Bethany, we are so glad you are excited about all of the new and amazing resources Carrie has chosen! Her plans for them are equally wonderful - I so wish I had a little one to homeschool, so I too could enjoy the new resources and plans! She is currently hard at work writing, but I'd be happy to answer your questions...
Yes, the main benefit of getting the
Map Trek Atlas (full-color, one per family) and the
Map Trek Outlines (consumable - one for each child, or copyright says you can reproduce it for you family) is you don't have to print all of the maps yourself. Another benefit is you don't have to worry about the CD getting scratched/not working for some reason the next time you go to print (Carrie and I have 7 boys between us, so we've had our own share of scratched CDs). The new
Map Trek Atlas and
Map Trek Outlines are part of the updated RTR and RevtoRev guides' plans. They will eventually be part of the MTMM plans, but not until that guide is reprinted and our CD inventory is gone. The MTMM guide that utilizes the CDs states the name of each of the maps in the plans though, so I think it would work fine to use the new resources anyway. So, these two resources could be utilized for RTR, RevtoRev, and MTMM - and no more standing over the copier and compiling them anymore. Carrie and I decided we would have loved them!!!
The new composer study will not contain the lapbook, though I am glad to hear your son is enjoying it! Since you already own it, you certainly could have your next children use it, following the MTMM plans you already have! We enjoyed it too, but we found the lapbook very time consuming and somewhat cumbersome to put together. We heard this from a fair share of other families as well. So, we wanted the new composer study to be less prep, more independent, and truly a celebration of beautiful music!
Writing... ahhh. Carrie and I could 'write' volumes on that!
For now, I will just say we felt it was time for a change. New writing resources that are excellent became available, and Carrie loved them! Families using
Writing and Rhetoric in CTC (which was the first change Carrie made) loved that change. As far as MTMM, we loved the idea of a boy and a girl option, as teens tend to enjoy writing about topics they can best relate to, and boys and girls are often quite different in that regard! Also, Carrie just immediately loved Writer's Gold Mine and Writer's Roundup. Something totally new that was done well! Here is a link to another post I just made explaining the other guides' writing changes...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18291
I hope this helps answer your questions! Thank you, Bethany, for all the years you have homeschooled your kiddos with HOD! You are such a blessing to us, and we thank the Lord for His leading you to HOD!!! We have loved interacting with you and your family and consider it an honor that you have invited HOD into your home for 'school' these many years. May the Lord richly bless you and your family!!!
In Christ,
Julie
