Dear Carrie

How can I better manage the time we spend on history projects? My kids are actually loving them a little too much!

I am teaching two Heart of Dakota guides. My kids are enjoying their homeschool days so much, especially the history projects. In fact, I think my kids are actually enjoying the projects a little TOO much. Here’s my question: If you run multiple guides with multiple history projects in a day, do you do everything? If my daughter has a project in her guide, and my son has a project in his guide, I find everyone wants to do everything. If I let them do a project together, it takes so long that the other project in the other guide doesn’t get done. Since the history projects are so intertwined with what they are learning, I hate to skip things. I don’t want to douse their enthusiasm, but I don’t want them skipping things either. What would you advise? Moving history projects to the weekend? Or to the evening? Help!

Sincerely,

“Ms. Please Help Me Manage the Time We Spend on History Projects”

Dear “Ms. Please Help Me Manage the Time We Spend on History Projects,”

One thing we’ve found through the years we’ve had of running four different full-speed guides at our house is that when we shift things off to the weekend or to a free day, they often get overlooked. The more guides we’ve added to our plate the more we’ve found the need to actually do the history project on the day in which it is scheduled, otherwise it is nearly impossible to remember who has what to do later (and by the time we get to the weekend no one can really remember why we’re doing the history project or what possible connection it had to the text anymore).

Older students can do the history projects last in the day, so they can take as long as they want to complete them.

So, what we do to compensate for history projects that may go longer is to have our older kiddos do the project time and science time last in the day for the child to take as long as he/she wishes to complete. This also allows any younger family members who are done with their school to join in (if it is something the older child doesn’t mind having youngers join in to do).

Younger students can do the history projects before a scheduled free time.

For our younger kiddos, we scheduled their LHTH/LHFHG/Beyond/Bigger history projects at a time when they had free time afterwards. For example, our little guy in LHFHG had an educational DVD scheduled after his project time. If his project time went longer, then we just moved the DVD to the afternoon. Other kiddos of ours had computer scheduled after project time, which could also be moved later in the day.

Scheduled breaks and free time can help with managing history projects as well. 

One other thing we’ve done is to have a several hour break after lunch. Then, when we come back from the break, our older kiddos can jump in and do their project/science work (and I’m more up for it because we’ve had a chance to regroup and have some time off). Our younger kiddos also have free time in the afternoon, where we can shift any needed work from the morning during that time if needed.

Anyway, just a few more ideas to ponder as you find what works for you!

Blessings,
Carrie