2 guides? Do 1 at at time?

[mae357]

Has anyone ever done 1 guide with a child then completely finished that guide and then started a guide with the other child? Like do "school" with one, finish and then start "school" with the other?

I know it's much more time consuming but I'm wondering if it has it's benefits too?

Just thinking out loud and wanted some input!

thanks!

[krismoose]

Bear with me, I haven't had enough coffee yet today... Do you mean, do the pages with child #1, then send him off to play and do the same pages with child#2?

[mae357]

No 2 different guides. My dd is in beyond and I've just started my other dd with LHFHG this week.

I was just thinking maybe they would get more personal attention that way. Oh I don't know. I'm not sure this is even making sense to me... Maybe my brain is foggy...

[krismoose]

I was the foggy one Sure, people separate their kids into individual guides all the time, it just depends what combination will work best for your family at the moment. I have had younger sis tagging along with older bro for hands-on activities and storytime, but I did start LHTH with her by herself this past year as well (though somehow, ds always shows up for the song and game ) This year I'll be starting Beyond with ds and LHFHG 1/2 speed with dd, and while they can listen in on the other if they like, I'm just going to "do" it with the one at a time. The only planned together activities will be our "extras" that we do for fun: latin and art so far. That's the plan, we'll see what happens I think it's great to be able to use multiple guides if that's what works best! HOD is wonderfully flexible if you need it to be.

[lharris]

It might work if you have 2 children. I really liked Julie's post about her schedule. Not sure which thread it is --- I believe this is Carrie's sister? Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Since I work with families with mulitple children, this is a very interesting topic for me, since I don't have personal experience working with that many different children at once. It seems that Julie's general idea is to start your teaching time with the oldest while the little ones are playing, then he moves into independent work, while you move to the next child (or level) and teach them, and so on. Then when you get to the youngest, you teach him. It looks as if Julie works her way back up through the siblings checking their work and teaching more when needed until the school day is done. I think she was working through 3 HOD manuals. I loved this idea because now I have a general suggestion for new families with multiple children.
Laura

[lharris]

One more thought, I just saw that your oldest is in Beyond and the younger in Little Hearts. Since the Beyond child does not have that much independent work, you could let the copywork, spelling, and math sheets be the time that is independent enough to teach the younger. Otherwise, I may be like you and just do one then the other if there are only 2.
Laura

[my3sons]

... I really liked Julie's post about her schedule. Not sure which thread it is --- I believe this is Carrie's sister? ... It seems that Julie's general idea is to start your teaching time with the oldest while the little ones are playing, then he moves into independent work, while you move to the next child (or level) and teach them, and so on. Then when you get to the youngest, you teach him. It looks as if Julie works her way back up through the siblings checking their work and teaching more when needed until the school day is done. I think she was working through 3 HOD manuals. I loved this idea because now I have a general suggestion for new families with multiple children.
Laura

Thanks, Laura - I'm so glad what I've found to work well for our dc may help someone else, and yes, I am Carrie's sister! Your explanation of what I do with our day is very accurate. Here is our schedule in case anyone is interested:


Has anyone ever done 1 guide with a child then completely finished that guide and then started a guide with the other child? Like do "school" with one, finish and then start "school" with the other?
In answer to mae357's question here, while you could do an entire guide, not having dc in other guides work, and then do the next entire guide, and not having any other dc in other guides work, I think the benefits of this may not be worth it unless you happen to be doing 2 very young guides, like LHTH and LHFHG. The day would be long, and also there would not be this feeling that "now we are all doing school", and then when you finish "now we are done with school", which is very family building. I know the child finishing last in our home would be rushing and upset they were working "longer", though they really wouldn't be as they didn't do school earlier (dc tend to forget this when others are done with their work). Also, dc do need to learn to work semi-independently and independently as they mature. This is key to being able to continue to successfully homeschool IMO. Having times when you are definitely teaching, as well as times they are definitely supposed to be working independently, as well as times you are kind of "floating" to oversee semi-independent work, really helps dc learn to manage their work and time in a successful way (how I wish I had had some experience with this before I went to high school and college! ).

We have really enjoyed having blocks of time where I focus on one child, usually the oldest first, and then move onto the youngers according to their needs. The oldest then is able to continue working independently during this time, and then the next oldest has his teaching time with me and is able to keep working, and last the youngest has his time with me. This helps us all finish about the same time, as well as focuses my teaching time on certain dc's needs for a block of time so there is enough of me to go around, and so everyone isn't needing me all at the same time. It has helped me to have each of my oldest take a turn with our youngest too, as this gives the olders a break, gives me quiet teaching time with each of the older dc, builds relationships between my youngest and olders, and teaches them (I think) good future fathering skills. Our 3 sons are each other's best friends. I think without this scheduled time for our olders to be with our toddler, our toddler would be lost in the mix, as our olders do naturally prefer each other to the toddler.

There are many ways to schedule your day, and by all means, doing 1 guide entirely, and then doing another guide entirely is one way to do so. You may enjoy this! You can always try it and see how it goes. The above comments are just based on my goals - being able to happily teach 3 dc, being able to place them where they need to be and as they place in very different guides being able to happily teach 3 guides, and being able to finish school in a timely fashion so I can carry out my other daily responsibilities and so my dc can learn to value/manage/plan for their free time, and being able to truly happily homeschool with very little stress in a very academically sound way so I can homeschool through high school and not burnout. Not everyone needs or wants to finish school in as timely fashion as I do, some moms love for school to take all day, and then of course, schedules like mine aren't going to be a good fit. I hope something here helps, but the "Let's Share Our Schedules" thread should be a wonderful help as well!

In Christ,
Julie

[jenntracy]

it seems like i do this alot. i will have my son do what he can as far as anything independent in Beyond and try to get most of my daughter done in LHFHG. OR i will do it the other way around and do most of my son's and then do all of my daughters. LHFHG seems to go really fast and if i do hers first the 3 yr old will join in on the Rhymetime too, but i didn't just recently start her in LHTH. She loves it! SHe just turned 3 last month and so excited to have her "own" school.
It also allows the 3 yr old to have a longer time to play with one sibling than it being all choppy.

Jenn D.

[mae357]

Thanks for all the input. I wasn't sure that approach would be best but wanted to consider it. Starting 2 guides at once just feels so much different than only running 1 guide but I know it's possible especially with HOD!!

[mamaduke]

I am doing this because I can't seem to make anything else work. I have young students, ds7 in Beyond and dd's4 in LHTH. They are all very dependent on me and can only work very briefly independently. It has always taken me longer than the suggested times for each guide, I'm not sure why, perhaps I allow too many questions or continuations. It seems to work best to do LHTH with my girls first thing in the morning, then do beyond with my ds later. (The girls will bug me unrelentingly about when they get to do school if I try to do theirs later.) When I try to overlap the two guides, I find myself flustered because no one can do anything without me for longer than a few minutes. It takes me about 6 hours to do these two guides, and I know that is way too long. I'm worried about the next guides and how I will do them, but for now, this is at least working. I'm sure it will get better once my ds starts reading better and getting into the older guides.

Bless you as you work it out for His Glory,