Four Kids Place in Four Different Books

[carriebigler]

We are so excited to begin HOD next year. We have been homeschooling for six years and am wondering why it took so long to find HOD. It seems to have everything we've been looking for. We have four children, and; as we plan to begin HOD, i have been combing through the web site and blogs to figure out how to proceed. Any advice you are willing to give me is tremendously appreciated. Using the recommendations for how to place children, each of them needs to be in a different book. They place as follows:

(girl) Cameron 13, Mission to Modern Marvels (super independent and works well with little supervision, voracious reader)
(girl) Georgia 10, Places in Creation to Christ (wants to be with people always, doesn't love reading, but super smart and a quick study)
(boy) Whit 7, places in Beyond Little Hearts (super good at math and lego building - loves history - beginning reader, doesn't love reading yet)
(boy) Riggs 4, places in Little Hands to Heaven (very busy, just beginning to identify letters and shapes)

Looking at each book recommended for each child, each one looks like a perfect fit. I am a little nervous about being able to get it all done. Is it possible to get it all done each day? How does it work when all four are in different book? Please help me make wise choices! Thank you so much!

In Christ,
carriebigler

[Nealewill]

Have you looked at the share our schedules thread? It is the very first thread on this board. In there, many moms share how they run their days. And there are many moms on here running on a few guides and some running 5+ guides. I was running 3 guides very successfully myself for a bit but this year I decided to combine my youngest and middle child. So now I am down to 2. I only spend about 3 hours a day teaching my kids max. I also work from home and work quite a bit (which was one of the reasons I decided to combine). But with the guides you listed, your two oldest would do much of their guides independently. You would be looking at spending about an hour with each of those children. The child in Little Hands would consume approximately 30 minutes or so of your day and the child in Beyond would probably take up about 1.5 -2 of your day. For your oldest, the things you will be doing with them are possibly reading the story time (but maybe not if your oldest loves to read), helping with math, spelling, grammar and writing. This would be the same with your second child. For your 7 year old, you will be doing most of the work with them. There are things he can do alone. Spelling can be done alone for two of the days once you train him on what to do. So can poetry copy work and listening to music. I haven't done Little Hands but I think you will direct the entire day and it should not take more than 30 minutes to complete it all.

I find that everyone has their own way of completing things. Some people like to do it all before lunch. That does not work for us at my house. My kids work from about 9:30-11:30/12:00. We take a 2 hour break and then finish up for day after 2:00. For my oldest, her day lasts for about 5 hours but that is because she does piano and Latin in that time period as well. My other two are done in about 3.5-4 hours but they also do Latin, piano, and then they have to sit and read for about 30 minutes extra each day (I only do this because if they are playing, they distract my oldest too much. They do enjoy reading so no one complains. And it is mainly to create a quite time in the day as well). But that is a glimpse into my day.

I know it seems unusual that people would run different levels with their kids and have it be so successful. I never understood how anyone could actually teach their kids separately until I started doing it. And even with running the three levels, I could have maintained that pace easily for the most part but also elected to combine since my son has auditory processing disorder (it is a language disorder). It seems like all around it is best for him and my youngest to be combine. So anyway, it is very doable and many people do run multiple levels. I would check the schedules thread and view some of the pictures. It is very helpful when you think about how to structure your day to meet everyone's educational needs.

[carriebigler]

This is wonderfully helpful! Thank you so much! Better understanding how much time each child's curriculum will roughly take helps a lot! I combed over the schedule boards and they were helpful too, but this post was super helpful! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Looking forward to getting started soon!

In Christ,
carriebigler

[bethelmommy]

Welcome to Heart Of Dakota! Since this will be your first time using Heart of Dakota guides, I would also recommend stagger starting your kiddos. Start the older ones first and get them going in their guides comfortably. After a week or two they will find a good rhythm to their days and you will be more familiar with what is expected of them and you each day. Then you can start your younger two. If you feel strongly about starting them all at once, then I would suggest starting half speed the first unit or two and then bumping up to full speed once everyone is familiar with their guide. However, I think stagger starting will help you establish a good routine the quickest .

[MomtoJGJE]

I completely agree with stagger starting the kids. It will go so much more smoothly if your older two know exactly what they are supposed to do each day.

I generally start my day with the oldest. Well, I don't any more because there's not really much I have to teach her before she does anything. The math she uses is a dvd based math, so she watches the lesson and reads the text book. She's really just getting started with it (pre-algebra) so it's all pretty easy at this point.

Anyway, you'd start with your oldest, teach any semi-independent things, and then send them off to complete their I and S boxes on their own.

While they are working you move to your next oldest and do the same thing.

Then you would do school with your Beyond and LHTH kids while both of the olders are doing I and S boxes.


As you can see by my signature, I'm running four guides currently. I was planning on starting LHTH with my youngest this January, but she's just not ready yet. I'll revisit in a couple of months because she's close. My teaching time is probably right at 1.5 hours max now. But my Bigger child is almost done with her guide and is very ready for Preparing. She's reading most of her math and science on her own at this point. I'd say, after everyone gets the hang of their day (including you), you probably would not be doing more than a couple of hours of teaching each day with those guides. It might take longer at first because of learning curves, but it's really very easy to do a bunch of guides with HOD.

[MelInKansas]

I'm here doing my 3 guides and taking care of two littles and I spend a lot more than 2 hours per day teaching. But we have to pace our days slowly because of the littles, and I would say my older children are probably not as reliable as they could be. If my oldest is TOO independent and I don't check up on her she slacks on her work (I suppose most children do this).

It's very do-able still, and as already noted the older two will do a lot of their work on their own (but it is some work to get them going so that they know what's expected and get into a good rhythm of their day - your 13YO may pick up on it well if she's self-motivated. Beyond and LHTH will be quick and easy parts of your day.

[carriebigler]

Your tips and advice are so precious to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to share how you're making Heart of Dakota work in your families. We are just so excited to get started!

In Christ,
Carriebigler