heartofdakota.com

I received my guide for Bigger on Wednesday afternoon. I spent a fair amount of time devouring it. I knew that it was a 5day schedule, so I knew I was going to need to rearrange some things and probably eliminate some things to accommodate our 4day schedule. I looked through the posts to try and find someone else doing Bigger in 4days. The thread I found had people who opened the book and picked up wherever they had stopped. It would bother me to have the topics scattered over multiple weeks. Is anyone using Bigger in 4days?

Next year I will have a senior who will need my time to help line up college enrollment, etc. I will also have a junior who if he is anything like his brother will need to some help in learning time management as he moves into a more independent schedule. I work on Mondays at the tutorial the boys attend. For most of the year, my middle ds either has volleyball practice or games after the tutorial. So, on Mondays we leave the house at 7:30 and on most Mondays don’t get home until 7:30 or quite a bit later during game season if his game falls in a late slot. Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings I work at the Kumon Center. Sundays are the only day that dh has off work.

The little man needs to finish his work in 4days and I really want the topics to be cohesive weekly packets. I have some ideas, but if anyone else has done this I really would like to hear about it.

Thanks-
Mandy

Hi Mandy,

We're not using the complete Bigger product, but I've noticed in the books we're using the work seems to "lighten" on the 4th and 5th day. It may very well be possible to combine your day 4 and 5 and to even opt out on a thing or 2 where there's duplication. My suggestion would be to create a 5 day chart and list all the subjects down the left side. Then in each day, chart what is going to happen. The intro. of the book has an overview of what happens Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc. Once that's in place, if there's anything you can slide into a block or drop. The main area you will want to address is the math schedule and the Rod and Staff schedule, IMHO. You'll need to make decisions about whether you want to double up on certain days or just folllow a more relaxed schedule with these items. When we want to keep on track, but don't have a day for school, I often will just pull my gang together after supper and we'll hit the math and the Rod and Staff. That seems to keep us on track.

Just some thoughts. Happy planning

deltagal wrote:We're not using the complete Bigger product, but I've noticed in the books we're using the work seems to "lighten" on the 4th and 5th day. It may very well be possible to combine your day 4 and 5 and to even opt out on a thing or 2 where there's duplication. My suggestion would be to create a 5 day chart and list all the subjects down the left side. Then in each day, chart what is going to happen. The intro. of the book has an overview of what happens Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, etc. Once that's in place, if there's anything you can slide into a block or drop. The main area you will want to address is the math schedule and the Rod and Staff schedule, IMHO.

Obviously, we will not be able to use the complete Bigger package either. Ds will be turning 7yo in the fall and will only be registered as a first grader, so IMHO Bigger lite will be more than enough.

I have decided to let ds continue using CLE LA instead of switching programs, so no problem with the R&S LA. However, we will use the poetry (skipping day5), Cheerful Cursive (we’ll just do a page each day), dictation (we’ll just keep moving through it), and Storytime (we can still read aloud on Sat. ) from Bigger. Ds already completed Singapore 2, so I wasn't going to be able to use the math as written anyway, but I plan to use some of the math exploration with Singapore's CWP 2.

Last night I created a chart and did almost the same thing you thought to do. In the chart I typed the Bible verse at the top of the page. It looks like we will miss out on the 5th day of Bible, but the 5th day is more abstract and ds may not be ready for that anyway.

Under the verse I have 5 columns. The first one is for the topic/ book and the other four are for each day that we do school. Thankfully, it looks like history readings are only scheduled 4 days each week, so that is no problem. The history vocabulary, history activity, history timeline, and history notebook will be done one on each of the 4 days. It looks like we will be able to utilize one day for for Bigger art, one day for Bigger geography, one day for Calvert's Discoveries in Music (currently sitting unused in my game room closet), and that will leave Friday’s for Bigger math exploration alongside Singapore CWP.

The science was what I really liked about Bigger, but I don’t think that we will be able to fit in the second science experiment. Instead any science reading on day 5 will be added to day 4. We may occasionally be able to do the day5 science experiment on Saturday, but I don’t want to count on it. So, science will look like this:
Day 1: practice narration by retelling the science story
Day 2: create a science notebook entry
Day 3: conduct an experiment related to the reading and log it in a science notebook
Day 4: read and enjoy

In this way we will only loose the day5 Bible, the day5 Poetry review, and the hymns from the left side. I could do the hymns, but I already own Calvert’s Discoveries in Music and feel like it should get used. Also, Calvert’s can slip into that one day/ week slot whereas the hymn should be listened to daily. From the right side I think we will be able to utilize everything we wanted from each week except for one science experiment.

I think I can live with this, but does anyone have another idea?
Thanks-
Mandy

I don't have any ideas for you. I just wanted to say congrats on a well-thought-out plan. It looks like you've figured out what will work for you. Maybe some others will come along with a different plan, but if not I say go with what you have. Looks good to me...

I have been doing Bigger 4 days a week but I am not sure my plan will help you. We are able to finish up our LA and Math in 4 days and then we just do Bigger as it is written except do not pay attention to the day numbers or fishing a unit in a week. We just decided it was OK not to finish it in a year for the sake of the 4 day schedule to have one day a week for Bible. I do think it could easily be done in 4 days if you were willing to just do a little extra every day. We already have extra so we just do it like it is written but 4 days a week. If you do this it requires one little tweak in your head that says Bible, Science, and History are cyclical so who cares about levels or years. It helps if you school year round but we did not this year and it still went great even though we ended while still doing Bigger and started this year with it again. If you did this I would just make sure that you of course stay on track for Math and LA then let the rest fall as it may.

I don't think this is what you are after but I hope it still some how helps. HOD is very flexible. Make it work for you and whatever you decide is then the perfect way to use it. You have stuff to work around and I am sure you can find a way to make it work without adding too much pressure on yourself. Praying you find a peaceful way for you.

[quote="Mandy in TN
I think I can live with this, but does anyone have another idea?
Thanks-
Mandy[/quote]

Hi Mandy,

It sounds like you've given some great thought to this and I think it looks great! But are you happy with it? It sounds as if there might be something you want to "perfect". If there is can you articulate it - and let's see what we can do. Otherwise, let me offer you this thought. IMHO, the most important part to do is the right side, if you need to let some of the left side go - you'll be fine - and so will your child.

deltagal wrote:It sounds like you've given some great thought to this and I think it looks great! But are you happy with it? It sounds as if there might be something you want to "perfect". If there is can you articulate it - and let's see what we can do. Otherwise, let me offer you this thought. IMHO, the most important part to do is the right side, if you need to let some of the left side go - you'll be fine - and so will your child.

Thanks, the basics are covered. I am fine with the left side. I had wanted to do all the science, but I don't want to cram to the point of discomfort. I think that I am ready to move ahead with planning and purchasing. I want to have the little guy lined up, so that I can focus on my middle guy. I want to loosely coordinate their history. I know that I have until the end of July, but those 6 months will fly.

Thanks-
Mandy