How do you plan your Beyond units?

[ShayChristie]

In my other thread, many mentioned taking 8-9 weeks on certain books. I just planned them out for us and I have 5 weeks for Marie Curie and 5 weeks for George Washington Carver. :unsure:

I went back and added in an extra day here and there to spread it to 6 thinking I was jamming, but really, the schedule doesn't look jammed to me.

Am I doing something wrong? I normally do 2 lessons a day, sometimes 3, but usually those are vocab days or another short assignment. How many lessons do you plan per day and how long are your lessons?

BTW, while we go over the lesson together before and after, I usually leave him to do actual research on his own. I do supervise projects, such as experiments, art or cooking.

So, what do you do? Obviously, I may be ending Beyond with this child, but I have a few more following, so if needed, I can change things up with them. :)

[Tamie_in_MI]

Shay, you know we all do things according to our child and family. I have not done either of the books you mentioned but Thomas Edison took so very long that we abandoned it. (I do not know how long).

Other books we are through in just a wk to 2 wks. Really, if it feels right, it probably is.

[Suz MamaFrog]

I schedule a chapter to 2 a week, depending on how "rich" Becky's lessons are for each chapter. Some books take us longer than others because we really get involved in the lessons, researching, outside reading, etc. Others don't take as long because dd doesn't find them as interest-sparking. I don't plan on re-rowing most of BY, so we're going as far into each title as we can, to get the most out of each book. That adds time and weight to our studies, too.

You also have to remember that some of us are using FIAR with 10 - 12 yos, and others are starting it at 8 and 9. That probably has a lot to do with how long it takes some families to complete a title, too.

I agree with Tamie, too. Your ds may be more capable of working quickly and independently through many of the titles and still get the most out of them. My dd would rather not. She is capable of doing independent work, and she does a lot of it, but she still likes to have "together" time. In fact, she looks forward to it. So, we go slowly and savor our lessons as much as possible. We're starting week 5 of Sarah and only about half way through and that's alright with us because she's loving every minute of it!

Do what's best for you and yours. Each child is different, or parenting would be awfully boring! :D

Blessings!
Suz

[CINDY LB OH]

We just started with Vol. 1 this year. Boxcar took us 4-5 weeks, and Edison is currently planned for 4-5 weeks as well. We seem to go much quicker than others, but my ds wants to keep moving along. He doesn't like to dwell too long on one topic unless it's of great interest.

I don't do all the lessons in the manual either, but choose based on his interests. A lot of what we do is conversational as well, so we aren't doing research for every lesson we choose to cover. Sometimes other things in the chapter will spark interest though, things that weren't included in the manual, so we'll spend time on that instead.

Also, I don't jump from one book right into the next. I leave at least 2 weeks between titles so we can explore topics of interest more in depth afterwards. For example, between Boxcar and Edison we did a unit on electricity. I do that so we can read 1 chapter per day and keep a good pace going. Ds prefers it this way.

So if you add on those extra weeks, you could say we do 6-7 weeks per title.

If what you are doing works for you, continue. It's all good :thumb:

[CherylF]

I plan a couple weeks at a time and we cover 2-3 chapters a week. So in the case of The Cricket in Times Square, it's going to take us about 6-7 weeks to get through this book. I have no schedule I need to adhere to, so I'm just plugging along. This year has been a real learning lesson for me to "let go" of keeping up with the public schools, and just going with our own flow. Yes, I try to be accountable and make sure that my kids are learning, but we're likely learning about other things at a different pace than most other schools - public, private, and homeschool!

[CherylF]

Also, I don't jump from one book right into the next. I leave at least 2 weeks between titles so we can explore topics of interest more in depth afterwards. For example, between Boxcar and Edison we did a unit on electricity. I do that so we can read 1 chapter per day and keep a good pace going. Ds prefers it this way.


Fabulous idea!!! Not sure why this has never occured to me before, but I'm going to "borrow" it!!! Thanks!!

:clap:

[Kimberly Kane in La.]

We have always loved our GWC units...and now we wish we could do them all over again! Franklin Springs Family Media has just come out with a new DVD on GWC (http://www.franklinsprings.com/films/carver/). It is sitting, unopened, on my desk. We received it this week and are planning to watch it ver soon.

If you look at the trailer, you can decide if it is something that would make your study of GWC even more exciting and memorable.

[Tracey]

That DVD looks great! I watched the trailer for it. He was such a great man!