side instead of left side concerning the independent issue !!!! Sorry for any confusion !

[MommyInTraining]

Is there anyone who has worked at making Preparing mostly independent for their child? If so, could you please share with me your ideas?

I am still not sure if I should do Preparing with my dd or have her do Beyond with her siblings.

Thanks so much !

Blessings,

Terri

[Carrie]

Terri,

I honestly think that your heart's desire is to combine, and I want to make sure to pay attention to that when I'm responding to you. So with that in mind, I think that it would be good to have your older daughter join the rest of your kiddos for the left side of Beyond and for the storytime from the right side of Beyond each day. You'll find that there is so much more scheduled to go with the stories in Beyond that will bring them to life. The storytime in Beyond is a mini-literature study which will really be a great set of skills for all of your kiddos to have.

As far as your older daughter goes, I would think of this year as working on a new set of skills for her that really should take priority over the history study. So, from Preparing Hearts I would really focus on doing Drawn into the Heart of Reading with her, along with a solid grammar program. I would also focus on having her do the Psalm study from Preparing Hearts and spend time with her doing that part each day to have a special time with her in God's word. I would also have her do the poetry study in Preparing Hearts (at least the creative writing lessons on Day 2 of each unit). I'd make sure that she is doing dictation regularly to prepare her in that area. Last, I would make sure that she does the Science from Preparing Hearts (which is scheduled to be independent). These will all be important areas to make sure she has a strong foundation as she heads into her middle school years. The history portion, while important, does fall below these other areas in needed skill preparation. So, this focus would give you time to work on some new independent skills and some new higher level skills with your oldest, while still letting her join in with the youngers for some things.

If you get going during your year and think all is going very well, you could always start adding on the left side of Preparing Hearts for your daughter as time allows, but don't feel any pressure to do that as she can join the youngers and be fine.

Blessings,
Carrie

[MommyInTraining]

Carrie,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I think what you have outlined is a good plan. So, if I have my dd do Beyond this year, would I need to put her in Bigger next year or could she move on ahead to Preparing or CTC? I was looking forward to moving her on to world history this year .

Also, I have a new dilemma ! As I was reading to my 8 year old son tonight from a chapter book (boxcar children), I realized that my just turned 6 year old daughter (she turned 6 at the beginning of this month), was not interested in listening. She is still really into books that have lots of pictures to go along with the story or otherwise really short stories like Wee Lambs or the Miller Family stories (something that is around 2-4 pages for the WHOLE storyline.) So, now I am concerned that she will not be interested in Beyond. I want her to enjoy her schooling and for it to be a special time for her. I don't know now if Beyond is going to be "beyond" her interest. She really liked doing Little Hands last year (we didn't finish it) and has asked to do it again, but of course she is technically 1st grade now, although I have considered doing K over with her since she has a summer birthday. She is very bright and imaginative. She can read simple readers like some of the Bob books, but still needs phonics instruction. I am still planning on doing the Singapore K program with her to start the year since we didn't get to it last year. So, she sounds like she is a mix between LHTH, LHFHG, and BLHFHG. She really seems to fall in the LHFHG category, but that would add on another guide (one that I no longer have for that matter ). I guess my 8 year old (who is still needing phonics instruction also and just starting to read some independently) could do LHFHG too.

Oh, I am really getting myself turned around ! I know I had wanted to combine everyone before, but eventually we will not be able to combine, possibly even next year. So, I don't know if I should even consider that to be a top priority anymore. There is so much I want to give each of them and I just feel like I don't have the time. I need to be realistic about what I can take on, but I want to give them what they need. So, I am hoping you can offer some guidance in how I should proceed.

Do I do LHTH with my 4 year old, LHFHG with my 6 year old, BLHFHG with my 8 year old, PHFHG with my 10 year old, entertain my 2 year old, and take care of my newborn all of this with a husband who has over a 2 hour commute daily and we have NO family and NO friends to help with anything ?

OR

Do I stick with doing BLHFHG with my 3 school aged children adding Preparing like you mentioned for my 10 year old. Then possibly adding in LHTH later in the year for my 4 year old and letting my 6 year old enjoy the stories and drama that is included in LHTH?

I hope to hear your (and others' if someone else is willing to chime in) thoughts as to which direction I should take . Thank you for taking the time to help me sort this out....

Blessings,

Terri

[my3sons]

Hi Terri! I like this plan...

Do I stick with doing BLHFHG with my 3 school aged children adding Preparing like you mentioned for my 10 year old. Then possibly adding in LHTH later in the year for my 4 year old and letting my 6 year old enjoy the stories and drama that is included in LHTH?

I hope to hear your (and others' if someone else is willing to chime in) thoughts as to which direction I should take . Thank you for taking the time to help me sort this out....

Blessings,

Terri

This is an excellent plan for this year. It fits all of your dc's needs well overall, and you can get this done in the day to day happily. I would have the 6 yo do Beyond, and just let her grow into the listening skills part of it. I wouldn't overthink this and get too far ahead of the here and now yet. I have a tendency to do this sometimes, so I understand your thoughts here. I just think you have a great plan in place here for this year, and then at the end of this year, we'll see how each of your dc have grown and changed throughout the year and revisit placement for them for that year at that time. I love the idea of focusing on the things Carrie mentioned for your 10 yo, and I think that will be such a solid way to approach her year this year. I'm getting excited for you to start, Terri!

In Christ,
Julie

[MommyInTraining]

Thanks Julie,

Yes, I do tend to overthink things and then get myself all turned around as to what to do !

I think what you mentioned sounds great!

Thank you for your input!!!

Blessings,

Terri

[sharonb]

Terri-
I've been following your thread, and wanted to let you know that I have an almost-6-year-old in Beyond (we just started it a few weeks ago), and although his attention span isn't wonderful, he is doing fine. The stories in Pioneers and Patriots have held his interest pretty well. The only thing he is not doing much of is the poetry copywork. ETA: Ok, so his attention span has been terrible this week. Just wanted to add this in case you have read my other threads! I am going to start LHFHG with my 4.5 year old, and the 6 yo will join him in that instead of Beyond. BUT, if LHFHG wasn't in the picture, then I'd still stick with Beyond for the 6 yo. I'm sure he'll start paying better attention eventually... )

I think as long as you have each child in the appropriate level for math and language arts, keeping them together for the history/Bible/science/etc in Beyond will be fine.

You are doing a great job trying to figure what is best for your children, but once you make a decision, stick with it and don't worry about it anymore! (At least till next year, LOL!). I'm sure things will be fine for your family. We are pretty new to HOD, but I am impressed with how easy the programs are to implement and how little time they take.

Have a great year!

[MommyInTraining]

If you get going during your year and think all is going very well, you could always start adding on the left side of Preparing Hearts for your daughter as time allows

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie,

This brings me to an ordering question. If I am going to do the history of Beyond with her, should I still get the history items for Preparing "just in case" I end up adding it on later in the year?

If I keep her in Beyond the entire year, will she ever get to the history portion of Preparing since she will have already completed the right side of the guide?

Just trying to figure out what I need to order for her if she is going to stay with the other children for history in Beyond.

Thanks so much for your help!!!

Terri

[Carrie]

Terri,

If you do the left side of Beyond with the bulk of your kiddos this year (adding the right side of Preparing for your oldest), then next year you can re-evaluate your options. One option would be to move the school-age kiddos into Bigger Hearts together for the left side (and add the right side of CTC for your oldest daughter).

Another option would be to move the kiddos from Beyond into Bigger and move your oldest into either the left side of Preparing with the right side of CTC instead (allowing her to skip past Bigger, only due to her age and her past coverage of American history, plus the fact that she did the right side of Preparing). Or, you could even entertain having her do all of CTC, depending on where her skills are at that point.

Kiddos grow and change so much during the year, and any decision made also needs to take into account the rest of the family dynamics and allowable teaching time. So, for now, I'd focus on the year at hand and know that you have several excellent options to ponder at the close of next year.

Depending on your finances, you could get the Economy Package with Preparing Hearts or you could just get what is needed for the start of the year, and then add if needed later.

Blessigns,
Carrie

[MamaMary]

Thank you all for your advice and encouragement.

Julie and Carrie, I will respond to some of the things in your posts hopefully later tonight.

MamaMary, thank you for your words of wisdom. The reason that I came back over to the board is because I was hoping there was a way that I could make it work with ONE program, but was unsure if I could do that. That was what I was really wanting to find out. Do you have any old posts that you can link me to where you talking about combining into one program? I just didn't like the way it felt to be using two (3 if you count LHTH) programs. I want us unified in science and history. I don't like the way it feels to be in two different places for science and history. I know the older will need more than the younger and that is why programs like TOG and MFW and WP appeal to me because you can put them together (until high school in MFW and through high school with TOG). So, I was wanting to know if there is anyway that I can do that with HOD. I understand that language arts and math are going to be different. But, I am looking for combining history, science, poetry, music, art, and Bible. I just know that when I was using Bigger, there were things that would not have been appropriate for my 5 and 7 year olds ( I am thinking about the vocabulary and science notebooking right off the top of my head).

I have to run. I will write more later.

Thank you all!

Oh Terri, please PLEASE forgive me for not responding to this back in April? I honestly don't know how I missed it?! I LOVE this thread. You've asked such excellent questions and I'm betting your transparent heart has helped more hodies than we'll ever know. I can't wait to see how God is going to lead you to your final destination. I am sure you have all your answers, know that I'm praying for you and cheering you on...., (Big Loving Kindred Smile)

[MommyInTraining]

Carrie,

I am trying to finalize plans here. When looking over the Beyond guide on the website I wasn't sure if I was supposed to include my 10 yo (Preparing right side) dd in the right side storytime for Beyond. She will also be doing DITHOR. Could you please let me know if your suggested plan included her participating in the Storytime part of Beyond?

Thanks so much for all of your help!

Terri

[Carrie]

Terri,

I always love to read aloud with all of my kiddos (except the toddler/preschooler who is currently the "destroyer"), so I was thinking you'd likely enjoy including your daughter in the read-alouds from Beyond too. Even is she is already doing DITHR, she'll likely enjoy the stories and activities. I know my boys of all ages do!

Blessings,
Carrie

[MommyInTraining]

Thanks Carrie for all of your help !