Homeschooling U: Getting Ready for Bigger (and the First Unit)

After completing Beyond, we took 2 weeks "off" from HOD and started Bigger half speed a few weeks ago. During those two weeks, we did finish up the last storytime book from Beyond, the remaining history notebooking pages, and the end of the year survey. But, we also did a ton of fun things like the trampoline park, roller skating, a play, a baseball game (minor league) and some relaxing days at home!

I ordered Bigger Hearts for His Glory in February. And once I got everything, I couldn't wait to get things set up! I read Julie's getting ready post on the HOD board many times and used that as my framework.

The first thing I did was put washi tape on the edges of all of the books. Since the Bigger guide is yellow and green, I used a yellow washi tape. I put a green H on the tape for all history books. I used SC for science and ST for storytime. The other books I didn't put any letters on (devotional and hymns as well as the guide). I also purchased DITHOR Level 2, so I used green washi tape on those with a number 2 (the DITHOR guide is green).

Next I got the basic supplies we would need - composition books for dictation (when we get there) and grammar, index card file box for vocabulary, and a binder with page protectors and dividers for all of the papers we will create. I put yellow washi tape on the edges of the composition books and filled in the information on the front.

Now I was ready for the binder! After reading some posts by Carrie about the reason for blank paper notebooking, I decided to not print any notebooking pages for history or science. So, for the history part of the binder, I just put 17 sheet protectors. For science, they create two pages a week - notebooking and lab exploration - so I put 34 page protectors in that section. Since my daughter is only 7 and dislikes writing, I did print 35 copies of the science lab sheets from the FB for Bigger. I put the printed pages in the back pocket of the binder, and I put 34 page protectors in the science area of the binder. Next, I printed the poems for Bigger. I don't know if this is really necessary, but I thought it would make poetry copywork later easier for my daughter (when she finished Cheerful Cursive). The next section in our binder is for storytime and DITHOR. Since we aren't going to start the DITHOR workbook until the end of Bigger, my plan is to do some of the storytime things from Beyond with the Level 2 books. Any thing we create from those will go in this section, so I put some page protectors in there (maybe 20?). Finally, there is a section in the back for everything else - art, geography, and history activities mainly. Again I just put some page protectors back there.

In the front pocket, I put the timeline. I printed the grid from the FB group and then trimmed the edges of all but the first page. Then I taped them together into an according fold. It definitely is a long timeline, but it folds up nice a small!

On the dividers, I glued on pages I printed out from the FB or created. They have images of tthe books we are using, so we will have a nice "memory book" for the future. I also made a similar cover page for the binder and a strip to slide into the edge of the binder (clear view). Right now everything is in a 1in binder because that is what I had. But, I may be moving everything to a 1.5 or 2in binder before the end of the year because it is almost full!

Finally, I made some memory cards for all of the Proverbs. My daughter liked the cards I made for a friend, so I thought it would be a good idea for her to have. Instead of writing the verses on index cards later in the week, I am having her write the verse on our big white board on Day 1. On the front of the memory cards I have the character trait with a picture to help define the word. Ont eh back, I have the memory verse. I glued the parts on to cardstock and then laminated so hopefully they will last through all three kids! You can find them in the FB group for Bigger.

Here are some pictures to help you see what everything looks like: