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Question about Bigger schedule

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 4:09 pm
by Stevens6901
This is my second year homeschooling and my first year using HOD. I am wondering if anyone has ever done Bigger for a 4 day program instead of five and what that looked like. Did you do day 5 the following week or did you work it out that you just did everything in four days? I hate getting behind in school and it would help a lot if I had a little wiggle room during the week in case something came up.
Thanks so much!!!
Abby

Re: Question about Bigger schedule

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 8:59 pm
by psreit
There are some who do 4 days a week. You just pick up the next week with day 5. The reality of it is, during the school year there may be weeks when we do less than 4 days, so trying to do a unit every week is unrealistic, at least for me. I am actually doing half speed in Bigger this year, which means we technically are only finishing 2 1/2 days of HOD a week. But because of some things that have come up these last two weeks, we haven't actually schooled a whole week yet. That is why I start early. Then I have the room to take off for appts., co-op, etc. So, just do 4 days and pick up the next week. HOD works fine that way. :D

Re: Question about Bigger schedule

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2012 9:02 pm
by lissiejo
We are doing Bigger and Little Hearts as 4 day a week programs although we are going half speed with Bigger. I also did Beyond as a 4-day last year. Some people prefer to just do 4 days, then start the next week with day 5, etc. I like to get the whole week done and just have the wiggle room you are also looking for :)

I have a weekly chart where I fill out what we are going to do each day. I watch for "lighter" days in various subjects and just add in an extra days work there. For instance I do the narration and 2 days of history reading on day 1. Because Bigger is laid out the same each week this makes it pretty easy to find a schedule that works. We still do math and grammar on day 5 because I feel like it's too much for me to add in an extra day, BUT my daughter will often ask to do the extra work on Thursday so she has less to do on Friday and I'm fine with that! I also save the art projects for Friday. I feel like I'm less rushed that way and it's something fun to look forward to on Friday. Assuming we get through everything I have a few things scheduled just for fun like a cooking lesson, learning a few new words in another language, etc.

It worked REALLY well for us last year and so far it's been good this year as well. We're only on unit 3, but we've been doing lessons for 6 weeks.

Re: Question about Bigger schedule

Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 1:14 pm
by Stevens6901
Thank you so much ladies! This helps a lot!