slow...and how it is going so far

[Christianna]

We are moving pretty slow with HOD. We started school on Sept 10th and just now finished Unit 3 (mostly).
I am liking the poetry and I think the kids kinda like it. They don't like the artistic expression (drawing what they think the poem means). I love the Bible verses and Bible study portion and I think they do for the most part. By the way, when I say "they" I'm referring to my sons ages 9 and 7. We are working on Beyond with both, though my 9 year old does the right hand side of Bigger.

History: Micah, my 9 yeard old, really likes it and begs me to keep reading. Josh doesn't seem to listen much to me reading anything aloud unless it has pictures.

Storytime: We finished the biography quite a bit ahead of time due to Micah begging and begging me to finish. Josh didn't hear the whole story, but I'm not concerned.

Art Activity: sometimes we do it, sometimes no. My kids are not into art too much really.

Science: They love the hands on stuff. If I start reading from a text, they clue out. I've been trying to do "double Science" with Micah form both guides, but he is not into the "One Small Square" series and detests the notebooking.

I am loving Singapore Math for the most part and I love the corresponding activities! Super!
I tried the Spelling with Micah, but it didn't work too well, so we went back to Sequential Spelling. He balks at the LA, but I think it's a good foundation for him, though much of it is review. I sometimes supplement with Daily Grams. I am loving the Rreading Schedule for Micah. He is not ready for Drawn into the Heart of Reading, so we are following the Emerging Reader schedule and it seems to go smoothly everyday. Reading used to be a huge chore for him, but he doesn't complain too much about it anymore.
Overall, I do like HOD, but have had to tweak some things to suit our kids. I'm thinking of going tback to "Considering God's Creations" for Science.

[my3sons]

We are moving pretty slow with HOD. We started school on Sept 10th and just now finished Unit 3 (mostly).
I am liking the poetry and I think the kids kinda like it. They don't like the artistic expression (drawing what they think the poem means). I love the Bible verses and Bible study portion and I think they do for the most part. By the way, when I say "they" I'm referring to my sons ages 9 and 7. We are working on Beyond with both, though my 9 year old does the right hand side of Bigger.

History: Micah, my 9 yeard old, really likes it and begs me to keep reading. Josh doesn't seem to listen much to me reading anything aloud unless it has pictures.

Storytime: We finished the biography quite a bit ahead of time due to Micah begging and begging me to finish. Josh didn't hear the whole story, but I'm not concerned.

Art Activity: sometimes we do it, sometimes no. My kids are not into art too much really.

Science: They love the hands on stuff. If I start reading from a text, they clue out. I've been trying to do "double Science" with Micah form both guides, but he is not into the "One Small Square" series and detests the notebooking.

I am loving Singapore Math for the most part and I love the corresponding activities! Super!
I tried the Spelling with Micah, but it didn't work too well, so we went back to Sequential Spelling. He balks at the LA, but I think it's a good foundation for him, though much of it is review. I sometimes supplement with Daily Grams. I am loving the Rreading Schedule for Micah. He is not ready for Drawn into the Heart of Reading, so we are following the Emerging Reader schedule and it seems to go smoothly everyday. Reading used to be a huge chore for him, but he doesn't complain too much about it anymore.
Overall, I do like HOD, but have had to tweak some things to suit our kids. I'm thinking of going tback to "Considering God's Creations" for Science.

Hi Christianna! Well, I'd say that things are going very well! As much as we want are kids to love everything, they won't - just like we didn't - so I'd say you are off to a good start. I'm so glad you are enjoying the poetry - we are too. I am soooo glad our dc are getting an education complete with both strong academics as well as a fine arts component. The Bible box has been outstanding! The discussions always help me discuss things I wanted to with my ds anyway, and they do a good job of helping us work on developing Godly character traits. The Storytime selections are wonderful too - it's tough to stop reading! There are some really important LA skills built into that box too. I agree the science experiments are awesome! I would never get them done if HOD hadn't planned them for me, and our boys love them. The Singapore math is a hit here too, especially with those fun HOD hands-on activities, and we're almost through with the Emerging Reader's Set and getting excited to begin DITHOR. That set is just the perfect transition between phonics and the next level of reading.

I start half-speed sometimes too, but I bet your kids are going to be ready to move along more quickly now. That keeps things exciting. Beyond should take about 2 hours or 2 1/2 hours at the most to complete. I've found if I drag things out, it takes a lot longer, and the boys can't stay focused that long. You may be finding that same thing and would probably enjoy picking up the pace and doing a unit within a week or so now that they've gotten their feet wet.

One thought I'd had - I'd be a bit leery about letting dc skip things they aren't crazy about - especially since you are only in Unit 3. Believe me, it can become a habit faster than you can blink! Some things just take time to get used to and to learn to enjoy. These things are often the skills they struggle with - for example, responding personally to poetry, expressing themselves artistically (this used to be a really tough one for my ds), learning to listen attentively to books with few pictures, organizing information and responding to it personally in notebooking assignments, learning to spell the CM style way, etc. These are all higher level skills that are meant for dc to grow and mature into, and it just doesn't happen that quickly - as much as we wish it would! We've done Beyond twice, once with our oldest and now with our middle child. Some of these skills take all year to really master, but they do an excellent job of laying the foundation for harder skills to come. I just wanted to encourage you that they are worthy skills to work at attaining, and that they really do come along and grow in these skills as they do them consistently in the plans over the year. Well, it sounds like you are off to a good start, and I look forward to hearing about the rest of your year!

In Christ,
Julie

[juliekay]

Hi Christina!

I agree with Julie. It sounds like it's going well! We began our HOD adventure last January with Bigger and really all we followed in the guide at that time was the History/Storytime/Bible and some of the other boxes some of the time. We already had math programs and grammar that we were used to so we stuck with that. Like homeschooling - the switch to HOD is an adjustment and takes time.
We just loved what we did try in HOD last year that this year we jumped in to HOD again with Preparing, but decided to do the entire program. We are LOVING it, BUT it sure was an adjustment! We just finished week 6 (8 weeks into "school") and I think we finally got our "groove"! (AND for my youngest guy in the program - not everything gets done, but he does try everything even if he doesn't like it!)

Honestly my boys didn't care for "art" too much before the age of 8/9, but with my 8 year old I am finding that it really isn't the art he dislikes, but the time it takes to do the project AND the fact that his art doesn't look anything like the art he is copying - that's frustrating, but the more he does it the more he will grow to like it and the better he will become as an "artist".

Like your son, none of mine "enjoy" writing really before the age of 10, but they have to do it. Maybe only have him do 1/2 of the writing work for his Science notebook to start. You can do the other 1/2 and slowly build on what he is doing so that he can see at the end of the year where he started and how well he ended. We also loved Considering God's Creation. It's fun, but not as much "thinking on the topic" as One Small Square and Science notebooking demands. Why not add bits and pieces of CGC to correspond with the Bigger Science?

As far as your 7 y.o. only liking pictures books - I don't blame him one bit! I love picture books! There's a big maturity difference between 7 & 9! So, if you can I would just add great quality picture books just to read to him. If he enjoys the reading and pictures this will help him to "mature" into listening to stories weather they have pictures or not. There's lost of great picture books list. Use Five in A Row books or look at the young picture books listed at Simply Charlotte Mason.

Just keep at it! You will find that by the end of the year you didn't do everything in the guide from the start – that’s way OK - but you will see how much you and your children have learned as you use that guide and build on that guide throughout the year!