heartofdakota.com

Hi,
I'm Debbie homeschool mom to Susie 11, Katie 9, Noah 6 (7 in May) and Nick 5 at the end of the week (I also have olders, but I am not trying to figure out what to do with them ) What I am hoping to do is combine the 3 older children in Bigger. Katie 9 fits in Bigger beautifully with the emerging readers and dictation(we use Saxon for math and they are all set there) Susie 11 can use the extensions and she is using ILL and Dictation Day by Day level 5,so we will continue with that, she can also be the teacher/helper with the younger 2, they all love that. Noah 6/7 will be using FLL 1 (I have the older editon and there is copywork, dictation and narration included)and he can do the spelling and emerging readers from the guide. Nick will be doing something different this year so I am not too worried about him either. Does this sound like it will work or am I setting us up for yet another disaster???

My thoughts are if the above worked well, next year, I could do Preparing and Little Hearts and be able to cover all 4 children with some adjusting for Noah 7. Nick will be almost 6 and can do Little Hearts. Katie will hopefully do fine with the guide as is. Susie could do the extensions again. I would have to think on Noah, but between the 2 guides and FLL 2 I don't imagine it would be that hard.

I would also like to add that I am an older Mom and I have a few graduates under my belt. I don't say that condescending, I still need help from those using these programs and for a lot more, I do not have it all figured out(obviously!!!)! I just mean that I am not so worried about rigor, grade level, .... I do have the advantage of seeing that I will not ruin them if I do/don't do xyz . My goal is to have my children enjoy learning and working together. We would also like the time to do things other than "school", and with 6 children still living at home with 5 of them doing school I need to streamline. Our year has been going fairly well, I have been doing Susie and Katie together. Noah and Nick combined for a few things, Noah on his own for others. The only thing is that it takes all day, Nick most of the time gets shortchanged, and Noah too has become hit or miss because we are all exhausted. I would appreciate any insight you could offer


Thanks so much,
Debbie

What about combining the older two in Bigger and then younger two in LHFHG? That might be easier than trying to tweak Bigger... There are also extra history books to read in the appendix for LHFHG.

I like the idea of the older 2 in Bigger and younger 2 in LHFHG. I think if you do the older 3 in Bigger the same thing will happen you said happens now with the 2 younger boys. The younger boys will really enjoy LHFHG.

Well, I am not too worried about my little guy doing too much of anything school related right now. We are working on letters, numbers, writing his name... He would probably only be in Little Hands, he is not ready at all for the things in Little Hearts. If I do the Little Hearts with my 6/7 yos the history is different and I might as well keep doing what we are doing because it will all be seperate.He might fit better in Beyond, but I have the math and LA covered with something else and he can use the spelling and emerging readers from Bigger, so the only things would be the history/science and Bible, but those are the things I want to combine. Then next year I will be able to use Preparing and Little Hearts that kind of fit together better and by then my youngest will fit in Little Hearts.

Maybe I am trying to hard to make this work. I understand how the program is meant to work, and I don't have the ideal situation to make it work as intended but if you guys don't think this is doable, I will probably not be able to use HOD. Which is OK, I just thought I would give it a try and see. I really love the guides and would love to put each child where they belong according to where they place, but it is just not doable for us for many reasons.

I was just looking at your signature lines! OH my!!! I don't know how you guys do it!! I have a large family but I am always amazed when I see others too. I don't feel like I do very well with my large group. I am amazed to see how many guides you are using and how many littles you have. I know we are all made different and what works for one doesnt' always work for another and then you throw into the mix all the different personalities, temperments and abilities of the children and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Thank you very much for your advice, I will keep thinking on it and give it another look. I think I am just experiencing some burnout and making things seem harder than need be

Sorry, I keep thinking and replying even without anyone responding!! LOL

My 2 oldest have some form of dyslexia. My 11yo is doing better she still has issue with b/d reversal but reading and comprehension have improved greatly this school year. My 9 yo is still struggling with fluent reading and comprehension. My 6yo is either right on or advanced for his age skill wise. He is pretty comfortable with reading McGuffey 1st reader and other readers we have used, his spelling is pretty good and his comprehension is OK, but his maturity is lacking My almost 5 is a hard worker, busy, all boy boy, he has the maturity, but not the skills? He does not like cutesy rhymes, coloring or crafts, but he does enjoy some workbook pages as long as they are to the point. So maybe this will better help to see where they all are.

We are on Day 2 of all 3 in Bigger. So far, so good!! The 2 youngers are done by noon and the older by 1, we start at 9. What is nice about it is the balance. I usually like to go deeper with some things, but it is just not realistic. At least this way everybody is getting something(well more that just something ) It's a good thing!

I am so glad it is working well. I tried to respond to your post two times. We have a blocker on our computer, and I was interrupted both times. By the time I pushed submit, I was timed-out. See, you didn't need my comments anyway. Enjoy your days.

8arrows wrote:I am so glad it is working well. I tried to respond to your post two times. We have a blocker on our computer, and I was interrupted both times. By the time I pushed submit, I was timed-out. See, you didn't need my comments anyway. Enjoy your days.

thank you Melissa I would love to hear your comments anytime you have a chance

I'm back again to say we had another great day! Don't worry, I won't report back everyday until we are done I just wanted to say that we had plans today to go out for the day and last minute our plans ended up changing and we were not able to go. Before having our HOD guide I probably would have not ended up doing a good day of school, but setting our school time and having everything laid out in the guide made it a breeze to pick up the guide and get it all done.

Since this is working and everyone is enjoying it, I ended up buying the LHTH guide to use with my little man. I am hoping with everything laid out so nicely that between my 2 big girls and myself Nick will have his school time consistantly too

DebbieD - I am sorry to just be getting back to you here! My heart is really in helping moms with placement with HOD, but I've been so busy lately. As I was reading through this thread, I was just getting ready to type "I think you should go ahead and give it a try with your older 3!" when I read that's exactly what you did. I was also getting ready to type "Maybe try LHTH with the little guy" when I read that's just what you did too. We are so on the same page here. I think it sounds like things are going peachy, and that this is going to work. I'm so glad for you and your dc. We have loved HOD so much through the years - I hope you do as well. Looking forward to getting to know you more here!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you for your reply Julie, I know all about busy Homeschool Mom's have an awful lot of responsibility! I look forward to getting to know you better too I just received our LHTH guide today and my 11yod and my little guy are so excited to get going. They have a plan all set to go. I am still really happy with the balance and I am learning a lot about my children and reasonable expectations