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I have 2 daughters....one in 3rd grade and one in 1st grade. I am combining them for the science and history readings but I feel like my 1st grader is missing out on the fun activities. But it wouldn't make sense for her to do the ones in her book because they aren't following with what we are reading. Any suggestions?
Thank you!

Can I ask why you are combining them for science and history?
The HOD guides are written with skills included in every box. So, if you are combining kids that are not close in skills, it is hard to use one guide (science, history and Bible) with them because it is not meeting them at their skill level.

YOu might find reading the links about combining on this post helpful:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9344

My younger daughter is actaully able to listen and understand the readings more than my older one. But then I don't have her do the activites. I am feeling like I am doing her a disservice. So then my next question is, how do you do both history readings and science readings. Doesn't it get overwhelming?

My kids are still young (only in Beyond and LHTH), and it isn't that bad. Starting in Preparing, they are supposed to be working towards independence. By CtC, they are reading most of their work themselves. By RtR, they are only meeting with you for 60-90 minutes a day.

I would really look at the placement chart in your case. First, it sounds like you might have the 3rd grader in a guide that is too challenging. Many families use Bigger for 3rd and Preparing for 4th. But some even use Beyond for 3rd. If it turns out that your children place into Beyond and Bigger, you could just combine them in Beyond and then supplement with additional grammar, dictation, and notebooking for the older one. Starting in Bigger, there are extensions included as well.

As StephanieU has commented, the standard procedure when wanting to use HOD curriculum and combine two children is to use the guide the younger one places in well, and can accomplish completely. Then you add on for the older one. Starting in Bigger Hearts there are extension books that go deeper into the concepts or time periods being studied. I think extensions may include some writing assignments as well, though I haven't used them so I don't know. You could add on science, grammar, literature, really any areas the older one is ready for that the younger is not. This is how you do combining.

But keeping them separate is not hard. The readings for the younger guides are short and the overall time for the guide is short. The older guides the kids start doing work on their own, so if you have a child who is well placed in that guide they can often do much of it indepedently, with you just checking in and grading work, going over concepts before they do the workbook or something like that. It all balances very well, along with the fact that the load is balanced, each day of an HOD guide will take roughly the same amount of time if the child is on task and getting it done.

You have a trade off. Either combine so your reading time with the kids is shorter, but your time in having to plan and prepare, and add on work for the older one, is more, or keep them separate and you can use the guides as-is without much planning or thought needing to go into preparing for your day. I prefer the latter. I also appreciate that each of my kids is working on something that is right at their level, and they get lots of hands-on practice to reinforce what they are learning about.

I am doing 3 guides this year and yes, it takes longer than doing 1 or 2, but if I were trying to combine I can see how that would actually be more difficult and more disruptive.

mtoback wrote:My younger daughter is actaully able to listen and understand the readings more than my older one. But then I don't have her do the activites. I am feeling like I am doing her a disservice.

Does your first grader place in the Preparing guide? Could she handle the writing, activities, reading, etc? I don't think HOD would recommend for you to put her into Preparing, but I am just trying to understand.

If the first grader doesn't place in Preparing could both girls place in Bigger to combine them?

HOD is a lot more than being able to listen and understand the readings. I know there are curriculums whose primary goal and focus is being able to listen to more advanced literature young and understand it. HOD is based more on a CM methodology that has much more to do with students learning to process and tell back what they are learning. The telling back can be an oral narration or drawing, like in Beyond history activities that go with Beyond readings. Or, it can be an oral or written narration that go with the Preparing readings. Charlotte Mason recommended written narrations starting around age 9, so I have always thought that is the reason that Preparing emphasizes the development of that skill. Copy work too of course is in both programs. The skills developed in HOD have more to do with what Carrie does with the books than the level of books they can understand. The placement chart has much more to do with their skill level for the work they will do at a particular level, than their ability to listen to a reading. Does that make sense? It took me a long time to fully understand with my oldest. He is an example though of what I am trying to explain. He has read a couple of the books Carrie picked for her high school program and told me about them. His reading abilities and reading comprehension is very high. For discipline, writing, work load, and skill building though CTC is a perfect fit and he is well placed. So the skills is what HOD is bringing, in many ways to the education. The taking time with a book and drawing out of it information in a variety of a ways that take the student deeper. If that makes sense.

You have some great insights from the other ladies. I hope they will help you decide what is best for you.

I just want to encourage you. I started out planning to combine everyone for as much as possible. What I found was that I had a hard time incorporating appropriate skills and growth along with increase volume of information and appropriately stepping up my expectations for them. When I started HOD, I only looked at their curriculum because I loved their books. As I researched them more, then I got scared because I realized that I would no longer be combining them. I was really worried about getting everything done. But because starting in Preparing, the kids do so many things independently, It really cuts down on your teaching time. I am not sure if you are accessing that freedom or not but that is how people are able to run so many levels at time. I am running 3 levels this year and my teaching time takes about 4-5 hour a day 4 days a week. I am good with that. I have 3 kids and since one of them is in Bigger this year, that year is fairly heavy for me as the teacher. My son needs a lot of help because he is not the best a drawing (and needs some hand holding), he doesn't feel as comfortable with writing things directly (he prefers to copy things) and then I am still reading all the books to him or at the least listening to him read to me out loud. But next year in Preparing, he will be so prepared because of my investment this year and I anticipate that I will only be spending about 1.5 hours teaching next year at the most. When I did Beyond, I think I spent at most 2 hours a day with my youngest two. So, if your kids are correctly placed and you aren't adding in anything extra, then you should be able to get your teaching time done in 3.5 hours. Your child doing Preparing should have no more than 4 hours a day of school. And then the first grader will have no more than 2 hours a day. Even with combining previously, I found I spent more time than this because I was constantly trying to adjust for everyone and spent quite a bit of time planning. For me, it is much easier to just follow the guide for each child rather then spend time adjusting and planning. And as for teaching time, I easily spent 5+ hours a day teaching everything because nothing was done independently. So while my teaching time is probably a little bit similar, it will remain on the lower/doable end as I move up in level and my kids will gain so many great skills and independence along with reading engaging and interesting books that doing the multiple levels has been a great fit and am glad we tried it out. We love it and will never go back to combining!