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Hello! I am brand new to HOD and love everything I am learning about it! I have been an eclectic/CM homeschooler so far, but love the idea of everything being already put together for me. I am considering using Little Hearts for my ds(5), Bigger for my dd(7) and Preparing for my dd(10) next school year. I initially was hoping to combine at least two of the kids, but with them all spaced 2.5 years apart and varying quite a bit in their abilities, I just don't see that it's possible. My questions - am I crazy to take on three different guides my very first year? Am I overlooking a way to combine two of my kids? And lastly, if I do go ahead with all 3 guides, can you give me advice on how I would organize my day/what it would look like? TIA for your help!

I have to admit when I read the title of your post my first thought was, "let's see how we could combine," but it is possible to do 3 guides. It is just best not to have them back to back, and Preparing and Bigger are the most teacher intensive guides. Have you looked carefully at the placement chart? I think for a 10 yr old new to HOD Preparing is fine. I am wondering about your youngest two. Your 7 yr old may benefit from starting with Beyond and you will want to look carefully at the chart to see if she is ready for Bigger. A lot of 7 yr olds are not quite ready for Bigger, the guides can look deceptively simple at first glance. That would spread you out some. I would also look carefully at your 5 yr old. He may be better placed in Little Hands with kindergarten options and the following year in Little Hearts with 1st grade options. That would certainly spread you out to a more manageable load. Placement is going to be key, but anything you can do to avoid Bigger and Preparing together will help.
My last advice is to stagger start the guides so you can get into the routine of things. I would start with the younger guides first, then finally start Preparing. It can take 3 weeks to really get settled into a routine so stagger starting can be really beneficial.

Thank you so much for your reply! I have studied the placement chart quite a bit and I hesitate to put my 7 year old (she'd be almost 8 at the start of the next school year) into Beyond because she's pretty advanced for her age (an excellent reader and is very ready to start cursive and dictation). We also just went through the entire book, "Stories of the Pilgrims" this school year and that's one of the key books for Beyond, so I think she would dread doing it again. I toyed with the idea of putting her in Preparing with my oldest and just tweak it some for her, but then I've read a lot on here how that's not a very good idea. Hmm...I'm so stumped! Are there any aspects of Bigger I could cut out that wouldn't cause her to lose much and would take a bit of a load off me? Not ideal, I know! Oh why did we space our kids out like this

Hi Jenny I'm going to second Countrymom on her suggestion to try Beyond and LHTH. I put my youngest ds in Bigger as a 7yo, and while he comprehended the reading, we had to skip many activities because his stamina was not there. He would have been much happier in Beyond, and now we have struggled through two more guides before I read through the board here and realized what all he had missed We ended up stopping for a couple months and re-working through missed items in CTC. Just last week we finally started back to full time, and it is a challenge to train the habits that he would have worked into if we had fully utilized the previous guides. As a side, I bet she would love the reading in Beyond

Hi JennyD! Teaching multiple guides IS doable. We have done so for many years! However, placement is especially important. I'd love for you to tell us about each of your dc with the placement chart in mind. Also, when do each of your dc turn a year older? That will help too. In regard to Beyond or Bigger for your almost 8 yo, the writing is a big deal, as well as what dc have done for history, CM skills, and their general length of school day previously. Here is a lit of the writing involved in Bigger Hearts...

Bible - Once per week copy the memory verse
History - Timeline entries once per week (name, dates, and small picture)
Once per week notebooking page that may be a map drawing, list of facts about a person or event, pictures to go with it...
1-3 Vocabulary cards per week (definition, sentence using word, and illustration on the back)
Science - Once per week notebooking page including Bible verse and a labeled drawing
Once per week experiment page (Parent writes question on it, child records a guess, draws the procedure, and writes a conclusion)
Dictation - Study and write short passage 3 times a week (2 sentences)
DITHOR - 2 (?) student pages per week (The teacher guide actually reccommends writing these for your child if writing is an issue starting out.)
Cheerful Cursive - if you're opting to do that (The lessons are very short! I have my child write the words once, even though it says twice on some of the pages, as long as it's GOOD writing.)
R&S2 - Usually about 5 sentences a day (on a white board)
Poetry - OPTIONAL to copy from the poem of the week. We started out without it, and have added in copying 2 lines 4 days a week.

These are spread throughout the week in the plans so that there's not too much on any one day. Cursive and R&S are daily, but the "big" ones are split up.
Day 2 - Science notebooking
Day 3 - vocabulary and science experiment page
Day 4 - Bible verse
Day 5 - History timeline entry and notebooking

Could you please share about each of your kiddos, and then we'll help come up with a good plan for the whole family? A good plan for YOU too!

In Christ,
Julie

I would not cut out anything in Bigger, as each guide builds on the last guide. You could put your almost 8 yr old in Beyond, but add English 2, cursive, and DITHOR for reading. You could start dictation, but I would look at the spelling lists to make sure that is where she is at. This would certainly add some meat to Beyond, but still keep your schedule doable. There are two other history books and lots of activities to go along with them, so it would probably have a new feel even though she has read one of the books.

Ladies, I am so, so thankful for your help!! Here is a little more info about each of my kiddos:

DD(will turn 10 this June) - Excellent reader (reading books at GLE of around 5.7), she does a full page of copywork in cursive everyday fairly easily, has done some medium length dictation passages, not much creative writing, is doing the Abeka 4th grade math book, we've done an intro to parts of speech this year, she basically falls into the Preparing column perfectly. I studied American history with her this year using lots of living books. She has a love for history and an amazing ability to remember facts and dates.

DD(7) - will turn 8 next December - Reading chapter books at a GLE of 3.5-4, easily and very neatly prints a full page of copywork each day (using Scripture verses, literature, poetry, etc.). She's ready for dictation - I am borrowing my friend's Preparing book to look over and I just had her try some dictation passages from half way through level 2 and she did great (and really liked it!). She has a good grasp on grammar and I lightly studied American history with her this school year - using literature, History Pockets, The Stories of the Pilgrims, etc. We use Abeka math and she is almost half way through the 2nd grade book...she falls into the Bigger column very well.

DS(he will be 5 next week) - I have been working on beginning phonics/reading with him this school year. He can read a book like Go, Dog, Go! fairly well. He does a sentence each day of copywork, so obviously is beyond just learning letters. He excels in math - he is half way through the Abeka 1st grade math book (TOTALLY by his choosing - he loves math and begs to do it everyday!). He really enjoys "doing school" like his sisters, can sit attentively for pretty long periods of time. He perfectly fits in the Little Hearts column.

Hopefully that gives you a good overview - if I missed anything, let me know. Thanks again for all your help - I'm really excited to try HOD!!

A thought I just had - do you think it would be helpful if I only did 1 page of the Little Hearts guide with my ds each day instead of both? Would that save some time if I did go ahead and do Bigger and Preparing with my girls?

To answer your title question: Yes it is doable!

The year of Bigger + Preparing would be your most intensive back-to-back guides year. After Preparing that older one will become much more independent in their work, meaning you are spending less time (as long as you get them trained to do the work on their own diligently and well, which we are still working on with my oldest). So, if that's where you really need to be with them, then do it! Yes you will have one really intense year but I would suspect it will be well worth it.

Now I am with some of the others in cautioning you about starting Bigger with a barely 8 year old. If she is ready, she will soar, but it is an intensive guide. I would say it's the beginning of the ramp up to where school work is serious and hard work. It requires maturity and stamina. Not a lot, and the activities and notebooking pages ARE fun to do. My 8YO is doing well but with my oldest I jumped into it too quickly and pushed too hard. Beyond with some add-ons would be a perfectly acceptable thing to do with a child that age and might make it easier on you for the short term. Reading, grammar, and math you can adapt to the child's level. What changes from guide to guide are the amount of writing, the length and complexity of the books you are reading to them, the length of the school day. Writing is the thing my kids complain about and where my oldest really got socked when we started it. But again, you know your child the best and if you are following the placement chart, you shouldn't shy away from doing Bigger and Preparing together if that's where they need to be.

You may not want to START all of those guides right at the same time. I would recommend (no matter which guides you end up in) stagger starting, doing one for 2-3 weeks then starting another. My kids all change guides at different times and I find it really helps me that I only have one child to start a new guide with at a time. The first several weeks of doing a new guide are the most intense and require more time and effort from you as you and the child get used to the rhythm and what is expected of them for each task they need to do.

I hope this helps.

It is absolutely doable because I am currently doing it! I would definitely stagger start them, starting with the oldest. And since your Preparing child is older and a good reader, you could have her read her history or story time. That would help it not feel so bogged down with you reading. But if you start your oldest first and get her settled in with the guide and knowing what she can do on her own. Then start your Bigger child a couple of weeks later and see what she can do independently (My Bigger child is 8 and she reads either her history or her science each day, does cursive, timeline, and all that stuff on her own) And then a couple of weeks later start your LHFHG child.

Also, I have seen with all three dc that they become more independent as the guide progresses. Even my reluctant fifth grader, just this week, realized that his day went much more quickly and happily if he did as much as possible on his own. And he loves to share tidbits that got his attention What a relief for me...

Thank you, again, ladies for all your helpful comments! I so wish on the HOD website that we could see a week's sample at the beginning, middle and end of the guide so we can see how it progresses. I am very torn on whether to do Beyond or Bigger for my dd(7). I didn't realize that Beyond is typically the 2nd grade curriculum - is that right? I'm open to doing it, just want to make sure it is challenging enough for her. I will try and get my hands on both guides so that I can look closer at each and decide.

If you count backwards, Beyond will be second grade. There will be four high school guides, which would make MtMM "8th grade." Of course proper placement is more important than grade level, as HOD is a very rigorous curriculum overall, and even teh middle school goodies seem to be more than most public schools teach in high school.
As for the year of Beyond, other than the 3Rs, the content is very similar each week. And you can easily customize the 3Rs if you desire. For example, we did Rod adn Staff English (2) with Beyond this past year because my duaghter had completed all of the grammar skills in Beyond already in another curriculum. Other families will speed up the grammar, doing it more than once a week, and then move into Rod and Staff English 2. My daughter asked to learn cursive around Christmas, so we started Cheerful Cursive in January. If you child asks for more work, you could EASILY add some sort of notebooking for science (picture with a sentence or two about what they learned). But the history books used in Beyond are easily 2nd grade level. Christian Liberty Press (the publisher of all three books) lists them as 3rd grade, 3rd-4th grade, and 4th grade.