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I will confess I love curriculum and I always like to add in a little extra. I've got Beyond and LHFHG going, but I keep finding myself wanting to add stuff to it and then overdoing it and then taking the stuff off the shelf and cycling this over. Any advice

I have a tendency to want to do more too! May I just say, enjoy the short school days now. There will come a day soon enough where they will need to do more and more. However, I decided last year that I wanted to do some extras and include both my kids. We call it, "together time." It takes about 1/2 hr. each morning. We do something different each morning. We have a composer study, a picture study, an art lesson, and a nature study each week. I keep it short and sweet. My kids absolutely love it! We are getting in those lovely extras and not taking up much time. Plus, it's something we do together.
Laura

I'm squeezing in extras where I can. We "study" one composer for 6 weeks by listening to his/her music during breakfast/supper. We do a different artist every 6 weeks by using his/her artwork as the lock screen and background on the shared school iPad. Educational music (skip counting songs, Wee Sing songs, memory verse songs, etc.) are our background music as we do chores or work out. "Nature study" is done on our walks; when we see something special, I pull my phone out and take a picture, then we add it to a file on the computer so we can watch a slide show of all of the neat things we've seen. Sometimes, we will research to find out more about it, but not all the time. Yeah, it's not fancy, but it doesn't add to our school day. Right now, it's more about introduction and appreciation anyway.

I think it's hard when we see so much great stuff out there even though my heart is completely with HOD! I try to only supplement with those areas that my daughters show extra interest, like writing stories, or if I see a weak area, like spelling. Other supplemental things I try to save for the summer. I've also gotten in the habit of previewing all the other levels of HOD curriculum to see where certain things are taught. For instance I've seen a really neat looking state-by-state study for youngers, but that is covered in a later guide so I can hold off without feeling like I'm neglecting something. This summer I supplemented because my girls just didn't do well with free days to fill on their own. I think it's because they're still so young. Even that was very light compared to our regular school year. I am planning to supplement when my daughter enters 4th grade with our own state curriculum because that is the year it is taught. I want to make sure that if our plans ever change that she has completed what she has been expected to learn.

lissiejo wrote:I think it's hard when we see so much great stuff out there even though my heart is completely with HOD! I try to only supplement with those areas that my daughters show extra interest, like writing stories, or if I see a weak area, like spelling. Other supplemental things I try to save for the summer.

Thank you that is a really great idea. I tend to add in extra stuff that we're already doing just because it looks good ie. last year I bought 3 LA programs because they all had different components. We didn't finish them all, but it was over kill I guess I have the tendency to think I'm not doing enough, but my little guy is only in 2nd grade I love the idea of adding in what they are interested or weak. I will keep that in mind next time I try to get something or just keep it for the summer.

It's so hard not to want to supplement. I fell prey to that so much especially in the early days, and I have so much extra stuff that I have never used! Over the last several years, I have grown to trust HOD's choices and realize I don't need to supplement. The other pps are so right that the rigor will increase as they get older, and it is so nice just to enjoy these short, sweet days. If you really want to add something, going with a special interest as the pp mentioned or rotating through activities through the week for 30 minutes each day is great. Another option is go to a 4 day week of HOD and then use the 5th day for the optional things. When you get to Preparing you'll have that 4 day a week schedule so you can plan a 5th day of supplemental activities. We have enjoyed adding an extra artist study/art project on our 5th day. It isn't necessary, but we enjoy it. One thing to keep in mind is to always do your regular stuff first, then if you have time and they have the interest, then you can add something else. It's so easy to get caught up in adding and burning out ourselves and our dc with too much in a day. The wonderful thing about HOD is that it is developmentally appropriate for the age it is written not only in content but in time that they have to put into it. So we have to be careful not to overdo at least I have to remind myself of that all the time because I tend to be a curriculum junkie.

One thing I've noticed, is that there's this running list in my mind of things I'd LOVE to try out someday. Well, with each year that goes by, I'm seeing those items being added to the guides as they're written! It's so cool! Many books I've drooled over in the past just showed up in the MTMM guide, for example!

momtofive wrote:One thing I've noticed, is that there's this running list in my mind of things I'd LOVE to try out someday. Well, with each year that goes by, I'm seeing those items being added to the guides as they're written! It's so cool! Many books I've drooled over in the past just showed up in the MTMM guide, for example!

This is so funny you say this, as I have thought the same exact thing! I wanted my dc to do neat projects, but then they did them with history and with DITHOR. I also wanted to to do a nature journal with them - now I get to in MTMM. I wanted them to learn some hymns because our church doesn't do the same hymns often enough for them to really know them - but then they were in BHFHG and now also MTMM. I wanted to do some type of art study, but then that was in RevtoRev. I wanted to get some Shakespeare in, at a younger age, in an easier format because that would have helped me before doing it in high school, but then Carrie did a Shakespeare Study. I wanted to do something with composers and classical music, but then it became part of RevtoRev in lapbook style (which I also wanted to try - a lapbook - that is). I wanted some guidance in helping my sons understand what it means in the day to day to be young Christian men, but then we did that with Boyhood and Beyond. And the list goes on. I've stopped adding, especially because as these ladies mentioned, the academics get heavier as dc get older.

We've found it fun to 'add' to our life in other ways. I actually have a goal to try each year to invest in one thing that is bigger to make our home be a special place our boys love to be. One year it was an above ground pool (on clearance) for summer. Another year our neighbors gave us their old basketball hoop. Another year we got each of the boys scooters. Each year my husband has gotten 1 used honda ATC 3-wheeler at a time and fixed them up with each of our sons to ride. Another year we asked my dh's brothers to make little trailers for each of our ds's 3-wheelers (which they use ALL the time). One year we got a swingset.

This year we got 3 kittens - we let each of the boys choose 1, and they are outdoors as we are on an acreage, but they built a spacious kennel with a little door for them too. We also got 3 dodgeballs so they can play this with their cousins, and a kickball and volleyball. Next year, I am hoping to save up some money for an outdoor projector, as we have a white wall to show movies on on the side of our garage. Anyway, all of these things are special, and have given them some new things to do and to try. We try to do the same with indoor things through gifts at b-days and Christmas, though those things are much smaller purchases (i.e. models, erector sets, latch-hook sets, Thames and Kosmos kits, an ice cream maker, a blender for making smoothies, a donut maker, etc.). As you can tell, one of my sons is a good cook and quite athletic, and the other a handyman and a 3-wheeler rider. We'll see what interests the little guy cultivates.

I just wanted to share these ideas, as often times our dc have really enjoyed exploring different interests during their free time, rather than having extra schoolish things added to their school day. This has helped them find new interests while still giving their all during their shorter, more manageable school day with HOD. HTH as you ponder what to have your dc try out!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you Julie, that was so encouraging and gives me something to think about We started school back today after being off a week for vacation and it was so wonderful. We just followed the guide pretty much and the kids loved it and so did I

I honestly had to say "no" to extras, and I agree with Julie; sometimes those things are better left for after "school" is completed. How cool that your kids want to do extra stuff!

I was SO LIKE THAT!! Then I realized I was killing myself AND the kids when HOD really covers it all.

so JUST STOP IT! LOL

It was soooooo hard for me to resist the urge of wanting to supplement. I do have to mention that I had to clear.every.single.thing out of my house that was not part of the Bigger, LHFHG or LHTH guides. It was ALOT of work but I loaded it into garbage bags full and took it to a friends house and she knows not to let me touch it no matter what. A little extreme but I now have peace .