Juggling Multiple Guides

[mothermayi]

How do you juggle several guides? I shied away from doing four guides this year and settled on having my younger two dc do HOD. Part of me wants to use HOD for the older kids but I am scared I will be like a chicken with its head cut off. I can't imagine doing four different time periods and having all of the books that go with four guides plus DITHOR. How do you do it? My kids would be in LHTH, LHFHG, Preparing with extensions, and CTC.

Thanks!

[Mombeck]

This year might just be the perfect time for you to try your 2 oldest with HOD as your younger children have the early guides that are meant to be completed with little time invested each day. I understand that Preparing is the first guide that begins to encourage some independence and CtC will definitely continue further independece. My first week my daughter in CtC would keep coming to me and ask what to do next. Even though I always had the guide there beside her on the table, I realized she wasn't even reading the boxes and was just waiting for my verbal instructions. By week 5, she was much more independent and seemed happier as a result. She also took pride in her acomplishments.

My best advice for you would to be to stagger the starting dates for your children. That way you will have more time to focus on the new guides. Also, consider a slower pace in the beginning to allow your children more time to get used to the routine. Last, don't over do it with the read alouds like I have. You don't have to read aloud from all of the upper guides. Pick the books that you think your 2 oldest would enjoy the most to do read alouds together and consider which books they might even read independently. My problem has been that I am so enjoying the books and curriculum that I don't want to miss out on any of it myself.

As far for Dithor, you wouldn't have to start it right away. I plan to start Dithor this fall as my kids get back into the routine again. We didn't do Dithor for our first 5 units. I had both my daughters doing the extensions and felt like we had plenty of literature that I was afraid to overwhelm them. We are looking forward to starting it this fall and I'm pleased with Carrie's Dithor assignments.

I know others with more experience will give you lots more tips.

[my12kiddos]

I am doing 7 guides. I get my oldest 4 ( 3 guides) kids up first.(7am) We do any one on one work together. Then they finish the day by them selves. Then the next 2 kids (2 guides) up at 8 and school them. They are doing Bigger and Beyond. Everyone else sleeps til 9am. I can get a lot done before the little ones get up. When the little ones get up I let them watch things like leap frog til Im done with the 2 doing Bigger and Beyond. Then I teach Little Hearts with 3 kids. My older kids help with that. One of my oldest reads the read alouds and motor skills boxes. One does the math and teaches the verses. It gives my kids a break from school and helps me. It also helps my older kids. One still has some trouble reading aloud so she gets extra practice with the little ones. Then in the later afternoon I teach the little hands.

[my3sons]

How do you juggle several guides? I shied away from doing four guides this year and settled on having my younger two dc do HOD. Part of me wants to use HOD for the older kids but I am scared I will be like a chicken with its head cut off. I can't imagine doing four different time periods and having all of the books that go with four guides plus DITHOR. How do you do it? My kids would be in LHTH, LHFHG, Preparing with extensions, and CTC.

Thanks!

Teaching multiple guides has been easier for me than trying to combine dc that just do not go together. Here are a few links to discussions similar to this, where I shared a few tips I have found to be helpful for teaching multiple guides...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11724&p=85112
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10203&p=74358

I am thinking that if you have one child placing in PHFHG with Extensions, and one placing in CTC though, that they could be combined quite easily. There is a lot of leeway in combining in the upper guides because there are many LA and math options available. Likewise, LHTH and LHFHG are similar - any combining options there? Placement makes a big difference in running multiple guides. We can chat placement if we haven't already and figure that out together if that would be helpful!

In Christ,
Julie

[blessedmama]

I am doing four guides and find it easier to do than to combine. In the fall we will begin RtR, CtC, Bigger, and Beyond. As the children get older they are doing more independent boxes.

[8arrows]

I do struggle with multiple guides, but I have not found combining to be difficult. Some of it will come down to personality. I do not enjoy teaching the children when I have not read the material ahead of time (unless it is something I am reading aloud). (That is not an issue for everyone.) So for me, I cannot juggle all the time periods and different books. It is much easier for me to teach out of one guide and then add something to extend for the older one. I do think if you have one placed in Preparing with extensions and one in CTC that those two could be combined. You might be able to combine the littles too. However, I could do LHTH, LHFHG, and Preparing with extensions. LHTH and LHFHG are somewhat different for me in that they do not encompass a lot of time. Also, I am reading the material to them, so obviously, I don't have to be caught up on their reading. I can run two guides, and I have run two guides with high schoolers using different materials. So for ME, three would be my limit, and I would prefer 2. I have 8 children, so that might factor into what works at my home as well. Although as you can see, there is a previous poster with more children who does enjoy multiple guides. I also came from a curriculum that combined, so that is familiar to me. Again, I think personality, life situations, and teacher preferences will all play into the combining/separating scenerios and the, "How many guides is too many guides?" question at your own house.

[MomtoJGJE]

I agree that if they are properly placed, multiple guides are not difficult. I would imagine if you started adding in other things, that would make it difficult, but HOD as written is very easy to do. In a few weeks I'll be doing CTC, Bigger, Beyond, and LHTH... I think I'll be in MY hardest stretch of school this year, and it's really not bad at all.

My first thought as I read your post was "Why do Preparing w/ extensions AND CTC?" I'd combine those two. You could pick either Preparing or CTC for both of them. Preparing teaches written narrations and how to follow instructions with the I boxes, but CTC is less work for you once they get it.

[mothermayi]

Thanks for the replies! My older kids are two years apart and my 9 year old can handle the reading that comes with the extension but he can't physically handle the writing in CtC. I hear there is a big jump from Preparing to CtC. My 11 year old, on the other hand, can handle it. I was hoping that a year in Preparing would give my 9 year old's physical ability time to catch up a little more with his mental ability, if that makes sense.

My younger kiddos are far apart in skill level. My dd in LHTH won't be three until the end of the month and she needs to be in LHTH. My dd5, on the other hand is reading and adding and places nicely in LHFHG. I'm new here so I don't know how to combine. There will be a learning curve already bc we have never used HOD so I am nervous about combining. Any suggestions?

Also, do you feel involved and deeply engaged in your students' studies? I ask because it seems hard to be as involved as I'm use to considering everyone would be in a different time period and doing completely different work. How do you keep up with all of their books? Do you read them ahead of time so you have an idea of what they are talking about? How do you engage your students in conversation if you haven't read the books? Do you get confused with the different time periods?

Thanks again!

[my3sons]

Thanks for the replies! My older kids are two years apart and my 9 year old can handle the reading that comes with the extension but he can't physically handle the writing in CtC. I hear there is a big jump from Preparing to CtC. My 11 year old, on the other hand, can handle it. I was hoping that a year in Preparing would give my 9 year old's physical ability time to catch up a little more with his mental ability, if that makes sense.

My younger kiddos are far apart in skill level. My dd in LHTH won't be three until the end of the month and she needs to be in LHTH. My dd5, on the other hand is reading and adding and places nicely in LHFHG. I'm new here so I don't know how to combine. There will be a learning curve already bc we have never used HOD so I am nervous about combining. Any suggestions?

Also, do you feel involved and deeply engaged in your students' studies? I ask because it seems hard to be as involved as I'm use to considering everyone would be in a different time period and doing completely different work. How do you keep up with all of their books? Do you read them ahead of time so you have an idea of what they are talking about? How do you engage your students in conversation if you haven't read the books? Do you get confused with the different time periods?

Thanks again!

Thanks for sharing about your dc here! That really helps! From what you've shared, I think you could easily combine your 9 and 11 yo in Preparing (PHFHG), but have your 11 do the PHFHG extensions. I wouldn't have your 9 yo do the PHFHG extensions, as they are meant for 11 and 12 yo dc. The reason this would work so well is you could have your 2 dc together for the majority of homeschooling, but you could meet their individual LA and math needs with different levels of "Drawn into the Heart of Reading" (DITHOR - reading instruction that has levels second through eighth grade to choose from), Dictation (which is spelling and has 3 levels to choose from), Grammar (which has 2 levels to choose from), and Math (which has 3 levels to choose from). The history will already be extended, and the science may still be enough for your 11 yo if that student has not been used to reading and doing her own science daily (along with a weekly experiment and lab sheet to complete, a weekly science oral narration, a weekly set of 5 comprehension questions to answer, and a weekly science notebooking entry).

I feel very involved in my dc's schooling! I love how my involvement changes as my dc mature and grow. When my dc are younger, my involvement is focused on reading to them and working alongside them in just about every part of school. As my dc get older and mature, my role has changed, and instead of me just reading to them and working alongside them in every part of school, my time with them is more focused on higher level things. For example, we have deeper discussions, we Socratic discussions about famous speeches we have both read, we read and discuss Biblical Worldviews, we share our insights about what different people are doing that we are learning about, we go through things the boys have written and discuss how they could be improved and what editing changes are needed, we discuss the intricacies of the classic poetry we are reading and the insights we have into that poetry knowing more about the poety, we study famous paintings and techniques of their artists together, we go through lab sheets of experiments my sons have performed and discuss their conclusions, we work on writing pieces together and hone them until they are the best they can be, we pray together - often specifically about certain challenges my sons share they are facing currently, I jot notes to them in their Bible study work they have written, and of course throughout I am still working daily with they on math, grammar, dictation, and reading. I feel completely in tune to my older dc's learning, and more importantly, I feel - most of the time - completely in tune to my older dc just in general. HOD has helped me stay connected to my older dc not only academically, but spiritually as well. I think it is because of the way our roles have changed over the years, gradually, so that I am teaching different more age appropriate things.

I don't read their books ahead of time because I have learned to trust HOD, and the warnings are usually in the plans if there might be something a sensitive child may need to discuss with a parent (I have all sons, so we have not had any need to heed the warnings as of yet ). I do read all of the Key Ideas, as they become like succinct summaries for me of what was read. I do skim the books they are reading when they give oral/written narrations, usually simply skimming a page at the beginning, middle, and end of the day's reading is enough. I do correct all my dc's work right away, and I use all of the 'helps' in the Appendix of the guide (which are editing, oral narration, written narration, and dictation helps). I do all of the discussions, and I do read all that the plans ask me to read. I take time to have a midpoint meeting time with each of our older dc, as HOD suggests. I look at all of their projects, eat all of the things they've baked/cooked for school projects, play the games they've made, participate in the presentations they give, and the list could go on and on. All of this keeps me very in tune to my dc, and instead of just knowing about the facts of the time period they are studying, I know the ins and outs of not only every aspect of their learning, but also of their thoughts and even often of their heart's desires. It is amazing, really, how in tune HOD helps me be to my dc - even my teenager. This is such a blessing!!!

I actually enjoy studying different time periods and teaching different grade levels! It is fun to go from having a deep Socratic discussion about Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech to doing a Fingerplay about Moses. It's neat to go from reading about the struggles of those in the ancients, to discussing the amazing technology of the modern times! However, if you do end up taking my advice, your 2 dc doing PHFHG and your other child doing LHFHG, will actually all be doing a 1 year sweep of history. Your Little Hands to Heaven child would be doing Biblical history, which would actually match a portion of what everyone else is learning too. I would, BTW, keep your other 2 dc separate in LHTH and LHFHG, based on what you've shared so far.

Looking down the road though, I'd not get hung up on every family member being on the same time period. I find our dc LIKE sharing different things they're learning with one another around the table, or throughout the school day. Each likes to be the star of the show some of the time! I'll leave you with these links to read, as they pertain to your questions here as well...

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9343
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9340
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9339

HTH, but keep asking questions! This board is full of encouraging helpful ladies. I think you will love HOD as much as we have!

In Christ,
Julie