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ETA: I just placed my order for Beyond!!! I'm really excited about using it for my oldest 3, and I know they will be too. I'm still trying to figure out the details for beefing things up for my oldest, but it'll all work out!

In case any of your recongnize my screen name, yes, several months ago I said that I wasn't going to be able to use HOD afterall because my dh really wants me to keep my oldest three combined for content subjects. They will be in 4th, 3rd, and 1st grade. I am planning on using MOH Vol 1 for history, Apologia Botany for science, and Apologia Who is God? for Bible/worldview. But, as I look through MOH, I can tell that my 1st grader won't get a whole lot out of it unless we do most of the projects/activities geared towards younger elementary children. I started scheduling all of that, plus notebooking, mapping, quizzes, tests, etc, and it's almost overwhelming. My 4th grader can definitely handle the pace. My 3rd grader may or may not be able to. Anyway, I had already decided that I would get LHTH for my 4.5yo and 2.5yo. Then I remembered that Carrie had recommended that I use Beyond if I really want to keep my 3 oldest combined. They will all have their own levels of CLE math and R&S English/spelling (phonics for the 1st grader). At the time I didn't really like the idea of combining them in Beyond because of having to beef it up so much for my oldest. I figured I just couldn't do HOD, yet I've been regularly lurking on this board for a few months. Last night it occurred to me that my oldest would probably LOVE to use Beyond with her younger brothers, and that instead of creating "extensions" related to American history (since that's all we have ever done), my 4th grader's "extensions" could be MOH (who says that her extra work has to be from the same period of history as Beyond? Plus, didn't CM have two different histories going simultaneously?). We are still going to do Botany regardless (we have the notebooks and kit and are very excited about this!) We would shelve Who is God? until we get to the HOD guide that schedules it. We tried to use Beyond 2 years ago and dropped it because my boys were just too young for it. I can finally really understand HOD's philosophy that it's better to beef up than to water down.

Sorry about being so long-winded. Here's where the title of this post comes in. Is it completely crazy to try to do Beyond with my 3 oldest AND also read aloud MOH (and have 4th grader and possibly 3rd grader do mapping and other written work)??? I'm debating whether or not to use the quizzes and tests in MOH too. Next year we'd do Bigger with extensions for the 2 oldest, and maybe add MOH Vol 2. But by the time we get to Preparing we would not add anything.

Thanks!

If we go with this plan, here's what we'd end up doing:

2011-12: Beyond for 1st, 3rd, 4th. LHTH for toddler and PreK. Botany and MOH added for oldest dc.
2012-13: Bigger for 2nd, 4th, 5th. (extensions for oldest 2). LHTH for PreK and Kindergarteners. Maybe read MOH vol 2 and do an Apologia science book if desired.
2013-14: Preparing for 3rd, 5th, 6th. (extensions for oldest 2). LHFHG for K and 1st.

I also have a 7mo baby, who won't be combined with anyone because although he's only 2 years younger than his sister, he'll be 3 years behind her in school because of where their birthdays fall. It'll be a while before he's ready for school though.

I think it could work, but I would more just read and discuss the MOH then. If you used the worksheets, I might just do them orally. I don't know that I would worry about the mapping, activities, etc. You are already adding additional science.

8arrows-
I agree that we should probably keep MOH pretty simple. I'm torn between wanting to keep it simple and wanting to make sure my oldest is doing enough for her age. Her portfolio for this school year is sadly lacking in the history and science departments. We read books and did a few activities for astronomy, but don't really have a lot to show for it. Hopefully they remembered some of it! It was a baby year for us, so I'm happy we at least finished all of our 3R's. I want this next year to be different. I want to accomplish more than just the 3R's!

My children have really nice porfollios from the Beyond year. I put their finished work in protective sleeves in a binder. We took pictures of the science experiements, ran them off, and then I had the kids write a sentence or two of copywork about what we did, what they learned, etc. Sometimes I would have them do that for the history too. It was one of my favorite years.

It's great to see you here sharonb! I'm so glad to read this, and I think this plan sounds like a good one. I REALLY like how this one year will lead to the rest of your plan down the road with extensions. By having one year of beefing up in Beyond, you will be able to keep your 3 dc together for the years to come, and by using the extensions, you'll be able to keep your 3 dc moving along together, which I know is something that fits your goals well. I like 8arrow's advice here too - very good thoughts. I found this thread that I thought might be helpful too...

Carrie explains how to beef up Beyond for a fourth grader:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3247&p=24196

HTH, and I'm looking forward to hearing about your Beyond year here!
In Christ,
Julie

Julie-
Thanks for your encouragement! I was hoping you'd chime in! I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, and I'm really having trouble deciding how much to do from MOH. I have definitely decided that we'll either skip quizzes and tests or just do them together orally for fun, to see how much we remember. I think I want to keep the mapping exercises for my oldest two. I was also going to have them do a simple notebook page for each lesson- with title, timeline date, a drawing, and a sentence or two. Then there's the supplemental books I can give my oldest two to read independently.

OK, I just had a DUH moment. They could use my notebook page template to document what they are learning in Beyond instead of MOH. I can give them supplemental books related to Beyond too. (I'd make sure they aren't used in the Bigger extensions). Yes, I KNOW that it was suggested to me a LONG time ago to just beef up Beyond for my oldest. It seemed too difficult, or like maybe it wouldn't be "enough". And here I am trying to tweak a completely different program to make it doable as a supplement.

Maybe I should just read MOH to my children during our fun story time in the evenings. I think they would actually really enjoy that. They'd be getting that exposure to ancient history while learning how it all ties in with the Bible (I love that MOH tells you what was happening in other parts of the world while certain prophets were alive, etc).

Any suggestions for extra history reading for my 3rd and 4th graders to go along with Beyond? I need to look on my shelves and see if I have anything.

I think I like this idea much better. Hope y'all don't mind my stream-of-consciousness post!!!