heartofdakota.com

I recevied my new catalog, yay!, and was looking at the scope and sequence--which I have looked at before--but it just hit me that if my older two dc continue the same path that we are on, then my ds will finish GTH shortly after he turns 16 and my dd will be 14 (almost 15). This brings up 2 questions for me
1.. will that leave me enough time to do high school with them? I do not even know what the high school requirements are...I really haven't thought that far ahead yet! and... that means they will basically be graduating high school at the same time, even though dd is 16 months younger...

2. They are only 16 months apart in age and have been pretty much at the same point academically, until now--my son has suddenly surged ahead in the past few months. They both just completed Beyond (after doing Bigger for maybe a month last year we moved down to Beyond and it was a perfect fit...)and have been doing Bigger for a few weeks. When I look at the placement chart I see that my ds actually fits mostly in Preparing and my dd fits right in Bigger. I don't necessarily want my son to skip Bigger, and I'm not sold on separating them into different programs although I have been thinking that it might help them both be a little more independent (but how hard for me to do 3 programs--b/c dd who is 3 1/2 is doing LHTH). I want my son to be sufficiently challenged--and to be honest I think I could push him more than just the extra reading that he is doing in Bigger, he is definitely not being challenged enough right now--and since I think I'm actually pretty easy on my kids that is saying something! I just don't know what to else to add to Bigger--I don't want to put in busy work. I could double up on it if it were just him, but I have dd too.

Does anyone have any ideas, insight, or advice for me as I'm "thinking out loud" here!

Thanks for sharing about your dc! I can see you are a born planner, as I tend to be. Well, let's see... they are close enough to combine, your ds does fit nicely in the extension age range for Bigger Hearts, and you're not sure about teaching 3 HOD programs, plus you're only a few weeks into Bigger Hearts, and you did drop back last year to do Beyond thinking Bigger was too difficult. So, I think you have 2 good options...
Option #1: Give Bigger Hearts a few months, and see if you think ds really needs PHFHG now and if you think you can add it to your day.
Option #2: Get PHFHG and try it along with teaching your youngers Bigger Hearts and LHTH. If it's too much, drop ds back to Bigger Hearts - you'll use PHFHG the next year anyway.

I'd lean toward Option #1, as you're only a few weeks in and you'll know better further into it. Plus, BHFHG is a 5 day plan, and PHFHG is a 4 day plan, so even if you start PHFHG later, you'll finish it about the same time you finish BHFHG with your younger. One other thought I had - We planners like to have it all figured out , and that is not such a bad trait as it is wise in many ways to look ahead. On the other hand, so very much can change, and really, as it turns out I've been reminded time and time again, I'm not really the one in charge - God is. Plus, you could always have your older ds just not finish all of the HOD guides and start high school instead. We are both blessed our dc are younger than Carrie's, so she will be able to give some good advice about how to make HOD enough for high school, or about what she recommends at that point (which she has said she will do). Of course the happiest scenario is HOD writes for high school as well. But that will depend on much - prayer and support the most. Anyway, I hope something here can help, and other ladies are sure to have excellent ideas and thoughts as well.

In Christ,
Julie

Yes... I am a planner at heart and I have learned through many, many years of un-planned happenings in our life that planning ahead is not a sure thing at all which makes me sad b/c I do so like to have a plan! So, even though I know all this I trudge on with my plans but with the knowledge that God is in control and He very rarely does things the way I have them planned

Practically speaking the only issue we are having is that my son finishes his work (vocabulary, notebooking, projects, bible verse copywork etc...) much sooner than my daughter does... so then we have to figure out how to keep him engaged, and at the same time not distracting his sister thereby making her take even more time but if I let him go play or give him another assignment than its hard to get him back and focused. Ah well, I think I'll have to take a look at my day schedule and try to put the open ended assignments at end times, like before lunch or at the end of a "block" of time and maybe that will help that problem--don't know why I didn't think of that before.

The thought of my oldest not getting to do all the HOD guides--yikes!! But at least I'd get to do them with my other two because I feel like I'd be missing out on my education as well!

Kristen,

Perhaps you could have your son do the extension pack reading when he finishes early. Then, make sure he's doing the follow-up assignments suggested in the Bigger Hearts guide for the extension readings (which includes oral narration, written narration, and notebooking). This will extend his work to an appropriate level, and it sounds like he will have time to complete this while your daughter is finishing her work. Here's a link where I talk quite thoroughly about doing the follow-ups to the extension readings within Bigger Hearts. It would be worth a read through to get a better picture of how the extensions can work to appropriately raise the level of what your son is doing. My3son's gave you two great options to ponder as far as the combining plan goes. Link: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3930

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you both for your advice... we are going to continue in Bigger and add in the assignments with the extensions. The link was very helpful. I had read that in the manual when I started last year... but I had forgotten about that--I think that will be a great way for him to feel more challenged and for me to keep him accountable at the same time.

I talked to my son and asked him how he was liking Bigger--and he loves it. He can't believe how much "easier" it is now than it was 8 months ago! He was laughing about how much he would complain about the handwriting (even though I made it even easier for him back then) and now he is wanting to do more. I think it actually made him feel very proud to know how much "better" he had gotten in several areas--turns out it really worked out for him to be able to compare himself to where he was at last year. In fact both of my olders got a kick out of seeing their pictures, science experiment pages, vocab. cards and copy work from Bigger when they tried to do it last fall and had a great time being able to see how "advanced" they are now!

Thinking about high school and how that was going to work with them being in the same program when they are technically in two different grades just got me a little bit stressed out. I love having them in the same program and they really enjoy doing school together, so for now I'll just plan on keeping them together and we'll see how it goes as they get older.

Thanks for this thread. Helping me as we prepare for Bigger next fall!