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Okay, here's where the rubber meets the road. We have our HOD now and we start tomorrow. 2 in Bigger, 1 in Little Hearts, 1 in Little Hands and 1 high schooler doing CtC. I'm really excited. It will be interesting figuring out the schedule. Thanks for all of your posts, I've been reading and reading. Everything looks so good.

Nancy

How exciting! Have a fun day tomorrow!

Hope your day is filled with our Father's abundant grace. Love and blessings!

Agreeing with the others. Have a blessed day!

Oh I so wanted to start ours now too but my kids want to start it in the fall and finish what we are doing now So can I live vicariously through you? I also will have 1 in LHTH, 1 in Bigger, and my 9th grader CTC. I would love to see pics of your kids next few weeks if you have time to post them on the weekly review thread. I am trying to get my kids really pumped

Best to you as you embark on this journey. I, too, will look for you in the weekly updates.

I had to laugh when I read your post, because this is exactly what we'll be doing starting this fall. Right now we're doing Preparing, Beyond, and LHTH. So next year we'll have CTC (ds11), Bigger (ds9 & dd7), Little Hearts (dd5) and LHTH (dd3). It might sound like a lot, but HOD makes it so doable! Blessings to you and your family as you begin this new adventure in learning!

Keep us posted!

I just prayed for God to fill you with His joy as you homeschool your dc today! Do remember to give yourself and dc some grace though, as first days are definitely not usually the "best" days of the year. Everything takes much longer to do, and you are starting 4 guides at once, a tall order to be sure! I do think you can do it, but don't be too hard on yourself if the first day is tougher. Mine usually are, but then about 2-4 weeks in, we're flying.

In Christ,
Julie

Just wanted to say WOO HOO for you!! We are doing all those except for LHTH and loving it! I just can't tell you what a blessing HOD has been for us! My kiddos stagger started and we hit a good pace right away. Don't get discouraged though, like others said, if it seems to take longer at first. Even though we had a great start we still had those days here and there when I thought, "what happened here?"! Isn't that just part of life though? Some days we oversleep, don't feel our best, etc. I was totally surprised several weeks in when all of a sudden we were able to finish even faster! We aren't missing or skipping things we have just really gotten into our routine. Give it time if needed and don't give up! I know you'll love it!

Have a Happy HOD day!!

Thanks everyone. Well, it went pretty well, considering we are all just recovering from the flu last week and coming back from vacation in Florida.

I learned that my kids are definitely in the correct guide. Because of the advice here I put my 14 yo Liberian daughter in Bigger w/extensions with my almost 9yo. Wow, I'm so glad I did. It will not be too easy. My 8 yo can answer all of the questions and did the narration but the 14 yo had a hard time. She couldn't answer most of the questions, ones that I thought would be review. Well, they are review, but she obviously doesn't remember them. They both loved it.

My little guy in Little Hands thought it great fun, it was pretty cute. Of course, the 8 and 6 yo did his with him. I did not get to my 6 yo in Little Hearts today, too many things that made it impossible. But, I'm not concerned, we'll do it tomorrow. My high schooler did all of hers and I think really liked it. She doesn't like the drawing part, it's so good for her!

The hardest part, figuring out all of the reading lists!! Extensions list, storytime lists, DITHOR lists....for all of the levels, I've had to go and look at all of the lists a billion times to remember what is for what!

Another hardest part... STOPPING reading a book after only a few pages!! All of them were so shocked and wanted more. We are used to devouring books and we can't stop. I really believe what you all are saying though, that it's good to sit on some books and "digest" them. I can see how letting them think about 1 concept instead of giving them 20 a day can be really good. I'm trusting in that.


I love it.
Nancy

Nancy, I'm so excited you had a great first day! Agreeing with the others that the Lord will bless you with His grace this day. May it fall abundantly upon you!!!

Just checking in now, but I hope you had a wonderful first day!

Oops--just read back a few posts and saw that you did! SO happy for you and your sweet kiddos!!

Gwenny wrote: The hardest part, figuring out all of the reading lists!! Extensions list, storytime lists, DITHOR lists....for all of the levels, I've had to go and look at all of the lists a billion times to remember what is for what!


I love it.
Nancy

Nancy,
So excited for ya. I had the same thought when I was going through everything the other night. I was doing a dry run through kind of in my head with all the books spread out. I would read the readings to myself and trying to gage time. When I got to DITHOR and the Read aloud I had to stop and look up the package listing in the catalog to see which titles went with which reading. I started thinking hmmm... this may be a pain. Then I got a brilliant idea (well brilliant for me anyway ) I wrote down the on the inside front cover which box and which program the book is used for. Then in DITHOR I went ahead and filled in the title for each genre. I think this might help me keep them straight for that at least. I think each boy will have their own shelf, we did that last year and it really worked better than by subject the way I have it this year. No one is able to find anything this year it's crazy.

Nancy,
I just wanted to pop in and let you know I was prompted to pray for you even before I clicked on the link and saw you will be doing four guides! I am so glad that this first day went well for you. I will continue to pray for your family. Although we have three children, I have several friends who have many and one who has adopted from Liberia. I have such a heart and admiration for you mothers who manage a home w so many littles. Please keep us updated on how HOD goes for your family. I am continually amazed at how Jesus knew just what He was doing when He led us to this curriculum. It has been such a blessing in our home.

Nice to "meet" you!
Mercy