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Hi, my name is Bryn..I am new to HOD this year and am having a hard time getting to everything. my son is 8 almost 9, and my daughter is 4. I have seen a lot of neat ideas on scheduling here. I am having a hard time getting to see the bigger picture of what a week looks like and getting organized for it seems to be escaping me. I am having a hard time balancing between my children. It seems that I am either doing well with one or the other, but not getting to both of them each day on evertything. I may just be spending way too much time on things because I am a little long winded. I keep getting confused between the DITHOR and the storytime and am not sure the best way to go about the timeline and how to organize each subject.

Do you have separate notebooks for history, science, spelling/dictation, experiments, timeline, DITHOR, storytime, vocab....I think I am missing something. I have a tendency to complicate things and am needing some help on simplifying. Or do you have them combined into one or two? I seem to get confused between going from the bigger book to the little hands book to the DITHOR book and then my planner. Was it this confusing for anyone else when you started? It will get better soon?

On dictation....when they get it wrong, are you using a whole page for one entry? Or do you cover the last day's entry while they try to do it correctly the next time right underneath? Just fill a whole page up? Just trying to see what that looks like.

My son has chosen to use binders instead of composition books. Another question is about vocab....I noticed some wonderful pages for vocab, and the set up says to use a notebook or binder for a couple of pages for each letter of the alphabet, or to use a box. Does anyone use both, using the box for quick take along reference or just take the notebook? And it would be hard to alphabetize the history vocab sheets. Any insights or suggestions on vocab?

Thanks for any insights.

Hi Bryn,

I can't help much at all with scheduling as I only do one program with my twins. I have read others who have one in LHTH sometimes work with that child first since it only takes about 30 minutes to do and often filling the younger one's love tank first helps to get things done. Then that child is done for the day and you can focus on the older one. I don't know if that will work for you, but that is a thought so that you don't have to bounce between that guide and Bigger. As you get into Bigger and your ds gets familiar with it, there will be some activities that he can do independently that he could be doing while you are working with your dd.

Here is a link to getting ready for Bigger which is really helpful viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5531 Julie shows in that how she does all of her notebooks. When we did Bigger, we just had one big notebook to hold most everything. We used dividers in the notebook for the different subjects. I think these are the ones we had: history, science, math, grammar, poetry/writing, misc. I could be remembering it incorrectly, but it was something like that. We did most everything on notebook paper and then filed it in the notebook when it was completed and checked.

For vocabulary we used the index cards and put them in a file box. Though I liked the way that the vocabulary pages looked, I didn't think that it was as easy to alphabetize them and find words easily later, and I felt both of those things were important. So we used the box and cards and that worked well for Bigger and Preparing.

For dictation, we used a composition book, one of those smaller ones with the black and white cover. Though I know many people just do one exercise per page, it bothered me wasting that space. So we just continued on the same page and covered up the previous exercise with a scrap piece of paper. Our dictation notebooks have been lasting us a couple of years that way.

For the timeline, we used an opened manilla folder, with computer paper glued onto it on both sides. Then we divided it into the grids with the years across the top and many grids below each time period. I think we had 10 in each column, but it's been a couple of years so I could be off there. My dc then folded that folder in half and stored it in the front of their notebooks for the year.

I want to encourage you to hang in there! Bigger is the most intensive teacher guide of all the guides. It is the year that you will work more with your ds and help him learn many new skills. Your time this year will really pay off later as he learns to do these activities and eventually becomes independent with them in later guides. Think of this year as your year to teach him to fish, like the old proverb. In future years he'll be using these skills and your time will be freed up to spend more time with your dd when she needs it. If you need to, don't feel badly about slowing down to half-speed here at the first so you can really work on building those skills and yours and your dc's confidence. If you need to work through a few weeks just doing the Bigger guide and not use DITHOR, do that until you are comfortable with your schedule and then add DITHOR back in. You don't have to be full speed on everything and everybody at once. It's a marathon and not a sprint so pace yourself and work at the speed that everyone can do right now. It will get easier. I remember when we first started Bigger, it seemed like such a full day, and we were struggling to get it all done everyday. By the end of the year, it was a piece of cake. We were breezing through it all. It probably took us several weeks to a month to find a groove and start moving through our day smoothly. You will find your groove soon too. Just keep going!

Your reply brought tears to my eyes .. That was such a thorough and thoughtful post. I really appreciate the encouragement and insight. I am ready to go now and finish getting ready for our week this week. I would love to let my ds start typing and maybe he could do that first thing in the morning while I am working with my dd and also do his cursive which he loves. I almost didn't order cheerful cursive with the characters, but then I did and my son LOVES it. He can also do his phonics and spelling during that time I suppose. I am so used to having to stay on him, but as I am learning to give more consistent consequences he is finding some self discipline to stay on task a little better. Thanks again for the suggestions and love you put into your reply. God bless!! I look forward to the adventure ahead of us....

Just want to encourage you as well We're doing those guides and I do LHTH first for the same reasons the previous poster mentioned. It is hard to keep my youngest occupied while I'm teaching my other two, but we're working on that. It helps that I have two older sisters and they often take turns playing with her while I spend individual time. You might want to look into busy bags. These are essentially little activities that your child can do quietly while you're teaching. They may need some minimal guidance from you, but it will free you up to work with your older son. Just do a search for busy bags on google or go here: http://moneysavingmom.com/tag/busy-bag-ideas

My older girls do work on independent stuff like handwriting or things I have to teach minimally before they begin to work on their own like grammar or math. It does take some time to work it all out, but don't worry! You'll get there My biggest issue is making sure I don't forget a box during the week. I made up a checklist for each week that I can mark off and keep my sanity! It really helps with running multiple guides because it is easy to let something slip and I don't like to mark in my guides since I'll be using them multiple times.

The independence thing is hard, but I've heard Bigger is a great place to start since the other guides get progressively less teacher intensive. I hope the year goes well for you!

Melissa

Thanks Melissa! I really appreciate the ideas and encouragement. And I am going to check out the link too! I am excited to start again this week. Have a great rest of your weekend.