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I'm doing 3 guides right now. DD3 is doing LHTH from 8:00- 8:30 in the morning. I start DD8 with her math, science, cursive, and extensions for Bigger at the same time. I also start DS6 with his math at the same time. I start LHFHG for DS6 and both Ds5 at about 8:45 and the two youngers usually finish up with everything by 10:15 (those dragging the feet bathroom breaks really take forever ) DS6 then works on his emerging reader (he practices on his own while I try to help DD8 with her mom-involved work). I have no ability to multi-task. Zero. Zilch. Nada. If one child needs help while I'm obviously working with another, I get very terse and tense. By the time we get everything done it's after 1:00 PM some days and I'm pulling my hair out. I thought running multiple guides was supposed to be easy! DD3 is finishing up Unit 3 of LHTH and we skip one or two things every day. The boys are on Unit 3 of LHFHG and I'm only doing an average of 6 boxes per day with them. DD8 is doing everything and it sometimes takes her 5 hours of working straight through. I chose the "easier" program (rather than Preparing) because I wanted her to have a good transition to HOD. She is accustomed to working on her own and I wanted to slow her down a bit and have some one-on-one time with her, but that isn't happening. We have multiple interruptions from the youngers needing help and I keep telling her to finish it up on her own. This is not the way I pictured it when I bought HOD. What am I doing wrong?

How should we arrange the day so we can be done earlier? I'm already up by 6am every day and we start school as soon as the munchkins are coherent. Please help me so I don't jump ship! Should I put DD8 into Preparing?

Amy

I'm doing the same three guides , and we started last week. So far our days have gone even longer than that. We try to start by 9, and we have gone until as late as 3:30 or so. I do add in some on top of HOD, and we have some breaks in there. Last year with two guides we were done by 2 or even a bit earlier if we started early. I'm thinking things will speed up as we get into a groove. We are loving the three guides so far, so it has been worth it to me.

I am only doing LHTH and LHFHG but so far, on average, I've found that it takes about 45 minutes to do the whole left page + storytime & handwriting/Thinking Skills. More if art and crafts are involved. Phonics and math end up eating up a lot of time for me but those are easily shortened. DS knows to use the bathroom before we start. If a need does come up we take a brief break between activities, not in the middle. There are a couple of things I can frequently do with DS while doing LHTH with the littles. The History and Rhymes in Motion, for example. Takes just a few minutes to read and the littles enjoy any rhyming and action activities. Corresponding music for both ends up together as well so we end up with a combination of LHTH and LHFHG without taking up next to any extra time. I don't know if there is anything in that that would be any help to you in simplifying/shortening your day but I empathize with the need to be able to focus on helping one at a time. I can't even doing seat work with DS until my LOs are napping.

Are you sticking strictly to the instructions in each box and not unnecessarily making them more than what they're intended to be? I know how easy that is to do unintentionally.

I think it just has a lot to do with Bigger Hearts. Bigger is much more time consuming than any guide I have done before it. I'm feeling like it is the most time consuming for the teacher because in Preparing independent boxes start.

Amy,
Take a deep breath and give yourself some grace here - this is going to take some time to get into a good routine. Schooling from 8 AM to 1 PM or so isn't bad for starting 3 guides, and multi-tasking takes a bit to get into a groove with. From reading your post, it sounds like everyone is needing you all at the same time, and when that happens at our house, my head is spinning, and I am tense and terse too. There are some good tricks to cut down on this everyone needing you at once.

First, I think I'd do Bigger Hearts singing of hymn with everyone before breakfast. At breakfast, I'd do Bigger Heart's poetry with all. Each of these should take about 5 minutes.

After breakfast... 20-30 minutes block:
LHTH child with you
middles playing quietly independently away from you, consequence for interrupting or being too loud
BHFHG child doing totally independent work of cursive, poetry copywork, and studying her dictation

Next 45 minutes block:
LHTH watching an educational video.
middles still playing or joining LHTH child and watching educational video
BHFHG with you, suggested order of boxes: Dictation, R & S English (have her only write 3-4 things, rest done orally), Bible, Reading about History, rotating box finishing it out on her own

Next 45 minutes block:
LHTH having snack and doing something at table by BHFHG child like puzzles, coloring, playdough
middles with you, left side of plans
BHFHG child finishing rotating box and having snack with LHTH child, then helping LHTH child play her things, this is a playtime for the LHTH and BHFHG child, must be quiet, must be led by BHFHG child, no interruptions for you and middles

Next 45 minutes block:
5 yo dc play with LHTH child, choose something they can play well independently
6 yo and BHFHG child with you, you read BHFHG's Storytime box to 2 of them and do follow-up questions
Then, 6 yo reads ERS to practice independently. BHFHG child is with you, suggested order of boxes: DITHOR, math, science, she can finish science out on her own. Whenever dd is busy independently within her DITHOR/math work, have 6 yo read ERS to you and ask the ERS questions.

Next 45 minute block:
6 yo plays with LHTH child
you are with 5 yo dc doing phonics; whenever BHFHG dd finishes her work, she is responsible for playing something with LHTH child away from you because BHFHG child is done
5 and 6 yo dc come back together to finish out right side of LHFHG plans with you

This would have you finishing school in 3 1/2 hours. You can figure another 1/2 hour for transitions, so if you started at 8:00 you would finish around noon. I would be sure not to add anything to the day, draw out discussions or activities, or allow dawdling. Clip along with each thing and move on, and dc will adopt that pace too. These are all just suggestions, and meant not to be the ultimate plan for you, but just meant to give a picture of how multi-tasking can work. The most important thing will be to make sure your middles can play without interrupting, as well as your oldest play with your LHTH child without interrupting. This will balance your time among your dc. I would not have your dd who is 8 yo doing extensions for BHFHG, as they are intended for 10 and 11 yo. You can put the extension books in a basket in her room, and let her read them at her leisure, but I wouldn't require her to read them. Bigger Hearts is a full enough program for an 8 yo without them. What do you think? Is this feasible? Is there something else that I could help kick around some ideas with? I do think that you just started and this will take some time and you have a large family - but I also think that you can do this if you just divide your time and multitask.

In Christ,
Julie

I feel for you because multitasking is not something I do very well either (I don't handle interruptions well). It seems like there are always some. I am apprehensive of the future when I will be doing multiple guides, as it is I try to finish the one guide well, and then my 4YO is doing about 30 minutes worth of stuff of her own in addition, learning reading and handwriting.

I think timewise you're actually doing pretty well. It seems like 8-1 (with I'm assuming a lunch break in there, or do you not eat lunch until 1:00?) is pretty good for getting all those things done. It's frustrating to have your morning all eaten up with that, but again, you've just put 4 children through school! And no homework to do later (or does Bigger have homework?)

To give you an example, we have worship time, and Beyond, again with additional work for my 4YO on her level, and we do that from 8:45-11:00 and then probably another 30 minutes at 2 PM (when my 2YO takes a nap). Sometimes if the Science/Geography/Art activity isn't very long I'll tack that on to the morning session and then we're done in the morning.

As far as the interruptions, what do you have your other children doing while you're working with your oldest? If I have 2 left to their own devices for much more than 15 minutes there is always trouble (or the 2YO needs her diaper changed or something convenient like that). So during school time, first my youngest plays with my middle while the oldest does LA (ETA key to this is the two younger are IN A DIFFERENT ROOM, right next door, but with the door closed) - I drag out some interesting set of toys or things that they don't always get to play with - then when I do reading to and with both my oldest and middle my youngest has "room time." Again, I try to find something fun and stimulating for her to do (without being a disaster, I learned my lesson about letting her have a snack in there once... ) and she's alone in her room for 30 minutes. Maybe during some of your more intensive stuff, where interruptions really derail everything because your DD can't keep going on her own, you could break up each of the other kids with something to do, or even put in a 30 minute video for them if they'll sit still for that.

Of course, interruptions are a part of life. None of us gets through school time without some unexpected interruption. It can either really mess you up or you can try to roll with it... I try. I got better about it by the end of last school year... trying to manage and get things done (but I also often skipped things in order to get it done...)

heh Julie was posting hers at the same time, I'm sure she has some great ideas.

I agree with Julie about the extensions. I would drop them for sure especially if you are feeling overwhelmed. I didn't notice you were doing them before. Bigger is a very full program for an 8 year old. Did you just start this week? The first couple of weeks are always the hardest for me as I find a good routine that works.

I would drop the extensions for an 8 y/o, for sure! I would also make a schedule for your dd. Make sure she does everything that she can do on her own before you ever go to work with her. If she finishes before you are finished with her brother, then she needs to have something else to do until you are ready to work with her. Once you get to the time to work with her, have the littles play together or nap, etc. until you are finished. Make sure there is a "No Interruptions" policy during that time and have consequences if you are interrupted for anything other than an emergency.

Most of all, give yourself (and the kids) time to settle into the new routine and to learn their guides. Once they get in the groove, things will go really well. My older son did CTC last year and it took him awhile (a month or so) to really get in the swing. He just started RTR and once again, he has to find his groove. It will just take time. *hugs*

Hi everyone and thank you for the replies and advice.

I have thought carefully about how to implement certain strategies that you have all suggested. Some may work well, some are going to require divine intervention to get me to change my very set ways.

I noticed dropping the extensions was a very big idea from most. I had DD doing them because she was going to be starting a 5th grade level program before I found HOD. She really enjoys the extra reading and we don't spend any time discussing the material. She has already read most of the books, so this is more of a review for her. I will follow Julie's book basket suggestion and tell her that they are optional.

Part of the difficulty lies with our 2 five year old sons and phonics time. One is a natural reader and he is going through The Reading Lesson very easily, within what would be considered a normal timeframe. Our other little guy needs a lot more help, repetition, and reassurance. He gets thrown off by the different ways that the letters "a, t, and g" are written. He prefers a different phonics program, which his brother does not like at all. So until I find a program they can agree on, we are having two phonics lessons every day.

Our dd3 keeps insisting that she wants to do school with her big brothers, too, so that slows us down. She is a very bright child and is just hungry for more knowledge. How do you tell an almost 4 year old who wants to join in that we're on a schedule and she can't ask any questions, just sit still and listen?

Ds6 is painfully slow at doing his math. Every time I think he understands a concept and works well with it, a day or two later he gets all of the problems wrong and we have to start over. (I'm mentally banging my head against a wall.)

When I said that we go until 1 pm some days, that is without lunch. I have found that it's nearly impossible to get them back into school mode if we break for lunch and come back to it. I also feel like I'm stealing their play time/creative time if I have them do schoolwork in the afternoon, after having them work all morning.

I have a hard time with the idea of dividing the day into 45 minute blocks because my way has always been plow through and go in order with no deviations. God is going to have to work a mighty change in my mind to be able to implement the ideas Julie shared!
I've written out a schedule of who would be doing what during each block of time and it looks doable (and even fun), so I will go over the change in plans with the children tonight so they have an idea of what to expect on the morrow.

Thank you all so much for your help and encouragement. Hugs to you!

I would just step back and take a look at where things are getting off track. Sometimes that is hard to see unless you track things. It is true you have a lot of little ones picking up very time consuming skills. That is when school in general is the most taxing on mom. I would try running Julie's schedule just the way she has written and while you do it have a pad and pencil next to you and keep track of the actual times you finish each box and each task. If you are off in time write down exactly what put you off in your schedule. What put you off track might be the most important information in your day. Each year I start HOD and have changes I do this very thing and it helps tremendously. You can see exactly where the hang up is. Another thing that comes to mind is are you letting one child interrupt another child's teaching. I know that can be hard to avoid but that is a huge time waster. I have a very hard time refocusing if something gets me off track. So I make sure everyone knows that when I am with them I am all theirs and nobody can interrupt unless it is something very important. That makes them really value your time with them and it keeps me from getting way off track. I hear what you are saying in not being very good at multitasking. Usually that means you are very good at focusing on one thing. I would try to ride on your strengths and run your school that way. You don't have to be good at doing three things at once to do HOD. In fact that really is not how it is written anyway. It is more about direct focus on what you are doing separating together time from things that can be done independent. When you do that the program really flows.

Anyway I would give some of the ideas you have gotten a try. I would start very purposely and try not to do it all at once. Allow yourself a couple of weeks for the transition and I think you will be presently surprised that your day with HOD doing the three programs you are doing will not take more than 3 1/2 or 4 hours. If it takes a little getting used to it is so worth it in the peace it will bring you. We know each year we will be doing HOD. This year for us with HOD was probably the hardest hsing year we have had due to illness and many appointments. But HOD was such a blessing in all that chaos that are actual days still flowed and we were able to do school come what may. If we had not had HOD it would have been very difficult. I think you will find once you find your groove HOD will be such a huge blessing to your family as well.

I just wanted to pop back on here and say, once you get your feet under you, I will take any advice you may have because next year this will be me (only with 3 children instead of 4). Bigger (probably) with my will-be-7YO, LHFHG with my will-be-5YO and LHTH with my will-be-3YO. My 6YO already does and will need extra reading to do because she loves to read! We are doing all of the optional titles, just things available for her to read as she has interest.

Best wishes as you try to make changes that will at least make it less stressful for you and help everyone have a better day. I'm with Julie, if I was constantly being interrupted I would just go crazy! That makes it seem even longer and harder I'm sure.

It is hard to juggle programs at first, until you hit your groove I would not actually look at the clock as anything more than noting how much time each thing took for at least a week. I also would have the extensions as optional to be done after school time is over. We are doing Bigger, LHFHG, and LHTH and it takes us about 2.5 hours to do all of them. I only have one doing LHFHG though.... but I do have a toddler in the mix, so that might come close to evening us up Might add about 30 minutes to your day from mine.

This is how I would do your schedule...

8:00 - Go through all possible independent work with your 8yo... cursive, math (do the activities), which dictation to study, explain the science notebooking, history notebooking, timeline, poetry copywork, vocabulary, and DITHOR. and do poetry.

8:15 - have 8yo do ind work and do LHTH with the 4yo
8:45 - 8yo finishing up ind work and do left side LHFHG with middles
9:30 - have 8yo play with 4yo somewhere else (whatever time she gets done with ind work) and finish up LHFHG
10:00 - have youngest ones play together and finish up Bigger with the 8yo .... you would have varying boxes depending on which day it is and what is ind work for that day. The most time it would take you to finish up would be about an hour. Then your 8yo would finish up anything else, like art, after you get through with teaching. In fact I'd probably do art all together if it falls that way.

I don't know what to tell you about the phonics because I don't do phonics , math with the LHFHG kids should be done with them so that they don't get a chance to get them wrong. We also do the music cd's in the van whenever we go somewhere. So for us the music section of Bigger is only when there is something to read and discuss. That's also the way we do it for all other programs, so we don't have the music with LHTH or LHFHG or Beyond in with school time.

I want to encourage you.... You just started this and so have your kiddos! This is a new year and you all are learning how to juggle this to make it work and learning what is expected in each guide. It WILL not take as long in a couple of weeks as it does right now. As everyone gets used what they are supposed to do the amount of time school takes WILL decrease- ours did!!
This past year was my first go round with multiple guides but my 2nd year with HOD! We did Preparing, Bigger, and LHFHG with a 2 year old on the loose! It was a big adjustment trying to multitask and get everyone on a schedule- who was playing with who, who I was working with, etc. School took a long time because EVERYONE needed me and I was trying to get it all figured out.
One of the things that helped me as well was to start Bigger 1/2 speed. This year we did Bigger 1/2 speed for my 2nd grader (8)- we did this in the beginning and then full speed later as I was able to manage things more easily. We did Bigger the year before with my 4th grader- it was great and we went full speed (but I was not teaching the whole clan at home).I learned after doing Bigger one year that it was VERY teacher intensive so that is why I started it 1/2 speed with my 8ds. He could EASILY have managed the work- it was Mom that needed him to ease into it! We didn't do the extensions and I still felt that he was challenged. It is a very meaty program w/o the extensions - so I also recommend dropping the extensions!
Maybe you could begin 1/2 speed with one of your guides just long enough to get school going and allow the kiddos to know what's expected from each box?

Dawn

Hi Amy!

I think you've got some great ideas here to help you get into a school groove that will work for your family as you move along. I have to say that my 1st thought was that 8-1 didn't really sound like that long to school 5 children on their different levels. You've got a lot to accomplish every day! I do think that if you get a routine going that after a few weeks your day can clip along even a bit faster though.

I've borrowed ideas for scheduling from Julie as I've added more kids to our routine, and I have to tell you that they have helped me SO much! For me, giving my kids a routine that we're going to follow every day does more for my peace of mind than anything else. Having kids in different guides and doing different work was not my problem - it was the HUGE amount of mental energy required from me to be deciding what everyone was going to be doing everywhere at the same time. I'm not sure if that's what you're trying to say is your frustration with the "multitaksing" or not. But for me that was HUGE! And, getting a rountine going like Julie described took that burden off me totally. Now, it wil take a few weeks until everyone knows the "plan". But, then...ahhhh! It will flow so nicely. I just couldn't answer questions constantly about what everyone was allowed to do. You know, like, "Mom, can I have a snack?", "Mom, _____ and I want to go play with Legos now. Is that ok?", "Mom, I'm trying to do my notebooking page and Allison keeps taking my markers that I need. Will you tell her to stop?!", "Mom, can I watch a video now?", "Mom, can we go outside and play?" Now imagine me gathering supplies and/or trying to read or do an activity with one of the kids. Made my head spin!
So, for me putting together a schedule and talking through it with all the kids was a big lifesaver! They loved getting to help by having their books ready and in a stack for us to use. They knew the options they could choose from when it was their play time. They knew that they'd have a chance to watch one 30 min video. They knew when it would be snack time. They knew when it was time to play outside. So, then I could focus on moving through our school day - and I enjoyed it so much more!
I know that you mentioned liking to just move all the way through "in order". Were you meaning going through each box in a certain guide before moving to the next? I think that using a schedule like Julie suggested would make better use of YOUR time (which with the ages of your kids is probably the most important consideration). You'd be plowing through the morning without losing any time. If you stick with one guide all the way through, you'll be waiting on the child to finish something that you really don't need to wait on - and it will add time to your day. Does that make sense?

Hoping you find some things here that help you put together a plan, Amy!
Kathleen

I just figured out that you have 5 children, not 4... sorry I got it mixed up!

So again I do have to say, I'm impressed that you get it all done by 1:00, that actually seems really good. But I do hope you find some ways to make it less stressful for yourself, ways to keep some occupied so you can have the focussed time with your oldest that you want, and that both of you probably need.

God bless!