How do you do 3 guides at once?

[tbarr12]

I am awaiting the arrival of Bigger to begin with 9yo ds, so I will have him in that, oldest dd in Preparing, and 6 yo dd in LHFHG. I am just wondering - how on earth do you do 3 guides at once? This is my 1st year in HOD, and things were going quite smoothly with two, but determined Preparing is too much for ds. Anyway, suggestions on scheduling all 3? Esp., how do you handle the read-alouds for all 3? Oldest dd doesn't want to do the read-alouds alone - I think she will miss that time with me, and I would miss it, too.

I am really concerned about this - I'm feeling lots of fear about it. Any help? Thanks.

[tbarr12]

I'm bumping this before it disappears off the radar. I think I'm starting to get some ideas - pick one Bible to do together, give them chunks of things to do independently - but I'm still hoping for more suggestions. I feel a little overwhelmed at the thought of beginning this!

[Lynnw]

Tracey,
I don't consider myself experienced enough to help.... but I think I've read on other threads that some people combine for storytime. For example if you have more than one guide telling you to select a biography for storytime, just select one biography and read it to both students.

The other thought that came to mind might be to browse schedules that other ladies have posted to see how they work with three guides - (Julie's comes to mind right now).

I will be honest and say that when I was trying to do three guides (RTR, Bigger and LHFHG) it was a very full day and it went better if I had my RTR guy at half pace. Then I decided to move him into Bigger with extensions and that really lightened my load! In our case, I felt that my two oldest needed more together time and my oldest wasn't ready to do so much of his work independently. That may not be your situation at all! In your case I would look for areas your oldest can be independent, I would combine storytime if I could, and I would work on a schedule to help the days go smootly. If anyone is on the younger side of their guide, I would consider putting them at half pace for awhile if that helps as well. You can always speed them up again with other things are more automatic.

[mskogen]

I am doing 3 guides, Preparing, Bigger and Little Hearts. I start the day with my ds 5 doing Little Hearts. We do the right side, except for StoryTime. Then the left side. This takes us about 1 1/2 hours. He is free to play with little sis now. While I am working with him my oldest two are doing independ work. I have ds in Bigger doing his cursive, music, computer and sometimes he reads the history or science to himself. When I am done with ds 5, I do lessons with Bigger soon. History (we discuss it if he read it to self), activity box below history, bible, poetry, science, dictation, rod and staff, and math. When we are done he does his grammar assignment and math assignment independ. This takes us about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. He is doing Bigger at half pace so if you are not doing it half pace it will take a little longer than it takes us. Now I work with ds in Preparing. He has completed (hopefully) reading History, doing his project box, independ history, science, computer, read the extension book and the storytime book. We do lessons in Rod and staff, math, dictation, poetry, bible, we discuss science, history, extensions and storytime. This takes us about 1 hour. Now its lunch time. I read storytime to all following the genre in Bigger. Next is recess!! Around 1 dd takes a nap. I read storytime to all 3 boys. This is per request of older 2 boys. They LOVED Thorton Burgess the first time around I usually give ds 5 an art assignment or an educational video to watch while resting. I do DITHOR with the older two boys now. When we are finished they finish any independ work they didn't finish in am. Yes it is a full day. We usually start around 8am, break around 11:30 ish for lunch and done by 2ish (on good days). Every day isn't perfect and there are days we don't finish until later. However I stick to my schedule of doing lessons. This lets me finish when I need to so I can do the rest of the things around the house. The older boys are the ones working later. This is their choice. What I mean is they take their time doing their independ work. It took a little time to get this to run smoothly. It helps that my older two can read indpendently. I hope this all made sense because it is long. If you have any questions let me know. I will say I get more done now that my boys are all in their own manual. Placement is key! HTH!

[tbarr12]

Michelle - that was SO helpful! I will be doing the exact same guides as you! The way you do your day is very much the way I picture doing mine. We even start, eat lunch, and end about the same time as you already! Yes, I plan to do Bigger full-speed with my son, so that would add a little extra time beyond what you said.

I will probably start Bigger with my son mid to late next week. I'm going to work on my schedule for a few days before that. My main concern is the read-alouds - my oldest dd doesn't want to do them all by herself - I think she will miss that time of me reading to her (as will I). Also, we've been reading Tirzah, and that will take quite a bit more time. So I will need to figure that out. Anyway, thank you VERY much - I was so relieved to see someone finally replied, and esp. that your situation is exactly like mine! Thanks again!

Tracey

[mskogen]

Tracey,

I am soo glad my reply made sense and helped. I do read sometimes the read aloud to me oldest, per his request! It is a nice time together. The biggest thing that keeps my day in order is sticking to my part of the schedule. If the kids want to take longer to do their independ work that is there choice. Not a choice I encourage but I am trying to teach the benefits of diligence. I will pray for you this week. I look forward to hearing how great the week was! God bless you for all you do for your family!

[my3sons]

You got such good ideas here already! We do 3 guides, but I'll keep this short and sweet as you have great ideas to put into action already. What helps it go well...
* routine order of doing the boxes
* have several teaching blocks of time with different dc and plan what the child I am not with is doing too (preferably entertaining tiny tot or doing independent work)
* taking time to teach each box of plans very well right from the start, as skills rotate
* teaching independence, especially as they get older (i.e. get out your own books, use the guide as your own, get out own supplies, hand in assignments in the same place, put away things as you finish them, check off the boxes in the plans as you do them, etc.)
* starting our day on time, and ending it on time
* clipping along in the plans and sticking to the suggested box time allotments as much as possible
* several work areas near each other but not at the same table

I hope something helps there. As far as the Storytime, my ds wasn't sure about reading it independently this year either, but I didn't want to devote a large chunk of time to reading Storytime as he is able to do it himself and the pages are longer (he's in RTR). So, we compromised. He reads all but about 3 pages of it, and then I read the rest. Then we enjoy doing the follow-ups together. This has worked out great! Maybe something like this would work for you!

In Christ,
Julie