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my3sons wrote: One thing I have noticed about each HOD guide we do - after we work hard at the beginning to establish good routines and to work hard at doing the best possible for each box/skill set of the plans, the guide gets more manageable, even more enjoyable, and time begins to fall off the day more and more each month of school until at the end - WOW! They are doing it all and doing it well. Keep persevering!

Oh, Julie, thank you SO MUCH for your kind and encouraging words. It's exactly what I needed to hear! I know that it will get easier each week. They did do really well on most things, it just takes so much extra time to do it.

I had to laugh on your "Keep persevering!" comment. Every year we have a theme for the year, find a Bible verse, and really try to link everything to that one theme. We knew this year was going to be a challenging year so our theme is.....PERSEVERANCE. It's amazing how many times in our daily readings we've come across that word and some very good examples! The youngest even asked if I planned that. LOL. No, but I'm sure the Lord did!

Thank you again! Persevere!

I am coming in a little late but wanted to share what we did last year and are looking at doing this year. It is similar to what has already been mentioned and I found some good tips here as well. Ds was feeling overwhelmed each day and frustrated at the end. So to make it seem we had eased his work load for the day and still keep him on track, we combined the subject days. He would do two days of the right side of the guide and the next day two days of the left side along with math and LA each day. He was finished sooner, felt less overwhelmed by the number of subjects he had each day and was happier. This also freed more time for me to work with my other son. And it kept him on track for four days. This year with RTR we will swapping places with a couple of the boxes to try and keep a balance. Because grandma likes to come visit once a week we try to do lessons the first part of the day on those days. Because my younger son is so curious about the solar system right now and RTR starts with Astronomy, we will use this science day on grandma days for both. If it is too much for older ds to finish in one day(was thinking the written narration) then he can finish during the regular schedule for the side with science. We got the Apologia jr. notebook journal for younger ds to use for this and we will let Carrie's plans guide us for both boys. On a lighter note, I thought I was onto something new only later to find our local public schools have gone to similar block scheduling. L . Thanks for listening I was just excited to share.

That's a great idea!

We are still trying to get all work done in one day but if we continue getting bogged down, I may try your schedule!

Thanks!

Gwenny wrote:My3sons, you have the gift of encouraging words. I feel like super mom after your post!! Seriously, thank you for those words. I'm trying and trying to use the fantastic advice that I receive here from you and Carrie and the other here on this great board. I love HOD and all of the things that go along with it.

You have the gift as well! Thank you, and may you continue to share your love of HOD with others and pass on the gift of happily homeschooling together to others!!!

In Christ,
Julie

Update from here: today was our first day and it went really well, too! My DS in R2R is a keener; he turns 10 next week and was champing at the bit to start. I told him that today he needed to do math and at least one of the LA subjects and as many of the others as he could, with a goal of about 1/2 the remaining ones. Well, we couldn't do DITHOR because *I* lost the book but he got all but 4 subjects done today! I'm sure he'll be able to start into Day 2 tomorrow, which will be nice since Friday will be a short day (first field trip!). I did help him with the key word outline in Medieval Writing, but I expect that, with him being so young for the guide (after we have a few under our belts I can maybe let him finish the assignment on his own, giving him the time he needs to think through it - he and his brother do this subject together).

Thanks, Gwenny, for your original post. It gave me hope for today that wasn't disappointed!

Blessings,

That's great Rice! It is amazing how different children are and how it goes to show you that it doesn't work well to throw children in the same class just because of age. My son was 11, so a little over a year older than yours, and he is in the middle of Bigger! He is not ready to tackle Preparing even though I would love to move him up to that. He can't spell a thing and reading exhausts him. He is allergic to the pencil. I think he will be ready to move up when we finish Bigger-hopefully by Christmas.
It's amazing that your son can be in RTR. That is very exciting. Can you imagine if they had to be in same class, or my son a grade ahead of yours? Mine wouldn't make it and yours would be bored. I'm so grateful we can keep them home!

Indeed! I also have an 11yo just starting back into Preparing. She moved down to Bigger last year (at 10) because she still couldn't read well enough to keep up with the volume of work in Preparing.

AND I have a 13yo who couldn't handle CTC last year along with his little brother! One size fits all is definitely a pipe dream of the system.

Loving individualized instruction at appropriate skill levels and the flexibility that HOD offers.
Blessings,