I need some options

[Tree House Academy]

If you use Bigger or Little Hearts as 4 day a week programs, how do you do it?

I know there is just the skipping it and picking up where you left off method. Does anyone else do something different. I want that last day to be easier/free, but I don't want to carry Bigger into next year with my older son. He needs to go on to Preparing as soon as he can. My little fella can easily do a 4 day week and I am not at all worried about him taking Little Hearts into next year, if needed.

Anyone have any ideas, other than the obvious for Bigger?

Carrie - if you had made Bigger a 4-day plan, what would you have done differently? Would you double assignments occasionally or just cover a bit less ground?

[eazbnsmom]

Rebecca,

I like doing a 4 day week with Bigger so we can have Fridays to add other stuff. I don't continue from where we left off, 1) because we have a 36 school weeks, I try and double up and 2) it would really bother me . One day I will double up math, the next grammar etc. I do history and science on Fridays because I consider them "fun" subjects, but if we used our 5th day for a co-op etc, then I would double up those subjects during the week as well, but making sure we are not doubling up on more than 2 subjects in one day. Hope this makes sense.

[Tree House Academy]

So, do you do all history and Science for the week on Fridays then? Does that work well for you, or is it a LOT of work?

[Carrie]

Rebecca,

We do often do a 4-day week at our house for the younger HOD programs (i.e. LHTH, LHFHG, Beyond, and Bigger), but we just teach it as written and pick it back up on Monday. Since you have a unique situation in that your son will need to move on next year to Preparing Hearts though, you may wish to just make your 5th day a bit lighter if possible.

You could do this by not doing DITHR on the 5th day, doing grammar all orally on that day with no assignment, doing as much of the science orally (if it's a lab sheet, you could talk through the process instead of writing it out), move to doing 2 pages of cursive the day prior (so no cursive would need to be done on the 5th day), possibly double up the poetry (doing 2 sessions on the day before the 5th day so it wouldn't need to be done on that day), possibly omitting the hymn (just on that one day), possibly omitting the storytime (just that one day), doing the vocabulary card with your child (being the secretary or scribe and writing for your child if vocabulary comes up on the 5th day) etc.

Anyway, hopefully that will help you ponder a few ways to streamline your 5th day without losing the overall flow of the guide. I'm typically not a huge fan of omitting or doubling-up as the kiddos can begin to wonder what's coming next, and mom may be tempted to start skipping many things in the day-to day which eventually will affect how well the program works. However, I agree it makes sense for your son to finish Bigger Hearts this year, and I also agree it's good for moms to have a lighter day to look forward to each week.

Blessings,
Carrie