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Hi Carrie,

We are doing the Geography guide this year and my son is loving the books so far!

Circumstances have dictated that I return to work as soon as possible and I need to figure out a more precise schedule than what we’re used to. I wondered if you have times for the boxes yet for the Geography guide? Also, and perhaps more importantly, do you have an estimate of how much time is required for the teacher to check work and interact with the student? Times for each box would be very helpful!

Thank you,

Karen

Bumping this up... I am interested in seeing what times others are experiencing as well!
We have been taking a long time 60+min. to go through some of the major subject boxes carefully, so that each subject is started properly. I am hoping that once I feel our son "knows" each subject and is comfortable with the books used for ea. he will be able to take it independently---as suggested, and move at a faster pace. At first we were overwhelmed, but a week later feel much more confident!
He is smiling now and that is a good thing !!!

Excitedly waiting to hear...

Hi, Karen,

I'm not Carrie, but I thought I would share our experience with you so far.

We just completed week 3 of the guide. I haven't done a breakdown on the time it is taking per box. Actually, each day the time varies widely for most boxes because of the varying reading lengths and assignments each day. A few of the boxes have a consistent daily time, but most do not - for us anyway. My dd has found it takes approx. 7 full hours to complete each day on average. She is very disciplined and focused with her work, so that I think that is a fairly true picture of the time needed.

I meet with my dd each day and go over the previous day's work with her. This takes on average an hour or so, I would say, although I've never timed it so I'm not exactly sure. It depends on how deeply we get into things. But with how meaty the subject matter is this year with the world religions and Bible study, literature discussions, etc., it is taking us some time.

I know this doesn't answer your exact question, but I hope it helps a little.

Thank you ladies for sharing, your experiences are very helpful!

I love the idea of taking the extra time to start each box right. I wasn’t able to do that our first two weeks but I will certainly try to do it this next week. He has a tendency to “shorten” things where he can, so your idea should help us establish good habits.

Then I should be able to follow up as Tiffini is doing. I hope we can do it in an hour or so too. We tend to be long-winded around here!

Another question: are you ladies reading the books also?

Peace & Joy,
Karen

Yes, I do read most of the books. I had a great advantage, though. I bought the package at a convention in the spring, so over the summer I read the Living Library books and the Literature whole books. That was my treat to myself this summer! I now read the other books the week before my dd will be reading them so that I can knowledgeably discuss them with her. I do not, however, read the Science books. The books that lend themselves the most to discussion that I feel is most important are the World Religion and Cultures book, the Literature selections, the Bible study, and Geography. I can only do so much and with 5 kids and a husband and household, I cannot get to everything. It is very challenging to get the reading done every week, but I take the books with me everywhere and whenever I have a minute here or there at home or out and about, I read! I also try to take some time during the weekend to read and count that my teacher in-service time. So far, I am keeping up, but I'm not sure how long it will last! I would not have been able to keep up with the L.L. books and the Lit books if I had not read them in advance, I don't think. I hope to be able to do that each year. With my younger kids, I have already read all the books from doing the Guide previously, so that has helped, too, in that I'm not reading multiple kids' schoolbooks each week.

Thanks Tiffini,

Wow, I'm impressed, you have a lot on your hands! I wasn't able to read the books this summer and it is tough trying to keep up with it all now.

In Unit 3 for the Babylonian clay map activity scheduled in the guide, is that activity idea 1A from Mapping the World? Is he supposed to just make the clay tablet that is at the bottom of the page; so it's not really a map as such? Or am I missing something?

Thanks for your help,
Karen

Bumping this up to see any new responses . . .

I thought I saw times somewhere. See if this thread helps:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14423&p=102086&hili ... ns#p102086