Half-pace thread? Preparing ideas?

[Mom2Monkeys]

Forgive me if I ramble...barely any sleep for a week with my little guy running 104+ temp.

I'm tossing around ideas for half-pace Preparing Hearts. My DD placed squarely into Bigger for 3rd grade following Beyond in 2nd. Due to a difficult pregnancy, bedrest, heart issues and then a difficult newborn and toddler, we didn't get far into it. She's starting 4th now. Amazingly, since I continued having her read and such, and she frequently narrated to me for fun, her narration skills have improved so much. She also spent a lot of time then and all this summer drawing, writing stories, writing songs and poems, etc so her fine motor skills for longer periods of writing have also improved. She now places into Preparing, but we're only half way through Bigger.

If I stick with Bigger, I'm going to have to make things more independent, I'll also need to add some creative writing for her-- she's just ready for it and WANTS to do it. She's writing in cursive already, 53 lessons into R&S English 3, and ready for written narration, and I'm having to add in the extension readings to keep her day full enough. It just makes sense to move her on up. To me, anyway. I'm open to your thoughts though! Should I move her up?
We are also only going to be able to school 4 days per week.

SO, if I decide to move her on to Preparing, I want to start half-speed. I can't find the thread that discusses how others are doing half pace. Can someone share that link? I'm tossing around some ideas. I will be doing math daily, and probably R&S 3 daily...I think. (Your thoughts on the grammar welcomed as well! Grammar daily or not?) I don't really want to do right side/left side split since we'll be doing math and maybe grammar daily from the right side.
All "T" with half the "S" activites one day, then all "I" and other half "S" the next. This would relieve me almost completely every other day except for math/grammar and the little bit with the S activity.
Half the T, S, and I activities one day, then the other half the next. If I do this, how should I split it considering math and maybe grammar aren't in the equation?
Any other half-pace ideas?

[Mom2Monkeys]

From the post with the list of books I need for the first nine units of PHFHG, these are the ones I DO NOT have:

Tirzah
5,000 Yr Old Puzzle
Trojan Horse
Cactus Desert
Draw & Write

At what week does each of these begin in the plans? I know I need Draw & Write from day 1. I'm piecing together what I already have and trying to see how far it will get us!

[gotpeace91]

5,000 Year Old Puzzle~Unit 5 Day 1
The Trojan Horse~Unit 9 Day 3
OSS Cactus Desert~Unit 4 Day 4
Tirzah~Unit 5 Day 4

Here's to get you started. Will come back and ponder over the rest of your post.

[gotpeace91]

Do you think she would be able to read the books from the Science package and the Independent History box independently without too much difficulty? If so, it sounds like she is ready for Preparing. She will really enjoy the gentle writing lessons in Poetry. As far as Grammar goes, if it were me, I would figure out how often to do Grammar so that she finishes 3 at the end of Preparing. Then you can be on schedule in CTC with 4 which is scheduled so that half of it is done that year. Of course if you want a more aggressive approach, you could do it every day and you might end up half way through 4 by the end of Preparing and then you could do the last half of 4 in CTC and follow the schedule for 5 in RTR. I'm not sure about how you would want to split it in half. I've always done right side/left side when I wanted to go half speed. Your first idea sounds pretty good.

[Mom2Monkeys]

5,000 Year Old Puzzle~Unit 5 Day 1
The Trojan Horse~Unit 9 Day 3
OSS Cactus Desert~Unit 4 Day 4
Tirzah~Unit 5 Day 4

Here's to get you started. Will come back and ponder over the rest of your post.

Yay! That means at half speed, I've got what I need for 8 weeks!! Thanks!
Well,wait...I don't have Draw & Write or the guide. Lol.

[Mom2Monkeys]

Do you think she would be able to read the books from the Science package and the Independent History box independently without too much difficulty? If so, it sounds like she is ready for Preparing. She will really enjoy the gentle writing lessons in Poetry. As far as Grammar goes, if it were me, I would figure out how often to do Grammar so that she finishes 3 at the end of Preparing. Then you can be on schedule in CTC with 4 which is scheduled so that half of it is done that year. Of course if you want a more aggressive approach, you could do it every day and you might end up half way through 4 by the end of Preparing and then you could do the last half of 4 in CTC and follow the schedule for 5 in RTR. I'm not sure about how you would want to split it in half. I've always done right side/left side when I wanted to go half speed. Your first idea sounds pretty good.

She is a very strong reader, so we are just fine there. And I may do like you said for grammar. How many times per week is grammar scheduled?

[gotpeace91]

In Preparing grammar is scheduled daily. So 4x a week.

[Mom2Monkeys]

I know it sounds like I've pretty much made up my mind, but I haven't! I'd love to get more input. I'd also love if someone could link me to the half-pace thread!

IF I go with half-pace PHFHG, I'm considering doing it this way:

First Half:
Math, all T boxes, plus the History Activity S box
(Unit days 1,3-5- Math, Reading About History, Storytime, Poetry, Bible Study, History Project)
(Unit day 2- Math, Reading About History, Storytime, Language Arts with creative writing, Bible Study, History Project)


Second Half:
Math, both I boxes, other S boxes
(Math, Indepent History, Science Exploration, Rotating Box, Language Arts)

Our 5th day will fall on Wednesdays since the kids go to a homeschool class then. I'll plan on doing a math lesson that day, and possible and grammar lesson as well. I have to work out the details for grammar. I want to start level 5 with CTC when we get there so I'll need to crunch the numbers.

Those who have done PHFHG, does the time/work load look balanced between the two half days? What time commitment am I looking at here for each of the two days? We are also doing Latin's Not So Tough! Level 2 which doesn't take much time...would the "Second Half" day be a good day for adding that in?

Help me wrap my brain around the half speed please. I need more ideas! I'm stuck in a rut of only being able to see it this one way and I can't seem to think of any other ways. I need help even deciding if we should be moving into PHFHG!

[my3sons]

Hi Tamara! Sorry we've been in an RTR flurry here! I think you have several options here. Dd could finish out Bigger Hearts using these ideas to make it quite independent for dd and doing it full-speed 4 days a week:
Carrie explains how to up independence in Bigger Hearts:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6502&p=47428

Then, you could just go right into PHFHG with dd 4 days a week full-speed after that. The advantage of this plan is dd will get to practice the skills in Bigger independently first before trying to do them independently in PHFHG when they are in their "next level more difficult" phase. I think she could be more independent this way in the long run.

The second option would be to start PHFHG half-speed, going full-speed with the things you want to. You already have some good ideas for how to go about that with her that are good. I think I linked this for you on another thread, but in case my memory is failing (which really could be the case ), here's a link that may help:
Half-speed PHFHG, with daily 3 R’s schedule by Carrie:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5431

I would print out PHFHG's first week and really look it over carefully, comparing it to Bigger Hearts. I think many moms want to get to PHFHG because it seems more independent than Bigger Hearts, and it is 4 days a week. However, the things that dc are to be independent for in PHFHG are harder than the things that are not taught independently in Bigger Hearts, IMO. For example, it's more difficult for dc to follow the directions in the PHFHG history project box than to follow the directions for the BHFHG notebooking box. I hope that makes sense! What I'm trying to say is a child who is a good reader/writer doing Bigger Hearts things independently that are intended to be taught may have any easier time doing those things independently than doing the things that are intended to be done independently in PHFHG independently. Oh boy, I hope that made some sense. I have a bunch of family arriving for our dc's "fair" in about 40 minutes, so I hope I'm not confusing you more than helping, but I wanted to get back to you. Also, I think the science and history readings in Bigger Hearts will be much easier to do independently, than the history/science in PHFHG. Anyway, I think you'll be able to tell if you pour over the PHFHG first week. If the goal is for her to move toward great independence, I think option 1 would give you that by having dd take over history/science readings, and even Storytime if need be (but you'd do the 5 minute follow-up). Just a few thoughts - but you will know best, hon'!

In Christ,
Julie

[Mom2Monkeys]

I've replied in blue below. I welcome advice from anyone here!

Hi Tamara! Sorry we've been in an RTR flurry here! I think you have several options here. Dd could finish out Bigger Hearts using these ideas to make it quite independent for dd and doing it full-speed 4 days a week:
Carrie explains how to up independence in Bigger Hearts:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6502&p=47428
That's actually exactly what I've been doing! I read that thread several weeks ago and implemented it with great success.

Then, you could just go right into PHFHG with dd 4 days a week full-speed after that. The advantage of this plan is dd will get to practice the skills in Bigger independently first before trying to do them independently in PHFHG when they are in their "next level more difficult" phase. I think she could be more independent this way in the long run.

The second option would be to start PHFHG half-speed, going full-speed with the things you want to. You already have some good ideas for how to go about that with her that are good. I think I linked this for you on another thread, but in case my memory is failing (which really could be the case ), here's a link that may help:
Half-speed PHFHG, with daily 3 R’s schedule by Carrie:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5431
Your memory isn't failing. Not to worry! You did link me to that and I've been pondering over it ever since. Thank you for finding that for me!

I would print out PHFHG's first week and really look it over carefully, comparing it to Bigger Hearts. I think many moms want to get to PHFHG because it seems more independent than Bigger Hearts, and it is 4 days a week. However, the things that dc are to be independent for in PHFHG are harder than the things that are not taught independently in Bigger Hearts, IMO. For example, it's more difficult for dc to follow the directions in the PHFHG history project box than to follow the directions for the BHFHG notebooking box. I hope that makes sense! What I'm trying to say is a child who is a good reader/writer doing Bigger Hearts things independently that are intended to be taught may have any easier time doing those things independently than doing the things that are intended to be done independently in PHFHG independently. Oh boy, I hope that made some sense. It did make sense! I find she is learning to follow the directions pretty well since we started making so much indepdnent. Her only hang up is the fact that in BHFHG, the directions are written to me so it says "Tell the student", or "Ask the student", etc.. For some reason that bugs her. If it just says, "Do this." she does better. When I looked at the PHFHG sample pages, it seems the independent boxes are written to her, so perhaps she'd do better with that. I have a bunch of family arriving for our dc's "fair" in about 40 minutes, so I hope I'm not confusing you more than helping, but I wanted to get back to you. Also, I think the science and history readings in Bigger Hearts will be much easier to do independently, than the history/science in PHFHG. We're in OSS:Woods. Do the science readings get more difficult throughout the year, b/c this is absolutely not a problem for her at all. She is also doing wonderfully well with the history readings. She can easily read them in a couple minutes and come tell us all about it. Same with the extension books-- I'm not using the 6.0 and up books much, but she's doing just fine with the others so far. Anyway, I think you'll be able to tell if you pour over the PHFHG first week. If the goal is for her to move toward great independence, I think option 1 would give you that by having dd take over history/science readings, and even Storytime if need be (but you'd do the 5 minute follow-up). This is what she's been doing, and doing very well. She breezes through it effortlessly when she actually focuses (which can be difficult in summer when we're not consistently doing school and with 3 little brothers!). My concern is that it may be too easy. I"m worried she's having trouble staying focused b/c she finds it too easy. I asked her how she's enjoying BHFHG and she says she loves it. When I asked her why she said b/c John Audubon was awesome and the rest is fun and so easy, "other than that bothersome math and grammar." (yes, her words. hehe) So, perhaps PHFHG is the challenge she needs. She certainly does not apply herself. She's very bright, but has become very lazy in her schooling-- maybe b/c she needs more challenge. Plus we've done about 3 years of American History so far. Perhaps there's a bit of boredom in that aspect even though she enjoys the history books. (I find it fascinating! I'm learning more than I ever did in school!) Just a few thoughts - but you will know best, hon'! No! I don't know! I don't know what to do at all. I really don't!

In Christ,
Julie

I may print off the week's lessons and just do it. I don't yet have the guide or Draw and Write, but I have everything else for the first few units. If I did decide PHFHG half-speed, then this is what I'd do based on Carrie's input that Julie was kind enough to link me to above. Does this look alright?

First Half
(T)
Reading About History 15m
Poetry 5m
------------------------------------
(S)
Rotating Box 20m
Math 30m
DITHOR 30m (Days 1,3-5)
or
1/2 Creative Writing 20m (Day 2)
--------------------------------------
(I)
Ind History 25m
====================================
====================================

Second Half
(T)
Storytime 20m
Bible Study 15m
--------------------------------------
(S)
History Project 20m
Math 30m
Grammar & Dictation 20m (Days 1,3-5)
1/2 Creative Writing 20m (Day 2)
-----------------------------------------
(I)
Science 20-30m

[my3sons]

Thanks for your patience and for your focus on reading my post that I wrote in a flurry! I had a lot to finish that day with family arriving, but I care for you as a friend and desperately wanted to get some response to you so we could keep the dialogue going. I think you should try PHFHG half-speed and see how it goes, since you have the books anyway. I really like that idea so much. It sounds like she could be ready for it, and a fresh start and placement may be just what she needs to become more independent. I think you'll be able to tell if it's a good fit fairly quickly - if it's too much or it's requiring time you don't have, you can have her finish out Bigger Hearts instead, and that little extra time should be enough for PHFHG to be a good fit after that. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Mom2Monkeys]

Thank you Julie! We are leaving to house sit for family for a week starting tomorrow so we will come home to PHFHG!!

[Mom2Monkeys]

I also meant to ask about the way I split it up. Does that look right?

[Kathleen]

Tamara -

If it's more of a challenge than "Bigger with extensions more independent" that you're wanting for her...I'm thinking that you'd want to do all of Preparing - not half speed. I don't think that only doing half of Preparing daily will really seem more challenging than doing all of Bigger plus the extensions daily. That's just my thought after reading through your last couple of posts, though.

Kathleen

[Mom2Monkeys]

I agree Kathleen. I plan to start half speed but work up to full speed. I just want to take the time to train her well in using the guide. Unfortunately, my time is so limited these days! When she learns the guide and I start getting more sleep, we will take off with it! For now, we crawl. Lol. Here's hoping the baby wakes up fewer than 4 times tonight!