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I have to preface this by saying I love lesson "planning"! I just don't have a lot of time for it. For me I have a page at the beginning with abbreviations and their meanings. One night a week while my children all have Daddy Time I spend about 1/2 an hour going over the work for a week. I take into...

We started Preparing Hearts and LHFHG today.
My Beyond child is sick - hope to start soon.
We had a good 10 day break - with excellent weather- and was more than ready to get back into it.

I would do LHFHG or Beyond half-speed. The focus does need to be on the trouble spots, but you can't forget the other things totally. My oldest struggled with reading and I did Beyond with him slowly while focusing on phonics/reading. I didn't want him to get behind in history etc although we had to...

How fun! Sounds like you had a great start.
We started Little Hearts today - my children has just as much fun with the flashlights
Enjoy the rest of your week!

I think the best thing would be to call the HOD office directly. They'd best be able to help you.
I will certainly pray for your situation. I know what that is like to have things so tight ...

I use my planner as a weekly overview. Even though I love how HOD has the daily boxes and how to focus on one day, I also need a week-at-a-glance. I have room on a two page spread to write out "plans" for the week in daily boxes, plus have a notes box. I printed off a yearly calendar & "attendance s...

No words of advice - just wanted to say I believe you can do it!
Cleaning/organizing the school room is such a big help in this. I am doing that now. Allowing some days of gentle instruction helped me a lot as well.

I have never found a planner that worked for me- electronic or paper. I tried printing pages and making my own via a binder - still didn't work. Someone mentioned using a composition book and making my own. That was a big SCORE for us. It works great. My oldest is even making his own this year. He g...

I would say to have 2 reading sessions. You don't want to push too much at one time ... Yet it would be a good idea to practice a bit more. That is what Julie (my3sons) suggested to me with my oldest. Ds did not have enough stamina to read for more than about 7-8 minutes at a time. Two sessions a da...

Every family is going to be different like previous posters said. We only took off 2 weeks after our baby was born. Then because I had to take it easy, & out weather was less than ideal, we started back to school. I sat & rested while I taught and we are on a more relaxed schedule. We take turns wit...

We are doing summer school now. Will start the "official" school year right after Labor Day. My oldest is being tutored in math & language arts so we will very s l o w l y finish Preparing. Congratulations MelInKansas on your coming baby. They are a lot of work, but a wonderful blessing! We are enjo...

I don't know if you do them but my son in Beyond does the poetry copywork and spelling list by himself. He also does a good bit of grammar by himself. He is advanced in that so we do it everyday, plus add in a supplement. We are working to have him do history with me, instead of all on me. Don't kno...

The only supplementing we have done has been through math games- handheld, board kind, computer, online etc. We will spend extra time during school if need be. I also have binder with math cheat sheets my children can study at some other time. My oldest is the only one that has tried other math prog...

It would be a real blessing to have an extra year to work with. For one, "life" sometimes gets in the way. If it doesn't you have a year to focus on LA, Math, and a really good elective or two. A lot of students have a light year for 12th grade. That's the way we planned mine - (I was homeschooled)-...

In regards to motivation. This idea is not a positive incentive, but a natural consequence - my ds' know that if they don't get their work done in a timely manner they have to sit at the kitchen island in the evening while I prep the meal. There I oversee their work while the others are playing. The...