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Hello,
This will be our full first year of home schooling (I took my daughter out of 2nd grade mid year last year) and we are using Beyond for our 3rd grade year. We started his past Monday and so far so good but I was hoping to get some other perspectives from moms who have done this before. I took my daughter out of school not because we wanted a Christian education, although we are Christian. And not because we were unhappy with her public school. It was because I wanted to have more flexiblity. My husband travels a lot and I wanted my daughter and I too be able to join him and include that as part of her education. She also is heavily involved with theater, dance and music. She does these classes during the day since it is a home school group that she does them though. In the evenings her dad takes her to rehearsals if she is in a show.

So my question is:
How do you do HOD and still leave room for all the things I took her out of school for. I want to take her on field trips to the science center, spend a hands on day at the shore to learn about the ocean, go to the zoo, etc. We tried to get all 10 "subject blocks" done on Wednesday and I was literally frantic. She had a dance class, music and theater class all that afternoon and I work in the evenings so it was a miserable race to do it. And I wanted to take her to the science center tomorrow but I'm already stressing about how to get it all done. Do you guys do HOD every day? Do you skip around? Do you keep some flexiblity to mix it up? Because she is up late many nights due to rehearsals and I work until very late, starting school at 7-8 to get it all done just isn't going to happen. I'm worried I may have chosen the wrong curriculum for our particular family "lifestyle". Any thoughts?

I think it depends on your priorities. For us, we keep the extras to a minimum. We do co-op one afternoon every two weeks, and we try to have time for at least one fun trip a week (on top of errands). We also have Awana one night as well as church another night.
I would look at your schedule and see how much time you really have to "school" after her scheduled extra curricular things. Once you get going with Beyond, it should be about 2 hours a day total. That is a lot less than standard school, which should give you the time you need for the extras you want. But, the first few units normally take twice as long simply because you are getting used to everything.
With the three guides we are running, we are done in under 6 hours. We are at hour 5 right now, and all we have left is vocabulary for my oldest. And that included them having fun making shields, breaks when the baby was fussy, etc. We do the guides as written with a different math, and then we add in XtraMath (for math facts), DuoLingo (Spanish for the oldest), and memory verses for Awana and church. But that is it.

We just do school when we do it and don't when we don't. If we want to go to the zoo or something, then that's what we do. I don't stress about it getting done completely each day. Most days we do get completely done. And with Beyond, especially with a child on the older end of the age range, it shouldn't take you very long at all once you get the hang of it.

I would also agree that it takes about twice as long at the beginning of a new school year as it does once everyone gets used to a new guide and how the school year's going to go. So give it a couple of weeks before you change your mind too quickly. My (almost) 7 year old is doing Beyond this year...we just started her this week, and she can get everything done in under 2 hours if I give her my focused attention for that time. So maybe try finding a 2 hour time slot during the day that works well for you and focus completely on her and school during that time. Another option is that you can make your school year longer than the 35 weeks the guide is laid out for. Maybe you want to do 3 or 4 day school weeks and do school work year round (or only take a month off, as opposed to 2-3). If she's already involved in music, then don't do the music part of the guide...or pick and choose on the "extras" like art projects, etc. You can definitely tailor it to fit your family's needs. We have been doing HOD for 7 years and our family loves it! Remember to do what fits for your family...that's part of the joy and flexibility of homeschooling!

HI there! I think it helps to start looking at your homeschooling as if you have 365 days to do it. Isn't that a freeing idea?!? Working within the homeschooling parameters of your state, you can usually set up a plan that fits your particular goals and family well, no matter what you have going on. Beyond Little Hearts... takes 170 days to complete, and only about 2 1/2 hours each day to do. Plenty of time to add in your extra things you'd enjoy! If it was much less time, it wouldn't be enough. With homeschooling, you can think out of the box more, which I didn't do at first. I was too set in the way I'd always done things according to a public school calendar. For example, maybe your weather is the pits in winter, so you do more homeschooling in those months (we do this - we even school 5 days a week with 4 day a week guides in our l-o-n-g winters ). Or maybe your summers are blazing hot in the 100's, so you do more homeschooling in those months. Maybe your husband travels more a certain time of year, so you school less then. Maybe it works better for you to school 3 days a week some weeks, and 6 days a week on other weeks. We try to take vacations when others can't. The rates are better, it's not so crowded, and we can kick back and have a less tourist-filled vacation. Some ladies have husbands who are deployed and school a lot when their husbands are gone, and none where they are home. Or, vice versa - maybe their husbands want to be part of the homeschooling when they are home. Other ladies are married to firefighters or doctors with crazy shifts, and they school around that. For me, we have long winters, my dh travels a lot, we have all sons and my dh wants to take them fishing or hunting when the weather's nice, I have a part-to-full time job depending on the time of year, a mother with a knee surgery coming up, and oh so many more of life's ups and downs to plan around - just like you! We still are able to homeschool with 3 guides and love our life. I just want to encourage you - 170 days out of 365 is a super way to look at your year! It opens doors so the possibilities are endless! Hope this gets you dreaming of how you'd best enjoy your upcoming year with a balance of fun and schooling!

In Christ,
Julie