We have found out that we will be adding a 4th "student" to our schooltable! Well, actually he/she should make their arrival in April of next year and will probably join us at the table about 2 years later.. For many health-related reasons, this is an unexpected miracle and we are all so thrilled. AND being of the schoolmarm mindset, I quickly realized that if we can get our work done in April, we could have a long summer break to enjoy the new baby! :-)
A good friend of mine did something similar last year when her son was due in the beginning of May. She piled on the work (6 hour math sessions anyone?) for her other son so that they could be done. Thankfully she did it with a good attitude and lots of incentives so her son wasn't complaining or bitter (in fact he told her he still "loved homeschooling"), but I am hopeful I won't have to take that route. One of the big things I love about HOD and Mrs. Austin's box-style lesson plans is the flexibility that it invites. Plus, by using living books rather than textbooks, the kids are usually begging me to read "One more chapter!" anyway. So, I spent time last week to sit down and look at each weekly unit and figure out where we could double up without missing key elements. This is what I figured:
Unit 3&4: Ice age
Unit 9&10: The Greeks at the time of King David/Early Greece and Rome
Unit 11&12: The Israelites worship idols/ The Israelites in Babylon
Unit 27&28: East meets West/ Age of exploration
These are units where the themes flowed well together. I will have to pick between the history,science and geography projects for each day, which means we won't do all of them. However, I know my kids retain the basic points of these lessons (mainly from the great literature), and we will definitely keep our vocab. boxes and timelines updated. As to the math, grammar, spelling, and handwriting workbooks? Well, those are fairly independent lessons anyway, so I will probably add extra work in here and there, or let them continue on with those into the summer like we've done in the past.
The arrival of our new blessing is exciting and frought with anticipation for all of us. I am so glad that I do not have to worry about how to make schooling work. HOD has been such a blessing on many fronts, and this has given me one more reason to be thankful I've found it!
Blessings to you and your students!
Hillary At Home
A good friend of mine did something similar last year when her son was due in the beginning of May. She piled on the work (6 hour math sessions anyone?) for her other son so that they could be done. Thankfully she did it with a good attitude and lots of incentives so her son wasn't complaining or bitter (in fact he told her he still "loved homeschooling"), but I am hopeful I won't have to take that route. One of the big things I love about HOD and Mrs. Austin's box-style lesson plans is the flexibility that it invites. Plus, by using living books rather than textbooks, the kids are usually begging me to read "One more chapter!" anyway. So, I spent time last week to sit down and look at each weekly unit and figure out where we could double up without missing key elements. This is what I figured:
Unit 3&4: Ice age
Unit 9&10: The Greeks at the time of King David/Early Greece and Rome
Unit 11&12: The Israelites worship idols/ The Israelites in Babylon
Unit 27&28: East meets West/ Age of exploration
These are units where the themes flowed well together. I will have to pick between the history,science and geography projects for each day, which means we won't do all of them. However, I know my kids retain the basic points of these lessons (mainly from the great literature), and we will definitely keep our vocab. boxes and timelines updated. As to the math, grammar, spelling, and handwriting workbooks? Well, those are fairly independent lessons anyway, so I will probably add extra work in here and there, or let them continue on with those into the summer like we've done in the past.
The arrival of our new blessing is exciting and frought with anticipation for all of us. I am so glad that I do not have to worry about how to make schooling work. HOD has been such a blessing on many fronts, and this has given me one more reason to be thankful I've found it!
Blessings to you and your students!
Hillary At Home
