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We've been doing school at half-pace the last two weeks, to ease ourselves into a new year. Today was our first full day of school, and it went so well. It wasn't neat and tidy, like the pretty little printable schedule that I had on my clipboard, but it all got done.

We are running 3 1/2 guides: WH with my oldest, Preparing with my 10yo,8yo and 7yo, the right side of Little Hearts with my almost 6yo, and Little Hands with my 3yo and 2yo (plus some R&S workbooks for the 3yo). I haven't figured out how to have my almost 6yo in her guide completely, so for now, she listens in on the history portion of Preparing. We also have a Morning Basket that we do at breakfast where we learn different things each day: devotional (from Little Hearts), manners, habits, catechism, timeline (memorizing the Veritas Press timeline cards), picture study, and composer study. We've been doing the Morning Basket for a long time, and have enjoyed incorporating it into HOD. This is when we do Poetry from Preparing, scripture memory, and the hymn study from WH.

Thanks HOD for helping me to put CM methods into practice in our home.

That sounds awesome! Great job!

As far as incorporating LHFHG history, you could possibly have one of your olders read it to her. Alternately you (or dh or older sibling) could read it to her at bedtime? I think it's great that she can sit through the Preparing history though... that's awesome!

MotherJoy - HOORAY! I'm so glad to hear your first full day went well!!! Way to go! You have a lot on your plate, and it sounds like it's going well. You are doing a super job of managing your home in an organized, God-honoring way. We just started the World History guide this week with Wyatt, and our first day went very well overall. There were glitches, but they were of my own making. It helped that Riley was returning to do RTR thought full-speed now (he started about 2 months of half-speed at the end of last school year), and Emmett was returning to Beyond though full-speed now (he did Beyond for about half the year half-speed last year).

I kept a notebook to jot things we needed to get in place as we went. It was funny - the things on the list were these - nothing really to do with HOD, but with our home and ME being ready for homeschooling ...
get a floor lamp for the addition
get a tv tray for Emmett to color on in bedroom
forgot snack/drink time in schedule
get graph paper for Wyatt's math
set out exercise for clothes for me night before
make an individual list for each boy like Carrie's for school so easier to follow individually
CD player broken in playroom
need another supplies carousel for Emmett
get a clock for the playroom and hang the one in the addition

It is different being in our HOMES to homeschool, isn't it?!? It is so comfortable - I love reading on the couch, seeing the boys read in an easy chair, eating what we want for breakfast/lunch/snacks, etc. - but I forget things sometimes... like adequate lighting, enough supplies, etc. Anyway, I'm so glad you are off to a good start!!! You put your time in training the dc well, and now you have the benefits of smoother days. Thanks for sharing!!!

In Christ,
Julie