ACK...I keep coming back to HOD, but I need help..

[lovetobehome]

Hi all, I need a talking-to. I have tried HOD in the past, and gave up. Here is the main problem...I have a 9.5 yo and a 7 yo and a 2yo. I have used various curricula over the years...for K we used MFW K, then MFW 1st and MFW 2nd. Then we used Mystery of History 1. In-between, we have tried and used many other things, but basically the ONLY history time period we have covered is ancients, just in several different programs. Aside from a quick American history basics year with MFW Adventures (2). I feel we have covered this time period ad nauseum. We used Mystery of History, we used MFW, we also did some with Tapestry of Grace and probably some other things I am not remembering. My point is, we have done NOTHING but creation-rome, over and over again. It's like Groundhog Day! I want very much to continue chronologically through history. We are 14 lessons into Mystery of History 2, and enjoying a new period of history. But....I do miss HOD and how everything is tied together well, and the added bonuses in it that I never get done on my own (putting together my own schedule).
We tried Preparing for part of last year, but I was finding the science and history readings were not enough for us...we just enjoy reading more, and my kids were frustrated to just read ONE page of the One Sm Square books each day. My son read the whole book in about 20 minutes (and, retains it to this day, months later). Same with history, we all wanted more, more, more. We wanted the freedom to keep going, but since it is all tied together, that doesn't work. So....we sold it and moved on. So, my question is, should we try the next year, Hearts For Him? It will be the same old time period we have studied 3 or 4 times. Will I ever get past ancients? Will Hearts for Him give us more in history and science readings so we will be satisfied? Or should I try to do Preparing again, and at least have a historical overview of a long period of history (not just creation-Rome). If I do Preparing again now, Iwill also use Mystery of History 2 (covers Early Church and the Middle Ages) with it, just because I think that would work for us, give us more....even though the time periods don't match up. whatever I do, I KNOW next year I will almost certainly do the new HOD program. So either I do Preparing now along with MOH 2 and follow it with the new one, or skip Preparing and do Hearts for Him followed by the new one. I know this is not the recommended sequence, but I KNOW I will not be able to put off for another year the history chronology.
Help. I just never can stick with a plan, and I really need to.
I am excited that the NEXT year of HOD, Carrie will schedule in Mystery of History 3, so I can combine them both!

I should note, my 9.5 yo is an avid reader, tests well above grade level in all subjects...pretty much 99th percentile across the board. I say this to let you know what sort of workload I think he is capable of handling. He reads very advanced books for fun (constantly), he writes his own history summaries beautifully and thoroughly. His comprehension is not a problem in any area. I think he would have no problem with the amount of work in either level. He is used to doing a lot, and works diligently and mostly independently. He has always been 'gifted' and advanced. Maybe this helps with the puzzle. Maybe not.

[sharonb]

You could try Preparing again, but read ALL of the books in all of the packages if you want to! We haven't gotten to that point yet, since we are just in Beyond, but when I look at Preparing's page, I think, "wow, that's a lot of books!". It sure seems like there's plenty there to keep you busy.

[Tmisek]

Hi! I am no expert here, and really have no advice on the repeating ancients problem. Have you looked at the extension package with Preparing? That adds more material to the history and science and would give your son more reading in his areas of interest...and at a more advanced level since it is geared toward older students. That's all I have, but I hope someone is able to give you more helpful advice!

[lovetobehome]

Thanks to you both...we did have the extension pkg before. I recall *I* did not have enough time to read all those books aloud, but my son could read them independently. Or dad can read some at bedtime, he just read them the Bronze Bow, what a great book! I guess I felt like 'history' time and 'science' time were too brief...needed more meat. But, maybe I need to consider all the extra reading 'history' time, too.
Going to browse some more...I welcome anyone's opinion!

[Tree House Academy]

What is drawing you back to HOD? Do you feel that God is leading you here? If so, then perhaps History and Science are not the only reason he is pulling you in this direction. I know, for me, I can leave the board here for a day or two and feel myself drawn back. If my children have to miss a day of school with HOD, I am excited to get back to work with them. The smoothest part of our days is the work with do with HOD.

My older son is 10 and he is doing Bigger this year. He loves to read, but he is absolutely fine with chunks. He has enough *other* subjects to keep him busy. His math takes time, as does his English. He reads books for Extensions, DITHR, and his English (CLE) in addition to all of the HIstory and Science readings. HIs weakness is writing (summaries and spelling issues), so we tend to focus there a bit. His days are wonderfully full with the other subjects and the chunks of History and Science he does are plenty just to round out the day and not overwhelm. In ps, my ds tested in the 99th% on his standardized tests too. We are doing Bigger because I wanted Am History this year. Next year we may go right on to CTC (we have already done the one year overview with CHOW) or we may stay back in Preparing with extensions because it is so wonderful!

I guess my advice would be to try Hearts for Him Through Time, use the extensions if you think it is not enough for your ds (reading wise), and then just add more extras if needed. For instance, if he is reading about a certain history topic, you can always go to the library and check out other books on that time period. If the "bite sized" portion is not enough for him, let him dive into a chapter book about one specific person or event from that time period.

The only thing in your post that concerned me was that you have done Ancients 3-4 times. Wow. If you ds retains all of that, then no matter what you do, it may be boring for him to do ancients AGAIN. That is my only reserve.

[Tree House Academy]

Thanks to you both...we did have the extension pkg before. I recall *I* did not have enough time to read all those books aloud, but my son could read them independently. Or dad can read some at bedtime, he just read them the Bronze Bow, what a great book! I guess I felt like 'history' time and 'science' time were too brief...needed more meat. But, maybe I need to consider all the extra reading 'history' time, too.
Going to browse some more...I welcome anyone's opinion!

The extensions are meant for him to do alone. He should follow up with a summary two days a week, a narration two days a week, and a picture one day a week (at least that is the scenario in Bigger Hearts). Not only that, but my ds also does the questions at the end of the chapter in the Science text that is part of the extensions. Trust me...it is VERY full when you add in the extras.

[mansmom]

When we first started HOD...I felt like the history and science wasn't "enough," too short for this to really be working...I thought ...but with HOD, I had to learn to remember that it is Charlotte Mason at its core....short, sweet, time to still be kids and to have fun...so yes, it is short and brief...but it's meant to be. That took me some time, but I get it now and I know that Charlotte Mason style is what we want for our homeschooling family and it works for us.

[Daisy]

I actually prefer the short history/science lessons that happen daily. It gives us time to "fall in love" with a book. Sure my son could blast through the Small Square: Seashore book in a day and remember much of it, but this way is so much more enjoyable. We read about 2 pages a day, chit-chat, explore, go on rabbit trails, etc.

For example, today, Ryan read about rocky seashores. That reminded him of our last trip to the beach. We pulled out the pictures. He re-experienced the entire trip. That reminded him of the seashore nature guide we have. He went and got that out and started reading it, verbally reminding me of all the things he had already learned in Small Square that were reemphasized in the nature guide.

Today he traced, on his map, Cabot's journey. He had to stop and think back to the story and recall it. Much harder to do over a long weekend then if we had done all of history in just one day of the week. I was thrilled at what he could remember. After he was done with that and his timeline he remembered the library book he had checked out on Cabot so he went and looked at that for a while. He chit-chatted gaily away telling his sister every interesting thing in the book.

If all of history & science were crammed into one day or if it was too time consuming, we'd never pursue those rabbit trails and spontaneous activities that let a child use their own reasoning, interests, connections, and imagination to learn.

I can't really be of help to you in your decision. I will say that picking something and sticking to it for an entire year will be beneficial to all of you. There is nothing more motivating and exciting then the knowledge that your family completed something together.

[lovetobehome]

Yes, I can see the wisdom in the CM style, maybe I just wasn't fully appreciating that at the time. I wonder if I can appreciate it more this time? LOL. Looking forward to hearing Carrie's wisdom, too! I see she is online, so I am stalking!

[lovetobehome]

Meant to say also, yes, my main thought here is doing the same time period AGAIN. If I do Preparing, at least I go through it quickly! But if I do CTC, I feel like it would be a better fit for him (and we have already read a good chunk of CHOW, all of these books: Life in Great Ice Age, OSS Tundra, OSS Desert, Great Dino Mystery, Columbus, True Story of Noah's Ark, Flavius, Draw and Write Through HIstory, Leif the Lucky, Minstrel in Tower, Little Miriam, Trojan Horse, Bronze Bow, Uncovering Mysterious Woolly Mammoth, Aesop, Twenty and Ten....)

[lovetobehome]

At this point, I am thinking I will probably get Hearts for Him, and not use the history. I know a lot of other things are tied into the history, but I am thinking I can keep using MOH 2 for history, and use science, Bible, art, etc from HfH. I thought we could even do the history projects, even though they won't tie in with what we are currently reading, they will provide a fun way of looking back at the ancient time period. I will have to actually look at the TM to know how much we could use. But, this would position us to do the newest one NEXT year (using MOH 3). Even if some of it is review from what we are doing in history now, that will be OK because it will only be the SECOND time of looking at that time period. (I think there is overlap when I switch from MOH 2 into HOD RTR or whatever it is going to be called). Maybe this will enable us to get back into HOD this year, but not go over ancients again. What do you think?

[Carrie]

lovetobehome,

I'm so glad that we got a chance to visit by phone today! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm thinking that going through Preparing Hearts will enable you to keep your daughter along with you much better and will help make sure that she's not dragging behind your son (as would be likely in CTC).

I do think that you can keep much of what you're loving by doing your MOH and any additional science on Day 5 of each week and possibly in the afternoon on another day of the week too, as time allows. There's many wonderful extras in Preparing Hearts that you will be able to savor as you go through the year that will really add a whole different dimension to the spines that are scheduled in Preparing Hearts too.

It sounds like your son would do well in the Extension Pack and that since your daughter isn't quite at the reading level for the Deluxe Package (since she's on the young side), you could work a combination from the Basic Package and Deluxe Package to make a set of read-alouds that would be fresh and new for your family.

With our own kiddos, we honestly keep the books for our HOD programs on the main level of our house in a separate cabinet that they're not to get into except during school. Our boys are avid readers, so their rooms are filled with other great books that they can consume as fast as desired in their free time.

I'll pray for peace for you within whatever decision you make, as I am a born researcher too and know it can sometimes steal your contentment.

Blessings,
Carrie

[DHT1999]

Have you considered Biggers with the Extensions for your older child? I think that would be a good option for you. When we first decided to try HOD, I purchased Biggers with all the extras with the intent to combine my sons. There are ALOT of books when you get everything. I love those Extension books. It would be a different time period, so that would be a plus. It may be that it being kind of light (if you find that it is) may be a good thing... just work the plan, stay on schedule even when you want to read the books quicker... then, you would begin to see if the benefits of the CM style are a blessing to you. You could just go through their school books slowly for "school" but Biggers is so rich, you would find plenty of rabbit trails to go down. You would have the time and energy to read extras if you want to and those could be done at your own pace. Your public library would have lots of books on that time period, I bet. There is so much content there. I bet you would have no problem thinking of research projects for your oldest, you could assign additional reports, add an activity every once in awhile... it's just a very easy time period to find supplemental materials and activities for.

We are doing Preparing but we are also interested in studying the early Modern Times, so we are reading a long book on that time period in the evenings. We aren't doing activities or adding books to it. Just reading one lengthy book. You may consider doing something like that with MOH if you don't want to drop it all together.

[lovetobehome]

That is a good idea, and I have been considering doing just that! But the MOH I am using currently is a different time period...but I still am considering it! THANKS! I actually bought Bigger used and am waiting for it to arrive!