heartofdakota.com

Hi all -

We are new to HOD this year and are really excited about it! I have been devouring this message board and am so thankful to have this! What a blessing! We are going to be starting BHFHG with my 7yo son. I was thinking of starting off half-speed, as we were used to a 4-day week last year with about 2 1/2 hours of work each day. I want to ease into BHFHG so my son isn't overwhelmed and so that I'm not overwhelmed as well. After we get into a groove and I can evaluate how he's doing, I am hoping to then move to full speed. I've read many of the posts about how many of you are doing half-speed, which has been very helpful. I'm still confused about a couple of things though. Many of you suggest still doing the 3 R's on a daily basis. My question is if you are doing them every day, which would essentially be full speed, and then alternating the other subjects (boxes) instead of doing them daily, which would be half-speed, won't you always be ahead on the 3 R's and then trying to play catch up with the other subjects (boxes) at the end of the year? And then how does it work when I switch to full-speed? That seems like it would be confusing, but maybe I'm just not totally understanding how the curriculum works yet. Is what I'm asking make sense or am I off my rocker? I'm trying to understand how you finish the curriculum cleanly, if that makes sense. Any thoughts or suggestions would be so helpful and so appreciated! Thanks so much!

I have started several guides at 1/2 speed including Bigger and I have always done copywork, reading, and math every day when we go 1/2 speed. Math and reading/phonics are not tied to the other boxes in any way, so it really doesn't matter. I use the solid sticky tabs in my guides and I have a "math" tab since I am always off with math. For reading, you are either following the emerging reader schedule in Beyond or doing DITHOR, so I just go with whatever we are doing as the program is laid out. For example, we have started DITHOR now and we are in the middle of Bigger. I don't try to tie it to the guide at all. We are in the middle of a unit in Bigger and just getting ready to start a new genre in DITHOR. For copywork I had my son do the guide copywork first, but with going 1/2 speed I usually needed to add to it, so I would have him start copying the hymn we were working on. I also do spelling everyday and I just proceed through the list at our own pace. In the end, we are only short two or three boxes from full-speed, but it has worked well for us. I remember starting Bigger at 1/2 speed and thinking, "Wow,I am glad we are going 1/2 speed because we are taking the full time." Now we are at full speed and it does not take us any longer. It is amazing how our children grow into the guide as they progress.

I have been wondering this same thing! Glad you asked.

Thanks countrymom for sharing how you do things. That really helps me! I think I also need to let go of having everything be even and exact