heartofdakota.com

We absolutely love Heart of Dakota! However, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I am attempting to run 3 different guides and wondering if there is anything I can combine or something to make our day a little less hectic.
These are our kiddos:
9 1/2 year old girl in Preparing with English 4 and Drawn into Reading 4/5,
7 1/2 year old boy in Bigger with English 2 and Drawn into Reading 2/3
just turned 6 year old girl in Little (she is in first grade math and handwriting though)
2 1/2 year old girl who seems to be feeling pretty left out during schooltime and watching way too much Leap Frog videos

Does anyone have any scheduling ideas. It is really important for my oldest to be able to finish her schoolwork around the same time as the others. So her and I have been starting at 7am while the others are asleep. We usually can get her Reading about History, Vocab/timeline/etc, and History Project boxes done at that time. Then the other kids start at 8:30 and it starts to become a little crazy. So many kiddos are needing my attention at once! Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Jamie

Vocab/Timeline and History Project are things that I usually end up saving for my dd to do while I'm working with one of my younger boys-would she be able to fly with these after you give her brief instructions or answer any questions she may have? That way you could use that time alone with your oldest to cover Dictation, grammar, Bible Study, Storytime, as well as the History box; and she could be occupied with things she can handle when the youngers are up . Are there areas of Bigger that your ds can handle on his own-like copywork, or a spelling activity, or some math after a brief introduction from you? That would give you some time with the youngest. I try to impress upon my kiddos that when I'm working with a sibling they are not to interrupt. That they can expect my undivided attention when it's their turn, and they need to allow the others to have it, too. We're not exactly getting this down perfectly, yet, but we are still working on it! (Usually it's the one year old that doesn't cooperate with this idea!)

If your kids are placing in back-to-back guides, and you're wondering about combining, it might be possible to combine your older 2 in Bigger and use extensions with your older dd. Preparing and Bigger are pretty teacher-intensive guides and more difficult to run at the same time than some that are further apart. Another thought is to maybe slow one of your children down to half-speed if you need to keep them in their seperate guides.

Could you combine your 6 year old and your 7 1/2 year old in Beyond, while keeping going with English 2 and Dithor etc for your son?

Jamie,

I agree with the ladies wise advice that we typically don't advocate doing Bigger and Preparing at the same time unless absolutely necessary, as they are both pretty teacher intensive guides (with Bigger being our most teacher intensive guide).

Is it possible to combine one set of kiddos somehow? What are your thoughts there?

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you for the suggestions. I was actually afraid you all were going to suggest combining them. lol. I know that it is probably the right thing to do with my time schedule but I am still struggling with wanting everybody in their own guide that is right at their level. I don't want to combine my oldest because she is in week 7 of Preparing and soaring! So that leaves putting my 6 and 7 1/2 year old in Beyond together. They are my two that get wild together. Does anyone else have 2 like that? That is the main reason I put them in different guides this year, but it probably would be best for my schedule to combine them keeping my son with DITHOR and English 2. If I combine them doesn't that mean that my kindergartner will be doing Preparing in second grade? She is an old kindergartner as her birthday is in September. So she will turn 8 right after we start Preparing if we keep on schedule.

Perhaps before you combine them you should take that time you have with your daughter while everyone else is asleep and use it doing more teacher intensive subjects (grammar, or reading about History, or storytime) with her vs. doing the boxes that can really be done semi-independently, if not completely independently.

Try that for a few days first and see if that frees up more of your time!

I am combining my will be 6 year old (next month) and 7 1/2 year olds in Beyond. It is going swimmingly! We are still at 1/2 speed on the history, but we are close to bumping up to full speed. I just needed to get my older group going well first. Combining is the only way I get all my children taught!

I am running 3 guides and DITHOR. I just wanted to say, DON'T fret about your 2 year old. Don't feel guilty!! Leapfrog videos are FINE. My 4 year old was in front of Sesame St and Leap Frog a LOT, and he also LOVED the "Meet the Sight Words" videos. And guess what? He knows all of his letter names and sounds. He can count to 100. And I didn't teach him ANY of that!!

Just take a deep breath. Read your little one 2 picture books a day, and don't feel guilty!!

I'd have your oldest keep doing PHFHG, as it is going great! I think I would try combining your 6 and 7 1/2 yo dc in Beyond. Though they are the wild ones , Beyond does not take long to teach. You can have them be separate for grammar (teaching the gentle grammar lesson to 6 yo from Beyond; and teaching R & S English 2 to 7 1/2 yo from Bigger). Math will also be separate. Your dd can finish out her handwriting book, and ds can do copywork of the Beyond poetry. Also, I'd only do Beyond 4 days a week so that you are on the same schedule as PHFHG, and so 6 yo dd will be a little older when she gets to Bigger Hearts. What are your thoughts though? It could be there hasn't been enough time for a routine to be established though, in which case giving older dd more independence with PHFHG may do the trick. What do you think?

In Christ,
Julie

We are struggling to get a good flow with these same three guides this year, but love them.

So far, the most improvement has been from a daily list I create the prior day. It takes 10 minutes or less.

I take a spiral notebook page, and divide it into 3 columns with one for each child. I look at each guide and list each activity (not necessarily just box titles, since some boxes may have more than one activity in them-like L.A. in Preparing). The activities that are TRULY independent are listed in the top portion of that child's column. Activities that only need a little help from me are listed in the middle portion of the column, and I usually put a star next to those to make it easier for me to spot them at a glance. Activities that are completely dependent on me go in the bottom portion of the column.

Of course, most of Little hearts is completely dependent on me, but I can list a few coloring pages or activities at the top of that column to remind me of an easy activity that young one can do themselves. I also check and see if any of her activities are ones a sibling can do with her, like building lego towers for illustrating greater than and less than in math, or her CD scripture song that an older sibling can set up for her while I am busy with another child.

Jamie,

The ladies are doing a great job of helping you talk through possible options. One thing I'm wondering is where your 6 year old and 7 1/2 year olds fit best on the placement charts? Is your 7 year old extremely well-placed in Bigger or is she struggling a bit with the workload? As far as your 6 year old goes, how well placed does she seem in LHFHG? Is it just right for her? If you get a chance to pop back and let us know that would really help us advise you even better.

From what you've shared so far, I would lean toward letting your older child just go on alone in Preparing as she seems well-placed. You could also consider dropping either Bigger or Preparing's Storytime to combine the two older kiddos in one storytime together. Or, you could possibly consider having daddy read one of the storytime's aloud at bedtime while you do the other one during the school day?

Anyway, there are other options we could consider too, I just want to be sure that we save your sanity in finding the best overall fit for your family first.

Blessings,
Carrie