has anyone used 4 guides?

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Gwenny
Posts: 750
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 1:07 pm
Location: Texas

has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by Gwenny » Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:21 pm

I can't figure out how to cut down the number of guides. We are just wanting to start HOD and it looks fantastic. I've been homeschooling for 18 years now and I've used a hodge-podge over the years. I only have 1 left in high school after this year so I know there isn't anything for her, I wish there was though! :D
I have a 14 yo girl that is adopted from Liberia and she's about a 3-4th grade level, a 8.5 yo girl that is about 2nd grade, 6 yo boy that is kindergarten, and a almost 4 yo boy. Based on the chart, I think that I need Preparing, Bigger, Little Hearts and Little Hands. Yikes! Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Nancy
Nancy
Dd29 married (w/2 sons 1/2/14, 5/24/16), ds27, dd25 married (w/dd born 8/9/16), dd25, dd22
Dd 19 HS in special ed
Dd14 RevtoRev
Ds12 RevtoRev
Ds 9 Preparing
Dd 5 LHFHG

striving2Bprov31
Posts: 226
Joined: Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:31 pm

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by striving2Bprov31 » Tue Feb 08, 2011 8:58 am

Hello!

We use three guides but I thought maybe my 2 cents could help you!

Firstly, Little Hands for the litte one would only take 30 minutes per day at the most. I do much of it with my ds while he is eating his bowl of cereal in the morning. Little Hands is truly effortless to slip in to your daily schedule no matter how many guides you are doing. Hope that eases your mind a little.

As for your 2nd grade girl....you know best, but I would encourage you to see if Beyond is a better fit for her since she is in 2nd grade and it is less time consuming than Bigger Hearts. I am doing Bigger with my 3rd grade son, and I will say that Bigger is not very time consuming either. It is very easy to do Bigger even during my busiest days, but I just thought that I would give you that to think about. If Bigger would be too much of a challenge for her given that she is in 2nd grade it may drag out your school day. I learned this the hard way a while back! :) But the most important thing is that your child is in the right guide for her level, and if Bigger is the right guide for her then go for it!

Also, one thing that I have learned is to start slowly! When you begin with HOD it may be a big change for your kids (maybe not, as I don't know your current schooling situation) :) and my own humble opinion would tell you to go "half-speed" for the first month. Giving your kids and yourself awhile to adjust will help you succeed, especially with "learning" to do four different guides! This has been so true for us. :)

Just some food for thought!

I hope something here has helped you! God bless you. I know that He will bless your family through HOD becuse He has done that for us!

Gwenny
Posts: 750
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 1:07 pm
Location: Texas

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by Gwenny » Tue Feb 08, 2011 9:55 am

Thank you for your reply. I was thinking the same thing about the little hands, it's so short but will give me something to do just with my littlest guy. Sometimes the youngest of 9 doesn't get that attention. :) I think that my girl is well placed in Bigger. She's already doing R&S 2 and is an excellent reader and speller, etc. She needs the challenge. When I do read-alouds all of my children are there and we read "difficult" books. I always read way up to the kids, keeping in mind that it isn't scary or whatever. Even my 3 year old can sit and color or just sit and listen to stories for an hour or more. We have a hard time putting books down. :). I just read "Wind in the Willows" to my 19 yo down to my 3 yo and they all loved it. It's a difficult book as far as vocab, etc and my little guys were laughing so hard at poor Mr. Toad. I'm sure they don't get some of it, but they get a lot! Anyway, how did I get on that? :)
I can't wait to get the guides and really see what they are all about. What really appeals to me is that she incorporates so much of what I want to do, but life gets busy and I don't get to a lot of those things. However, if I can open the guide and she tells me to, I can do that! :)
Blessings,
Nancy
Nancy
Dd29 married (w/2 sons 1/2/14, 5/24/16), ds27, dd25 married (w/dd born 8/9/16), dd25, dd22
Dd 19 HS in special ed
Dd14 RevtoRev
Ds12 RevtoRev
Ds 9 Preparing
Dd 5 LHFHG

beverett
Posts: 220
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 7:18 am
Location: Tx

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by beverett » Tue Feb 08, 2011 12:03 pm

I am doing 3 guides and it is our first year with HOD, I have also homeschooled for a little while. I had a couple of thoughts. The first one is this: If the 14 yr old really is about 3rd or 4th grade level, then you could combine her into BIGGER with your 2nd grader, and just add the extensions which make it 5th-6th grade level. I really think this is what i would do (??but you know your children best :D ). My second thought was that if you really think it neccesary, then you could do the 4 guides and maybe get the 14yr old going, to eventually be completely independent in PREPARING, then you would really only be putting the majority of your time with the 2 middle guides. And as a side note, we are doing HOD for highschool, with extra stuff to make it credit worthy, and we ABSOLUTELY LOVE it... it is working perfectly!! :D :D
Brandi
Blessed with an amazing hubby and6 beautiful boys
DS-graduated!
DS-8th Rev to Rev
DS-6th RTR
DS-3rd Bigger
DS- 5yo LHTH

DS- 1yo future HODie

Samuel'sMommy
Posts: 647
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:59 pm
Location: TN
Contact:

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by Samuel'sMommy » Tue Feb 08, 2011 12:11 pm

I only have one child so I don't have any experience with multiple guides. I know there have been several ladies on here that have used 3, but I don't know that I've seen any with 4. Hopefully Carrie or Julie will chime in and give some suggestions. I do agree that Little Hands is very easy to do and won't take much time at all. One suggestion if you'd like to cut it down to 3 guides is to put your 2 oldest in Bigger letting your oldest daughter do the extensions and her own LA and math. Not sure if that would work, but just another idea to consider.

beverett and I must have been posting at the same time :D
Last edited by Samuel'sMommy on Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Stephanie
Wife to Adam for 25 years
Mom to Samuel (18 - freshman in college), Isaiah (8), and Judah (4) through the miracle of adoption
Using and loving LHTH & BLHFHG

Loved using LHTH, LHFHG, BLHFHG, BHFHG, PHFHG, CTC, & RTR!

tjswaine
Posts: 156
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:12 am
Contact:

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by tjswaine » Tue Feb 08, 2011 12:26 pm

Nancy,

Carrie is schooling four children, so her recently posted schedule may be helpful to you. Here's a link:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093&start=120

Combining your oldest two in Bigger Hearts may be a good idea as beverett suggested. The extension pack for Bigger will definitely give you some great books! However, if you feel your oldest places solidly in Preparing, then that's your best bet.
Welcome to HOD! :D
In Him,
{Jess}
2012-2013:
Logan ds {10} ~ Preparing, SM 4A, DGP, McGuffey, etc.
Connor ds {8} ~ Preparing. SM 2B, DGP, McGuffey, etc.
Charlene dd {4} ~ The Reading Lesson, SM Earlybird, C-rods, Verbal Math Lesson, etc.
Evan ds {1}
Quinn dd {0}

Gwenny
Posts: 750
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 1:07 pm
Location: Texas

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by Gwenny » Wed Feb 09, 2011 8:33 am

Thanks everyone! You all are so helpful.
If I am understanding the curriculum (I don't have my guides yet, but should Friday!!!) then I don't think it would work to have my older one in Bigger and do extensions. Reading is not her strong point, she has a harder time processing things. Isn't extensions just reading more and more difficult books? I started a program with her where you read a short portion of a story (it's written for 2nd to 3rd graders) and then ask them questions about it and help them summarize it, then copy or dictate, etc. She can barely answer the questions, very simple ones, and it is difficult for her to take down one sentence in dictation. It seems that the program tells you questions to ask them for each reading, and really works on that stuff.
Another thing, it might be somewhat "humbling" for her even more to do the same stuff her 8 year old sister is doing when she is 14. She also LOVES to draw and the drawing through history I think she would love.
Let me know if I'm missing something since I really don't know the program though.
Nancy
Nancy
Dd29 married (w/2 sons 1/2/14, 5/24/16), ds27, dd25 married (w/dd born 8/9/16), dd25, dd22
Dd 19 HS in special ed
Dd14 RevtoRev
Ds12 RevtoRev
Ds 9 Preparing
Dd 5 LHFHG

8arrows
Posts: 965
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:49 pm

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by 8arrows » Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:16 pm

Have you had a chance to look at the placement chart? Preparing requires more writing than Bigger.
Melissa, wife to Jim for 28 years
3 graduated, 2 using US 2, 8th grade dd using Missions to Marvels
Isaiah 40:11 ...He gently leads those that have young.

Carrie
Site Admin
Posts: 8125
Joined: Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:39 pm

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by Carrie » Fri Feb 11, 2011 4:00 pm

Nancy,

We do use 4 guides at our house. We're currently using LHTH, Bigger Hearts, RTR, and have a 9th grader piloting much of our geography guide along with his other high school level work. With that being said though, we typically don't recommend doing two more teacher intensive guides like Bigger Hearts and Preparing Hearts at the same time, as it gets to be too much for the teacher.

So with that thinking, it would be far better for you to do 3 guides, with one of them being LHTH. I think this would really help keep your year in a better balance. I'm also thinking from what you've shared so far that Preparing Hearts will be too much for your sweet child from Liberia. It actually sounds like she would fit better in Bigger Hearts overall, unless I've gotten the wrong picture so far. I can see the qaundry of having your older child doing the same program as a much younger sibling, so I wonder if you could use the Extension Pack with your older child and just read it to her. In that way she would see that she has more school for her older level than her younger sister, and even though you'd read aloud the Extension Pack to her it would be less than the reading you'd be doing aloud for her if you added a whole program such as Preparing Hearts to your day. :wink:

If you didn't want your girls to compare themselves so much, you could consider doing just the science from Preparing Hearts for your older daughter to give her something different from what the younger was doing in that area too. That would add less time to your day but give her something of her own. :D

Another thought I had was that you could also place your older child in a higher level of DITHR, keeping your 2nd grader in Level 2/3 and placing your older child in Level 4/5. Even if your older student can't do the writing for her Student Book, you could just take dictation from her and act as her scribe, writing her thoughts for her. This would allow her to have a different, older level of the Student Book and keep the comparisons less there too. :wink:

Anyway, then they would then only be combined for the left side of the Bigger Heart's guide each day and for Storytime. These areas combine easily across wider age spans, but they would have much of their own tailored learning in the 3R's and in science. :D

Another option I'd pondered for your unique situation would be to place your 2nd grader in Bigger Hearts and your older child in Preparing Hearts, but do both programs at half-speed, taking two years to complete each one. This would keep your teaching time more manageable and would help the kiddos be more separate. However, it would take a bit more juggling each day though, and may make you lose some of the open-and-go aspect of the teaching though. :wink:

Blessings,
Carrie

Gwenny
Posts: 750
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 1:07 pm
Location: Texas

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by Gwenny » Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:22 am

Carrie, I'm so grateful to you for responding so personally. Also, the others who replied were so helpful and it seems that everyone is agreeing to put the 14 yo in Bigger with extensions alongside my 2nd grader. I received my guides yesterday and I love them. Now that I've had a chance to look at them, and you suggesting what you have, I can see the wisdom in combining. You had great ideas that I wouldn't have thought of because I don't quite "get it " yet. All the different components are confusing at first. When I was reading the guide I had to keep flipping back to the front to figure out the difference in reading, story time, extensions, etc. I've almost got it. :)
I guess I'll just save all of the stuff I bought for Preparing for next year.
I think I'll use the 2/3 DITHR for both but have them read different books. I still haven't figured that out yet. I think they read to me, correct? Then they do some activities in the book. I'll get it with more study of the manuals!

Thanks again.
Nancy
Nancy
Dd29 married (w/2 sons 1/2/14, 5/24/16), ds27, dd25 married (w/dd born 8/9/16), dd25, dd22
Dd 19 HS in special ed
Dd14 RevtoRev
Ds12 RevtoRev
Ds 9 Preparing
Dd 5 LHFHG

my3sons
Posts: 10698
Joined: Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:08 pm
Location: South Dakota

Re: has anyone used 4 guides?

Post by my3sons » Tue Feb 15, 2011 12:46 pm

Gwenny wrote:Carrie, I'm so grateful to you for responding so personally. Also, the others who replied were so helpful and it seems that everyone is agreeing to put the 14 yo in Bigger with extensions alongside my 2nd grader. I received my guides yesterday and I love them. Now that I've had a chance to look at them, and you suggesting what you have, I can see the wisdom in combining. You had great ideas that I wouldn't have thought of because I don't quite "get it " yet. All the different components are confusing at first. When I was reading the guide I had to keep flipping back to the front to figure out the difference in reading, story time, extensions, etc. I've almost got it. :)
I guess I'll just save all of the stuff I bought for Preparing for next year.
I think I'll use the 2/3 DITHR for both but have them read different books. I still haven't figured that out yet. I think they read to me, correct? Then they do some activities in the book. I'll get it with more study of the manuals!

Thanks again.
Nancy
I think you have a good plan here, and starting with your dc combined will be a solid way to get started enjoying your HOD year! :D Isn't BHFHG a neat program? I just finished it, in fact, right before typing this, and we had a blast! We read a story about brave Americans sinking the Philadelphia and then fashioned our own boats out of tin foil to re-enact it. My oldest couldn't bear to miss it! They got to put coins in the Philadelphia one at a time until it sank, and meanwhile I fired (tin foil) cannon balls at the other smaller getaway boat. The extensions are going to be a wonderful way to challenge your 14 year old - I think all of those books look so good.

As far as 2/3 DIHTR, many moms that start DITHR with an older child for the first time begin with a younger level. You may want to move your 14 yo up to Level 4/5 after she gets her feet wet with 2/3, but you can easily start them both in 2/3, only with harder books for the 14 yo. :D You are right, DITHR is when your dc read to you - it is their reading instruction, and you follow the green Drawn into the Heart of Reading teacher's guide for the plans. Have you seen HOD's book packs for DITHR? They are amazing books, and are neat to use unless you would enjoy trying to choose your own. Here are the links to those:
Level 2 and Level 3 Book Packs:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional.php
Level 4/5 Book Packs:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional4-5.php
Level 5/6 Book Packs:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional5-6.php

The box titles in the plans that you mentioned you are in the process of figuring out stand for the same type of things from year to year, so once you teach them, you'll be set! Be sure to keep asking questions here as we love to help, but it looks like you're on your way to a great year with HOD! :D

In Christ,
Julie
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

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