heartofdakota.com

I have not used HOD yet. We start this August with it. I noticed that it's built around a 4 day plan, which I love! For those of you that have used Prepare or the other programs what do you do with your 5th day?

I'm only going to be starting K, but I would think that on the 5th day you could catch up on anything you missed, schedule enrichment activities like music or art classes, go on field trips, activity/park days with friends or homeschool groups, clean the house (maybe I'm the only one who doesn't do it every day), run errands, have free reading, play sports, things like that.

We have done a co-op, but we are not going back to our current one. We may get into a half day one, but if we don't I have some ideas. I would probably start a gentle introduction to Spanish, a computer programming/robotics class (Logos Adventures), and also anything else that just seems to catch his interest. We are supposed to cover Ohio History every year so I might do a lapbook around that. The big thing we do though is Volunteer at our local Animal Shelter. This has been a fantastic experience for my ds. He knows all the workers and they all love him.

Our '5th' day is actually mid-week...our children go to a sports class all morning on Wednesdays so they actually usually do not do the book work on those days. Summer is coming up (we school year-round) so they will probably be working on at least some Wednesdays since the class will be over until fall. We have also done co-op classes in the past.HTH

LynnH.....more info on how you set up the volunteering would be great! Did you just contact them and ask or is it something they already had in place? I know my daughter would love to do something like that. You can pm me if you would rather. Thanks so much!

We still do Bible, math, and language arts on Fridays, plus or minus any extras (i.e. educational videos, field trips, etc.) that come along. It's a nice catch-up day, too, for anything you didn't quite get finished during the week.

We have not done any HOD programs yet, but in our 9 years of homeschooling, we've loved having a four-day schedule. We have a homeschool co-op that meets on the 5th morning, and we use the afternoon for errands or visiting. When our co-op isn't in session (like now), we've been catching up on some work that got pushed aside for holidays, enjoying family reading time, playing games, and having an informal co-op with another family, where we have gentle grammar lessons, active French lessons and nature walks/study. My 13-year-old enjoys saving that day for some of his schoolwork, to make time for his rowing and youth group activities.

Karen,

For years with my boys we did a 2 hour school on our fifth day. When planning for that 2 hour time block, I thought of it as four thirty minute increments. Then, I chose four thirty minute activities for each child that were unique in that they were only day on the 5th day and were matched to that child's particular interests.... so delight-directed learning.

I had a terrific time "planning" my kiddos' fifth day and really pondering what the child would enjoy. Our activities ranged from bird watching, to nature sketching, to computer programming, to art study, to painting, to learning about music, to latch-hooking, to picture study, to composer study, to architecture study, to drafting, to critical thinking, to Shakespeare, etc.. Anyway, you get the idea.

Blessings,
Carrie

I remembered this thread that might be helpful. It talks about CM style masterly inactivity things to do...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2170&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

HTH!
In Christ,
Julie