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Note: These aren't in any particular order; some are WAY more important reasons than others! 1. I want every part of their day to be filled with talk about God and His Word. 2. I feel like the one-on-one attention that homeschooling provides will give a much better education than a classroom setting...

Julie-
I did a copy-and-paste of my post into the schedule thread.

Julie asked me to share this here, so here's a copy and paste of one of my posts. (It's my new secret to designing a schedule!) Ever since I decided to bump my oldest two children to Preparing, I was wondering how I will schedule our days (we are also doing Beyond and Little Hands). It seemed too ov...

Ever since I decided to bump my oldest two children to Preparing, I was wondering how I will schedule our days (we are also doing Beyond and Little Hands). It seemed too overwhelming to write or type it out and to hope I'm not forgetting anything. Last night I had a lightbulb moment: POST-IT NOTES! ...

Kathleen-
I pray your delivery goes smoothly! How exciting!

I ordered the books we need to get started with Preparing, and they arrived today! I'm so excited to switch my oldest two to Preparing, and I think my dd is even more excited than I am! Today I did Beyond with just my 1st grader, and it was wonderful being able to have discussions with him without h...

Thanks for the ideas. Regarding computer activites- that's something I'm not going to add at this time. We used to have our old computer set up for the dc to use, but they kept breaking the mouse. I occasionally let them use my laptop (supervised), but it's not something I'm going to do routinely wh...

I don't have a strict schedule, but I do try to follow a routine. That is going pretty well, except for interruptions from the 3yo and 5yo. For example, even if I tell my 3yo to use her dry erase markers and workbooks (something she loves to do) at the kitchen table, she will still come into the liv...

Carrie- First of all, Beyond is a GREAT fit for my 1st grader, so I don't want to change anything for him. Next, I'll go through the list you made of skills that my 3rd grader needs to do well in Preparing, and I'll comment on those. [quote="Carrie"]If your 3rd grader is a very strong reader his re...

I'm excited to get started. I've had Preparing on my mind for a couple of years now (thinking how great it would be for my oldest), but had to give combining a try. I'm SO glad I had that talk with dh and got his blessing to separate the dc into their own guides.

Thanks, Julie! I'm thinking my 3yo will combine best with the 5yo (as opposed to eventually combining her with my youngest). Even though they are almost 2 years apart, because of where their birthdays fall, they will only be 1 year apart in school. And like I said, my 3yo is very smart. So, she will...

Thanks for your thoughts, Larissa. I figure since we'll be running Beyond and Preparing, if ds needs to drop back to Beyond with his brother, then that's fine. His math and dictation won't change. I'm letting the oldest two take a break from R&S English for a bit so that we can use Preparing's plans...

Thanks for all the replies so far. My 5yo will definitely be ready for LHFHG in Kindergarten (which will start next summer some time). He already listens to me read long books aloud (without pictures) and does fine. The 3yo (almost 4yo when we start) would definitely need to grow into it; I guess I'...

Recording yourself is a great idea! We've done lots of school in the van before, especially last year when I was pregnant and had birth center appointments 90 minutes away. Then in the spring dh and ds had quite a few medical appointments, so I would always try to take at least some of our schoolwor...

My 3 and 5 year olds are currently going through LHTH. My 5yo is also using ETC for phonics (he's flying through the primers currently, and will start Book 1 in a couple of weeks). Originally, I thought I'd repeat LHTH for them next year (when they are in PreK and K), but I'm thinking my 5yo will ne...