If you have done Bigger... will you please look at this?

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:31 am

Okay - in planning for fall, this is what I have worked with... please pipe in either in agreement or not.

These are the amounts of time I am allotting per subject.
Spelling (Abeka) 15 mins
Beginning to Build (R&S 3) 25 mins
Math 35 mins
Poetry 10 mins
Bible Study 10 mins
Rotation (geography, history activity, art or vocabulary) 25 mins & history 15 mins OR timeline 10 mins & notebooking 30 mins depends on the day
science 10-30 mins depending on the day
music 15 mins
DITHOR 30 mins
Storytime and follow-up 30 mins

plus we have daily CBS homework of at least 15 mins a day.

I come up with a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes a day for Bigger. Can it really be that much???

BTW - We don't have cursive b/c we teach it starting in K and he is proficient.

TIA for your input! I am trying to get this in perspective.

joyfulheart · Post by **joyfulheart** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:22 am

Just one kid?
I put my actual time/comments in red

Spelling (Abeka) 15 mins
Beginning to Build (R&S 3) 25 mins Even on the WORST days, when I have to make him redo everything for messyness or spelling, we have never spent more than 10 minutes. (usually 5-10)
Math 35 mins Doing the Singapore? Again, never have to spend more than 10-15 minutes. Only exception is Carrie has a few math "games" and if they're fun, we might spend alot more time on it. Hey-- they're LEARNING!!!

Poetry 10 mins Never really paid attention to the time, but it's definately not 10 minutes every day. Most days just a few minutes, nothing worth setting a timer for.

Bible Study 10 mins
Rotation (geography, history activity, art or vocabulary) 25 mins & history 15 mins OR timeline 10 mins & notebooking 30 mins depends on the day
science 10-30 mins depending on the day
That;s hard to break down and seperate. You have vocabulary above AND here? Many days you wont be spending that much time on it... your kids eyes will glaze over if you go that long. LOL

music 15 mins -- Not sure, we skip the music. (sorry!)
DITHOR 30 mins
Storytime and follow-up 30 mins Never spent that long either. One chapter, depending on the book isn't that much for this age group. There's usually just a few questions (3 or so?) after that we buzz right through.

plus we have daily CBS homework of at least 15 mins a day

Not sure about DITHOR, we have it but havent started it yet (he needs to be a stronger reader first so we're waiting)

For my 8 1/2 year old son to do HOD Bigger start to finish is about 2 hours. 2 1/2 if he's having a day where he's SLOOOOWWWWW....

However, he has LD's, so we usually spend about 3 hours total, and that includes him some extra math, phonics and Dyslexia intervention. That's also including his brother doing Beyond at the same time (but we do combine alot of stuff and do together)

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 12:04 pm

Thank you, joyful heart.

can I ask a few follow-up questions?

about vocabulary - that is on day three of each unit... I opened randomly to unit 23 as an example. It says to choose 1-3 of the following words... kerosene, pine knot and bob-o-link. They have to find it in the text and discuss meanings. Find it in the dictionary [that will take forever, trust me], and select correct meaning. Then write each on index card with the definition. Then use in sentences. Then they draw a small picture. Then file it. I have got to believe that will take at least 25 minutes. Am I all wrong? I don't see where I had vocab twice. Do you mean with language arts, too?

How about notebooking? That must take a good 30 minutes? Thankfully that goes with timeline which should be just a little bit of time.

If I am going over that is better than guessing under. If he ends up with wiggle room that will help with all the times I will be called away to help girls in bathroom, or getting their milks out of the fridge, etc., etc.

Math is math here. We use MUS and Abeka, and we do math year round. Oddly enough he tests great on Stanford, however it is painstaking for him. He just does not have a computational mind. He is ABLE to do division... yet it takes him forever to even add 3+4. I think he just can not memorize it but has to sit there and actually visualize it. It will easily take him 30-40 mins a day to do two pages of any math.

That I am okay with NOW that I understand him better.

But it is really all the other subjects I need help visualizing time frames for.

Thanks for your input.

I'd love to see what others have found to be true for them.
TIA

inHistiming · Post by **inHistiming** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 12:34 pm

Stacy,

I'm not going to be a lot of help since we will just be starting Bigger...in the fall too.

I just wanted to say that maybe extra practice, like flash cards or drill sheets, for addition and subtraction would help ds with speed in those areas. Then, when he is doing multiplication or division later, he'll be quicker with that since he knows his facts by heart. We were having this problem with both my older kids, and the drill sheets really helped them memorize and increase their speeds. You can check www.donnayoung.org for free drill sheets. DD still needs more practice, but she's surprised me with how many addition, subtraction (weaker here) and multiplication facts she knows!

We haven't done any division yet.

Anyway, just my two cents.

joyfulheart · Post by **joyfulheart** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 2:15 pm

Yes, I also have a son that is able to do advanced math, but completely unable to do simple addition and subtraction.

We are doing the math in Singapore that corresponds with Bigger. I am reinforcing with a different math program to teach him the BASICS (addition and subtraction) that he is VERY VERY behind on. I blame public school not recognizing his learning disabilities and just skipping on ahead when they saw he wasn't grasping early math concepts. But it's hard going back and having him re-learn something his younger brothers already know.

Sorry to ramble on... LOL

Anyway, I have figured out with my 3 boys that when it comes to math, I have to limit them to 20 minutes max. After that, they really just aren't able to pay attention. Once I put a time limit, and told them that as long as they are TRYING and have a good attitude, when the timer goes off they are DONE, there were alot less tears of frustration, and a much better attitude. Doing the singapore, hasn't been an issue. They're usually done with no problems.

As far as the vocabulary. My son is a horrible speller and reader. He's improving, but he's behind his brother in kindergarten. We have a kids dictionary ($4 at Half Price Books) and so far every single word has been in this dictionary. Together, we find the words (I sometimes narrow it down to "it's on this page, could you find the word, please?" Then we read the word and definition together. I usually ask him what the word means, in HIS own words. Then he writes the definition on the card.

I have him verbally tell me the sentence, and write it down. It doesn't really take that long.

I never have had him FILE the card in the box, we just place it in.... Hmmmmm... now I'm just realizing that would be a good way to teach alphabetizing.... just never thought about it. I saw that in the book, but for some reason it just didn't CLICK until now. Yeah, I'm a dork. LOL

I have 2 other boys, one with serious health issues. I have found it pretty easy to put my son on a task like handwriting book, math workbook, Grammar, etc... while I need to do things. As long as I'm within close enough distance to keep him from wandering off to the toys, it works fine. It's very easy to say, "please go ahead and work on your math workbook while I give your brother his treatments."

If I understand it correctly, you're going to start in the fall? I know before I completely committed to this program, we spent one saturday morning in PRACTICE homeschool doing a typical day of Bigger. Then I asked the boys what they liked. What they didn't like. I tried to give them a voice, while still ensuring they are getting what they need. I STILL ask them what they think. Not that I need validation, but because they know better than anyone what works for them.

What's interesting is that so far, the things they didn't like, or didn't work, are the things I personally picked that I thought was better (for example, Handwriting without Tears cursive). Everything that Carrie set up to do with Bigger they have liked. Ok, the exception to that MIGHT be the book of Laura Ingalls Animal Adventures. Because it has a GIRL on the cover, and therefore is NOT a book for boys.

We havent even read the book yet, and they're devestated I'm expecting them to read a GIRL BOOK. Makes me wanna dress them in pink and sparkes

momof2n2 · Post by **momof2n2** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 2:47 pm

ok - your last line made me laugh!!
We just got Animal Adventures back yesterday from a friend we'd lent it to, and I was JUST thinking today I should have him read that. I'll let you know what HIS reaction is. *snicker*

We have homeschooled for K, 1 and 2 with him, and my younger son did K this last year. This upcoming year will be my first year with two kids with full curriculums. [I only do reading, writing, arithmetic for K]. Hence my concerns at fitting it all in.

A practice day... now there is an idea. I printed out my tenative schedule today and had them read it. There were a lot of wide eyes and disatisfied grimaces. But the alternative [school] is so horrifying to them that they didn't say anything...

Jessi · Post by **Jessi** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:53 pm

I just had to pop in and say, Joyfulheart I almost woke my kids up tonight when I read your comment and burst out laughing. Pink and sparkles!!!!

Thanks for the laugh!

6timeboymom · Post by **6timeboymom** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:49 am

I have 3 boys doing bigger, tow are using the extension pack, and we are generally done in about 3 hours.

One of the three is a dawdler, and will do what he can to avoid working, so I do a lot of stuff one on one with him.
for vocabulary we use a worksheet from notebooking nook that has a place for the word, definition, part of speech, etc. they share the dictionary and each get two words (Ben, the dawdler, doesn't do vocabulary cause he's working on learning to read) and if they DO it, not fight over the dictionary, who got the better word, etc it will take then about ten minutes.

I generally try to decide how much time each box will take, versus each subject. Since the number of boxes on each day's lesson is the same, I can plan to do three boxes today (or whatever) Then I'm not stressed about the actual subject (And some days even a little surprised-"oh, look! notebooking today! yippee!!"

)

Post by **Carrie** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:05 pm

momof2n2,

The moms on the board are giving you wonderful advice. I'll just chime in to say that once we hit our stride with Bigger, it took us 3 hours most days and 3 and 1/2 hours on some days to finish. Of course, this is using the Singapore Math assignments and spelling scheduled in Bigger, which are both quite short.

So, if you use a different program for those areas, your time will definitely go up.

Also, in the beginning it took us 4 hours or so, because I was trying to get all of my kiddos used to their varying schedules, and they sometimes needed to wait for me. Once they knew their schedule, and I knew mine, it went much quicker.

Blessings,
Carrie