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Our awesome programmes from HOD arrived & I am SO excited to get to jump in face first tomorrow with my youngest child. He's a little nervous because he saw the huge stack of books & thought he had to do them all at once. Silly boy, he's not new to lit based curriculum, but clearly I've never placed an entire stack in front of him before.

So here we are, ready to jump in & I'm being silly about my guide. While I was waiting I snooped around blogs & FB to get a feel for the programme & see how others used it. I'm not new to homeschooling {hello year 11} but, I confess now I'm a little timid to use my guide. No one spoke ill of the guides, but wow, people really do baby their guides perhaps for resale value? Either way, now I'm all timid of "What if I mess up my guide?" Which is crazy funny because I never buy curriculum with the intention of selling it. Sure, we sell some things when we are done & we keep others. We don't live in the USA & as Expats it's a little harder at times to sell curriculum, kwim?

So, I could use a little confidence to remind me that this is my guide & if I want to write in it, cover it in contact paper, spiral bind, hole punch, or colour code it I should, because the idea is to USE the curriculum & get the MOST out of it, not worry about resale value. Phew! I might have just given myself a pep-talk!

I write all over my guide! I wouldn't worry about it. I don't buy my curriculum to sell it either. I will let others borrow my books but I actually make them buy their own guide and of course any disposable books as well. Don't be timid. Yes, I have seen that there a lot of moms out there who definitely try ad preserve everything in pristine condition for that purpose. But I have also seen a lot moms out there like you and me too.

I write in my guide--they aren't a disaster, but I don't worry about it either. I think it's there to be used. Two of my guides I completely cut up and destroyed by taking some things apart and rearranging some things to make it work for my two boys. I think that's what they are for--to make it work for us. When my youngest gets to those guides, I'll just buy new ones.

Enjoy!

I don't normally write in the guides, but I also don't baby then. We are using LHFHG for the third time, Ave the guide is a little beat up. But I am fine with that! We have gotten a lot of use out of it already. I put clear contact paper on the cover to help them last longer. They are books. I want them to last, but they dune have to be in perfect condition either.

If you want to write, highlight or do whatever to your guide, then by all means...do it!! It's yours to do with as you please. Our guides are well loved and some are starting to look a little ragged, but written in or not, it's a great curriculum! We all have such different and unique ways to utilize the tools we use in teaching our children. It's great that you're desiring to make it your own. All I ask is please share any great tips or ideas for doing so as you discover them!!

Thanks Ladies..

I'm not sure why I was being so silly about things.. but it is a relief to know others USE their guides..

We actually page protect our guides I know it sounds crazy, but I have to use them for so many kids, and I really just wanted them to stay nice for each child. They can mark them with dry erase markers or sharpies and kind of make it their own. Then they clean it up for the next person. I know it's a hassle and and investment, but my kids seem to like it. Also, my girls are already talking about using my HOD sets when they homeschool their kids

Renee

Oh it doesn't sound entirely crazy to me. For the previous 6 years we've used a curriculum that comes in loose leaf paper format. I can't stand using a 3-ring binder to lug around when I want to be "open & go". So, I use to wait for the guide to arrive, slip each paper into a page protector & then spiral bind it. We have page protectors here with tons of holes in them so the spiral binding wasn't hard. I found it easy to work with, but if I wanted to make notes on my guide pages that was hard because I had to pull them out.

Funny thing is we have used HOD before. We used it years upon years ago when we moved overseas & our youngest was in need of some structure for his day, but not entirely ready for sit down work. We picked up the LHTH & I really enjoyed it. My little one was very much a "me too" child & was keen to do "big kid" school with brother who was using FIAR at that time.. It's funny how he's come full circle.

He's nearly at the end of his first week. The first 2 days {nothing to do with HOD} were rough, but his third day was lovely & peaceful. Funny thing is, even after a rough 2nd day when asked he said he enjoyed his new school & couldn't think of any part he didn't like. Which is high praise from this kid.

jellybeanmum wrote: He's nearly at the end of his first week. The first 2 days {nothing to do with HOD} were rough, but his third day was lovely & peaceful. Funny thing is, even after a rough 2nd day when asked he said he enjoyed his new school & couldn't think of any part he didn't like. Which is high praise from this kid.

So happy things are going well!!

Well, I try to keep my guides nice so they are in good shape for my younger student. When I receive the guide, I take it to a bindery and have the binding shaved off and the guide 3-hole-punched. I put it into a binder. Each child has picked out a special portfolio that has tabs to allow 3-hole-punched items to be secured in it. In each portfolio I put good quality sheet protectors. Each week I fill the sheet protectors with the papers for that week's Unit taken from the big guide binder. I also put into the portfolio the poem for the week. I have a place also for the dictation and extension papers from the guide. My kids find it very easy to carry around their portfolio, the guide stays nice and they easily see their Unit's work. We can write on the sheet protectors with erasable markers if we want to. At the end of each Unit, I switch out that Unit's papers back into the big binder and put the next Unit's work into the portfolio. It works for us!