Please tell me if this will work...

[jhusted]

I am planning on coming back to HOD after a long absence. I used Bigger with my oldest two and pieces of LHTH and LHFHG with my younger two, but went off to find something I could combine them all together with. That hasn't worked out so well. My plan is to use WG with my upcoming 15dd and 13ds. Both kids are capable of doing the work, but I'll allow my ds 1 1/2 years to finish it, because, while he's very bright, he tends to daydream and take his time finishing assignments. He'll be in 8th grade, so that will give him 3 years to complete the first two High School guides. I don't think starting him in an earlier guide would fix the problem. Like I said, he is very capable, but he struggles with OCD tendencies and that really slows down his output. My question for them is, How does it work to share this guide and it's books? I would buy extra consumables, but I'm not planning on buying two of everything else.

Now for my next two. My soon to be 9ds places firmly in Preparing. I think this will be a perfect fit for him. However, I would like my soon to be 11dd to use the Learning through History portion of Preparing as well. The reasons being that I'm not sure I want to jump into HOD using 3 guides at once, plus I would like dd to get an overview of history (and I love the book selections used. I used most of them with my older two.) I would like her to use the Learning the Basics side of Res to Ref and possibly do the Shakespeare Study and Storytime box on her own. Will this work for dd? I don't think she could do the art appreciation part, because I won't have the student notebook, but could she complete everything else? It looks like I'd just need to buy Hidden Treasures in Philippians for Bible Quiet Time along with the LA, Science, Math, and Beautiful Girlhood w/God's Design. And add the Tales from Shakespeare and the Shakespeare Student Notebook along with the Basic package if I decide on that. Does that sound correct? I could also have her use the Extension Package from Preparing. If I did, would she still use the Deluxe package and complete the Independent History Study? I don't think I will use DITHOR in the beginning which is one of the reasons I plan on her reading the Storytime box on her own. I also have Sonlight readers for my 9ds to use instead of DITHOR.

I hope I made some sense in my ramblings. I really just wanted to write it all out and know that it is doable. I would plan for my 11dd to use Rev to Rev the following year in it's entirety. Will this plan prepare her?

If you could get through this and have any suggestions, I'm all ears. Thanks for your time.

Joanne

[StillJulie]

For sharing the WG guide, I think it will depend on the relationship between your two oldest. At my house it would be a battle that wouldn't be worth it. My two oldest squabble way too much. With agreeable children, I think you could keep the guide in an accessible place and schedule out the resources (who does what when). I wouldn't call it ideal b/c of how necessary the guide is for most boxes. I just opened my guide (haven't used it yet... will start it next year). The boxes that aren't real guide dependent look to be: Foreign Language (daily); Logic (days 1-3) - though the Key Idea changes from day to day, week to week; Composition/Grammar (daily); Math (daily); Science (daily) - though the Key Idea changes from day to day, week to week.

My brain hurts too much right now to try to answer the other part.

[Tabitha]

For the older two, I'd suggest having 2 guides. Then have one work the left side of a day while the other works the right side. That would keep them from needing the same books at the same time. I'd take any project/experiment boxes and combine those do they work on them together perhaps. You could also just copy one side of the guide, or cut the spine off and put the whole thing in a binder with page protectors...easy enough to share one guide this way. I like my guides intact, so I'd be the person buying a second guide.

For the youngers...lemme reread all that and come back.

Alrighty, I'm back. You said concerning plans for the 11yo, that they are as such so you aren't using 3 guides at once. But, you are sorta. I see it as being something that might get a bit frustrating trying to keep up with. Is there a reason you are skipping CTC with the 11yo? My suggestion would be if the 9yo is in Preparing to have the 11yo in CTC. My 11yo is in CTC right now. She moves slow, but is doing fine. RTR would have been too much for her this year. CTC has them doing enough on their own that it makes a nice transition over to more independency, and is freeing up your time for the additional focus Preparing needs from you or the time the ones in the WG might need. I think going right from the Preparing mix to Rev to Rev might be too much of a jump in what they need to handle solo. I could be missing something, and it will all be just fine with the plans you are formulating. I hope someone else chimes in. I am starting my 3rd time through the guides from Bigger and up, and my mind is more inclined to use CTC that combining one below and above that.

[MelInKansas]

I would personally definitely buy two guides for the two in WG. Maybe not 2 of everything else, but definitely the guide.

For the other two, I would place them in the guide they fit and not try to do 1/2 of it with both and 1/2 of the other. That's too much adaptation for my brain, and you lose some of the cohesiveness of it. Also, you could combine in Preparing and add on for the older one if you want to combine for the sake of doing read-alouds together and such. These older guides have a wider range of what is possible in adaptation. Math is at their own level, they do whichever R&S level they are ready for, dictation at their level, DITHOR or other reading program at their level, Poetry is really good for any age, really most of the R side is very adaptable.

Now if you wanted to do the "growing into womanhood" resources from Res to Ref in addition for your older one, I can see that being very appropriate for her. I have considered buying that package and using them before we get to Res to Ref because I really want to cover it a little younger than when she will be there.

[jhusted]

I appreciate the replies so far. I've been spinning in circles trying to come up with a plan for next year. My biggest hurdle is deciding where to place 11dd. I'd like her to have the history overview from Preparing, but she is capable of more independent work. On the other hand, I'm not sure how to place her for writing. This is one area I don't feel very confident in teaching or evaluating. She is working through First Language Lessons Level 4, so I believe she has a good grasp on grammar. She hasn't done any cursive this year, but she did in previous years. She can write a page narration with ease, but it's not focused on the main idea, it's just a retelling. I don' t want her to miss the history from Preparing or CTC, but I also don't want to always be doing extensions or upping the Language Arts and Science. As I sit here typing, I'm beginning to think that CTC would be a good fit for her. I was worried about the science, because she did Human Body science this year, but I think I read that it wasn't a huge part of the science for the year.

So, now it's just my older two. I really want my 15dd to get a World History credit and a U.S. History credit in the next two years. My plan is for her to finish her Jr and Sr year at our community college through our Running Start program. So, I'm off to ponder this for a while.

Thanks again!

[Nealewill]

I personally think that you would be much happier having your dd complete CTC rather than Preparing. And then this way as she gets older you can beef up the MTMM to make it high-school worthy. Plus, she would get more practice with written narration and practice with independence. I think CTC may only take about 1-1.5 hours of your time to school her for that level and most of that time that you are schooling her is helping her with the 3rs. I also think you will probably really enjoy the human body stuff in this level. My dd is doing CTC next year and I have read that whole History Medicine book and it is fascinating! So your dd may love the human body stuff anyway. Just a thought.

I would second getting the 2 guides. This way they can each have their own and work at their own pace in their guide. That will be huge for you and your 2 kids doing WG. And sooner rather than later they will probably not be on the same day or even books. So for the first few weeks they will need to share but eventually they will separate more and it shouldn't be a problem. And if they don't share well (or as well as you hope), the drawing map book, English set, Spanish book (if your kids are doing Spanish) and possibly a 2nd set of science books. These are the main books they will probably have to share the most while using WG.