schedule I typed up what do you think?

[sherry80]

I am going to be doing Little Hands, Little Hearts and Bigger with extensions. I am trying to figure out how to get it all done so I am dividing it up throughout the day. Do you think the sample times I have for each thing will work?

During Breakfast:
Little Hands bible story and devotional 10min
Little Hearts bible story and devotional 15min
Bigger bible verse they are working on 5min

AM School: (no more than 2 hours)
Little Hands letter activity, bible activity, rotating box 30min
Handwriting without tears prek program 15min
Little Hearts rotating box and fine motor workbooks 20min
Math for children in Little Hearts 20min
Phonics for Little Hearts 20min
Bigger girls will work independently for the 2 hours on:
their english and handwriting
their Math which is teaching textbooks
their history extensions reading or dithor reading

During Lunch:
Little Hands fingerplay and music 10min
Little Hearts rhymes, music, history and science reading, storytime 30min
BIgger poetry and music 10min

Quiet Hour: (where I work with girls in Bigger)
Dithor, spelling, History Rdg, Storytime 60min
Rotating box, science 30min
piano practice 30 min

We are going to do Biggers devotional and bible study during dinner as a family

The girls in Bigger will do another 30min of independent reading for History extentions or dithor at bedtime

What do you think? Are the times somewhat accurate?
Thanks for your help,
Sherry

[lissiejo]

LOVE the idea of doing some of Little Hearts during breakfast and lunch. My three girls tend to pick at one another the most then and this is just fabulous! I sometimes did the read-aloud or history reading then, but wanted to stop doing that this year since my older two are...well...older. I don't want it to feel repetitious.

Not sure the age of your girls, but you might want to schedule in a break, not long, maybe 5-10 minutes. I soon learned with my oldest that it was best for everyone if I took a break. I typically schedule it 1 hour-ish into our learning.

[Kathleen]

Hi Sherry!

Will this be your 1st year using HOD? Or have you been using it for a while (and have already done the younger guides with your older kids)? I'm just wondering because I see a few things that would not work in our house, but in yours they might.
Now, as I reply here, I have to tell you that I'm currently in a phase of life where I go through meal time and realize at the end of it that I haven't eaten ANYTHING. I know that this phase will be short-lived...but I can NOT imagine adding anything extra to mealtimes! I usually get food ready, then nurse the baby, then make sure the 2 little guys have clean diapers (while the older kids set the table and get the food to the dining room), get food to the 1.5 year old, and feed the 7 month old his food....then clean up the 1.5 year old and 7 month old (before they get creative with anything that happens to be left on their trays) and their bibs and high chairs and have the kids clear and clean the table. Whew!

At our house, LHTH takes 20-30 minutes for the WHOLE thing. And, I have found that it really works well to do the whole thing at one time. So, maybe you want to do all of LHTH during the 30 min you have allotted for it in your AM school. That's what I would do. I know that my LHTH'ers like to be right beside me for the Bible story, looking at the picture. And it really is a short story. Then we immediately do the follow-up activity that goes along with it while the story is right there in their mind. In our house, it has worked well to do LHTH away from where the older kid(s) are working. My oldest would be right with us mentally (instead of on his own work) if we were right beside him. So, it has worked well for us to go upstairs to the bedroom with the most floor space for our school time.

Your LHFHG Bible time might work best with that child while doing the left page of the guide, too. I have found that I like to keep all of that page together in one sitting. For us, it seems to make it flow better and it's more time-efficient for me. (But you could sure try splitting it out if you'd like - that's just what has worked for me.)
In Bigger, your kids will be learning their memory verses with movement. They get to make up actions to help them memorize. So, you'll have to decide if that is a good breakfast activity or not. They will also be doing different physical activities in between repetitions of the Bible verse - like jumping jacks, sit-ups, push-ups, windmills, running in place, arm circles, etc. Having 4 boys here, we try not to encourage these kind of movements at the table...try being the key word. But, when I've done Bigger, I've found that this physical activity is VERY welcome during our left-page time. I've usually taken that child and done the history reading, poetry, then moved on to the Bible box, the hymn, and finished with the rotating box. Having the movement there in the middle has been perfect!

I know there are threads here where Carrie has shared the approximate time for each box (that have helped me a LOT in scheduling our days!), but I couldn't find them right now. I think you're pretty close on the times (except for having more time than you need for LHTH).
If I were in your shoes and wanting to include some things during breakfast and lunch, I would look at something like this:
Breakfast: LHFHG storytime, follow-up questions for LHFHG student (once per week a pic to draw)

Then, I would move to the Bigger girls and do the left page in the order I listed above. (Usually that rotating box just takes you getting it started and you can leave them to finish it and do independent work.)
(My younger kids have always played the most happily right away in the morning. I don't know what ages you have, but here I have mine scheduled to do chores and take turns playing with the little guys.)
Then, I would do LHTH.
~Maybe you want to LHFHG one(s) to watch an eduactional video, or you want to start them on Fine Motor Skills or have them play a game - before you take the LHTH'er?
Then I would have the LHTH child play alone and do the left page of LHFHG.
Phonics & Math for LHFHG...if you're using HOD suggestions for these, we usually only need 15 min each.
I would check in with the Bigger girls here and see how they're doing - then also do spelling/dictation.

Now, if you only have 2 hrs for school in the morning, you'll probably be out of time here.

Lunch: My choice would be storytime from Bigger, follow-up questions for the Bigger student(s)

Then, you'd have DITHOR & Bigger's science left which should be an hour, which you could do in the afternoon before piano time.

I have no idea if another way to look at your morning has helped at all. My intent was not to be more confusing... I have learned so much from the other ladies here on scheduling and how HOD can work in my home, as I've walked through our homeschool days. And, then there was the trial and error of real life. My biggest challenge this coming year will be the 1 & 2 year olds (which we have already nick-named the twin twisters ). Anyway, I know that I benefitted the most from specific posts like this from Julie (my3sons), when I was figuring out what worked for me. So, if anything I typed helps you as you plan, great! If not, feel free to ignore it, because I know that different plans work for everyone.

Happy Planning!
Kathleen