"Afterschooling" w/HOD ?? ATTN: CARRIE & JULIE! please :)

[Mom2Monkeys]

Now that the kids are in public school ( ) I don't want to loose ground in our HOD skills. Would it be possible to "afterschool" you think? I'm not as worried about DS since he's still at such a foundational level, but more so about DD9 in 4th. I had her doing PHFHG with R&S 3. We're about half way through R&S, but only a few units into PHFHG since we started half speed. It's a perfect fit for her right now, and I fear that she will be mostly ready for CTC come fall, but I don't want to miss foundational skills from PHFHG.

I don't want to take up much of their evenings with extra school, so what boxes should we continue as able in order to keep up steady, forward progress to be able to move into CTC and Bigger Hearts when we bring them home...or at least soon after...I don't mind having a few weeks of our current guides left to finish first. ???? Public school has their basics "covered" ( I say that lightly)...so we don't need math and language arts so much.

ETA: I think I would prefer to set a tentative goal of being able to start the next guides around second semester next year to be more realistic. I just want/need to do the "must haves" in order to keep skills sharp and moving forward. So, this would only be for about the first half of the guide that I'll have to "skim"....

[Carrie]

Tamara,

I honestly would not add to your daughter's school day by using the HOD guides after she's already had a full day in public school and will more than likely already have homework assigned in the evenings. I would lean instead toward just reading aloud great books to her before bed and doing a family or an individual Bible or devotional time with her each day.

Then, whenever she comes back home, you can just pick up where you left off (or assess again to see if she needs to be in a higher level guide).

Blessings,
Carrie

[Mom2Monkeys]

Thanks for your advice, Carrie. I think I'm having withdrawals from teaching, and especially from HOD! I miss it! I plan to read aloud to them all so perhaps I'll just do the Burgess books with them all. My ds will be almost 8 and in 2nd when they come back home so we will move him on into BLHFHG in the fall. They'll get their storytimr and I'll get my HOD fix . Oddly though, my 4th grader hasn't had homework once but my 1st grader has homework every day. It takes up to half an hour or so. Not too bad but of course it's late afternoon and evening in the midst of dinner, chore, and bed routines plus two littles running around. I'd much prefer just have them home and do school in the AM when it works for me . Come on fall!!

You think it would be okay to put her into CTC without completing PHFHG if she places there? I feel like she would place there come august but worry about narration skills mostly--- written narration in particular. How can I help her build this skill without adding too much work at the end of her day. We were making progress and I don't want to backtrack in that particular area. At least some maintenance work, if you kwim??

[my3sons]

I do think school will already be quite a full day, and you probably will just want some family time without pressure of added work. I was thinking too, though, that written narrations would be one area that she could lose some ground. I like the idea of doing a read aloud at night for fun. Maybe just on the weekend, like Saturday, she could do a written narration on the read aloud. She could just keep it short, like to 5 sentences. You could do it earlier in the day maybe, just that one day? I think at night it would be tough to do a written narration right before bedtime, but who knows? Maybe your dd is a night owl and wouldn't mind. Also, for oral narrations, maybe you could have her oral narrate after listening to the sermon on Sunday? Very informally, so as to keep the heart of it intact. We do this on our drive home after church. We start with the youngest telling what he remembers or found most important, and then add the olders to the mix. It is a pseudo oral narration, because we do have a conversation within it sometimes, but we try to let each child tell their oral narration without interrupting and then chat it over at the end. We have a 25 minute drive home from church, so this works well for us. Maybe something like that could work? Just a few ideas!

In Christ,
Julie

[Mom2Monkeys]

Julie, Thank you! I was beginning to think I was crazy for feeling I needed to be doing something with HOD skills or we'd loose ground. I like your ideas very much. I'm wondering about after going through the Burgess books, if her written narrations and such are up to par, and I feel she will be ready for CTC sooner rather than later after coming home, if I might move to the PHFHG history and storytime selections then as our bedtime reading. I'd likely read on track with the guide, just doing those two boxes. Then when she comes back home, we can pick up where we are with our reading and put it back to our school days to finish the PHFHG guide before moving into CTC. Perhaps we could choose some of the projects to do on weekends and breaks occassionaly and for fun over the summer! I think I'll have her pick one topic per month to practice research skills. And yes...she IS a nightowl! She has horrible sleep issues so is often up late at night reading, writing, drawing, etc. She wants the PHFGH extension pack to read for fun Besides math and grammar, DD9 calls HOD "fun school". She also misses the poetry! Both the reading and the writing from Day 2 of each unit! Perhaps I'll allow her that for her free time. Sounds crazy, but my kids just love HOD and so do I.

Can you help me think this through? Am I way off track here? Should I not do it this way?

[Mom2Monkeys]

I just confused myself further. I was looking at the placement chart for DD9 just for fun regarding PHFHG vs CTC for fall. Started looking at BLHFHG placement and think DS7 may be past that come fall! So I think we will start BHFHG half pace for him and it will be a perfect fit! Then just move into full speed once he's ready. He will be 8 in December so I'm sure we can move to full pace rather quickly. That puts me in back to back guides if DD is in PHFHG. I'm not sure how I feel about doing that. I always thought I'd prefer to combine rather than do back to back guides but I'm not sure how to do that. Or if I should.

{ Edited: Removed this portion about DD and CTC due to DH saying CTC will be a no-go since we won't be able to buy any new curriculum! }

Now, if DH insists on keeping DS in ps one more year, I'd have more time to do this. there's a possibility DS4 (will be 5) will be in K4 at the ps as well.
I'm also considering my time....I'll quite possibly be doing LHFHG half or full speed with my will-be 5yo son plus BHFHG and either 1) combine with extensions or 2)PHFHG
I'm in planning mode. Sorry! I just want them home asap! So many unknowns! Guess that's why I'm trying to form some stable plans in my head.

[water2wine]

Just sort of completely off what you are looking for in a way but put it out there anyway and hope it helps. What about just simply adding a Bible study or better yet just a reading of the Bible together and discussing and using that to keep the CM skills going. One of the best things I have found to do with my kids is just read through the Bible chronologically and discuss it as we go. You can bring in a lot of narration skills there as well. That also adds to the closeness and time learning together that is missed with ps. Then maybe a month before they are ready to be taken out access where they are at using the placement chart and get a game plan then depending on how much they progress in ps. I think if I had to put my kids in ps I would see what the children are doing there and do my best to help them learn that material but infuse them with Bible and character as much as possible, so that is what I am coming from it on my suggestion.

Also sorry just now you I realized you are asking for Carrie or Julie. Hope it is OK to put in some unsolicited this is what I would do advice. If not just ignore me.

[Mom2Monkeys]

Also sorry just now you I realized you are asking for Carrie or Julie. Hope it is OK to put in some unsolicited this is what I would do advice. If not just ignore me.

Not just those two! I appreciate your advice and anyone else that has any. I just wanted to be sure to hear from them as well
I have started a devotional with them, but as for now, we are trying to train the little ones to sit still...so we are only doing the LHTH older child choice. (Doing the younger one with my 4yo when we get to doing LHTH). I'm interested in Bible Study Guide for All Ages for our family study including dad...not in place of HOD Bible. So, once we can buy that, I think we'll be moving that direction. I can easily incorporate CM skills to that or just about anything though if I think about it

[water2wine]

I can easily incorporate CM skills to that or just about anything though if I think about it

Absolutely! The one thing I do with my kids that is not a curriculum is just read through the Narrated Chronological Bible. We have gotten so much from that and adding the CM skills that HOD brings. It really adds a closeness as well. Sounds like really you are doing great things as it is. Hard to make time pass though when you want to get to another state. I had my kids in ps at one time and I know how hard that is on a mom that wants it another way. Hang in there God will bless your efforts!