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This summer we have been trying to keep up with school and we are doing vision therapy, Phonics Road and Math Mammoth. This barely gets done 4 days per week if I am being generous with my reporting.

So we are to start HOD Bigger in September. That is history, science, read alouds and writing that we are not used to doing. I am scared. Help!

Yes, you can do it! Start slow to figure out the best schedule for you.

Of course you can do it! LOL Summer was a bust for us, schoolwise (and boy are we paying for it in math right now! ) But the minute we sat down with the goal of getting "back to school," it all fell back into place.

The lessons in Bigger are wonderfully brief! I remember when my middle daughter sat looking at me at the end of our third day and asking, "That's it? We're done?" Some people report taking a few days to get into a "groove", others a couple of weeks, but you'll get there! It will be so rewarding. I've looked around for many years and I don't ever want to use anything else in my homeschool.

Thanks for the pep talk!

I have ordered the books to get us through the first 12 weeks!

Carmen,

One thing you may want to ponder as you're getting underway is that Bigger Hearts (including math, Drawn into the Heart of Reading, spelling/dictation, and all subject areas) is written to take 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours per day. In looking at the 3 items you've listed that you're doing this summer, I'm thinking that your vision therapy is at least an hour or more (with drive time and the session itself). This will add time to Bigger's day. I'm also thinking that the Phonics Road is a very intensive, time-consuming program. We typically allot 20-30 min. a day for reading instruction in Bigger's schedule, so depending how much time you spend on the Phonics Road daily this could add time as well.

I'm also thinking Math Mammoth may be a bit more time-consuming than Singapore, which we allot 20 minutes for each day. The beauty of HOD is that you can easily use your own favorite math and reading programs without affecting the flow of the guide. However, there is often a time difference in how long your day will be if you use options other than what we schedule in the guide. I only mention this so that you can have realistic expectations as to how long your day will take when adding Bigger Hearts to the options you already have in place. One way you can still use what you love and keep a more realistic schedule is to set the timer for 20-30 min. for the Phonics Road and then stop when the timer rings. You can do the same for math (with a 20 min. segment). This will keep your times more in alignment with what we schedule in Bigger and still allow you to use your own favorites.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks Carrie! That is helpful! I copied a Bigger schedule from this forum and filled in Phonics Road and Math Mammoth. My books are already here (wow that was fast!). We have never been consistent with history, science, etc. I think HOD will help us with that. I am so thankful for your All In One schedule. I will fill you all in after a couple of weeks!

We use BJU math and it takes us an hour. After really trying to chuck time off our schedule, I made a point to really pre-read a lot of the TM (mine) parts and found how much time "I" wasted. DD doesn't have great focus either. Some things I just chucked because it took too long that were either my add-ons or redundant.

But putting dd on a timer works well. If she's not done, it's homework. Keeps the focus better. But we do use other things sometimes that lengthens our schedule. Frankly I could do it all day with more breaks. We could also do it for less time with one larger break. I let dd decide. Preparing has been really good because there's a lot of drawing and it's really keeping dd interested. And I also noticed that we did a reading program (not DITHOR) every day and found a great deal redundant to our spelling program. I chucked that portion of it too. But I have since ordered DITHOR to try. Seems to cover the same stuff, without the feeling of being behind, because I didn't do it daily.

So you really have to take into consideration if you're using everything HOD does. I think we could do it in the time suggested, but some things we don't so it takes a little longer. As long as your kids are okay with what you're doing and you are too, it's okay. Just have fun!

Oh yeah....I forgot. YOU CAN DO THIS.

Thank you Annaz.

Okay, I have a specific schedule, but I need to know generally if I have the right times for breaks... help me out here. So far most of our day is breaks and we do very little schooling.

55 min school, 5 min break, 35 min school, 30 min break, 60 min school, 10 min break for lunch, story time and poetry during lunch for 25-30 minutes, then science for 15-50 minutes, 20 min break, 30-60 min chores and then freedom!

Is that do-able? I have us starting at 9 and done with school sometime between 12:45 and 1:10.

But wait! That isn't 3 and a half hours plus another 20 minutes for Phonics Road Spelling. Ugh!

Here is my schedule:
9:00 Phonics Road Spelling (20 minutes)
9:20 Dot mapping for vision (10 min)
9:30 Math (25 min)
9:55 break (5 min)
10:00 Reading about History, (10-15) Bible Study, (5-10) History Assignment Box (15-20)
10:35 Recess (30)
11:05 Phonics Road Grammar and Phonics Road Literature/Reading (40)
11:45 Lunch, Storytime, Poetry (35, she can do some reading to me while preparing lunch, I can read to her while she eats, whatever, but there is 10 min for just eating)
12:20 Science (this varies)
12:40 or 1:10 Chores
1:30 or 2 Freedom

What am I doing wrong?

This is exactly where we landed in Bigger if we started at 9am and I only have one kid. Usually it was till 2pm.

I don't see anything there that takes longer than it should. Our math is always an hour and so is our reading. That's when I drag out the timer.

I usually don't go by a clock, I go by subject. I'll do 3 subjects and break, depending on how long each are, depending on what's scheduled.

So we'll do spelling, Reading, English and if those go quick, I throw in another shorty subject, but usually I break. If she wants lunch, I break an hour. If she wants a snack it's about 20 min. Then we'll pick up Math, Science, Poetry and Bible, break, then finish with all of history and projects.

Your schedule doesn't look wrong at all. I've come to the fact that our schedule is just that....ours. I could never do K in an hour. In fact, I've always been over on hours. But I quit a subject when I see it's taxing dd. I need to get more on a schedule, but a lot of our extra time is from dd's lack of focus. I get that timer out and things go swifter.

I'm sort of a fly by the seat of my pants person. But I do think that the amount of time that Carrie uses or Julie, is the time for school. Not including the breaks. So if for instance Preparing takes 4-4-1/2 hours, the breaks are separate. They'll correct me if I'm wrong. That's how I saw it. So if Bigger is 3 hours then the breaks are separate.

And ... Ah yes...I'm icognito.

Thank you Annaz. Very helpful! I will print that out. I actually thought I must have scheduled it wrong because it should take longer than that.

I am thinking we need the timer because flying by the seat of my pants is no longer working. It worked well for 1st grade, not so much for 2nd.

I plan to do a quick 10 minutes of Preschool with Jake during recess.

Well, you aren't incognito if you admit it. LOL

lovedtodeath wrote: I am thinking we need the timer because flying by the seat of my pants is no longer working. It worked well for 1st grade, not so much for 2nd.

Well, you aren't incognito if you admit it. LOL

I know. The older dd gets the more I really need to plan and pre-read.

Well icognito wasn't supposed to happen that way. I had joined one years before another until I got smart and used all the same screen names.

I don't care who knows me. But not admitting it sort of has (had) a mysterious ring to it. Nobody would ever take the screen name "me".

I was married in '94 too. I figured the incognito posting wasn't on purpose.