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Hi everyone, I am not new to Heart of Dakota as oldest child (now graduated) has used CTC and WG in the past, and I have used a bit of LHTH, LhFHG and Beyond, but what I am new at is having so many kids and using more than one guide!

I have 6 children under the age of 12 and schooling 3 of them formally. Their ages are 12,9,7,4,2 and newborn.

My 12 year old would place in bigger/Preparing, my 9 in Beyond/Bigger and my 7 in Beyond. I have both Bigger and Beyond on hand because I want to combine my kids somehow! My 12 year old is On the ASD spectrum and is dyslexic and reading on the 4th grade level. My 9 year old is just finishing AAR 1 (also dyslexic, but not as severe as my oldest) and my 7 year old is learning to read this year. As you can see, my focus is to spend lots of time on phonics and reading but also having 3 children under 4 to tend to. I also run a business from home

How can I combine these guys and make our days run smooth? We like a mostly a cm education, so I'm not one to try to overcomplicate things which is exactly why I chose HOD. I need all planned out lessons, but I also need to somehow streamline these guides because the rest of our schooling I still very teacher intensive...also have those you here to tend to as well.

My thoughts were to have my 7 year old participate in the Bigger History left side, except poetry. And having her do the right side of Beyond but having my oldest read her the Beyond history books as her story time. This would give my oldest some on grade level reading, but not missing out on the history books in Beyond. I would then read aloud a story time book chosen for a read aloud to all,the children from either guide....just depending on what we have here. I would also assign my oldest literature. My 9 year old is finishing up phonics with phonics pathways and I'll be assigning him the emerging readers. My 7 year old is doing CLE LTR.

Does any of this make sense to you all as I am typing out what's in my head. I am still a bit brain foggy with a 7 week old, but really want to have a great year with these guys and have been wracking my brain how to do it!

FYI these 3 kids are like the three musketeers and really want to do projects and things together, so separating them and doing one guide with one and the others doing theirs isnt going to work here. I know that's probably what will be advised, though

Thanks everyone!

Hi there! Thanks so much for sharing about each of your children! From what you've shared so far, I think I'd place the 7 and 9 yo together in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. The 12 yo, maturity-wise and age-wise, would probably place best in PHFHG. Even if he takes a little longer to complete PHFHG, it would be a better guide for him to do overall, as it is more age appropriate and will help him begin to take on some needed independence for his maturing age. However, is there more information we should know about placement-wise, as far as writing, grammar, math levels; ability to take on independence and/or any other special needs? That may change placement advice. I want to encourage you that I am doing 3 HOD guides and work close to full-time off and on, and HOD has been an incredible blessing to me!!! Multiple guides are easier when kiddos are spread out and needing different things. Hope something here helps!

In Christ,
Julie

my3sons wrote:Hi there! Thanks so much for sharing about each of your children! From what you've shared so far, I think I'd place the 7 and 9 yo together in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. The 12 yo, maturity-wise and age-wise, would probably place best in PHFHG. Even if he takes a little longer to complete PHFHG, it would be a better guide for him to do overall, as it is more age appropriate and will help him begin to take on some needed independence for his maturing age. However, is there more information we should know about placement-wise, as far as writing, grammar, math levels; ability to take on independence and/or any other special needs? That may change placement advice. I want to encourage you that I am doing 3 HOD guides and work close to full-time off and on, and HOD has been an incredible blessing to me!!! Multiple guides are easier when kiddos are spread out and needing different things. Hope something here helps!

In Christ,
Julie

Hi Julie, Thanks for responding!

My 12 year old is high functioning ASD. She is also dyslexic. She's currently testing at about a 4th grade reading level and math is actually around the same. She's not had much grammar because we have been very focused on getting her to read and spell but she does have the basics down there with what we have done so far. We had a very rough year last year with lots of breaks and plan on spending a majority of our time this year working more on getting her to read more (she's miles ahead where she was!) and some more living math which seems to appeal to her visual spacial learning style. She's very distractable, so I worry about too much independence because it's easy to lose track of her when she's doing school and realize she's been working on one page of math for over an hour She is a very artistic and creative type and makes her own books and movies so notebooking really appeals to her. She loves doing science experiments with her siblings, but also really likes working alone

We are not planning on doing any of the suggested Math or Grammar in any of the guides, since we already have those covered. The main portion of HOD that appeals to me is the Bible, history and science. My struggle is that those are the main subjects I have always envisioned in keeping my children learning together. I do agree the younger two could do Beyond together and she would be fine in Preparing, I think, but Bigger seemed like the happy medium to me.

How would you have all of them scheduled out with Preparing and Beyond. I'm trying to figure out the logistics of schooling them with different guides and managing the other 3 littles under 4.

Thanks!!

When I ran Beyond and Preparing together, I had a schedule I put together. I would spend about 1 hr in the morning teaching Beyond and 1 hr in the afternoon. Your 7 year old and 9 year old would have plenty of time to spend keeping the littles busy. You might also look at doing some of it when your hubby comes home in the evening or when your little ones are down for a nap. With the 12 year old, if she likes the art projects and crafts, there is always some project to do 3 out of the 4 days. As for the science projects, those happen once every week. I would give her the opportunity to learn to be somewhat independent. It may be difficult at first but she may surprise you. And she may not become 100% independent but she may be able to take some ownership. I do think though that she may enjoy having the opportunity to do things her younger siblings can't.

Nealewill wrote:When I ran Beyond and Preparing together, I had a schedule I put together. I would spend about 1 hr in the morning teaching Beyond and 1 hr in the afternoon. Your 7 year old and 9 year old would have plenty of time to spend keeping the littles busy. You might also look at doing some of it when your hubby comes home in the evening or when your little ones are down for a nap. With the 12 year old, if she likes the art projects and crafts, there is always some project to do 3 out of the 4 days. As for the science projects, those happen once every week. I would give her the opportunity to learn to be somewhat independent. It may be difficult at first but she may surprise you. And she may not become 100% independent but she may be able to take some ownership. I do think though that she may enjoy having the opportunity to do things her younger siblings can't.

Thanks! I think she might enjoy doing some things her siblings can't do. She's also really wanting one on one time with me, so this may be a good way for her to have that during the day when I am usually trying to keep everyone busy lol.

We'll I went for it. I bought Preparing and plan on doing Beyond with my 7-9 year olds, and Preparing with my 12 year old.

I'd love to see anyone who has done both at the same times schedules! I will start Beyond first, since I already have it here and then Preparing in about 2 weeks when I receive it.

Thanks!

This schedule is really old but this was my schedule when I did those two levels.

Nealewill wrote:This schedule is really old but this was my schedule when I did those two levels.

Its not letting me see your schedule for some reason. Can you email it to me if possible? Thanks! (Mamasphonemail@gmail.com) thanks!