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A lot of people wait a bit to start DITHOR anyway, so that's not a big deal. As for storytime, you don't have to buy the packs; just find books of the appropriate genre at the library (or your own shelves). We do not buy the storytime packs because I already own lots and lots of books that are suita...

Since I have 2 children in Preparing, I told them we are doing the accordion-style option (they'll keep taping the cards on and keep the whole thing folded up in a ziploc bag). They really wanted to tape them up somewhere, but with a toddler in the house, I'm afraid the cards would be pulled down (e...

You could try it, but I tried to use LHFHG with my now-1st grader when he was 4.5, and although he was academically capable, he just wasn't interested. (Though, at the time, I was trying to give him his own program separate from his older siblings, and he REALLY wanted to be combined, so I'm sure th...

It is quick, but it does work, at least for my ds. We are in a review unit right now, so I'm pulling out old words and having him write them without studying them first. So far he has gotten every word right this week. They are grouped according to patterns/rules, so I know that helps. I think the m...

You can use any version of the Bible you prefer. We have used ESV, NIV, and KJV.

HOD is a Christ-centered program; there are families of different denominations using it happily. We happen to be Southern Baptist here, and we are very happy with HOD.

It sounds like you have a great plan.

For my 1st grader, I write parts of the poem on paper for him to copy right underneath. Sometime this school year I will transition him to just copying out of the guide. When my 3rd and 4th graders do copywork, they just use the guide and copy onto loose paper that can go into their binders. (Unless...

How exciting!

It does sound like your dd is ready to be moved up. I just moved up my oldest 2 this week, and I'm so happy I did. Preparing is giving them so much more than my homemade "extensions" to Beyond ever could. I wanted to encourage you- when my ds was 7yo, just getting through the 3R's each day would wea...

I haven't used CTC yet, but isn't it supposed to be even more independent than Preparing? If you consider that your oldest will likely be mostly independent, maybe it's not such a big deal to add a program for your kindergartener. I recently went from combining my oldest three to splitting them up (...

When my oldest was 7, I tried to use Beyond with my 3 oldest, and my 7yo was the only one paying any attention. My ds was 5.5 when we started, and my next ds was 4. I ended up dropping the guide and tried to do my own thing for a couple of years, but I didn't do anywhere near as good a job as I woul...

We are nearing the end of our first unit of Preparing, and I'd like to share one more thing. They had their first written narrations today, and I wanted to share those. I told them to each come up with 3 sentences that summarize the reading and contain the main points we discussed. Because I have 2 ...

Thanks, everyone! I feel a lot better now! I'm going to start requiring complete sentences; come to think of it, I don't think my 4th grader answered in complete sentences either, so I'll have to tell her that too. I think my ds is going to do fine in Preparing; I've spent a lot of time thinking abo...

We are in our first week with Preparing, and today was day 3 (we took yesterday off so the oldest three children could help their Daddy with renovations on an old house that will soon be home to a new food ministry). For independent science, they were supposed to read and then answer 5 questions. I ...

That's funny; I was just telling someone on another thread how I decided to drop our schedule. I too love to make the schedules, but I don't love to follow them. It was more stress trying to keep everyone doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing, when they were supposed to be doing it, than...