Where do I start?

[joym]

Hello, everyone!

I have been homeschooling my oldest daughter from the beginning. She is now 8 and in second grade. I have 3 year old twin daughters as well. So far, my twins have just been "along for the ride". When fall comes around, they will turn 4 and I want them to be more directly involved with our school day.

I like the Charlotte Mason philosophy much more than others. And so far, we have followed a CM education of sorts. For K and 1st grades we used two different boxed curriculums, both CM in nature. I felt that the K curriculum was too easy. The 1st grade was either too hard, filled with busy work (too much work books) or just overwhelming to get it all done. It did, however, have every day planned out. I loved this aspect of it. This year I have strived to keep CM philosophy going, but putting it all together myself. Ummm.....well, let's just say this isn't my strong suit! On top of that, we built a house and moved. Yeah.

So....I don't know yet if HOD is the right fit for us. I need input!

1.) Where should I place my oldest? She seems to fit in the 8-10 years old book on the HOD chart. She's not yet writing in cursive, though. She LOVES to read and is extremely bright (Of course! ) But at the same time, I don't want to go too advanced and discourage us both.

2.) What is the easiest way to integrate our (will be) 4 year olds? I would like all of us to be on the same page as much as possible. I realize that 4-1/2 years is a big age spread.

My last concern is that we will get bogged-down with all of the work. What if we fall behind in one subject? Does that make the rest of the teacher's guide fall apart?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but thank you so much for much needed input!!

[MomtoJGJE]

I think if she truly fits everywhere else in Preparing, then I'd just do preparing and one page of "cheerful cursive" each day. Perhaps even start out half speed (doing left side one day and right side the other). However, Bigger Hearts is a wonderful 3rd grade curriculum and a really good place to start with HOD (if you aren't starting from the beginning) It would get you in the swing of it without being overwhelming. My kids do Bigger in 3rd grade FWIW...

Also, for your 4yos, I would suggest getting Little Hands to Heaven. It's gentle, short, well written, and absolutely delightful!! It is just the right amount of work for a 4yo. Plus it would only take about 30 minutes a day.

As far as getting off.... it doesn't mess you up at all... you just start the next day wherever you left off. The main key to this is not to get wrapped up about Day 1 being on Monday.

[twoxcell]

From your short description I would place her in Bigger, but do be sure to check out the skill placement chart. As for you little one you could do LHTH. It is very quick and sweet, and it wouldn't add that much to your day for now.

[mom23]

I was also going to suggest Bigger for your oldest. Preparing is pretty advanced for a 3rd grader, imo. It's fitting my 5th grader really well right now, but I do think it would work really well for some 4th graders, too. Do look at the placement chart and go with your gut-you know your daugher and your needs! I do believe that placment is really key to enjoying HOD. When I first started with it I placed one child too far above his abilities and one child too far below her abilities. Both were equally disasterous! Now that they're placed where they should be they are thriving with it.

Also agreeing with pp that if you're behind in one subject you just pick up from there the next day. There are some days that we don't get to every box on the page, and it works very well to just go back the next day and pick those up first. Sometimes that's all we get done the 2nd day-filling in what we missed the day before, and sometimes we can go on to the next page of the plans and start on those boxes when we're caught up from the day before. We don't ever feel like we're "behind" the way this is planned out-we love it!