More Q's on finaggling 3 (maybe 4!) books

[witheagerhands]

I have another question or 3. Maybe more.
It seems like small stuff, but in figuring out how to swing this (and knowing MG-11yo's penchant for routine) I would like to know your thoughts on:

--how to order Preparing boxes for MG, both during the "training" period and in "real-life". Should I be aiming at a "real-life" schedule scenario with her, or use training time as just that, then adjust the order of the boxes and timing during EK-8yo's Beyond training time, then again HR-almost6yo's LHFHG training time? The shifting would be due to my attendance with the trainee, and the need for more support with the two youngers during that time. Would it mess her up to do 2-ish weeks full-on, then back off a lot for the others' training? Am I making a lick of sense here?

--I am also strongly considering using LHTH for SA-almost-3yo and repeating it for her a couple times before she arrives at LHFHG. Then, I am accountable, and the big girls can even work with her.

--We currently have about a 2-hour Quiet Time each day, where only the 2yo sleeps. She may not sleep that entire time, but God is working on my stubborn heart to give up the front end of that time for myself and put that to doing things with the other children. MG-11yo gets to read her little heart out. I'd like to have HR (the 6yo-come-Sept) stay in Quiet Time on his bed(the rule) while I work with his older sisters, but he is fiery and usually has his 8yo sister, EK, with him at the beginning of QT. The training on him staying put would be....challenging. What I am thinking, then is that EK stay with him and I do DITHOR , dictation, R&S 3 and maybe Poetry with MG-11yo while it's quietest. Math, too, if I could push it that far (we use MUS right now). But how long should I expect at the beginning, and then in real-life-time for the LA box, plus, the poetry box? I am thinking that by the time all that gets done, HR will start getting wiggly (read: a little fussy with EK) and will need to do something about that, and/or SA-2yo will rouse. If can't get her to sleep again, she usually will stay on her bed, and EK will enterain her, or she will play on the cell phone. Not ideal, but it's something to note here.

--Little Miss Anti-TV, here, has been letting HR and EK play on my cell phone during QT, mostly to keep them quiet while SA-2yo sleeps in her bed in the other corner of the room (oh! little fact that is important to note: the 2yo and the 5yo sleep in the same room, the 8yo and 11yo share a room as well) Bad? I'm comfortable with it at this point This could continue, or I do a portable CD player with stories or something? I have thought about "tot boxes" or "quiet time boxes" I have seen on Pinterest, but just haven't acted on them. HR doesn't need to sleep, exactly, but he needs time alone (and EK in all her lovey mother-hen-ness needs a break as well) and he needs to BE QUIET! I just don't like the idea of a video every day. We do videos as a family on the weekend, so adding something mid-week feels wrong for us (but whoo whee, would that make things easier). I would need to talk to my husband about that.

And here's another question:
Preparing has many of the boxes being Teacher-directed. For my daughter, I can see that being very necessary at the beginning, but what if several of those became Independent's once she gets the knack of the routine and method? She will be doing the Extension Study as well, and I want to follow Carrie's suggestions for it:
Day 1: oral narration
Day 2: 2-3 paragraph written narration (we will start out less than that)
Day 3: 1 paragraph to accompany the picture drawing
Day 4: 2-3 paragraph written narration
But I don't know if I would consider that completely independent, with her needing to come to me on day 1, then needing support for the other days. Hmmmm... thoughts? (I won't even mention wanting to put Prima Latina back into the day, or the TOS reviews I do!)

At 3pm SHARP! we have snack. Even if, say, we ate en entire smorgasbord at 2. We eat snack at 3. (it's not me, it's those kids! hahahaha!) After that, it's all a haze. I am keen on not doing school work at this point, mostly because none of us are in a mind to do it. They need to get active, and my bubble has usually expanded quite a bit. I'm working on that. Plus, we need to get back into the routine of ACT: Afternoon Clean-Up Time (Love Large Family Logistics!) and getting supper ready. I have an older and a younger paired up, and we are slowly working on them being Kitchen Helpers. So, MG, HR and I are to prep supper, and then clean afterwards. So between snack, play time, clean-up, and supper-making, there's no room for school.

I appreciate your reading through it all (if you stuck around to make it this far!) and thank you in advance for any thoughts you have on all these things!
THANK YOU!

[Gwenny]

Is it possible for the 2 and 5 year olds to nap in different rooms? My children share rooms but I separate them all for naps. Sometimes I let the older ones go togetheer to listen to a story and play Legos or something.

[8arrows]

I agree with Nancy. All of my children share rooms, but when it comes to rest time, they "rest" in different areas. I even use the washroom as an area. One must be creative to come up with separate spots!

[witheagerhands]

I think that moving HR downstairs is wise. It will be a matter of training him to stay still and quiet during that time.

Have you used "tot boxes" for your youngers? I can't live the "fly by the seat of your pants" lifestyle anymore, and need to come up with a very specific base plan for SA-2yo (will be 3 mid-July) both during the day, and when she wakes during QT. I am not sure I'm going to use LHTH for her, so I don't want to make plans right now to use that.

I have also read on here all sorts of schedules and routines for multiple chidlren, but can't seem to work up something for my own children! It's like an emotional wall gone to my brain!
During the "training time" for my oldest, my 8yo woudl have no problem just continuing to free play with the 2 youngers. But when I need to set my oldest to her work, so I can then train the 8yo in Beyond, I begin to flounder. What will the 5yo and 2yo do? I like Julie's advice to use all this training time to not only teach the children aobut the books and routine of school, but also how to shift from school to play/learning time with a younger child, and chores as well. Just not sure the HOW on that. Sometimes the 2yo and 5yo play ok together, but it usually requires a lot of me to keep them playing ok (the 5yo is starting to do the "don't come in my space" thing, even though we don't allow such). Should I have the oldest step away from her newly-started schoolwork to play with the littles, or would that undo what I've just done in getting her started?

And when I begin training-teaching my 5yo in LHFHG, I woudl need to have things for the 2yo (by then she will have likely turned 3) to do. I think she would just want to stick with me and whoever I'm working with most of the time, which is what she usually does, randomly wandering off ... like a 2yo I wonder if I should come up with 1-3 tot trays or boxes or whathaveyou to work with her side-by-side with the 5yo? Or have you found in your experience that during the training time, you needed to be completely dedicated to that one child?

When all have been introduced to the books and are started, I know I need to completely reconfigure the schedule such that my 5yo (soon to be 6yo by that point) should come first......I think. So conflicted! I understand that if I give him and the 2 yo my attentions first, they are more likely to then go along and do other things better as I work with the other older children. But then again, I am thinking about those two older children, and wondering what they would do during my Littles TIme. The 8yo Beyonder needs me for all of it, and the 11yo Preparing will still need me for some of it. Hmmm...... And then there's the question of the Olders doing the lighter, can-function-with-chaos subjects first, or I-need-to-be-mentally-sharp-which-is-first-thing-in-the-morning subjects first?

Oh, Silly Sally...

[Kathleen]

Hi Sally!

Sounds like you're doing a great job thinking through your school schedule. For me that THINKING time can be oh-so-helpful when the rubber hits to road for our school year. Here is what we have found at our house...

~We do well with a routine. We do all the same things in the same order every day (but are not clock watchers). We have a dairy farm, and while Dad is the one out doing the chores during the morning...you just never know when there might be cows to chase or some other "emergency" that summons the little farm hands. Thus the LEARNED flexibility here...
~I like blocks of time with my kids. So, I will take one child and spend 30-45 min with him/her and do what we can. (And I plan it that way from the get-go.) There are threads here where Carrie has shared an approximate time for each box.
~I plan where I need to be 1st in the schedule. I know that I need to get my teaching time in in the morning as much as possible.
~I plan the little one's days next and give them a play time with siblings throughout our morning.
~I usually start MY time with the child who has the most work (oldest) and move down from there...and then back up. So, this past year I had time with Grant in RTR, then some Beyond with Allison, then all of LHFHG with Garret, then back to Allison, then back to Grant. We LOVED that plan!

Now, when we have started our years here, we always just dive in. As in, OPEN and GO! I have always read through the introduction a week or so ahead of time...or maybe the night before. But then we just went with my planned schedule from day 1. I didn't ever have a big "training time" planned. I guess for us, it was still training time for the 1st several weeks because there are always some new skills included in the guides. And, our routine takes a little more time for the 1st month, but we haven't ever felt the need to have a 1-on-1 time at the beginning of the year. Carrie has done an EXCELLENT job of planning the training right into the guides. I know that in Preparing, the written narrations are guided so beautifully (and you're alongside your child). Research is taught so well, and it's an "S" box, so I sat with Grant that year as he learned that skill and then in CTC and RTR it is something that he did so well with independently! Anyway, I just wanted to say, don't stress about the whole training time! Just make a plan and dive in! Expect the routine to take a little longer at the beginning of the year and expect some time to fall off your day as you get a month or 2 in. You really will be right with your Beyond and LHFHG child for everything anyway, so if you did need a training time it would be for the Preparing child in the "I" boxes. One thing my kids learn to do throughout our year is skim the boxes and gather what we need so that when I'm with them they're ready to roll. But, that's something we learn as we go, too. I "check" them on it for the 1st month or so.

Now...if you come up with some great ideas for a 2 year old...I need to work on that this summer!! I'll be starting our school year this fall with a 2 year old and a 1 year old. And, it would be GREAT if they did something other than color themselves with markers or drink out of the toilet. My hubby and I were talking about keeping up with Asa this spring and we were comparing him to a tornado...a very happy, quiet tornado...but a tornado none the less. I pointed out that next school year I would have TWO of them. Grant has already nicknamed them the "Twin Twisters". I'm guessing I will get plenty of training time for what it means to "clean sweep" the downstairs and put everything back in its place!

Happy Planning!
Kathleen

[mrsrandolph]

The quiet time is perfectly reasonable. Maybe you coulod allow the child to play quietly in the confines of their room WITHOUT coming out. Give the child snacks and a few toys that are only for then. You could set a timer that they can see ticking down. You might also try 1 hour 2 times per day. (that is what I do for my 4 year old) If they leave their room during quiet time, spank them like the dickens!

[witheagerhands]

Kathleen and Shannon, thank you! I'm glad I'm not just being crazy about this. I *do* understand that any plan or list I make will change, but for me, I need SOMETHING to go from. So thank you for not laughing at all my questions!
Shannon, your last comment made me chuckle -- I used every parent trick in teh book for how to keep my son in his space during quiet time (and I'm talking about for the first hour!!) and what finally made it stick was the hands-on approach (or the belt, to be precise).

Kathleen, your post was so helpful to see how it went for you. I told my husband about it, and he said, "That's what I've been saying all along!" The "twin Twisters" made him laugh, because our 2yo is JUST LIKE THAT -- a Quiet Tornado! -- and the thought of TWO of her .....all he could do was laugh! It felt good to read that dose of "real" in your home. Since you work with your children, oldest first, what are the younger children doing? My husband thinks just letting them go is sufficient, but maybe he forgot the "twister" refernce...