I'll try to give the short version of where I am. I have a 4th grader, 1st grader and a K-er (and a 3yo and a 6mos old). We were following the 4 year cycle (with some Ambleside selections). My oldest was due for Modern History this year, but I really didn't want to put my 1st and K-er in it. I tried starting them with Ancient history instead - but it just didn't work well having my kids in different time periods. So I decided to slow down my 4th graders progression and make it more of an American history year - using some Eggleston and some This Country of Ours and other "living books." We've gotten to the Civil War and will probably camp out here for a week or so. My problem is what to do next. My oldest is such a history lover - he listens to SOTW cds and Diana Waring cds constantly - I'm not worried about him finishing his modern history year. If we try to continue past the Civil War I quickly run out of good spines for my youngers (Eggleston ends in just a chapter or two for example).
Thank you if you've followed all this! I'm considering starting everyone in Preparing now. I think it would be fine for my oldest, but I know it would be a stretch for the youngers. My first grader is an older first grader (turned 7 in December); he can do copywork without problem; he is in MUS Beta ("2nd level"); he is still reading "readers:" he's about to finish book 3 of Explode the Code. I know some of the work in Preparing would be beyond him (and obviously beyond my K-er as well), but could I keep everyone together for history, science, Bible, storytime and just keep everyone in their own grammar, math, phonics as needed and cut back on some of the writing expectations for the younger two? I love that HOD gives me the projects, experiments, the guided narrations, and various things that are harder to get to around here. I know the younger guides might be better suited to my youngers, but I really need to keep everyone together if I can.
Thank you for reading all this and for taking time to reply. I've enjoyed reading the posts here - there is such a sweet spirit of encouragement and desire to please the Lord among the ladies here!
Thanks, Lynn
How much of Preparing could youngers do?
How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Married 19 years to Dh, Detective and Army Reservist: 1 tour in Iraq, 1 tour in Afghanistan
ds 12.5 (7th grade) RevtoRev
ds 9.5 (4th grade) Preparing
dd 8 (3rd grade) Beyond
ds 6 (K/1st grade) Beyond
dd 3
ds 12.5 (7th grade) RevtoRev
ds 9.5 (4th grade) Preparing
dd 8 (3rd grade) Beyond
ds 6 (K/1st grade) Beyond
dd 3
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Lynn,
Welcome to the HOD boards. We're glad to have you here.
Normally, I'd recommend putting your kiddos together in either Beyond or Bigger, but since you've already covered Eggleston, it makes it more difficult to recommend that. It does sound like your oldest child is ready for Preparing Hearts, but it will be tough for a K or a 1st grader to hang on with the readings in Preparing very well.
My recommendation would be to start Preparing with your oldest, letting your little ones listen in while you get that program underway. You'd want to add the right side of the Beyond plans for language arts and math for your K and 1st grader (or your own choices to cover those areas). Once you've had a chance to hit your stride with Preparing Hearts, you may want to consider bumping your youngers down to doing all of Beyond, depending where they fall on our placement chart linked here: http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
Or, if you've been able to downsize the plans in Preparing enough to keep your little ones in the loop, you can just keep on going. Grandpa's Box and A Child's History of the World are books that are interesting for a wide range of ages, so you may be able to keep your little ones with you for some of Preparing. The Bible Study will most likely be over their head and the writing will need to be downsized in all areas for them. I'm also pretty sure that at least some of the Storytime books will be over their heads and you'd need to be mindful of remedying that.
At HOD we usually strive to include olders within the younger child's program, and then beef up for the olders with an extension package. This would be the reverse for that, so it's not exactly what is intended when we write our guides. Only you can know what you can truly make work. It's good to make sure though at some point that the youngers don't spend years being pulled along behind the olders. Just something we had to ponder with our own kiddos too.
Blessings,
Carrie
Welcome to the HOD boards. We're glad to have you here.
Normally, I'd recommend putting your kiddos together in either Beyond or Bigger, but since you've already covered Eggleston, it makes it more difficult to recommend that. It does sound like your oldest child is ready for Preparing Hearts, but it will be tough for a K or a 1st grader to hang on with the readings in Preparing very well.
My recommendation would be to start Preparing with your oldest, letting your little ones listen in while you get that program underway. You'd want to add the right side of the Beyond plans for language arts and math for your K and 1st grader (or your own choices to cover those areas). Once you've had a chance to hit your stride with Preparing Hearts, you may want to consider bumping your youngers down to doing all of Beyond, depending where they fall on our placement chart linked here: http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
Or, if you've been able to downsize the plans in Preparing enough to keep your little ones in the loop, you can just keep on going. Grandpa's Box and A Child's History of the World are books that are interesting for a wide range of ages, so you may be able to keep your little ones with you for some of Preparing. The Bible Study will most likely be over their head and the writing will need to be downsized in all areas for them. I'm also pretty sure that at least some of the Storytime books will be over their heads and you'd need to be mindful of remedying that.
At HOD we usually strive to include olders within the younger child's program, and then beef up for the olders with an extension package. This would be the reverse for that, so it's not exactly what is intended when we write our guides.
Only you can know what you can truly make work. It's good to make sure though at some point that the youngers don't spend years being pulled along behind the olders. Just something we had to ponder with our own kiddos too. Blessings,
Carrie
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Carrie, Thanks so much for your thoughts. When I read your response on a different thread regarding children who were struggling with emerging readers and storytime (and you suggested they might need more time with books at their current level before they stepped up a bit), I began thinking that even the read alouds (in preparing) might be too much for my youngers. Part of what attracts me to HOD packages are the opportunities for interraction with the books. Many times we read great books here and move on and fail to interract with them. As much as I would love the convenience of combining, I can see I would be sacrificing the main thing that attracted me to HOD in the first place.
So.... I will keep praying about this a bit longer - whether to try to do two packages now, or whether to keep hodge-podging on my own for now and consider starting two packages in the fall.
Thanks!
Lynn
So.... I will keep praying about this a bit longer - whether to try to do two packages now, or whether to keep hodge-podging on my own for now and consider starting two packages in the fall.
Thanks!
Lynn
Married 19 years to Dh, Detective and Army Reservist: 1 tour in Iraq, 1 tour in Afghanistan
ds 12.5 (7th grade) RevtoRev
ds 9.5 (4th grade) Preparing
dd 8 (3rd grade) Beyond
ds 6 (K/1st grade) Beyond
dd 3
ds 12.5 (7th grade) RevtoRev
ds 9.5 (4th grade) Preparing
dd 8 (3rd grade) Beyond
ds 6 (K/1st grade) Beyond
dd 3
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Lynn,
I'll pray for you this evening too to have direction and clarity from the Lord on His plan for your schooling. I know what you mean about reading great books but not really interacting with them. That is where I was at with my oldest when he was in third grade, and we began making more of a switch in his learning to a more CM-style education (from Sonlight which we had been using until then). I have done Ambleside years 3, 4, and 5 as well, and we are currently doing the pilot of much of our new guide with our oldest son. So, I have some empathy with where you're coming from.
One other thought I had for finishing out this year would be to do the last 10-12 weeks of Bigger Hearts with your kiddos. Normally, I'd never advise that but since you've already been doing Eggleston, you could pick up with Bigger to finish out your year from around the Civil War (or a bit before it) forward. I'm not sure if you've been using both Eggleston books (both Stories of Great Americans and A First Book in American History), but we use both in Bigger. Much of the last 10-12 weeks in Bigger uses Journeys in Time and The Wright Brothers and Their Sister. We also have a link on our website to a public domain version of "A First Book in American History", which you could use to do the remaining chapters of that book as scheduled in Bigger (or you could purchase it depending on how tight your budget is). So, with the purchase of the Bigger guide, Journeys in Time and The Wright Brothers and Their Sister, you could have a glimpse into how HOD works.
You could also add the Extension Pack for only those last few books which would be By the Great Horn Spoon, Freedom Train, Bud and Me, and Esperanza Rising. Your oldest son could read those to extend his learning (as scheduled in the Appendix). If you wanted to use the science portion to give it a try, you could do the last 10-12 weeks of that as well (only needing A Pioneer Sampler and Thomas Edison from the science package). Then, you could also make use of any other parts of Bigger in thsoe final weeks that you'd like to use. It would give you a feel for how HOD works and help you finish out your American history year for your oldest son.
Anyway, just a thought.
Blessings,
Carrie
I'll pray for you this evening too to have direction and clarity from the Lord on His plan for your schooling. I know what you mean about reading great books but not really interacting with them. That is where I was at with my oldest when he was in third grade, and we began making more of a switch in his learning to a more CM-style education (from Sonlight which we had been using until then). I have done Ambleside years 3, 4, and 5 as well, and we are currently doing the pilot of much of our new guide with our oldest son. So, I have some empathy with where you're coming from.
One other thought I had for finishing out this year would be to do the last 10-12 weeks of Bigger Hearts with your kiddos. Normally, I'd never advise that but since you've already been doing Eggleston, you could pick up with Bigger to finish out your year from around the Civil War (or a bit before it) forward. I'm not sure if you've been using both Eggleston books (both Stories of Great Americans and A First Book in American History), but we use both in Bigger. Much of the last 10-12 weeks in Bigger uses Journeys in Time and The Wright Brothers and Their Sister. We also have a link on our website to a public domain version of "A First Book in American History", which you could use to do the remaining chapters of that book as scheduled in Bigger (or you could purchase it depending on how tight your budget is).
So, with the purchase of the Bigger guide, Journeys in Time and The Wright Brothers and Their Sister, you could have a glimpse into how HOD works.You could also add the Extension Pack for only those last few books which would be By the Great Horn Spoon, Freedom Train, Bud and Me, and Esperanza Rising. Your oldest son could read those to extend his learning (as scheduled in the Appendix). If you wanted to use the science portion to give it a try, you could do the last 10-12 weeks of that as well (only needing A Pioneer Sampler and Thomas Edison from the science package). Then, you could also make use of any other parts of Bigger in thsoe final weeks that you'd like to use. It would give you a feel for how HOD works and help you finish out your American history year for your oldest son.
Anyway, just a thought.
Blessings,
Carrie
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Carrie,
Thank you so much for your response. I'm so humbled and thankful for your time in prayer on my behalf. Thanks for showing me what I would need if I chose to finish out our year with Bigger. I wondered if that would be a good option - and I can see that it would work well. The other thing I'm considering is starting my ker and 1st with Beyond as it may be a better match with various skills, including listening skills. My oldest would listen to ambleside books for hours and beg for more, but it's taking me awhile to realize that my current 1st grade ds is more mathy. He has enjoyed a few of AO's Yr1 recommendations, but he would gladly settle for Katy and the Big Snow on a daily basis. If I finished the year with Bigger with him now, he would have nowhere to go except Preparing which he might not be ready for. But if we did Beyond now and Bigger a year later, the small amount of repeat with the Eggleston book (and we've only used one of them) would just seem familiar and not repetitive. So, I'm thinking Beyond might be a better fit. My oldest could continue as he is - listening to SOTW and DW on cd and reading various books on the side. I think when he sees how much fun they have in Beyond, he might start asking when he gets an HOD package for himself! At any rate, I still have the option of starting him in Preparing or waiting for your new Ancients package in the fall or even just using DITHOR to give his reading more structure. (We plan to do some school during the summer, and then take a break when dh takes time off from work before his deployment to Iraq sometime in the fall - so I'm not particularly worried that we start new material in August per se).
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you again and let you know what my current thoughts are (probably deciding between finishing Bigger or starting Beyond, with the possibility of Preparing for my oldest). I appreciate your help very much!
Thanks,
Lynn
Thank you so much for your response. I'm so humbled and thankful for your time in prayer on my behalf. Thanks for showing me what I would need if I chose to finish out our year with Bigger. I wondered if that would be a good option - and I can see that it would work well. The other thing I'm considering is starting my ker and 1st with Beyond as it may be a better match with various skills, including listening skills. My oldest would listen to ambleside books for hours and beg for more, but it's taking me awhile to realize that my current 1st grade ds is more mathy. He has enjoyed a few of AO's Yr1 recommendations, but he would gladly settle for Katy and the Big Snow on a daily basis. If I finished the year with Bigger with him now, he would have nowhere to go except Preparing which he might not be ready for. But if we did Beyond now and Bigger a year later, the small amount of repeat with the Eggleston book (and we've only used one of them) would just seem familiar and not repetitive. So, I'm thinking Beyond might be a better fit. My oldest could continue as he is - listening to SOTW and DW on cd and reading various books on the side. I think when he sees how much fun they have in Beyond, he might start asking when he gets an HOD package for himself!
At any rate, I still have the option of starting him in Preparing or waiting for your new Ancients package in the fall or even just using DITHOR to give his reading more structure. (We plan to do some school during the summer, and then take a break when dh takes time off from work before his deployment to Iraq sometime in the fall - so I'm not particularly worried that we start new material in August per se). Anyway, I just wanted to thank you again and let you know what my current thoughts are (probably deciding between finishing Bigger or starting Beyond, with the possibility of Preparing for my oldest). I appreciate your help very much!
Thanks,
Lynn
Married 19 years to Dh, Detective and Army Reservist: 1 tour in Iraq, 1 tour in Afghanistan
ds 12.5 (7th grade) RevtoRev
ds 9.5 (4th grade) Preparing
dd 8 (3rd grade) Beyond
ds 6 (K/1st grade) Beyond
dd 3
ds 12.5 (7th grade) RevtoRev
ds 9.5 (4th grade) Preparing
dd 8 (3rd grade) Beyond
ds 6 (K/1st grade) Beyond
dd 3
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Hi Lynn! I just wanted to welcome you to the HOD boards and let you know I prayed for you in your HOD decision. I can see the benefits of both decisions you are weighing. We are currently doing Beyond and Preparing (with DITHOR) now. We started in August, so we're more than half of the way through. We are really enjoying our year so much. We did Bigger last year (with DITHOR, and also with LHFHG), and enjoyed that year too. Last year I had a lot of doctor's appointments for my baby, some health issues, and my dh traveled a lot. Anyway, HOD made it possible for me still to get school done. It became my favorite part of the day (right up there with catching up on some zzzzz's whenever I could ). Now, this year has been wonderful as we are healthy and doing better. I think you'd be happy with either choice. If I were you, I'd really take the time to go over the Placement Chart. It is accurate and doesn't take too long to do. (Be sure to read its opening paragraph). Here's a link to that:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
Only you can know how best to combine your dc. It has been my experience that when everything has to be tweaked so much that the program loses its connections, than it is better just to do separate programs and not combine. God will guide you in your decision - we'll continue to be in prayer for you. Keep posting - you will find peace with your decision eventually.
In Christ,
Julie
Anyway, HOD made it possible for me still to get school done. It became my favorite part of the day (right up there with catching up on some zzzzz's whenever I could ). Now, this year has been wonderful as we are healthy and doing better. I think you'd be happy with either choice. If I were you, I'd really take the time to go over the Placement Chart. It is accurate and doesn't take too long to do. (Be sure to read its opening paragraph). Here's a link to that:http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
Only you can know how best to combine your dc. It has been my experience that when everything has to be tweaked so much that the program loses its connections, than it is better just to do separate programs and not combine. God will guide you in your decision - we'll continue to be in prayer for you. Keep posting - you will find peace with your decision eventually.
In Christ,
Julie
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Lynn,
I just wanted to encourage you too that if you do decide to do 2 programs it is very do-able. We do 3 programs at our house currently, and it still is manageable and enjoyable. We'll pray for peace in your decision.
Blessings,
Carrie
I just wanted to encourage you too that if you do decide to do 2 programs it is very do-able. We do 3 programs at our house currently, and it still is manageable and enjoyable.
We'll pray for peace in your decision.Blessings,
Carrie
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Carrie and Julie, Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. I went back to the placement chart (even though I had looked at it before) with a fresh mind (i.e. reading the instruction paragraph this time ) and saw the confirmation I needed that Beyond would really fit both my Ker and 1st grader really well. So, I ordered it! What a blessing to make a decision and know I will sleep well on it tonight! As for my older, I will wait and see. I want to give myself time to get used to Beyond and I can let my oldest ds continue as is. Then after we get in the "groove" with Beyond I can better determine what is best for him.
Just wanted to share my decision with you, thanking you for your prayers and for God's faithfulness. Thanks so much!!!
Lynn
) and saw the confirmation I needed that Beyond would really fit both my Ker and 1st grader really well. So, I ordered it! What a blessing to make a decision and know I will sleep well on it tonight! As for my older, I will wait and see. I want to give myself time to get used to Beyond and I can let my oldest ds continue as is. Then after we get in the "groove" with Beyond I can better determine what is best for him.Just wanted to share my decision with you, thanking you for your prayers and for God's faithfulness. Thanks so much!!!
Lynn
Married 19 years to Dh, Detective and Army Reservist: 1 tour in Iraq, 1 tour in Afghanistan
ds 12.5 (7th grade) RevtoRev
ds 9.5 (4th grade) Preparing
dd 8 (3rd grade) Beyond
ds 6 (K/1st grade) Beyond
dd 3
ds 12.5 (7th grade) RevtoRev
ds 9.5 (4th grade) Preparing
dd 8 (3rd grade) Beyond
ds 6 (K/1st grade) Beyond
dd 3
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
That's great, Lynn! I'm so glad for you - and I can't wait for you to get Beyond in the mail! Isn't God good? He can give us peace with our decisions like no one else can. You are going to love Beyond - and have your ds in the back of your mind after you finish your other things for him out too - I think he'd enjoy HOD as well.
In Christ,
Julie
Isn't God good? He can give us peace with our decisions like no one else can. You are going to love Beyond - and have your ds in the back of your mind after you finish your other things for him out too - I think he'd enjoy HOD as well. In Christ,
Julie
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie
Re: How much of Preparing could youngers do?
Oh Lynn, I'm so glad that you've gotten a chance to work through what will be best for your little sweeties. I know what you mean about being able to sleep better once the decision's made! Maybe my hubby and boys are packing your order right now!
Blessings,
Carrie
I know what you mean about being able to sleep better once the decision's made! Maybe my hubby and boys are packing your order right now! Blessings,
Carrie