Decided to combine 2 kids - what does your day look like?

[Nealewill]

Over this past weekend, I made the executive decision that my school day was taking over my life. Now, ironically enough, my school day really wasn't all that long but it was longer than prefer. I work a ton from home lately and it isn't lessening up. I was spending about 5 hours a day teaching to my kids who are in R2R, Preparing in Bigger. I really wanted to get time frame down. I found that because I am working so much, running all 3 levels was really wearing me down. I was already tired and then became highly prone to skipping things or constantly just not getting my day done. That makes me made too! So it just wasn't work for me. I have been praying and praying about what to do. On one hand, I didn't really want my son to repeat Bigger. And on the other hand, I came to love having all of my kids be in their level. My hope truly was that each of my kids would finish each level but I recently decided that I just don't care. No offense meant by my comment but it was exhausting trying to work and then be mentally available for everyone. With the help of a good friend whom met because she is a HOD users, she helped me sort a bunch of stuff out in my mind and helped me come to this conclusion. I am now very excited about the possibilities of how this will all work out.

So, my question is for those who combine - as your kids get older, what does your day look like? What do your kids do together? Anything "T" would obviously be done together. I can probably do most "S" items together. I do look forward to teaching the writing components together. Do your kids complete science experiments together? Some history projects are fairly involved. Do they do those alone or together? Currently my two younger kids do the same grammar so the only subject I will fully teach separately is math. And since I am teaching them both the same grammar, I will actually be going 1/2 speed as they are both completing R&S 3 this year. I will go half speed until they get caught up in the guide somewhere in R&S 5 in RevtoRev. I have also decided that my son finishing half of R&S 8 will be enough. It will make it easier on me to just follow the guide. I can not tell a lie - my primary goal right now is easy. I have also decided that even though I consider my son to be 4th grade, he is technically on the highest end of the age range and so he won't do the extension package at this time. I might read them to him for year only so that he hears some new stuff but I won't do this for future years. Once we get to Rev2Rev and MTMM, I will then be adjusting their schedules more. But I am really looking forward to teaching these two together.

When I first started HOD, I had them together. It was great. They are practically the same level in everything that they do. Last year I split them and they both had great years. This year, both kids are happy and thriving but mama is worn out. I can see where combining these two would be best for both them and me at this point. I am really excited to see how you all structure your day.

[Gwenny]

I've always wondered how you were able to do it with the work schedule and the school and the house and the meals and... We sure have a lot on our plates, don't we? I've been wondering why I can't do it all and thinking I need to just work harder, because others do it! Having this board is so encouraging and I love hearing about how others do things and what works and doesn't work. Sometimes I walk away from the board encouraged and challenged and with a new plan and sometimes it's with discouragement because "I want to do it like so and so" It's so nice when people are real and we can all help, encourage, and commiserate together. You have been SO, SO helpful to so many on here and I hope that we can all help and encourage you as well.

I am "cheating" this year and my 2 girls that are combined in RTR have a tutor that does all of their S and T boxes with them. The only things I do with them are: they orally narrate to me anything, dictation on the 2 days that the tutor is not here, listen to their completed writing assignments, and the younger one's math. Besides just being together in their room working on their schoolwork so they aren't alone, the other things together are the history project and the science experiment. I did realize that one was doing more than the other in certain things and called them on that and asked them to make sure they each do their part or they would need to do it separately. But, the good thing is, the each have different strengths and help each other in the weaknesses.

5 hours a day teaching your children IS a long day! If that were the only thing you did besides normal running a house stuff, that's a huge chunk of time. We aren't even mentioning your accounting work and the co-op. You do need to cut that time down, school is important, but there are other thing just as important, and if something is taking that much time then something else is suffering. At this season in your life, you can't do that much time on school--that's okay! I'm glad you are finding ways to cut that time.

I have a couple of questions. Could you bring in someone to help do some their teacher stuff with them? It was really hard for me to bring in the tutor or ask for help in any way. I always had the mind set that I SHOULD be able to do it, I took on this job of these kids blah blah blah and everyone else can so....I am FREE from that now. I think that Christian homeschooling moms are some of the most overworked people and more is put on their plate than should be. There is a doctor in OK who people go to or phone consult from all over that works with many many Christian people and homeschooling moms. (a natural doctor-so he's sought out) I've heard him say many times that homeschool moms are the sickest people he meets. They are so overworked and stressed and take on way too much. We need to be careful to not think that our children's lives are all dependent on us. Sorry, I'll get off of my soapbox now.

Next question--in making the decision, I'm curious as to why not just slow everybody, or even 1 or 2, down a little? Your kiddos are on the young end of the guides-if I remember correctly. I know there are many reasons why you like NOT combining. Would it be better to just slow down and do 1/2 speed, even for a long time? I'm sure you thought of that just wondering your thought process.

I know I've rambled a ton, trying to hurry and type some thoughts before the day gets ahead of me so I can't go back and cut.

Blessings!

[Nealewill]

I am actually slowing my oldest down too. She is moving to doing a 3 days of the unit per week. With this new schedule, my teaching time will be closer to 3-3.5. Because my oldest is on the oldest end of the age range, I always experience a lot of challenge with her attention span for the first half of the year. I just can't do it anymore. I feel like I spend half my day yelling at her. Recently though, I have noticed that she actually has been paying more attention but things just take her longer. She takes her time with most of the art stuff and she always produces something great. With the writing, it has been taking her more time too. If she rushes through, she produces garbage. But if I give her the time to think things out, the fruit of her labor is exceedingly better. But she is still struggling at times with transitioning from one thing to the next. So I am good with slow in her down a bit. I have heard from many people that by the time their kids got to unit 15, their kids are moving along more quickly. She may go full speed at that point. But who knows. The only thing we actually add to HOD is Latin. But my kids also take piano lessons and they do AWANA. Including all of this, some day in school were taking her up to 6 hours a day going 4 days per week. That is obviously too much! For this year, we decided to do co-op for only half a day. But next year I would really like to go back for a full day and just take Mondays off of school (that is our co-op day). So on Mondays we do a half day of school. Tuesdays - Thursdays are full days. And then Friday was a half day. Also - I will say that sometimes school took her 6 hours that day because she spent too much time looking out the window. Other days she would spend 1 hour on piano because she was trying to master something. And then, on those days she would then be tired from doing Piano for so long and need another long break. And for most of the days that took up to 6 hours, she wasn't actively learning during that time. She was doing other stuff between subjects. But I really don't want to have multiple breaks in the AM and the PM. I want to work for 2-2.5 hours in AM and then work for 2-2.5 in the PM. That is it. So I just couldn't take it. If I cut school to doing 3 days worth instead of 4 days worth every week, her days will be shorter. As for the amount of time I spend teaching her, it isn't much. I read the rotating box to her, work with her on Grammar, Writing, Dictation and then help her with DITHOR. With her Singapore, that has been completely clipping along wonderfully this year. I usually don't spend much time on that with her. Other than that, she does everything else by herself. For her teaching time, I spend only 1-1.5 hours a day. By cutting work load down, it will be less expect.

For my younger 2 kids, they work really hard. They get their school done and they like what they do. I didn't feel like either was struggling in their guide. But I was struggling because in Preparing, my son would still need help on experiment day some (I was right there helping). He would need help with the projects sometimes. He would need help with the writing assignments. I had to sit right there with him for each. It is was fine. But then reading the History, storytime, and poetry alone to him took more time. Dropping those things will save me time already. Plus, with my youngest, she was actually reading everything alone in her guide. She was reading the history and science alone. She is a great reader and she likes to read. But she does so much alone that I felt disconnected with her and I would actually forget to do some of the stuff. I think by taking her stuff back on, my time might not change all that much from this year. I still might end up teaching up to 4 hours a day. But that is fine. I am mainly also looking to the future. As the kids get up in guide, their teaching time lessons. So when we get to CTC, I expect to only have to teach the two kids for 1.5 hours per day and my oldest for 1-1.5 hours per day. That is where I am going notice the most fruits I think. Now will lesson some since I am not juggling so much and now stuff won't fall through the cracks. But in general, I just needed to lesson things.

In addition - what really pushed me heart with my son is he is delayed with language a bit. He is super smart and can figure things out but writing and reading were harder for him. Putting him on the higher end of the age range really is the right thing to do. He has an evaluation for speech next month and then goes for a CAPE test (audiology) in January. This will give me full picture of his language deficiency. He can currently narrate really well but he struggles with getting words out sometimes and then struggles with getting them on paper. For example, yesterday he couldn't even tell me what he wanted for breakfast because he couldn't remember what it was. He kept say he wanted that thing with cheese in the middle and butter. Those were his exact words. I came up with omlete, cheesy tortilla, bagel with eggs and cheese. I finally figured out he wanted a grilled cheese. But he couldn't remember the word for that. I think him being on the oldest end of the age range for narrations and writing assignments will probably serve him best also.

As for everyone being able to do it.....we can't! My house looks like a tornado hit it most of the time. I do have 3 kids and at times I would have loved to have had a larger family. But as I get older, I am so glad we only had 3. I do have a hard time keeping up at times and couldn't imagine trying to keep up with more kids. But my kids are very helpful. Every weekend we go through and clean the house up, organize, kids clean their rooms. My husband or son clean the bathrooms (our rule at this house is typically the people who lift the seat are the ones to clean the toilets LOL). I do laundry regularly but my kids only have to fold it 1 once per week. The laundry just sits in a laundry basket in their room waiting to be folded. I love Carrie's idea on laundry where they each do their own laundry once per week but my kids don't necessarily have enough clothing to go a full week without washing clothes. My husband cooks breakfast most days or my kids get their own. Lunches are always simple. And my kids often help with dinner. Kids do the dishes daily. And every night before bed they have to pick up the playroom. Other than that, life is good.

[Gwenny]

I'm glad you are slowing down your oldest. (I think you meant to say that she is on the youngest end of the range?) That is a long time for a 10 yo to spend. What about having her slow to 1/2 speed. That would give her time to really focus on the things that take her longer to do or that she wants to spend more time on. It would also free her to do other things, like help with things around the house, fix lunch for everyone while you do something with your youngest, do the experiment with your middle one, play, spend more time on the piano if she'd like, etc. It would also give her time to mature a little and her attention span to lengthen and then the guides won't be such a challenge. It would then greatly reduce your time spend either working with her or getting frustrated at her.

My 8 yo son sounds like your son. It takes him quite a while to get out what he wants to say. He says many times a day, "Mom... oh wait, I forgot what I wanted to say" or he is waving his hands around in the air trying to think hard about what he's trying to say. He mixes up what we say constantly. We have to repeat or explain very often. So interesting.
I'm getting ready to start him in Bigger. He has never been one to want to listen to a book read aloud. I have always had to make him stay in the room and listen. ALL of my other 9 children have loved it. He is getting better at understanding the stories but he misses a lot--I think it's a lot of work for him to understand so it's not fun for him.

I'm glad you are getting things figured out. We want to enjoy this journey and if we are all miserable, something has to change!

[Nealewill]

I probably won't go to full on 1/2 speed. I will do math first each of the 4 days we do school and then see what all we get done in the guide. Then after my time limit is up, we will close the guide and start again the next day. Make sense? It will be slower. But it will be good. And you are right, I meant to say my oldest is on the youngest end of the age range

Right now I am just trying to see what my future will look like with combing my two younger kids. I am very excited though. I think it will be great. Both of them are completely stoked.

I had actually had this thought shortly into my school year but at the time, I decided not to repeat Bigger for my son. I have been praying about it ever since and finally came to the peace of combining them. I guess I used to feel like I was holding my son back if I combine them. And I guess I was also feeling like I wasn't pushing him enough. But the longer my year went on with me working and running three guides, the more discouraged I became. I was actually to a point that I was ready to take a break from HOD. I was just overwhelmed and feeling so down. I started considering other homeschooling options and how I would go about schooling the kids. I had even considered putting the kids in school I was so discouraged. I took about a month to pray over my options - 1. switching curriculum, 2. having them all their educational classes at co-op, 3. put them in school, 4. stay with HOD - it brought me right back to all the reasons I do love HOD. So after realizing that if I stopped doing HOD, obviously we would miss out on many of the resources that HOD has and how much my kids love school. I love how the levels are structured, the godly focus and content, the independence of history and science (especially science, I would skip experiments so often before finding HOD), the interesting facets in each guide, the way the material is learned, the language arts in general, and many more. I could go on and on about what I like. It would be insane to try and duplicate what HOD provides so that I could combine my kids. Why invent the wheel when HOD is already set up to combine for like children? Even my oldest, who has been a source of my struggle lately, very dramatically told me that if I switched again, she would actually die LOL. When I came to this conclusion, I felt way more at peace about slowing my oldest down and combining my two younger kids. I know many people who graduate their kids without HOD. But even if I don't do every level, I know that my kids education will be rich, interesting and my kids will well prepared for any career they choose. That, for me, was the final thing that spoke to my heart in my approach to school. I need to do what is best for me. I am a very task oriented person and set my goals high. I like being challenged and being pushed. I actually thrive under pressure. My kids....not so much LOL. Maybe when they are older they will be like me but right now, they are kids. Praise God because that is good Sometimes I forget this but I truly want them to be kids. And praise God for so many moms who have come into my life to remind of this very fact! I need those who have been there and done that to keep on saying it. One blessing HOD has done for me is it has helped me to put limits on myself. It has helped me to slow down. It has helped me to see what types of things are appropriate to include for school and at which ages. It has also shown me how great it is to sometimes wait on things as well. I have loved every bit of it and again am grateful for finding and being a HOD user. For me, I am really enjoying using the guides to their fullest.

My hope is that after Carrie is done writing the final high school, she may end up going back through and writing additional extensions for Rev to Rev and MTMM for kids who are using it for high school (hint, hint LOL). This way we I could easily have book list for DITHOR for high school lit. I could also have an economics course and finance course (my state requires both for graduation) that I can have my son take at some point during his high school years. But even if I don't have that, it will be fine. I have been so happy with the resources that HOD has picked so far. My kids are doing beautifully in school. When I compare them with their peers - both homeschooled and not - I feel like we are right in line with where we should be. I have always subscribed to the thought of combing my kids in HOD and support others who do it. I guess I just felt scared about combining my own once I got the high school years. But I am not scared anymore. I finally feel really pumped about it and no longer afraid. I am just excited that I will start liking school again. Plus, we are off school for a week now. I need it!

On a side note - I found out today that my grandma went home to be with the Lord today. I am praising God right now for her and my grandpa, who has been with the Lord for 14 years. She was 100 years old! And up until the last couple of weeks, she will very with it and able to do most things for herself. My grandparents used to watch me and brother over the summer when we were out of school. They live near by and I saw them often. I even named my son after my Grandpa - his name was Samson but he had passed away before I had my Sammy. My son's name is Samuel because my grandma told me that Samson was an old person's name and she encouraged me to name him Samuel instead LOL. I had already planned to take this coming week off because I was we always take this week off. But I am looking forward to see what the Lord has prepared for me all next week so that I can enjoy celebrating her life with my family and helping in anyway that is needed.

[Gwenny]

That's great that your younger 2 are excited. What's really great is that they know what you are talking about since they've been doing the guides. They know what they are getting into.

I know what you mean about your youngest being on her own too much. Last year my 13 yo in CTC was pretty much always on her own. She was pretty capable and since she COULD read all of her stuff, I could let her and focus on the others. She was lonely. It helps that her older sister is with her more now. She is eating up the attention from the tutor also. It is very freeing to let others invest in your children also. I used to think it had to be me. Poor kids. haha

I'm SO sorry you were so discouraged and even thought about leaving our wonderful HOD! Don't let it get that far next time without saying something. It is easy to get the "grass HAS to be greener with some other curriculum" syndrome. You have been so helpful and encouraging, let us try to help you.

[Nealewill]

Thanks Nancy. These last few months I think I just had to do some serious soul searching about a lot of things. My work has gotten busier and busier. I have contemplated quitting but I just can't right now. I will say that I do love what I do. But at the same time, something has to give. My husband and I have been talking more and more what should give. After really praying about it, I felt like this path was the right one finally. I also will say that I am one who takes time to just process stuff if that makes sense. I feel good now. I have had lots of time to mull things over in my brain.

[Hope]

So, my question is for those who combine - as your kids get older, what does your day look like? What do your kids do together? Anything "T" would obviously be done together. I can probably do most "S" items together. I do look forward to teaching the writing components together. Do your kids complete science experiments together? Some history projects are fairly involved. Do they do those alone or together? Currently my two younger kids do the same grammar so the only subject I will fully teach separately is math.

Hi Daneale! It looks like you have already had a great conversation and received much help. I am only going to answer your original question, in case it is helpful.

I am so thankful and glad I combined my middle two! I don't think I could have done this if I hadn't. The teaching is just about right with them combined and my oldest able to be as independent as he is able to be. My youngest is a constant distraction and potential interruption, so for me having my middle two combined is huge. It sounds like you are coming to the same conclusions with working at home and the teaching load. Like your kids, my first three are close in age and are 21 and 20 months apart. What I have found with my third being a girl and my second being a boy is that at some point they naturally came to about the same place in school 1 1/2 years ago, or so. Girls really are ahead of boys at these younger ages, and they do work around the same level in a lot of ways. His writing is stronger, and some of Preparing comes more easily but in so many ways they are in the same place.. 10 & 8 are fabulous ages for Preparing, in my experience. I think you will like that combination in a year. It sounds like you are having a similar experience with a daughter not much younger then a son.

Our Preparing Day Combined (Bigger will be slightly different, but hopefully it will give you some ideas):

Reading About History ~ All 3 of us together
*History note booking on the 4th day ~ I do the reading with them and then they do their note books at the table at the same time.
*History projects ~ They each do their own project, but at the same time.
*Story time ~ All 3 of us together
*Geography ~ I often do this with them separate. It is quick and easy, and I want to find out what they know individually.
*Time-line ~ They do at the same time at the table.
*Vocabulary ~ We go through the option and they each pick their words. Then I help each of them as they need help. They do it at the same time at the table, but I am teaching back and forth as needed with spelling, dictionary, etc.
*Research ~ we do this all 3 together.
*Independent History Study ~ I use this box when I need one to work alone while I am helping the other. My ds is in R&S 4 and my dd is in R&S 3 so I will often do one's English while the other is doing this box or reading their DITHOR.
*Language Arts ~ we do the creative poetry once a week together. I alternate English and DITHOR so one is working independently while the other is doing their English. Then swap. They do dictation at the same time. They each study it at the same time, and then I give the dictation.
*Science ~ They do all experiments together and any note booking work at the same time at the table (easier for me as a teacher)
*Bible Study ~ I have them do their memory verses listening to one anther. Then we pray together. We do the questions together. I will have them start independent Bible in CTC.
*Math ~ They actually use BJU. I have them do it at the same time, and go back and forth answering questions. My oldest is often also doing math at this time. So I rotate between the three answering questions and teaching as needed.

I hope this helps. I honestly don't think at these stage levels I could have them in three guides. In some ways my dd could have been doing Bigger, but she is doing a great job in Preparing, is a very a strong reader, and is ready for Preparing writing so it is going well for us. They both need to grow this year to be ready for CTC, but that is what Preparing is all about!

I think you will be glad that you combined with them so close in age. I know my two seem even closer, more like 12 months apart, with my third being a girl. For us this was a good choice.

[MelInKansas]

I just wanted to pop in and say I'm sorry for your loss of your grandmother. It sounds like she was very important to you. Prayers for a sweet time of remembrance and joy as you remember her, even in the midst of missing her.

It sounds like you really should combine. It sounds like you are incredibly busy and have a lot of stress and pressure on you. Take one thing out, simplify, and it sounds like the two will go together well anyway.

I am running 3 guides right now and I haven't been able to figure out how to do it in less than 5 hours or so. I'm sure there are places I could streamline but I am just not with it enough, and my household doesn't run like a well oiled machine, we are all pretty squeaky. I want to spend time with them and enjoy the journey (and if only my baby didn't have the talent of making a dirty diaper right as I sit down to read something to a child, or my 3 year old to need help in the bathroom). So here we are. But none of mine are close enough in age or skill to even consider combining them, and again I think you figured out the right thing to do. I will also pray for it to go smoothly and for time to start working into a flow where you can get what you need to done.

[Nealewill]

Hope - thank you for sharing your day with me. That is helpful to see what it looks like. I want to combine as much stuff as possible and I think looks like a very feasible plan.

Mel - thank you for popping. I do miss my grandma. While I didn't see her all the time, I went over to see her at least once a month and am so thankful that my kids really go to know her well. She actually had 4 children, 7 grandchildren (all are married except 1) and 14 great grandchildren. I live in Ohio but much of my family on this side lives in Texas, Louisiana, and Kentucky. The family that lives in Kentucky actually lived in Pennsylvania until a couple of years ago. So my brother and I were really the only grandkids in town. We got to see her a ton and I am glad we did. No regrets! But thank you.

And yes - I am very excited about combining my son and younger dd. The more I prayed about it, the more I felt like (as Hope stated) they were just so similar. It just didn't make sense to run them one guide apart. My son is 20 months older than his younger sister. Ironically though, my oldest is only 18 months older than my son. I had my kids one right after the other. But, because my oldest is a girl, she is light years ahead of my son in language arts LOL. It just would never make sense to put those two together. Now, my son does rival my oldest in math. But with my youngest, she seems to do well with everything (praise God for that). Originally I was worried that maybe she wouldn't be able to keep up with her brother eventually. But honestly, once we get up in guides, there may come a time that my son can skip a guide or my youngest may need to slow down. I will just have to worry about that then because I am not going stress about it now. Right now, I need school to be less stress on me. One thing I am very glad for with HOD is that they do use so many multi age resources. That makes life great. Also - after I have been praying about a bunch of stuff this weekend, I have decided to let my son continue on in science by himself. I am not really helping him at all with it. I am near him for the experiments and when he answers questions. But that is fine. This will give him something new to learn about. And it will give him one independent thing that he can do without his sister. Plus, if I eventually skip a guide, then it will put him right into that science level anyway. Plus, he is very strong in math so keeping with the harder science will be good for him.

[jjn3beans]

I have my oldest girls in RtR right now (12 and 11). I will say that I've changed the history section books, but work in the left side assignments with the books I already had from another program and do it HOD-style. We do all of the right side. For what it's worth, we're doing Rev to Rev completely next year. For streamlining purposes, I write out the oldest girls' assignments in a spiral notebook every day as below.

Math: 2 pages
Science: Unit 12, Day 4 box (read and experiment)
Grammar: Lesson 25

This obviously isn't complete, but this way, they don't have to have their hands on the guide for the whole day. They can do half of the assignments without touching the book. Then they take turns. While DD11 is reading for DITHOR, DD12 is doing her science assignment. While I work one-on-one with DD12, DD11 does her science assignment.

I have them do science separate, even the experiments, unless it is more involved and they don't understand what to do, and we may do it together. The other day we made an astrometer with cardboard and saran wrap. We did it together. We did the layers of Jupiter experiment together as well. They always do history projects separate.

As they move forward, I'm currently investigating literature and science choices for my oldest. I am thinking about separating them in those 2 things when we get to MtMM (then an 8th grader and a 9th grader). I'll have my 9th grader do the literature and science portions of the WG guide while doing the rest of MtMM. She'll continue to "borrow" those 2 subjects from the next guide. It just seems easier to me than trying to find something high school worthy for literature that year. My 12yo (13 in Feb) is also starting to voice a wish to not be combined into everything. She feels a little slighted that she's doing the same work as her younger sister. These separations, plus Spanish that year, should help her feel more independent. These 2 kids have been doing the same thing since K, and oldest has been fine with it until recently.

So eldest will do Fundamentals of Lit in 9th with MtMM, the World Lit selections when doing World Geography, then I'm thinking of utilizing our co-op in 11th grade for Brit Lit (which we need for graduation in our state), and using the first American History guide in total without parsing it for her 12th grade year.

Anyway, I'm rambling now!

[Nealewill]

Thank you for taking time to reply. I used a notebook last year for my kids so that they could check things off but not this year. I think I will go back to it. That is a good reminder.

And as I read through the various threads on combining and how to handle kids that reach MTMM for high school, I did see a lot of comments on kids who did the right side of the higher guide with the left side from the lower guide. That is a very good possibility and good thought too.

As my kids get older, I would be more okay at some point splitting them up. But right now, I just need to simply. I do love that my oldest's day only takes me 1-1.5 hours per day. I think I could consider splitting them once they get to the point. But for now, it is just too much teaching time. But is something to consider as they get older.

[Hope]

As my kids get older, I would be more okay at some point splitting them up. But right now, I just need to simply. I do love that my oldest's day only takes me 1-1.5 hours per day. I think I could consider splitting them once they get to the point. But for now, it is just too much teaching time. But is something to consider as they get older.

I am thinking this direction as well Daneale. If at some point later on my 8 1/2 year old, currently combined into Preparing, needs to slow down I will split them up and do that. I actually, in many ways, rather not have her graduate at 17 1/4 years. So letting them have their own guides later on might be something we do, or she may graduate early. It just depends on how it goes. I agree though that later on, in the higher guides that are more independent, that split would be easier to do. For now I cannot even imagine doing both Bigger and Preparing with CTC. It would be too much for me. In a way that is what you have been doing with RTR, so I can see how that has been a lot of teaching time. It sounds like you have a great plan in place, and some extra challenge with the science for your son. I hope it goes well!