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Okay, so I am a planner and I have been going round and round about this in my mind about which option to pursue. Since we didn't start HOD when my kids first started school, there will be one guide my son (middle child) won't finish. I have a couple of options as to how I schedule my next 3 years. I do have 3 kids but my oldest and youngest are fine, it is really my middle child I am trying to figure out a plan for.

Option 1:
Summer 2014: Oldest (10) CTC. Middle child (8) does not finish Beyond this year and starts Bigger in August and finishes by the end of the year. Youngest (6) finishes Beyond and starts Bigger by November
Summer 2015: Oldest (11) R2R. Middle child (9) starts Preparing in August and finishes by the end of the year. Youngest (7) finishes Bigger and does a few other activities for the rest of the year
Summer 2016: Oldest (12) RevtoRev. Middle (10) CTC. Youngest (8) starts Preparing

Option 2:
Summer 2014: Oldest (10) CTC. Middle child (8) starts the Language arts box for Bigger at the beginning of the year continues on with youngest (6) for history and science in Beyond until finished. Start Bigger by November for both of them but youngest will follow as is and middle will be modified for LA.
Summer 2015: Oldest (11) R2R. Middle child (9) starts Preparing in August and does not finish science or history with Bigger. But can follow Preparing guide as is. Youngest (7) finishes Bigger and does something else for the balance of the year since I don’t want her start to Preparing until next year.
Summer 2016: Oldest (12) RevtoRev. Middle (10) CTC. Youngest (8) starts Preparing

Option 3:
Summer 2014: Oldest (10) CTC. Middle child (8) starts R&S 2 three days per week, starts DITHOR when ready, continues on with youngest (6) for history and science in Beyond until finished. Start Bigger by November for both of them but middle child is modified.
Summer 2015: Oldest (11) R2R. Middle child (9) finishes Bigger with youngest (7) by Christmas and completes about ½ of Preparing. Middle child will start the year following the Language Arts boxes with Preparing and not do the LA for Bigger. Youngest (7) will do guide as written and finish second half of the year with something else because I don’t want her to start preparing until the following year.
Summer 2016: Oldest (12) RevtoRev. Middle (10) does not finish Preparing and starts CTC. Youngest (8) starts Preparing

Option 1 is out since I have read how intense parent teaching schedules are with teaching both Bigger and Preparing at the same time in 1 year. But my OCDness made me include it so that I could just cross it off promptly. That leaves with Option 2 and Option 3. Realistically, I think I like option 3 the best. I really don't want to repeat Bigger or Preparing back to back with any child. I have read time and time again that they are the most teacher intensive. But this means that with option 3, that my middle child won't finish the history or science for Preparing and I want him read for CTC by the following year. He will finish the LA box as is and so I know grammar and writing he will be ready for CTC. And he is a pretty good reader so reading the books in CTC should be fine too. I do school all year long too so we may get farther than half way in Preparing, it may be 3/4s of the program. And I am willing to stagger start my kids too. So he could work a month or 2 longer in Preparing the following year before starting CTC.

I know homeschooling isn't a race but I do like to have a solid plan and my plan is that my middle child finish CTC and up prior to graduation. My youngest will complete Beyond and up before graduating. And my oldest started with Preparing and will it complete it and every guide after it before graduating. So whatever that plan looks like, I am trying to semi-schedule it now.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Wow, I thought I was a planner but this takes the cake.

It's good to have an idea or a plan for what you think will happen, and it's also good to hold it loosely because it also will depend on what your child is ready for and what you yourself can handle. I understand your idea is to have the middle child do all of CtC through MtMM, and certainly that child will be capable of doing that, but how many weeks of Preparing for example do you think that child will end up skipping? Is there any way to squeeze that material in, during a summer break very low-key or have him read the books on his own or something? I am not sure if Grandpa's Box and Child's History of the World are scheduled all throughout Preparing (seems like they might be) and then you'd get through only part of it. I suppose you could also have that child doubled up and let him listen in with the younger one who would still be going through it.

Just some thoughts on those plans. I definitely would not do 1. As to the others I might lean toward 3, but I am not familiar with Preparing on up so I'm not sure I can make a good suggestion to you on that. At any rate, when you do switch from 2 guides to 3 it might be intense for you. It would be good for child #3 to not be starting a new guide or maybe not even #1, starting new guides at different times means only one child is in the most intense part of learning how to do their guide.

Honestly I wouldn't cut any short since the skills build on to each other. Having done Preparing on up I definitely would not cut any of Preparing. It has some crucial skills to prepare for CTC. Up to this point I would say the jump from Preparing to CTC is the biggest jump as far as skill levels. So I guess I would go with option 2 if I felt I had to cut something short.

Yes - I am totally OCD about school. I basically plan each child's education from 12th grade down so that I know which goals I want to reach and when I want to reach them by. Seems very weird probably but in my mind it is working for me

As for Preparing and what we would finish - we would finish all of the LA, we would finish the Grandpa's box book, math and spelling aren't an issue because they are kind of independent to each child anyway. I had thought about just having my son listen in on the stories I read to his sister as we reach them - even if he is doubled up somewhat for CTC. I have thought about speeding up Preparing for him or having him finish it if I can but then I feel like I will have to speed up for my younger one.

I actually have an appointment to meet with the teacher who does my children's teaching evaluations. I feel like I am kind of holding my son back so that I can keep him and his sister together. But I am not really sure I need to hold her back. I have thought about just letting her go full throttle if that makes any sense and let them stay together through Preparing. I do wonder if this is the right decision though because she is actually 20 months younger than my son. I am pretty sure she is gifted because can read as well as him, she does grammar activities in Beyond better than him (basically she already knows the answer before I have asked a question - my son is what I would consider normal), she can write just as much as him, she spells as well as him. She is actually doing 1st and 2nd grade work even though she is only 5 - she will be 6 in February. Her attention span is as good as his. And I am by far one of those crazy parents who things - yeah gifted child, I will give them 4 hours or hard school. She does school for 2 hours max per day and only does so much because she begs. I have to cut her off at time because I have had enough! But if I let her be with her brother all the way, then she will graduate 2 grades ahead. When I did some research on gifted children, a standard I saw said that gift children can usually complete grade level work that 2 grade or more ahead. Even though she is pretty young, she seems to be doing that already. I just worry about the time when it gets to be too much for her but also wonder if that will happen. So - that is why I have sought advice from a certified teacher who reviews my stuff and hopefully she can help me sort some of this stuff out too. And I had though preparing might be that time where she kind of gets stuck but who knows, it might not be.

I guess I would love it if my son could find a way to do all of Bigger and Preparing but don't want to push the youngest too much. So thank you LynnH about your thoughts. I am familiar with Preparing as well but not yet Bigger or CTC for that matter. We started HOD this year and my oldest is almost half way through Preparing. So that is good to know that you think Preparing is the biggest jump to CTC. And thank you Melissa. I saw that you are working on starting Preparing now. Did you find the jump from Bigger to Preparing to be a large jump? I have heard the jump from Beyond to Bigger is one of the harder transitions. But I haven't heard anything about Bigger to Preparing.

I don't know if you have already taken it into consideration, but to make up time, Preparing and up are scheduled for 4 days per week, but you could do them 5 days per week.

I do actually had thought about that. But I picked HOD because it was schedule 4 days per week instead of 5. We do a co-op one day a week for 24 weeks. I definitely could do it 5 days a week or do school for 10 months instead of 9 (we basically do this already). So it could even out in the end.

Well, it is definitely a jump. The jump from Beyond to Bigger was a pretty big one, and I think this is also a pretty big one. The amount of work is probably a bigger factor than the difficulty of it (well my DD is ready for the difficulty but the amount has been a source of conflict between us at times).

Interesting that your DD seems to be so far ahead. I think she might hit a wall in Bigger or Preparing though, again the amount of work and the difficulty of it will go up quite a bit. But maybe she will be ready. You can certainly see. If I had a child who was slated to finish H.S. level work 2 years early then I would have that child start taking college classes as a H.S. student. My nephew (homeschooled) did this for his last year of H.S. I guess taking them as a H.S. student is somehow cheaper than as a College student. At least here in Kansas it is.

I think it's great that you can think so far ahead. I have ideas and goals in mind, but I have not made detailed plans that far ahead yet. I do look at the next guides and drool at all of the wonderful books and materials we will be using!

In Ohio, they have a grant where high school aged students - homeschooled or enrolled in school - can enroll in 2 classes per semester for free at certain state institutions. I can see my youngest easily doing this. So I probably won't let her graduate too early because she could get that first year under her belt for free.

And as you mentioned, if she can't keep up with the work load, I would know that it was the perfect moment to split them up! I actually kind of thought of a 4th option that I have been fighting tooth and nail. Keep them together all the way through but push my year's start date from August to January. If I do this, then my son would either graduate 1/2 year late or he would just complete only 1/2 of the last guide. I guess we could cross that bridge when we get there. If I do this option though and let him graduate a year later, then he would also qualify for the grant until graduation and I could definitely get some college classes under his belt for free. And that may be a great option for us. Do half the guide one semester and then do the other half the following semester of his last year and he could get 4 classes (2 each semester) of college for free. Who doesn't like free? And realistically, I started him in school right after his 5th birthday. He has a summer birthday. I started him because I figured he would catch up by the time he was 8. Well, he is only 7.5 and he isn't really catching up. I honestly think he is probably on the lower end of the spectrum for abilities for a 2nd grader when compared to other kids. So if I make is start date January instead of August and I hold him back a half a year, it might be better and give him a half a year to improve and gain some more skills. Plus, that would make my the age of my youngest child for each HOD level right at the lowest in the age range. So I wouldn't be feeling like I am pushing her too hard because then I will know she really is ready - at least in age and my guess is that her abilities will line up fine too.

So I think this is probably my best option now. And I think I have been fighting it because I always envisioned splitting the kids up when I switched to HOD. I guess God just had other plans for me. Realistically they are almost identical in abilities. So they truly are at almost identical levels (except math and spelling and that isn't hard to adjust at all). I guess if there comes a time where my son really shows he is truly past his younger sisters level, then I can split them then no matter which guide we are doing. Plus, it is way easier for me to run only 2 guides instead of 3. So it is kind of a blessing. I just don't want to feel like I am holding my son back to make it easier on me. I want to put him where he should be and for my youngest to be where she should be.

Well I was recently talking to a friend of mine who also uses HOD and her kids are very similar to mine but they are a little bit older. She actually asked a question similar to mine but it was a little different. She sent me the link to the discussion board. So I think for now, I will just continue on guide by guide and not cut any short in the lower levels. If when my middle child gets to be of high school age and I really feel like he is ready to move on, then I can bump him then. But I am not going to worry about it all at the lower level guides.

Thanks for your thoughts.

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