heartofdakota.com

I've been searching this board trying to get familiar with previous questions to fill in the blanks instead of bombarding everyone here with the same questions over and over. I have something I haven't been able to figure out, though. I see on several posts that people are using the "left" page with this student and the "right" page with that one. I wasn't confused before, but now I am. Can someone clarify why you would use only one side of the page in the guide and not the other? The guide made perfect sense to me the way it was laid out, very open-and-go. Am I missing something? Maybe it's late and my brain just shut off, information overload, probably.

Thank you!

Each guide is laid out roughly the same, with the Reading about History and associated activities on the left side of the 2-page spread, along with (for LH and Beyond, at least) science, bible, music. The right side has reading, writing, math, storytime..the "basics". Some people have 2 or more kids use the left side together (sometimes storytime as well), then customize the "basics", so everyone is doing math, reading & writing on their own level, either using the right side of another guide, or just doing their own thing. HTH

Thank you for the explanation. I will keep that in the back of my mind for the future, just in case.

Cindie,

You're exactly right that you would want to use ALL of the boxes on the 2-page spread to teach your child so that they're getting everything they need. But, like Kristen said, as long as you're doing math, reading & writing at your child's level the other "boxes" are much easier to combine over an age spread. The easiest way to use HOD is just to open-and-go as is. But some families really want their kids together for the majority of their day either because mom has many children to teach or other personal reasons.

You may have also seen that some moms go "half-speed" where they use the right side one day, the left side the next. This is usually when they're starting a new guide (especially the younger guides ) with a child who falls on the youngest end of the age range. This helps the child grow into the work required within the guide, stretches the guide out to take more than a traditional school year, and allows the child to get older before reaching the older guides while still moving forward with their learning. I'm pretty sure that Carrie doesn't reccommend doing this with Preparing and up because a child at that age needs a full school day and all the work required. Here's a thread where moms talked about how they use HOD "half-speed" - there are MANY ways to make the guide work for your family if just using the 2-page spread a day doesn't for some reason or season! And...you can always change as you go and your child matures in what they're capable of. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5600

Kathleen

Kathleen,

You know, I have been wondering if we should do Beyond at half speed since my dd is 6.5. I think if it gets to be too much for her, this is something we could try. It makes sense and that way we wouldn't leave any subject out on accident, which I could easily do. I noticed this past year if we were in a busy season, I dropped subjects and I didn't like that. I would much rather just do it half speed. What a great idea.

Thank you!