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To make this into a four day schedule by combining certain lessons throughout the week, or would that be too much? At the moment, we're out of the house for two school days, doing co-op and Art and Ballet classes. I'm hoping to (somehow) pair down our extracurricular activities, even though it's going to be painful to do so, to one day, leaving us with a four day school week. Co-op and park days are very important to us in our homeschool adventure.

I've also considered just going four days and leaving whatever is left over for the next school year, but I'm not sure if that would be wise. Thank you again for the awesome help!

I know Beyond is a 5 day schedule, not sure about Bigger, but Preparing and CTC are 4 day. I know when I last did Beyond that I just did more on day 4 as far as the academic stuff and doubled up a little, but sometimes with the Storytime and other reading things we would still get those done on day 5 or the weekend just for time to sit, relax and read. It can be done but you need to plan ahead and know what you can double up on throughout the week. I love that Preparing and CTC have been 4 day plans.

Considering the curriculum is designed to be used at half speed right side for one day and left side for the next, or "full speed" right and left sides on just one day. I don't see how slowing down to a 4 day program would make that big of a difference.

early on My dd1 had so many doctor appointments, and drug her feet so much. I schooled right through summer. Also if I stopped schooling all the information she knew seemed to fall out of her head. So year round schooling gave us more flexibility. But if your not into doing school in the summer I don't see why you can't run it at Your speed. If you have to be accountable to the state. Then propose to use the guide over 2 years as it is a 2 year curriculum. And in a 4 day program you will finish it early.

Tansy wrote:Considering the curriculum is designed to be used at half speed right side for one day and left side for the next, or "full speed" right and left sides on just one day. I don't see how slowing down to a 4 day program would make that big of a difference.

Hi Tansy ...

I'm new to HOD and I'm curious about this. Can you elaborate for me? Is this the case for all guides? So, we're not supposed to do the guides as written, or are they naturally written as you've explained?

I'm confused.

Thank you!

I'm also confused. I thought it was both sides of the page for one days' worth of school. So, you're saying that half of the page equals a day of school?

From what I understand in using the guides they have been designed to give you a full days worth of plans per two page spread (except LHTH which is one page per day). So if you were following a traditional school year, you would use the guides as written and you would then complete a full years worth of material in a traditional school year. Depending on what state you are in is to whether you would call each separate page a full day of school. In our "red" state, doing a page as written each day would not give me a full days worth of credit legally (I could use the third option below as long as I have core subjects every day). When someone mentions that they are doing the programs half speed they may be doing it for one (or more) of many reasons. The most common reasons (though I'm sure there are more) I've seen to do only one side of the two page spread each day are:

-Mom and child might want to ease into the school year after having some time off for the summer. (We've done this for the first 2 weeks which counted as one week of school in our state.)
-A child may be on the young side of the guides age range and mom wants to give the child time to mature before moving into the next guide. So by spreading out the work, it puts the child into the middle of the age range for the next guide.
-A child may need more time to focus on basic skills of math and/or reading, so by doing those skills everyday and using the guide at half pace. For example, the child gets 2 days to work on a math concept and only has to worry about the extra subjects on day 2. So on day one the child focuses more time on learning the new math concept with less time spent on other subjects then on day two of the math concept they are able to add in more of the other required subjects.
-Mom may want to school year round, so by doing a guide at "half speed" she can stretch the guide to last a full calendar year. and not just the 180 day / 36 week traditional schedule.

If you have looked at the first week's samples in each guide it's easier to understand how the guide is set up and what may work best for your needs.

Daph wrote:To make this into a four day schedule by combining certain lessons throughout the week, or would that be too much? At the moment, we're out of the house for two school days, doing co-op and Art and Ballet classes. I'm hoping to (somehow) pair down our extracurricular activities, even though it's going to be painful to do so, to one day, leaving us with a four day school week. Co-op and park days are very important to us in our homeschool adventure.

To answer this first part, you could just add one (or two) extra box(es) to each day making the 4 day schedule you want and still finishing the guide in a traditional school year. Depending on where your child falls in the guides age range, this may be no problem or it may cause frustration because the child is required to do more work every day.

Daph wrote:I've also considered just going four days and leaving whatever is left over for the next school year, but I'm not sure if that would be wise. Thank you again for the awesome help!

To answer this second part, I know many people have done this (or some version of this). I think if I remember correctly Julie had her son starting Bigger in the middle of a traditional school year last year. It really causes no problem to finish the last few weeks of a guide in the fall and then move into the new guide part way through the traditional school year. In fact, some like it because it makes the fall start up easier since you already know what is expected from that guide and it eases the child into the harder work once they are back into the school mindset.

Thank you for all of that information! It seems to go against everything to not start a new book at the beginning of the school year, but I really like that it's ok to do this. We really enjoy having the freedom to do co-op or field trips, without feeling like we're behind. It's part of the reason that I didn't go with a complete curriculum for this year, but I've missed the extra guidance that a curriculum gives. And the fun activities that I wouldn't have thought of myself.

Just to clarify - the guides were written to be done 1 guide a year, doing a 2-page spread of plans each day, with LHFHG on up. (LHTH is a 1 day plan each day). However, doing guides half-speed is something that came out of a need to be able to slow things down for a period of time for various reasons (health concerns, dc needing time to ease into a guide, needing to combine dc, etc.). Half-speed usually means dc take 2 days to do 1 day's worth of plans, though it has certainly been done in many creative ways.

HOD guides have a 5 day plan each week from LHTH to Bigger Hearts. Beginning with PHFHG and on up, guides have (and will continue to have) a 4 day plan each week. If you need to have a 4 day plan and are doing a 5 day plan guide, we generally recommend just taking longer to finish a guide, rather than doubling up to complete it in a year. Of course there are exceptions to this general advice - i.e a child placed in a guide lower than the recommended age level and needs to move up in a timely fashion to be moved along academically. But, provided a student is accurately placed in a guide and doing well, simply taking a bit longer to complete the guide works well, and doesn't result in stressing yourself out by trying to double up , again, I am speaking in generalities here, as specific situations may call for doubling up.

Bigger Hearts is a 5 day plan, and it has 34 units, so there are 170 days of plans. If you were to just do a 2 page spread of plans each day for 4 days a week, it would take you 42 weeks and 2 days to complete the guide. We have done this, and taken a summer break in the middle and then come back and finished the guide. It has worked just fine. However, if my dc were older than the recommended target age range suggested for a guide, but they were accurately placed in a younger guide, I would not slow the guide down and go half-speed, but would rather move them along steadily at full-speed. If your child is doing Bigger Hearts this year, then he/she only has 1 year left of 5 day plans. I hope that helps as you decide what you would like to do! HOD is extremely flexible and we've enjoyed that benefit in many different ways through the years! Now you can too!

In Christ,
Julie

I have occasionally doubled up on subjects to finish up a Unit in less than 5 days for various reasons, but for the most part I think you would be better off letting your guide carry over to the next year. You can do more each day, but it makes for a longer day and I don't think the dc absorb the information as well. The idea behind a CM way of learning is to keep lessons short and allow the children to digest the information in bite size pieces. I guess it is kind of like eating a lot of small meals instead of one large one. That's just healthier. I think HOD is better savored than gulped.

Good advice. Thank you.

Erin sorry bout the confusion... I was in a hurry... Did my3sons clarify it for you?
And I'm in TX where we have minimal rules on Homeschooling... So I'm joyfully clueless.

Tansy wrote:Erin sorry bout the confusion... I was in a hurry... Did my3sons clarify it for you?
And I'm in TX where we have minimal rules on Homeschooling... So I'm joyfully clueless.

No worries. I think it's all square in my head. We're looking to a move to Texas ... my brother is in Aubrey. I could go for the hs laws there! I am surrounded by red states ... I'm sure mine is next.

What are "red states"? The laws, here in North Carolina are pretty relaxed. They just ask that you register the year your child turns 7 and take a standardized test and send it in each year. From what I've heard, there are about 4 people who represent all 1,700 of us, so they don't really have time to get strict on anything. They don't even look at the test scores, just file them all and burn them after so many years.

And we have to take attendance and have 180 school days, which is pretty funny to me. XD

Daph wrote:What are "red states"?

http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/default.asp