What is the point of hyper focusing on a cycle of history if you really have no idea of how it fits into the big picture. I mean are you really supposed to wait four years to figure out how it all comes together and then be able to assimilate all that information? 
Besides the history aspect of Preparing there is more going on in this guide. It is really the guide where devotion and Bible study becomes personal. They learn to have their their own prayer and reflection. Still with guidance but it builds a foundation for the future.
And they start to learn to apply some independent learning and studying skills. The guide still is very much done together but it is wonderful to see them learning how to also have some independence in their learning. This is the HOD guide where I really saw my children learn to start researching their interests. The guide just naturally leads them that way and it naturally flows to other areas of life. My son is very interesting in racing and in this guide he began to learn how to research his racing passion. Now we are beginning RTR with him and he knows enough physics because it applies racing that my daughter goes to him from time to time for help with her high school intro to physics course. 
To me that is just amazing. It is not because he is some kind of genius it is just because of the skills he learned starting in Preparing that showed him how to find out more and apply it to what he is interested in ultimately. Preparing really is not just the foundation for learning the history cycle. It really is the foundation for learning how to love to learn on your own and how it all comes together. We are going to be doing Preparing again with three more of our children. We just can't wait.