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I realize in all of my analyzing, I really have one issue to overcome in considering my options for the coming years. My question: What do your children do whose reading time it is not while you are reading to the child whose turn it is for school? i.e. It's time for dd1's school read aloud time in Beyond. dd2 is doing LHFHG...what does dd2 do in the meantime? My girls always want to listen to the other's readings, etc, so I find we are ALL doing the history portion of two curriculums if I try and get two of them going. I haven't figured out how I could keep them separate, even if I wanted to. Does this make sense? I just imagine sitting on the couch, reading through all of both girls' readings while they both listen to all of them. Not a bad scenario, I suppose, but it kind of defeats the purpose of giving each child their own "school time" with mommy, kwim?

Quite honestly, as long as time allowed during the day, I would have no problem with my kids listening in on their sibling's school time. It certainly can't hurt them to pick up some extra information. I would just make it clear that if they are listening in, that the questions are for only the "student" at that time. As they get older, and the day gets "fuller" then, it's probably not a bad idea to give the older children some independent type work during that time. That's how I think I will handle it anyway. Right now I'm just doing LHFHG and my two toddlers just tag along... but I like that they do, because actually they really are learning some things too. I will start LHTH with the two of them in a year, but I will still allow them to tag along with big sister's guide at that point if they want to, and big sis can participate with the little ones too if she wants to. At least that's the plan for now.

mommyofgirls,

Early in our homeschooling journey, we did start out allowing our younger kiddos to listen in with our olders but eventually moved toward having each child be engaged in something else during the other kiddo's history readings (so that the child who's reading it was could really focus and be responsible for the information and follow-up activities). You can take a peek at my scheudules on the scheduling threads linked below to see what we've done with our other kiddos in order to make that work.

For the little ones we use crib or playpen time, a short video, playtime or reading books with an older sibling, snack, rotating toys from our kitchen cupboard, playdough (or working at the table with mom), or once they get to be 4 or 5 playtime in their room. For my older kiddos, we have them work on their independent material during my teaching time with my other kiddos. We schedule the older kiddos to be in different rooms from one another, so they aren't distracted by overhearing each other's material. It seems that quiet work space becomes more important as they get older.

For kiddos in K-1st-2nd, we've used books on tape, computer time, a short video time, playtime in their room, looking at books time, or a scheduled game time with an older sibling.

I do still choose one read-aloud to do with all of the kiddos together at lunch, and we often listen to each other's music and sometimes poetry selections near lunchtime. This year my older boys do Drawn into the Heart of Reading together, and also do Geography of the Bible Lands, or Genesis: Finding Our Roots together each day. My older son does dictation with my next son in line. My toddler plays with quiet toys from the kitchen cupboard or playdough at the table while I work with my first grader and my fifth grader on a few things in our schedule each day yearly too.

We all eat lunch together and have a one-hour recess together after lunch. The boys then play with each other part of the afternoon (each one choosing a 20 min. activity that the other boys must participate in without complaint).

Here's a link to my schedule for this year: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093&p=38905

Here's a link to my schedule for the previous years. Scroll down to see them:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15

Hope that helps a bit! If you have other questions, ask away.

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie wrote: The boys then play with each other part of the afternoon (each one choosing a 20 min. activity that the other boys must participate in without complaint).

Carrie,

Could you please share what types of activities your children engage in to fill up their afternoons?

Thanks so much for sharing!

Pollo_la,
You make a good point...I guess there is no harm in both of them listening to each other's. I think having this happen some will seem less "odd" when we are actually studing American History later this year and next year. When the oldest was doing LHFHG (the first half that is Bible history) and the middle one was doing LHTH, I found that sometimes they were listening to each other's stories and I was afraid of them confusing them from a chronological standpoint.

Carrie,
I guess it makes sense that I could schedule their time in such a way as to allow for them to be engaged in a particular activity during the other one's school time. I have found it hard, thus far, to enforce independent activities on my children. It seems as if one wants to always be doing what the other one is doing! (I know, I know, this is where I step up and be the parent and tell them what to do...I just find it hard to say, "No, you can't listen to this Bible story, you go play in your room. LOL) I appreciate your input and will give it some serious thought. As I stated above, once Bible is kind of it's own reading and not the crux of the history readings, I could see combining, or not combining, being easier in general. I can tell you that I did take notice yesterday and today of how far my oldest has come spiritually and how much knowledge she truly has of Scripture and spiritual truths, all because of LHFHG. While my middle one is fully capable of listening and of doing the activities, I think I would feel as though I would be doing her a disservice by not taking her through the same curriculum when she older. I have actually toyed around with the idea of starting her on her own LHFHG next fall, half speed (when she is 4 1/2). I feel as though she would benefit greatly from doing it "again", and my oldest would be doing Beyond (and then Bigger), so we would all still be together with American History during my first few years of figuring this all out. Maybe then I would feel more prepared to be studying two different time periods and places!

I like the idea of starting her on LHFHG next year instead of waiting a year (even if it takes her longer to do it), because LHTH is too light for her imo, and I really have had a hard time knowing what to do with her next year. She wants to do school like sister, so I can't just "not do anything". She would be crushed! I know I read that someone on the board starting her dc on LHFHG half speed at 4 1/2...was it Julie?

Thanks again for all you do and for HOD. I feel so blessed to have found it!

mommyofgirls wrote:I know I read that someone on the board starting her dc on LHFHG half speed at 4 1/2...was it Julie?

Thanks again for all you do and for HOD. I feel so blessed to have found it!

Yes, that was me (among others too). We did this with Riley, and it worked well. We did LHFHG half-speed for a long time, and finished the last while full-speed. We did do Phonics daily. LHTH is an excellent program otherwise too. If a child does not know his letters and most letter sounds, is not ready to write letters, cannot count to 20 and do some very basic math, cannot cut/color/paste, and cannot sit well to listen to a read aloud for about 5-10 minutes - he probably needs to do LHTH first before doing LHFHG (even half-speed). HTH!

As far as the other part of this thread about not combining and what others do during that time, I have 3 dc, and each of my older 2 sons take a turn playing with our toddler. I have truly loved this because my oldest 2 are best friends and when my third little one joined the mix about 4 years later, they needed help with blending him in with playtimes (my middle son especially needed guidance with this since he adores my oldest). So, having a playtime for just my 10 yo and my 2 yo together while I do my teaching time with Beyond with my middle, and having a playtime for just my 6 yo and 2 yo while I do my teaching time with CTC with my oldest has been wonderful. I need 2 blocks of teaching time for CTC, so my 6 yo and 2 yo watch a 30-40 minute video during the second block of teaching time, but it's in the playroom, so it really turns out to be my 2 yo plays while my 6 yo watches. I've found it is important to do this so the child accountable for learning what is in that program is fully responsible for the academic skills for their age level. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

mommyofgirls,

I think it's so important to know that Heart of Dakota will work in combining situations and will also work with those who have kiddos too far apart in age to combine well. That happens to be the case with my kiddos, who are each almost 4 years apart from their next sibling in line. With this big of an age spread, it is tough to combine well. My kiddos are presently 14, 10 (almost 11), 7, and 3. This makes a big difference in whether we are able to combine well or not.

It's also important to note that with HOD you can move from teaching kiddos separately to combining, and vice versa, depending on your changing needs from year to year. So, this important decision doesn't have to be a forever decision. It is impossible to plan for the years in the future right now, as much as we'd like to have it all mapped out. The best we can do is make the best decision for the upcoming year or two, and then bathe it in prayer!

There is no one right way to do HOD! Each family has to find their best fit. I pray you will find the fit for you.

Blessings,
Carrie

Terri,

My boys each have 20 minutes to choose something for the other boys to play together. My 3 oldest boys do this, while my youngest is napping upstairs. This takes up an hour or more of their afternoon after school is done (and comes after our one-hour recess). When my kids were younger, we had a 30 min. time that they each chose something for the others to play. However as my kiddos are getting older, they each desire more of their own free-time in the afternoon. So, after they have played together now they each have their own free-time until our afternoon rest time before supper.

We also do still have a 45 min. rest time in their rooms in the afternoon right before supper (where they can play quietly, create, read, listen to books on audio with headphones, latch hook, etc.). In this way it's quiet for me right before supper, and I have time to prepare it (or think ) without all of the kiddos around! If we skip rest time, we find especially the little ones quickly derail in the evenings. So, we work hard to make sure everyone gets some quiet time before the evening meal. (Mom included).

For their 20 min. play time, the boys can pick anything from playing a board game, to playing outside, to creating with art supplies, to playing with some sort of toys in our playroom (like Legos, K'nex, Playmobile, G.I. Joes, castle, build huge train tracks), to playing with our game table (new this year for Christmas), to recording books on tape or cd, to flying paper airplanes, to using their foam dart guns, to playing cards, to racing cars, to writing and illustrating stories together, to making puppet shows, to making short videos with their cameras, to playing in our Playhut type tents and tunnels etc. I set the timer (or have the boys set it), so each activity is only 20 min.

They must not be upstairs where the little guy is sleeping, they must not be running through the house or be incredibly loud, and they must all play together (not one child off by himself reading or something), but beyond that there aren't many rules for this time. The kiddos are usually required to pick up at the end of each 20 min. segment. However, sometimes a child will want to continue playing with his choice later. Then, we'll allow those things to be left out.

I am always nearby to oversee but am doing my own tasks. The boys have done a great job of coming up with their own ideas as the years have passed. If they're not sure whether something is appropriate, they'll ask.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

Wow Carrie,

Thanks so much for sharing! That was incredibly helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to explain it to me.

I had cut out afternoon quiet time for the older children because of needing that time for schoolwork. I hadn't really considered being able to get in a quiet time in the late afternoon/early evening. I will have to see about working that in !

This board is such a blessing!!!!!!1

Carrie wrote:In this way it's quiet for me right before supper, and I have time to prepare it (or think ) without all of the kiddos around! If we skip rest time, we find especially the little ones quickly derail in the evenings. So, we work hard to make sure everyone gets some quiet time before the evening meal. (Mom included).

Thanks for sharing this, Carrie! This is something we somehow stopped when we had our last baby, and I am fondly remembering the quietness of putting supper together without little ones in the mix as I recall doing rest time at this time years back. I need to add this back in. This is such a good time at the end of the year to reflect on changes that can be made to make things flow more smoothly. I'll be putting rest time back into the schedule.

In Christ,
Julie

I only have three that are actually big enough to do anything right now, but it works for us, and I don't see it not working for a while I set up "centers" for the ones not doing school... right now we have three things they rotate with.... school, computer time, and quiet play... for computer time they have to play an educational something... for quiet play I have them set up in the living room with something that rotates... wooden trains, blocks, legos, magnetic paper dolls, lacing sets, beads, babies, balance beam, trampoline... whatever... They rotate every 30 minutes... In that time I have the 6yo do 60 minutes worth of school and the other two have 30 minutes worth of school. This gets EVERYONE DONE! Or at least as close to done as really matters to me.... DD1 can do her handwriting any time during the week as long as it's done on Friday, and pretty much the same with math, although we do the activities out of the manual daily.

I'll add in a center upstairs after the baby gets a bit bigger... at least walking...

Right now we are using BLHFHG with our 6-1/2 year old and LHTH with our 4 year old. We haven't yet gotten to the point where the history and storytime readings are longer for both. Here is what we do now:

We start out the day with the younger one. We go through his boxes first. This takes varying amounts of time depending on the activity for the day.

While the younger is having his lessons, the older is doing handwriting, copy work, spelling words, math, etc. She works on things that she can do without my help or that don't require my constant attention.

If there is an art project, both kids participate, regardless of the level. However, the older has to have done some of her work before she can join in on the younger's art project. Since it's an extra for her, she has to show that she is obeying my request to work independently. She doesn't have to finish it, just make her best effort on whatever work is to be done.

For the music parts, both kids get up and dance and sing. It is fun to see them have such a good time together!

Once we move on to the older one's school time, the younger can play quietly at the table with any number of things. We have an alphabet matching game, file folder games, tantagrams, wipe off books (letters and numbers), or he plays cars as long as there are no car noises. Over the last few months I have noticed how he has been able to sit for longer periods of time, so I think this will transition well for him into the storytime readings in LHFHG.

For both of them, I do emphasize that they aren't allowed to answer questions for the other child's school until after the question is answered. So, if I ask the younger one a question, the older can't answer until after the younger does, and vice versa.

I know we are a little behind where you are, but hopefully what we do can help you figure out what works for you!