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I just wanted to encourage you to stick it out, even if it looks overwhelming, or feels overwhelming at first! Beyond and Bigger are not meant to be independent guides, so that's totally okay that your kids aren't there, yet. I do highly recommend writing out a schedule; or atleast a routine of what subjects should be done in what order. On that "Lets Share our Schedules" thread you can find approximate times that each of the boxes take for those guides as a goal to work toward. Use those times for making out your schedule. You may want to add some extra minutes in there for the first few weeks because things do often take longer at the beginning! Another thing you can consider, is just setting a specific time you want your school day to take, and then stop when that time is up. You can finish any remaining boxes the next day; and trust that gradually your kids will get more and more comfortable with the expectations and they'll be able to get all of their work done by the time school is over for the day.

We're running 3 guides right now, and I have to admit that the start to our year was rough. I ended up crying almost every day for the first couple of weeks... It just felt like so much was going on all at once and I didn't have a good handle on anything. I felt like I was doing school all.day.long. Cooking was barely happening, laundry was something that got thrown in when someone said they had no clean clothes to wear, and we won't even mention what the floors looked like! I think it took about 3 weeks or so before I began to feel like I was going to survive the year, and my house would, too. Don't worry if it seems like a lot; it will get better, I promise! It's very doable.

kclj1436 wrote:Last year was our first year with HOD. I had purchased Bigger and Beyond but ended up for the most part just using Beyond for bible, history and science for my 1st grader and 3rd grader. We used Rod and Staff for spelling, and English, and Wordly Wise for vocabulary for the third grader as well. For my first grader I used various workbooks.
I am thinking we may use Bigger for out Bible, History and Science this year and then use the guides separately for all other subjects.
My youngest is 7 and has a very short attention span, he also has TONS of energy and would probably be considered ADHD by most. I should have mentioned I will have to get to his schooling out of the way first or there will be constant interruptions. My other two do very well with entertaining themselves though.

Reading this makes me wonder whether you shouldn't do LHFHG with your 7 year old, adding in perhaps spelling and a little copywork. Bigger Bible, History and Science is a big step up in listening skills and notebooking etc. LHFHG is a wonderful program that's pretty short and sweet & he still fits in the age range for it. This would leave more time for you to focus on your middle child this year in Bigger. Just a thought...