1. I am not going to give up Classical Writing, picture study, Shakespeare, Plutarch, or Latin. Will I have ample time to include these in my day?
2. Is there any reason why I can't substitute for some of the History Read-Alouds & Self-Study books? I have a lot of history books already so if I could substitute rather than buying more books that would be great!! If it is ok to substitute, does Preparing have any recommended books that you all consider to be "can't miss"? (I am planning to purchase Draw & Write Through History.)
3. I own lots of science books. We're finishing up Jeannie Fulbright's book on the ocean this year. For future years, I have Ann Voskamp's A Child's Geography, Fulbright's Astronomy book, a host of chemistry resources & a bunch of experiment books. Based on the samples, it appears that science should only take a few minutes each day. Is that correct? If it is, I am thinking that I could do other science on the 5th day or in a block in the afternoon. Does that sound doable?
4. I already have Teaching the Classics, Deconstructing Penguins, & How to Read a Book. Do I actually really *need* Drawn into the Heart of Reading? I asked about this on another board & the impression I'm getting is that the student book contains lots of worksheets. I always loathed worksheets for reading & having to fill them out just made me read badly since I'd jump around until I got all the info I needed to fill in the boxes.
Thank you so much for any help!!
I will tell you that we LOVE HOD!! I have loved all of Carrie's book choices so far. I'm not sure what substituting in the history area would do to the program. I'm thinking that the books in the economy package are the backbone of the program, so you'll want those. I know that there are moms who opt not to do HOD's science. (It's my son's favorite part of the day though. 
) I also know that choosing your own read-alouds or using one from the list of reccommended titles in the appendix of Beyond and Bigger works wonderfully (as long as you pick one from the apprepriate genre to match the plans). In Preparing, the read-alouds are meant to coordinate with the history, so you might lose something if you switch those. 
But, seriously, they are made to work with ANY book of any given genre, so they are NOT fill in the blank, one-right-answer things. I'm using the level 2/3 book this year, and all of the pages in the book deal with story elements and character qualities. Each genre has one "character quality" page. (For example during the biography genre, you're focusing on the character quality responsibility and dilligence. During the genre historical fiction, you'll be focusing on faith and perseverance. On day 9 of your study there, you'll read about Noah in the Bible, and the child gives examples of how Noah showed faith and perseverance. Then, after your child reads from her book for the day, you'll give examples of how the main character showed faith - or unbelief - and perseverance - or giving up.) As another example, one of the pages for the adventure genre had my son pick 8 improtant words from his book as a prereading activity. Then we had to put the words in the appropriate box of setting, character, mood, problem, or solution based on what the word was. The word, "Florida" was talking about the setting. The word, "fish hook" was part of the problem, etc.
