Running 3 guides but only using 2 sets of story time books

[Nealewill]

Currently I am running 2 guides. My oldest is in Preparing and my younger 2 are in Beyond. I am highly considering bumping my middle child to Bigger shortly after Christmas. I like the thought of everyone being separated and my middle child is definitely ready for the jump. But I am worried about have 3 sets of story time books. I fully plan to continue on with the Preparing read aloud books. But I am unsure of which book path to chose for the younger 2. So, I had 2 thoughts. One is, follow the read aloud schedule for the middle child and have the younger one tag along. The younger will always be a one year behind so by the time she gets to MM2M, we will buy the extension pack for her and read that to her. Or my other thought is that I would follow the read aloud schedule for the younger child and then my middle child would skip out on the read alouds for MM2M. What would you do? I have mixed thoughts about both. Honestly, if my kids turn out to love reading and love books, I would just give them each the read alouds and tell the to read them alone as they get older. But if they are anything like me - then they would much rather run around and be active verses sit and read. So if this were you, what would you do? Any thoughts are great appreciated.

[my3sons]

I'm glad your dc are obviously doing well with HOD - hooray! As far as the Storytimes, I'd do the younger Storytime with the 2 of them. That being said though, I really would not do those 3 guides at the same time - Beyond, Bigger, PHFHG. Those are the more teacher-directed guides, and if you are concerned about 3 Storytimes taking time, I really think adding Bigger Hearts, in general, will add too much time. How old are your dc? If it is going well in Beyond Little Hearts overall, I'd keep those 2 dc together, and challenge the older of the 2 more by getting the Bigger Hearts manual for LA/math. Your older student can do the daily R & S English 2 grammar lessons, the Level 2 dictation, Drawn into the Reading 2/3, cursive, and 2A/2B or 3A/3B Singapore Math (whichever portions are needed). I think this would up the challenge of the day enough and allow you to keep your 2 dc together for a good portion of their subjects. But, what do you think about all this?

In Christ,
Julie

[luv2homeschool]

For your storytime question, since Beyond and Bigger both go by genres, you can just keep the youngers in the same book. I agree with Julie, I don't see how you could do those three guides together in one day. All three of them are teacher-intensive you'd be run ragged.

[MomtoJGJE]

Those are three intensive guides... but, the OP wouldn't be starting all three at the same time. She has the Preparing and Beyond child already going. I did those three at the same time for about 8-10 units... it wasn't as bad as it could have been because my Preparing child was doing everything as she was supposed to, plus we worked on her starting to read some of her history on her own at that point.

As far as storytime. I just pick whatever book in the genre that I want to pick... not necessarily from a pack for a specific guide. I flip around in guides so that I'm doing the lesson from the particular genre.... Since I'm assuming you have already been doing storytime I'd just continue on with your youngest's schedule and flip to the Bigger guide for the activities for that genre.

And in the older guides, starting in Resurrection to Reformation, it is scheduled that story time is either teacher or independent. So it wouldn't be awful to have your child reading their own later on

[Nealewill]

Well - so far life is good. School gets done smoothly. My kids LOVE HOD! I have actually been going round and round about bumping my son even after I posted this. My challenge is that my youngest is not fitting the placement program correctly LOL and I am unsure what to do with her and my son. I love having them together but I also want my son ready for Preparing by 4th grade. I am finding that Preparing is actually very smooth here at my house with my older child. My oldest can pretty much work very independently. I show her everything she has to do to get started for the day and she does it. I spend about 1.5 hours with her a day one on one. Then with my younger 2, I spend about 1.5 hours going over math, LA, spelling, and handwriting (they don't take that long - they may have individual breaks at times in there) and then we do the other Beyond activities together and they take about 1 hour max. So I am spending about 4 hours out of my day on school total teaching the kids. My struggle is my youngest who is 5 (she turns 6 in February). I know with Beyond, it is geared toward children who are 6-8. She meets every requirement on that placement chart easily for Beyond. My son is 7 and he is also in Beyond. I am undecided about whether or not move my son ahead anyway because they love learning together. But I also don't want to hold him back if he could be doing harder stuff. Realistically - they are pretty much the same in every way except he can write for a little bit longer and he is more advanced in math. Other than that - they are both pretty much the same with Reading About History, Science, Read Alouds, Illustrating their Timeline or other drawings, Spelling, reading in general and Bible Study. And it isn't necessarily that he is behind, it is more that she is unusually advanced in every area. We haven't had her formally tested but we are positive she would be classified as gifted.

Some of the other things I have thought about doing is having them both start Bigger next year but she will be 6.5 at that time and he will be 8. I was just a little bit worried about the work load for my younger but she may be fine. One of the other things she has that is very unusual is that she has an exceptionally long attention span for kids her age. Any time I reading, she gravitates to me. She sits through all of her Beyond activity where I am reading very engaged and then she always sits quietly and listens to the reading for Preparing (even my son gravitates to the room LOL - the books are good!) So - as I post my thoughts - the reason to let my son start Bigger at Christmas is so that he is ready for Preparing when he turns 9. I just don't want to hold him back. But I guess if I start him in Bigger next school year with his sister - I may just keep them both together forever. I think one reason I switched to HOD is that I like that one on one time with each child. With my son and daughter, my younger always answers faster and is always so spot on - I don't want my son relying on her for the answer. But I know each level in HOD gets to be more workload and then eventually harder. I just worry that by letting my younger DD do what her brother does, eventually she won't be able to keep up (like the harder sciences in the middle school). Realistically - I am a planner!!! I have done quite a bit of research on my 5 year old. She taught herself to read at 4 and to do addition and subtraction and even some basic multiplication then as well. She is reading the emerging reader books with her brother and doing fine. So I don't know what to do. She does have a shorter attention span (not by much) than her brother but she definitely matches up with or exceeds any 1st grader I have met. I guess one other thing I thought about doing is starting Bigger next year and see how my younger does. If I need to go half speed for her, I will. But I will keep my son full speed in cursive, spelling, math and grammar. And then he would just start Preparing in 4th grade and my younger child could do Bigger over 2 years and that is when they would be split (if they get split). So many decisions.......... And I know it is recommended to place based on the younger child, she is just a confusing younger child

[MelInKansas]

Given what you just described, and how closely your youngest 2's skills match up, I would keep going with them together. There is no timeline. If at any point your son is not challenged with the material and needs more, you can add in extensions, and he will do his own level of reading, writing, and math and you could bump him up in grammar too (or keep him going and slow your daughter down). If you start to see that the workload is too much for your daughter (which I find for my daughter who was on the young end of the age range, we ended up slowing down because of writing. She was well placed in all other areas but the workload in writing became too much too quickly and we slowed it down), then at that point you can slow her down and keep your son going. Meet them where they are at, or beef it up for your older one. You don't want to drag a younger one along where they can't do it.

The issue of one answering over another will resolve itself starting in Preparing, where they have to do their own independent work. Or if one needs help with a written narration or with narration skills you work independently with them on it.

[Nealewill]

Thanks so much for your reply. I had not thought about the fact that the year Preparing would be one that would resolve itself. Your reply was very helpful. I think I will then just continue to keep them together for now and then later when it gets to much for the younger, slow it down for her. But I think I will then just not worry about when it might get to be too much and let that show up when it shows up.

Thanks again.

[MelInKansas]

You can also make them take turns answering questions. I have many eager beavers in my family, of course I can always tell the one who is jumping in that if they do not let the one who is supposed to answer answer it, then they are excused. Since they are both doing it, you may need to approach it differently with them, but I would try to have them trade off answering, or going first in narrating, or maybe narrating part and then having the other one jump in.

[Nealewill]

That is usually what I have to do. Typically I start asking a couple of questions. And once my younger student was busy answering all of them, then I tell her it is her brother's turn. Also - we usually talk about the stuff we are reading intermittently as well. So I am asking questions while reading - I will pause and ask a questions and then continue reading more (my son is finally doing better with remembering and narrating back but I break it up a little bit more mainly for him). And then at the end we review and they both do a good job and narrate back what we read. I know HOD doesn't make them do that each assignment but I find it engages them just a little bit more and they have fun with it. Usually they turn it in to a game and half way act it out LOL.

[Nealewill]

I do have one other question - do you think if I did Little Hearts, Bigger, and CtC next year - that would be too much? My other version in my mind has had me think about having my youngest do Little Hearts next year for History and Science, keep her spelling, math, copywork and everything else at the same level. Have her write one sentence a week and redo grammar with Beyond over again next year with her. But one thing that is weighing in my mind is how even though she is quick to respond and she absorbs everything - I don't know if she truly understands. So I don't want to rush her into Bigger. Plus, since she does have a shorter attention span, she would have the option of listening if she wanted to while I worked with her brother. And then my oldest would be that much more independent with CtC so I wouldn't be spending as much time with her. I guess I just keep feeling like after this year I should separate them because I want my son to move on and I want my younger DD to have a lighter schedule.

[MelInKansas]

I can't speak to CtC and what the workload is there, but many people on here have said that Bigger and Preparing are the most teacher-intensive, have the most work for you. Little Hearts is wonderful for 5-6 and even 6-7 year olds, and as you noted, you could add in challenge for her in grammar, math, or wherever she might need it. I think you are right in thinking Bigger would be too much for her next year. My 2nd born "tagged along" with her older sister through Beyond and then started LHFHG when her sister started Bigger and it was so great for her to take off independently and have "her own" school. She loved it and she grew a lot.

I did LHFHG and Bigger last year with 2 youngers to keep up with and it was very do-able. LHFHG doesn't take a lot of time and it is easy and fun. I assume CtC in the mix would mean at least a couple of hours for you to check over the work and do teaching in math, grammar, etc. People recommend starting 1/2 speed or stagger-starting, not starting 2 or 3 new guides all at once because it is more intensive at the start, as they grow into the guide and get used to it it runs much more smoothly.

[Nealewill]

Thank you so much for all your help! You have really helped me sort a bunch out in my mind. I will do those 3 guides next year. And it is great advice to stagger the guides when I start them and go half speed for a bit. I think I will definitely do that. We sort of school most of the year (take about 6 weeks off in the summer with mandatory reading each day and then I do 6 light weeks in the summer). So staggering everything over that period would work very well for us. I could go half speed with Bigger for my son and have him start the DITHOR over that mandatory reading time, save a few weeks of Beyond to do alone with my youngest for when start back up with the 6 light weeks and then go half speed with my DD when she starts CtC. So my goal would be over those 6 light weeks to finish 3-4 units in Bigger and CtC. Then once they are on their way to more independent, start Little Hearts after that. I did review Little Hearts and it seems pretty similar to Beyond - lots of fun and engaging activities which is why I love Beyond also.

And this is exactly what I absolutely LOVE about HOD. It is easy to modify to meet each family's needs, I love the independence of the kids as they get older, I love that it is duable to teach each child at their level and I LOVE that my kids LOVE what they are learning. They are pretty much always excited about school (within reason). Thanks again. I am so excited I finally feel like I have good plan for moving forward.

[my3sons]

It looks like you came to some good decisions here! I like the idea of stagger starting. There is a super thread called "Let's Share Our Schedules" where moms share their schedules. I'll link it here...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093

In case this may also be helpful, I'll link you to our last year schedule that included MTMM, CTC, and LHFHG...

MTMM, CTC, LHFHG...


Also, here is a past schedule from RTR, BHFHG, and LHTH...


In Christ,
Julie

[Nealewill]

Thank you very much Julie. As kids get older and school gets to be a little more involved for each child, seeing how others manage their day as well is very help.

[laurapella]

I just wanted to chime in briefly to say that we are doing CTC, Bigger, and Little Hearts this year. It has been no trouble at all. CTC is so much more independent than Preparing that it is working really well! All 4 of my kids are usually done before lunch or shortly thereafter.