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quiverfull wrote:I don't know if this will help anyone, but I started recording the older children's dictations into Evernote so they can do them independently if need be. This seems to be working well and saves me time. They also like it because they don't have to wait for me if I am working with another child.

My kids love when they don't have to wait for me. Thanks for the Evernote tip. Right now we only do dictation on Friday and that's with using Spelling You See

by alhempel
I too am doing 6 guides: world history, world geography, rev to rev, res to ref, bigger and Little Hearts. I however have a neighbor girl who was homeschooled herself and graduated last year as my helper working primarily with my two littles. What a blessing to have her. I find placing them in their own guides easier than combining. God bless your year!

What a blessing to have someone come in and help. A dream

I worked with Lance (Preparing) after dinner again. I read Grandpa's Box, the Bible, One Small Square, and Noah's Ark. Tomorrow Lance said he will try to write a few sentence in cursive from Draw & Write. I'm praying he will be able to. Maybe every month he can add another sentence.

How did it go today? I do hope you are not still going until 7. I don't think that will be sustainable for you. We moms still need time for exercise, meals, our husband, our quiet time, our friends, our parents.....

8arrows wrote:How did it go today? I do hope you are not still going until 7. I don't think that will be sustainable for you. We moms still need time for exercise, meals, our husband, our quiet time, our friends, our parents.....

Today went well, thank you. Ethan (CtC) and I started his poetry painting and did a lot of reading. I think I'm going to buy the Land Animals audio book when it comes out in Oct. from CBD. This way he can read along and I can take a break from that one He also worked more on his generations flap book.

Brent (Rev2Rev) we completed his first Inventors note book page, I did most of the reading but he did some. My goal is to get him reading more than me toward the middle of the school year.

Lance (preparing) we didn't do anything today.

Caleb (MtMM) I am reading Under the Hawthorn Tree and he is reading most of his books. I know he's skipping words he doesn't know. Tomorrow I am going to sit with him on a few more book. Today I didn't get to because of AWANA

Yesterday I didn't get done until 7:00. So far it seems like Lance is going to be doing night school

Annette (WG) and I discussed some literature. We will meet once a week for Bible.

Josh, is finishing up his WG.

All-in-all it's been great. What I do like is I get to read most of the books. I know this is our first week but it's been wonderful seeing how Carrie made everything fit so beautifully. Even though it's a lot of work I am enjoying my time with each child. Yes, I'd love for them to be more independent and pray that will happen soon but again, it's kinda neat.

I didn't get a chance to write about all the guides we did. It takes time to take pictures, crop, edit, and just write it all

Here is what Ethan (CtC) completed: http://training6hearts4him.blogspot.com ... l-ctc.html

Brent (Rev2Rev): http://training6hearts4him.blogspot.com ... v2rev.html

Lance (Preparing) completed 2 days of Unit 1

Caleb (MtMM) completed 3 days

My 2 high schoolers are going full speed and completed a unit.

It was a lot but I enjoyed it. I love that I'm actually reading most of the books. I still hope that by Jan. the kiddos will take on more reading but for know it's great because when my younger kids move up a program I'd have read most of the books.

Love your blog!

8arrows wrote:Love your blog!

Thank you. I enjoy writing about our days. It's my way of scrapbooking our homeschool years.

I had to think of you when I was teaching my children today. I only have 3 guides to teach and a bay to entertai , and I felt so overwhelmed today. How do you do it? I feel everyone needs me at the same time. It was our first day today, and I know it will get easier as we'll get used to our guides.

Based on your guides ShowersofBlessings I'm guessing your kids are still little. As my older ones get older, it gets much easier day to day, even with a baby. Older guides are more independent, kids are more independent in general, and kids can more easily entertain younger ones.

ShowersofBlessings wrote:I had to think of you when I was teaching my children today. I only have 3 guides to teach and a bay to entertai , and I felt so overwhelmed today. How do you do it? I feel everyone needs me at the same time. It was our first day today, and I know it will get easier as we'll get used to our guides.

I'm only in a week with running 6 guides and as hectic and tiring as it was, I LOVED it! Right now I've given myself permission that it is okay if we don't finish a unit in a week. There is no way I'd be able to do that. My 4 younger boys struggle with reading so I'm helping a lot. I do hope the kids reading will improve as we progress through the year.

Last year we took a break (the 4 younger ones) from HOD to improve their reading. They still struggle but are reading better. I was on the fence whether to use HOD this year because of the reading problem here at Homeschooling6. What finally gave me that push to go with it is my two younger ones have been wandering the house in the morning doing almost nothing with school. I keep waiting for them to get better with writing or get better with reading. So this year I decided to just start and say it's okay if one can't copy the whole paragraph (like with Lance who has trouble writing ) I want my kids to experience as much of HOD as possible. Hopefully by the end of our school year they will have improved a lot. That's my prayer

I feel the same way at times. Everyone needs me in a different way because my kids are older now. Give yourself permission to go over a week if you have too. My kids do LA and math daily but we are taking a week to complete 2 or 3 days for now. That kept me way busy.