problems ... question about combining (SimplyCharlotteMason vs. HOD)

[mommy5]

I've posted on here before and finally decided to try Bigger with my just turned 8 yr old (2nd grade) and LHFHG with my K'er. Much of Little Hearts is too easy for my 5 yr old ... so, I've been using the right side of Beyond and the left side of LHFHG for her and Bigger straight through for my 8 yr old. My 8 yr old is struggling with the amount of writing involved in all the notebooking. He has just learned to read (1st grade level) and is still slower to write ... he doesn't enjoy writing, either. He prefers oral narrations and read-alouds. He learns with this method ... he also loves math and science. I'm stressed, though. I'm having to do a lot of hand holding through the Bigger guide because of the amount of writing. I was thinking it would help him but it is burning us both out. Also, my almost 6 yr old really wants to do more and more school and using the 2 different guides is wearing me out (I have a special needs son and a toddler and a baby, as well ... I'm pulling out my hair). I'm about 5 weeks into our new school year and feeling a lot of pressure to fix this mess. If my 5 yr old were different or not as advanced I would just be low-key with her school ...but she begs to do school every day and she is very bright.

1. I'm contemplating dropping everything for now and switching to SCM History 4, (keeping) CLE Math 100 (for 5 yr old) and 200 (for 2nd grader), A Reason For Handwriting for both kids, and a lot of phonics/grammar review that we did last year, we also have a science that it is CM style earth science that both kids like (I just started reading it to them). I will also keep doing the read-alouds that I bought from HOD.
    
   
2. The other choices I've come up with is to drop Bigger (we just finished week 4) and move to Beyond which seems like less writing. Combine both kids in that and do spelling and LA as written (keep DS in CLE math). Both kids are in the emergent reader category and spelling list 1.
    
   
3. The other choice is to keep going in Bigger but drop most of the notebooking (We love the Eggleston book that we've started reading and what I love is that DS is retaining tons of history this year - which has never worked in the past).
   

I REALLY want the to both being doing the same Bible memory - I'm not liking the separate stuff. I think at this point maybe only math should be separate - they are similar ages with LA. We read the same biography to both kids already for the first 4 units (Helen Keller) and both kids learned a lot. They both do the same spelling list and emergent reader books. My 5 yr old has a short attention span for history reading, however...

 

I feel like more needs to be combined. WWYD?

[twoxcell]

If you want to combine, I would combine them into Beyond. I wouldn't do Bigger with a 5 year old even an advanced one. :)

[Ellie]

We're tied right now. :D HOD doesn't interest me one.little.bit. so I'd go with something else. Anything else. However, I do really like the idea of CM, so even if I only sort of didn't care for HOD, I'd vote for CM (although I sort of like Ambleside Online slightly better than SCM, just looking at both on-line).

[Susie in MS]

I've tried both HOD and SCM and hands down I would combine with SCM! It will make your boat sail a lot smoother.

[Holly]

You post is exactly why we swtiched to SCM! We switched in the middle of Bigger after I was tired of spending all morning on history and science (and the 3Rs were getting pushed aside). At the same time, my preschooler had outgrown the lessons in LHTH, and I was hesitant to start another level. I also realized I needed to combine my DC as much as possible...there is no way I could handle 3 or 4 levels of HOD. I know some moms can handle this, but I'm just not organized enough!

 

We transitioned from Bigger over to SCM. At first, I used their free curriculum guide for all subjects except history...I made substitutions to work with books we already owned or were currently using. We continued to read through the Bigger books and did a notebooking assignment at the end of each week (often they just drew a picture of one of the stories). Last January we started SCM's history Mod 1, and it has been a nice fit for us. We didn't finish out our Bigger books, but I was so sick of American history (we'd spent 3 years on Beyond and Bigger). :blush:

 

I didn't actually vote in the poll, but I think either of your first two options would be fine.

[kristi26]

I voted for SCM. :) I really like SCM and am planning on using it next year with my three oldest kids. Like your son, my DD does really well with oral narration and listening to/reading stories. I've also found that my older boys are succeeding with this method. Plus, it's the cheapest of your options. ;)

[aprilsblessings]

I'm not sure which I would vote for but here are my thoughts...

 

I am in somewhat the same position. We used most of LHFHG last year for K (5/6 ds) and pre-K (5 dd). I focused mostly with my son but my daughter wanted to do everything with us so other then math they are at the same level with everything. This year I had planned to do Beyond but with teaching 1st grade, K, preschool, a toddler, and a new baby, the boxes started making me crazy! I loved the detailed plans in the boxes but in the end I can't concentrate long enough to teach all that's in the boxes with the background noise of the 1st grader, Ker, preschooler, toddler, and baby. :D Maybe that is just my 5 but if not, know you are not alone!! We have been working through Adventures In America (Elemental History), have read half of Pioneers and Patriots, reading books from the Beyond read aloud list, memorizing some of the bible verses, and reading some of the poems. Pretty much taking things from the guide that we want and using them how we want. We also are using CLE 1 for my first grader and will start with my K pretty soon.

 

I have been doing a lot of thinking/praying/soul searching research for next year. I don't think know my family is not going to be a good fit for HOD how they want you to use it. I haven't quite decided whether to use HOD or SCM yet but one idea I had was from another thread "using HOD in a Sonlight way". I have the Bigger manual here with the books and was thinking of putting together a grid format to see the reading schedule with the extension package. I would use it for both of my older kids for 1st and 2nd grade, just the parts I want again. Part of me thinks that using the HOD guide would be great to have the readings scheduled out but that would mean I have to be ok with NOT looking at all those other boxes and NOT doing all the activities. This could be a way to keep using the books you enjoy but just narrating them the CM way.

 

I really am drawn to SCM and it makes sense to me (at least for our family) the CM principles of living books and narration. Their handbooks are very simple and can have books added to them from HOD's booklist for that time period if you want to be able to use the same books. You could use module 5 I think with the books you currently have from HOD to finish out the year. The download of the ebook is only $10-11.

 

My opinion of HOD is it is hard to use in larger families if you want to combine and if your children don't perfectly fit into the skills. If you do want to use HOD you have to be able to use it how it will work for your family and if you can't (speaking to myself here) without making yourself crazy then just use their books and let the beautiful looking perfect plan go :lol: ..... just read books!

 

Hopefully some of that rambling is helpful. I think I was talking out my thoughts for next year too...I hope you didn't mind. :rolleyes:

[mommy5]

Thank you to everyone who has responded. You guys have been helpful! I'm thinking it is more difficult to use HOD the way it is written with a larger family ... especially when nobody is actually independent here yet. I'm still deciding either dropping it all together or trying to use Bigger without all the boxes being checked everyday. (Using LA, History reading, science reading and Bible Study for both kids and break off for math ... and don't do all the notebooking ... maybe one time a week). I loved the idea of Bigger because of the different people we'd be studying - it seemed very interesting and honestly, I still love that part of it. I may look into module 5 of SCM, too...

[Bree]

Beyond has been great for us this year. I almost went with Bigger for my ds this year but he isn't a fan of writing and so i went with Beyond. I have been doing the 2 guides also and they are driving me crazy. Last week I decided to try doing my K and 2nd grader in Beyond and it was really nice. The only problem I see with having a dc in the younger age range of a guide is the problem you are having now. You may be able to combine them in Beyond this year but do you think your 5 year old will be ready for Bigger the following year...my problem too :)

[mommy5]

I talked to my husband and he thought we should try out Beyond because we already own it ... is it weird of me to not want to try it because the history seems rather boring. That is probably what really drew me to Bigger ... I like the biographical approach (of studying more of the famous people surrounding a time period). I guess, since we have the books, we can try a week of it and see how both kids do. I do not have any of the books for SCM Mod. 4 ... I looked over AO and got overwhelmed ... not knowing what to read and when. We did do SCM Mod. 1 for my son's first grade. Some parts I loved and other parts were just ok (I'm sure it was his age and he wasn't very motivated toward school work). I loved the Bible reading ... he has retained all of the reading ... it is amazing to see how much he learned from it. He remembers a little about Ancient Egypt. At that time we did a little copywork, and phonics and math as well. I like the idea of doing composer study and famous artist study (I was an art major/art history in college and love humanities and fine arts).

[Holly]

Thank you to everyone who has responded. You guys have been helpful! I'm thinking it is more difficult to use HOD the way it is written with a larger family ... especially when nobody is actually independent here yet. I'm still deciding either dropping it all together or trying to use Bigger without all the boxes being checked everyday. (Using LA, History reading, science reading and Bible Study for both kids and break off for math ... and don't do all the notebooking ... maybe one time a week). I loved the idea of Bigger because of the different people we'd be studying - it seemed very interesting and honestly, I still love that part of it. I may look into module 5 of SCM, too...

 

I think this is a good plan, skipping some of the boxes. You already own the books...My DH is always happy when I use books we've already purchased! You could read the poem once or twice during the week as well. For notebooking, I did some of the writing for DS (he would tell me what to write). You can always start SCM next year. ;)

[mommy5]

 

 

I think this is a good plan, skipping some of the boxes. You already own the books...My DH is always happy when I use books we've already purchased! You could read the poem once or twice during the week as well. For notebooking, I did some of the writing for DS (he would tell me what to write). You can always start SCM next year. ;)

 

 

Thank you for that ... I do own all the books for Beyond as well. That is probably why when hubby heard the dilemma, he thought Beyond would be good because it is probably more at the level for both kids...without skipping stuff. To be honest, I'm still torn. When I look at what I've spent on books this year already - I don't really want to have to re-do what I've already done. I would also like a lot less stress ... still thinking this out. I will most likely be moving to SCM next year ... still thinking, though, if anyone else wants to give their input. At this point, I'm considering picking up with Beyond tomorrow and seeing how it goes. I think we could get Beyond done in 2 hours and still have some time left over to review phonics rules ... do some fun educational games. My husband thinks I'm stressing too much over the history curriculum for a 5 yr old, as well ... he thinks most kids won't retain a lot from that age. I know they won't master the material but I don't want it to be too hard for them to understand, either.

 

ETA: It looks like on the poll Simply Charlotte Mason is winning by a lot!!! My vision is to pick up on our Bible reading where we left off ... so some history ... read through our science read aloud ... read another read-aloud and a small amount of copywork, spelling words, one day a week do composer and artist studyand continue our usual math. I'm thinking of going back to picking out my own things to work on...my big problem still is what history!!!