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I have been reading posts and reviews everywhere on the web and have decided to do HOD for the fall! Now I need help!

In the fall, my kids will be 10.5y (son, 5th), 9 (daughter, 4th), and 6 (son who will be doing 2nd grade math and can read at a third grade level). I would LOVE to teach them all together. Is this possible???

We will use a separate math. We will definitely use the Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. I read about the writing and they all need help in this area. So, I was wondering if we could use the BHFHG, get the extension package, and tweak it a little...

I wouldn't put a 6yo in Bigger at all. My daughter is advanced - similar to your 6yo, and we did LHFHG this year. And it was perfect for history, devotion, and read-aloud. Reading and math ability don't affect handwriting or the ability to digest the readings in history, devotional, and story-time at all, as those really are more age related. You would be spending a lot of time simplifying things for the 6yo while having to beef up something for the 10yo. Really, placing them in an age appropriate guide is important. And it turns out to be easier most of the time. I would place your 6yo in Beyond and then place the other two in Preparing. That will only be two guides, and you won't have to change anything really for the two in Preparing. The only difference for the two using Preparing will be the language arts and math, which you will customize to where they are.

I agree with the pp that I would not put a 6 yr old in Bigger. The next year would be even harder with a 7 yr in Preparing. That is just too young. Beyond and Preparing are very doable and with your children correctly placed it is actually easier.

Thank you for the advice!

I had discussed with a friend that Bigger was where you needed to start for the writing portion. She had said that is where they really learn to notebook, dictation, copy, etc. They all need this as this year our writing was minimal...

I think Preparing is really a good place to start with HOD. The same dictation level is in Preparing as in Bigger and has instructions for it as well. There are no written narrations in Bigger.... this is taught in preparing. And notebooking/science experiments are well explained in preparing as well. I would absolutely not hesitate to combine your older two in Preparing.

Are you just wanting to combine for this year? I ask b/c while I could see tweaking and working out Bigger for a year with these 3 kids, HOD can't work long term this way with such an age/grade gap. If there is more than a 2yr age/grade gap then I would suggest going to the placement chart and being really honest about the abilities of each child individually without tweaking anything.
Mainly, think about just a few years down the road. Your oldest will be middle school and there is a shift in priorities to being prepared for high school and then there is the shift for high school to being prepared for college. Your 4 years younger child won't have that shift then and it won't be a priority and you will be dragging them along or slowing it down for your older at that point.
Personally, I wouldn't combine them in any guide or curriculum as all of their needs can't possibly be met that way. I have combined mine before out of necessity and life circumstance and while it was not the end of the world it did not help them to gain ground academically, emotionally, or spiritually. We were just trucking through the days and marking off we had done the work. It had to be adjusted so much for the oldest and youngest that it was just a big mess. I would walk out of a school that even suggested teaching a 5th, 4th, and 1st grader together no matter their reading or math capabilities as I would know their needs couldn't be met that way.
My kids are all close in age aside from ds7 and I still will not start them in high school before they get there even though they are all a year apart each. There are a lot of heart lessons and life lessons that I want to be able to focus on each kid individually with as we hit them instead of trying to hit it all at once. I mean I am not going to have the heart to hearts with ds7 that I am starting to have with dd13 and the devotions and spirituality in HOD does lend itself to dealing with things at the right maturity level in the guides. This is pretty opportune for me as our teens in our homeschool group have been going through issues this year and dd has opened up to me at times when I know that she would not have done so had we been all sitting together ds11, dd12, and dd13 trying to do heart to hearts together. This may not be what you are looking for in an answer but academics are not all that the guides are about and I did want to point out that there are some great resources for both boys and girls as they go through these tender years that you wouldn't want to go through with your younger kids at the same time.

I agree with the others. The older two seem like maybe they could be combined, and Preparing is a good place to start. It does coach you on the narration skills, though it does kind of expect some ability in it coming in. Especially the oral narrations, the younger guides have prepared my kids for being able to do that pretty smoothly and you would have to work on it a bit probably. I think there are narration tips in the appendix that you can use though. Written narrations are started in Preparing so it is built up gradually and explained in more detail what you and the child need to do.

With HOD I don't think you could put the 6YO in with them and I would not recommend it. Doing multiple guides is easy (or made much easier) if the children are in guides that are just the right fit for them. Then it becomes truly open-and-go each day, no planning and very little preparation on your part for teaching. The younger guides take 1.5-2 hours each day to get through and this can easily be done while the older kids are working on independent work. So you do not take 4 hours of work in Preparing and add 1.5 hours of work in Beyond for example to see how long YOU take to teach them each day. I would say we get Preparing, Beyond, and LHTH done in about 4 hours of work total (and I am not teaching that whole time).

This was my first year using HOD as well. I have 3 kids and they are all 1.5 years apart. I actually switched to HOD because their educational goals match mine almost perfectly and I loved their books. When I first came to HOD, I came with the intentions of having my kids all do something together. I was very surprised and almost saddened when I found out that this is not how this program was structured. This program is set up to be very well rounded for a certain age range.

I honestly had to pray about this! I took about a month of praying about it and researching them and talking with my husband. Finally, we decided to give it a go and try it out. I even contact HOD and asked about their return policy because I wasn't sure if I could run 2 levels and make this work or not. Well, long story short, this year I did Beyond with my 5 (who just turned 6) & my 7 yo and then I did Preparing with my 9 yo. It was definitely the best year we have ever had. I love the independence that my 9 yo took on this year. It was wonderful. I couldn't believe how easy it was to run two guides!

This year was so fantastic that next year I am splitting my two younger children up and running 3 guides. So my oldest will bump up to CTC, my middle will move to Bigger and then my youngest is going to move down to Little. My youngest who is 6 is a lot like your child. She is also finished with 2nd grade math, reads at 3rd or 4th grade level, loves to write, love to do projects. I actually am only doing Little Hearts with her and tweaking a few things because I did Beyond this year with her.

For your 6 yo, I would put him in Beyond. Even though Beyond looks light, you could definitely add notebooking to it and writing down experiments if you wanted. We did not do that but we did a ton of copywork this year (mainly because my youngest loves to draw and copy everything in sight.) For your son, the nice thing about Beyond is that it takes about 1.5-2hrs a day to complete. And half of this is the math and language arts you are already doing. I did purchase Bigger and actually had planned to let my dd join him next year. Honestly, she could do the work. But I know that on some days she wouldn't feel like it so I didn't want to put the volume on her if she felt like playing most of the day. In addition, as the kids move up in guides, they get a lot tougher and they learn SO much more! Plus, before I found HOD, I was more worried about the content of studying something. HOD not only has well rounded content, but the diamond in the rough for me was the skills they learn in each guide. I had never thought much about that before, not like I do now. I am absolutely amazed at how with each level the have time to focus on a specific skill. So in Bigger, they focusing on writing things down. Preparing is learning independence and written narrations. CTC is volume and much more independence. It is truly genius!

For me, HOD has been such a blessing. I always envisioned us learning together. What I found is that my kids love learning separately! And they thrive being separated. If it were me, I would put your 2 oldest children together this year with Preparing. I would have the oldest complete the extensions if that child loves to read. If not, skip the extensions. This way your two older children learn about written narrations and get a great start with being semi independent. Then with the 6 yo, I would probably do Beyond. Yes, it may seem easy and it may seem light. It is much meatier than it looks. My kids LOVED it this year. Then for the following year, if you decide you like having them together, then you could definitely move through each level on up having them together. If you decide that you wanted them separate them as well, then you could check the placement chart. But leaving them together would be fine too.

HOD is a wonderful program and using it the way the intended is a beautiful and amazing blessing!

I have loved reading this entire thread! The advice these ladies give is wise and also from the heart. We simply have the best ladies here - such encouragers! I think that you could EASILY do Preparing Hearts for His Glory with your older 2 dc, and do Beyond with your 6 yo. You mentioned focusing on writing being an important goal of yours. HOD would help you do this so well! What you would need to focus on for writing for your 6 yo will be very different than what you would need to focus on for your 9 and almost 11 yo. Consider these threads when pondering writing instruction across the ages...

Carrie has this to say in regard to comparing writing in Beyond with writing in Bigger Hearts...
As far as choosing between "Beyond.." and "Bigger..." goes, the amount of writing varies quite a bit between Beyond and Bigger. Bigger requires more writing in the areas of a once a week history notebooking assignment, a once a week science experiment sheet and a once a week science notebooking entry, along with once a week copywork of a Bible verse, 1-3 vocabulary cards each week, cursive handwriting practice daily, and daily grammar instruction with written practice. It also provides a choice of spelling or dictation passages. If your little one sounds like that would be fine for her, she belongs in Bigger. If not, then Beyond would be best. Beyond has much less writing doing copywork daily from the poetry, using a gentle once a week introduction to grammar, and writing daily for very short spelling lessons.

Amount of writing in Bigger vs. PHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3602

Progression of Writing Through the Guides:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8731&p=64455

I know that combining is heralded as the very best way to homeschool, and with smaller age ranges, and with the right family make-up - combining IS a great way to homeschool! However, not combining is also the very best way to homeschool sometimes, especially with larger age ranges and wide skills and abilities. HOD makes this EASY to do! HOD also does an outstanding job of teaching writing incrementally across the guides, with careful consideration of what writing goals each age needs to reach. If you haven't had a chance to read the "A Series of Posts on Common Questions" by Carrie, you may want to do so, as the thoughts there are incredibly wise and so helpful to having a successful, joyful homeschooling journey - not just for one year, but for all the years!

A Series of Posts on Common Questions...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9344

HTH!
In Christ,
Julie

Thank you so much for that reply! We will definitely be doing Beyond for my 6yr old and Preparing for the older two. Excited!