heartofdakota.com

I have 5 children - 13 yo not using HOD, but almost completely on his own, 10 yo using CTC, 5 yo and 3 yo using Little Hands plus 2 other things for my 5 yo to make LHTH a "kindergarten" curriculum, and I have a 17 month old that is pretty "needy".

I'm sure that my problem is just self-discipline, but I need help making a schedule that doesn't having me flying all over the house to help everyone!

I'm frustrated, flustered, and feeling a bit crazy right now.

How can I fit in helping the 13 yo as a tutor while helping the 10 yo do some of her R&S english, write with the best, dithor for the two of them, plus reading to my 10 yo, helping her with bible study and geography - all while nursing a teething baby, and keeping the little boys (3 & 5) out of trouble without sticking them in front of the tV!

Help!!!

Crying out to the Lord and those of you who are in the trenches with me,
Christine

Welcome to the HOD Board, Christine! It is nice to meet you. You will find this a very encouraging place to be, and I think you'll get some great answers here. I don't have as many dc as you do, but I am doing CTC and Beyond Little Hearts this year, and I have a toddler that is all boy in the mix as well. We're 3 days into school, and it's taking us about 4 hours to complete. Here is a copy of my schedule (just arrow down to the my3son's post that has a little white schedule linked, and click on it to see it bigger), in case something here might help:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=60

Here is a link to the part of this thread that includes Carrie's schedule (she has 4 boys, with the oldest being 13 yo, so this may help you a lot):
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15

A few other things that may help...
*Give yourself some grace! It is going to take awhile to find your groove.
*Go half-speed to begin with for 2-4 weeks to ease into it. Do the left side of the plans one day, and the right side the next until you know the routine of the boxes. Train your child to use the CTC manual and check off the boxes as he completes them.
*Look at the time stealers of the day and concentrate on problem solving those areas.
*Plan for the dc not doing school with you to have some independent things to do.
*This helped me so much - look at the suggested time increments for each box and set the timer for that, seeing where you are going over the most - tell the kids you're shooting for "x" amount of time for that box and work together to beat the timer.
Times for CTC boxes...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3765
LHTH should take 3-5 minutes per box
*Plan for the little ones (here are some great ideas)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=198&p=33557

Give yourself a break here, Christine! You need some time to ease into this, but if you take that time, I guarantee you that you are going to LOVE HOD as much as we do. It has been an incredible blessing in our home, and it will be in yours too. Just take a breath, run a bubble bath, and map out a plan to go half-speed for awhile. Then, you'll be able to tackle full-speed in no time. HTH, and I'm glad you are here!

In Christ,
Julie

I don't quite have your age span but it looks to me like Julie gives you some great advice. I think we are too hard on ourselves and sometimes it does take a little time to get a routine. Especially when you have a lot to juggle and you do right now. I have four of my six very close in age and the other two also fairly close. So it really is a lot easier. I think when you have kids under 4 it is just a harder juggling act. I can't give any better advice than Julie but saying some prayers for you that you will feel peace and God's grace in your hsing!

What does my day look like? Crazy! But I know it will continue to improve. In a couple of more weeks I will try to post my schedule (We still need a couple of more weeks to shore up some problem scheduling areas.) My children are 16, 14, 11, 9, 7, 4, 2, infant. All that to say, I feel your pain. You are doing a great job! I just got the best advice, which I am currently implementing. Whenever you feel frustrated during the day, write it down. Then you will see the areas that need tweeked. It also helps you to see that it is not the entire day, just portions.

I agree with the great advice in this thread! I, too, write down any problem areas and then focus on fixing those parts of the day in my schedule. Sometimes, it's just minor tweaking that will make a major difference.

I also agree that it will likely take some time to train your 10 year old to independently do the boxes marked "I" in the CTC guide, so while you're training your child, you may wish to go half-speed with CTC until that child can really do the tasks independently!

Another thing to consider is whether your 13 year old could sit in on the geography study/Genesis study, DITHR, Write with the Best, and read-alouds that you're already doing for CTC with your 10 year old. If so, you could replace those areas in your 13 year old's day and make the CTC time spent in teaching those areas do double-duty.

One last thing to consider is whether you would rather just hold off on LHTH for a bit until you get into a better flow with the rest of your day? Or, you could split each day of LHTH out over 2 days (just re-reading the Bible story on the second day) to keep your LHTH time to 15 min. a day for now.

I'd love to hear your thoughts when you get a chance to ponder a few of the ideas in this thread.

Blessings,
Carrie