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This is my first year homeschooling. My husband and I share 50/50 custody of his 2 kids from his 1st marriage. SS13(7th grade) and SD8(2nd grade). We have a DD7(1st grade)and DS3. My husband's ex, J, and I are looking into using HOD in the Fall and are wondering how to implement it between the 2 homes. J also has DD4, DD2 and DS3 months. We are hoping to combine when we can. What our plan right now is to use BHFHG for the 8 and 7 year old. We will buy 2 TM, but it seems silly for us to buy 2 of ALL of the books. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we should do? The girls are on different math and LA. 8 year old will be using MUS Gamma and the R&S english 3 and probably DITHOR 2/3. The 7 year old will use MUS Beta and first language lessons of the well trained mind 2nd grade.

Just for more information, the schedule for my stepkids is this:
Mon at 5pm to Wed at 5pm with "J"
Wed at 5pm to Fri at 5pm with us
Switch every other Fri at 5pm to Mon at 5pm.


Thank you for reading!

Kellie

No suggestions, but just wanted to say how amazing it is that you two are working together in this manner. I just thought it noteworthy! Wonderful!

My suggestion would be a hefty rubbermaid type bin that carries all the books needed in it and you just send the bin with the kids each time. I might suggest, if it's not too overwhelming, that the parent without the child read ahead for the week so you know what the other is teaching and will be all caught up on what was taught.

Mumkins wrote:My suggestion would be a hefty rubbermaid type bin that carries all the books needed in it and you just send the bin with the kids each time. I might suggest, if it's not too overwhelming, that the parent without the child read ahead for the week so you know what the other is teaching and will be all caught up on what was taught.

We do use a bin to transport all of the school stuff
The thing that concerns me, is that my daughter and my step daughter are going to be doing the same book. So it looks like we will just have to buy 2 of everything. Hopefully I can find some good deals out there on used books. Right now we get together every Monday for the upcoming week so we can be on the same page. We just can't do school together every day.

Hi Kellie! I'm so glad you are going to be homeschooling - what a good choice you have made, and I think HOD is such an excellent way to go about it! It is very nice that both families are able to work so well together - that is such a blessing for everyone involved! I kind of came to the same conclusion that you did that it would really just be easier to have 2 of everything, other than any consumable workbooks (i.e. math). HOD has these great savings on packages of things, so that is a good thing to utilize! Bigger Hearts can sometimes be a challenge for some 7 yo's. I try to always remember to point ladies in the direction of the placement chart, as it has helped me place our 3 dc accurately, and because proper placement in HOD is just a good idea , so here's a link to that...:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

I shared a LHTH manual with 3 other teachers when we rotated teaching this for dc at our church. I also travel to a number of book fairs throughout the year, and when I am gone, my parents occasionally "sub" for me. So, I guess I've had a few "sharing" experiences with HOD over the past 8 years! Having a routine order of doing the boxes was very helpful (i.e. Bible study, corresponding music, poetry, Reading about History, etc.) Though the times they were doing each box weren't always the same as "my" schedule, doing the boxes in the same order helped it seem consistent even between different teachers. We found it important never to "carry work over" to the next session, as no one wanted to start their day trying to finish out someone else's work. So, doing a day's worth of plans each time was important for us - but that's not hard to do with HOD. Possibly determining a general calendar of dates school will be done before hand would be a good idea. Then you can both be working toward a finish date together, as well as keep the balance going of co-teaching roughly the same amount of days. You could have a notebook you sent back and forth with "J" for any notes for each other jotted down in it, like "ds8 had a tough time with math, may need to review first", or even just "did Unit 18, Day 2". I wouldn't get into a lot of detail or make this more work than it's worth, but it could save time on the phone chatting about this or that constantly.

I hope something here helps! This board is such a positive place to come and share, and I hope that I will get to know you more here as you embark on this blessed homeschooling journey with HOD!

In Christ,
Julie