General Question about Preparing Hearts and Hearts for Him

[patekake]

I am new here and this is my first time on any message board, but I have a general question. I have homeschooled for a total of nine years but now only have one 11 year old at home. Basically, we have always used a textbook approach by reading and answering questions. My daughter is not really fond of history and often complains about it. However, I noticed that when she reads a biography or historical fiction, she is excited about it and retains the information. My daughter is extremely advanced in language arts and can read very well.
I will also say that I was an honor student in school but only memorized for tests. History was my least favorite subject too, therefore, I am not confident in what I teach unless I have answers for questions.
My question may be silly, but are there answers to the discussion questions that I would be asking her? I love the way that Heart of Dakota curriculum is set up, but I am fearful that I will not be able to answer her questions. We now do very little hands-on activities and I think that she would really enjoy that part of the curriculum.
Thanks,
Patti

[Mom2Monkeys]

I will also say that I was an honor student in school but only memorized for tests. History was my least favorite subject too, therefore, I am not confident in what I teach unless I have answers for questions.

I can relate to this for sure! I, too, was an honor student...then I flunked out of college b/c you can't get by without KNOWING the info! LOL. I memorized for tests and then forgot it all...I want to encourage you that you would do great with HOD. I had the same fear (and never really liked history either), but if I don't know the answer, I can look it up rather quickly and we're all fine I also want to encourage you that HOD would be a great thing for you both, considering the fact that your daughter is likely doign just as you did-- read, test, forget. With HOD, you could help her change that and let her see a love of learning is possible! And beneficial b/c she'll learn and retain so much more!

I've been teaching history in Beyond to my 2nd grader and I have learned so much! More than I ever did in high school and college! I know you'll love it and I know you can do it. I'm am really loving it all! I've done parts of LHTH and all of Beyond, just started LHFHG and Bigger...so I can assure you HOD is incredible!

[9hillbillies:)]

Hi Patti and WELCOME:) I too am fairly new and don't actually have the manual yet...but will soon:) So i'm not sure if the discussion ??s have answers or not, but i do know, as i've looked online at the week at a glance, there is a key thought for most things~i think that is great! Also, if there are not 'answers' for the discussion ???, 2 thought come to mind~first~there could be many different answers to each ?? and second~if you are unsure, you can always post your ?? and see what others think and say! Carrie, the wonderful creator of HOD is BRILLIANT and MOST helpful! Anytime i have had a ??, she takes TIME for me~~~!!! She really cares about each one of us and is here to help and guide each step of the way, this i guarentee, you won't find elsewhere!! Plus, the ladies on here are SO quick to jump in and give encouragement and support. I think you and your dd will love it here and this will be a blessing above what you can imagine:)
We are glad you are here~~~when you ask a ?? it gets answered pretty fast!:)
Welcome my friend:)
angie

[9hillbillies:)]

I forgot to add something...are you trying to decide between Preparing and Heats for Him? With having an 11 year old, i personally would start w/the Preparing. First, it has absolutely the best book package, in my little opion:) Plus it is a foundation (as you can read about it under the particular manual) in which, as Carrie says~the mental pegs are laid to build upon. It is an overview which i think would be helpful for the next years in-dept study:)
Just my 1cent worth:) I'm sure others will be glad to help you and encourage you as well:) !!!
Enjoy~
angie

[Jessi]

Patti- Welcome to HOD! Please do not let something like a dislike of history stop you from enjoying something truly wonderful like HOD. Look at it this way.... you are learning to love history for the first time ALONG with your daughter! How cool is that? And I promise that with living books your daughter and you will find something wonderful in HOD. It is great that you noticed how your daughter responded to biographies and historical fiction. I takes great courage to step out in faith willing to try something new.

As to the discussion questions: Like others have said, there are main ideas (key ideas) in the manual so you can make sure you are staying on task. You daughter needs to know that you don't "always" have the answers but are willing to find out what the answers are. It teaches her to research and how to go about finding the answers to questions on her own. If all we do is answer them when asked they have missed out on a vital part of learning...the willingness, desire, and diligence to discover on their own. So with her being 11, I'd encourage her to find the answers and you model how to do that (i.e. library, internet, museums, etc) I say that as someone who went through school being spoonfed a lot of answers and I never really had to work for it. It made me lazy. I was a good student but if I didn't know it, I figured it wasn't worth knowing about. Does that make sense? (btw- this is a former public school teacher speaking from experience and how I regret spoon feeding my students just to move on to the next task)

Anyway, I am sure others will come along to answer the questions specifically as I haven't used the older guides.

Glad you are here!!! Please be encouraged. No matter what you do, you are investing in your child and she is all the better for it. Bless you!

[patekake]

Thank you ladies! I appreciate your input. I must say that I am impressed to get answers so quickly. I am really looking forward to a great school year with HOD!.
Patti

[Carrie]

Patti,

I wanted to welcome you to the boards! The ladies are doing a terrific job of answering your questions. Aren't the ladies wonderful?

We don't have the answers to the discussion questions in the guide because you'll be doing the readings with the kiddos, so you'll know the answers from the readings. We also keep our readings purposefully short, so you won't be paging through the text trying to find the answers. It will be right within the short reading you've done that day. It's a whole different way of learning.

Blessings,
Carrie

[MainelyJen]

Welcome!

I just wanted to share a little about how this is working out on a daily basis with my son, age 12. We have completed 3 weeks of Preparing Hearts. My son is also a strong reader, and could do all the reading assignments independently. The key is to remember that not all of the reading assignments should be done independently. In the course of the day, his science, independent history study (includes some of the books, such as The Young Christian's Introduction to the Bible, Lief the Lucky, Mozart the Wonder Boy, etc.) and extension readings are read on his own. You might occasionally be asking for an oral narration from one of these sources, such as the science, because it is assigned in the plans. You may want to ask for an oral narration from the extension books at times.

Discussion questions and writing prompts are usually given for assigned history pages that the two of you will have read aloud together. In this way, you'll have the information and know what the key points are yourself. Because there is such a nice balance in the program of daily expectations with independent/dependent work, it isn't overwhelming at all to do these readings with her. It only takes a few minutes. No need to fear that with HOD she won't be doing any independent work at all. Not so. There will be balance.

The curriculum I used prior to HOD was textbook based. I hadn't planned on doing Preparing Hearts, but was going to wait for Hearts for Him. I'm so glad my son was excited and wanted to try Preparing. What I'm finding is that in Preparing he is doing more writing than he is used to. Instead of just filling in the blanks and matching answers in a text, he is transitioning from oral narration to written, in addition to copying paragraphs in cursive, labeling drawings, answering science questions in full sentences on paper, copying scripture memory verses, and so on. All in addition to his English program, which may also have him working on crafting paragraphs that week as well. He needed this transition year to get used to all the writing - writing, may I add, which requires thinking at the same time! His reading level could have easily handled a higher program, but the rest of his language arts skills needed Preparing Hearts. I've seen amazing progress in just these three weeks - it is so encouraging!

One more Preparing comment, if you don't mind. I can't help but notice that my son is actually sharing little bits of information with extended family about what he's learning. As in, "Hey, grammy. . .did you know that in the Ice Age they were really smart hunters? They would. . ." This level of enthusiasm is a new thing for him. And what a blessing to have his aunt say, "Cave art? No way! You get to do such cool things in your homeschool"; and to have his grandmother say, "I'm so glad you are teaching them that early man was intelligent and created in God's image. They sure don't learn that in public schools today." So, we're very happy with our choice of Preparing. I hope that your choice, whatever it ends up being, works out for your daughter as well!

[patekake]

Thank you so much for your reply. This information really helps. I enjoy reading with my daughter so reading with her is an attraction for the both of us. She was ill yesterday and unable "do school" but still asked me to read to her from an historical fiction that we have been enjoying together. I had never thought about the transition to having to do "more" writing when switching over from a textbook, workbook type of school.
Also, I must say, that I am totally blown away that Carrie took the time to respond to my post. Thank you, Carrie, for your attention.
I look forward to a wonderful year with HOD.
Patti

[my3sons]

I just wanted to welcome you to the HOD board, Patti! We are in Week 28 of PHFHG, and it's been terrific. I was never particularly fond of history either, and I also fit the description you gave of "study for the test and then forget it". That is not how learning should be though! We want more for our dc, and I have also discovered HOD is helping me to love history too. I am amazed at the deep character of some of the people we are studying in history - this is something I never got with the way I learned history. HOD makes history about PEOPLE and their lives - not just about dates and events. I actually can hardly wait to read what's next in our history books (a few times I really wanted to read ahead - but my ds and I promised each other we wouldn't do that , so I didn't give in to temptation). I think you will find the history in PHFHG a breath of fresh air, and your dd is going to love the projects and activities. You will love that they are short, easy to do, and use things in your house. I think you've gotten wise advice about answering questions here already, and I really agree with Jennifer that it's important to do the read-aloud parts you are supposed to do. That makes the discussion so much more meaningful to my ds and I because I really know what we're talking about, and we're both "into it". Be sure to share about your journey with PHFHG with us - it's going to be great.

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Patti,

You're most welcome! Aren't the ladies on the board wonderful about answering questions! They are amazing at encouraging and helping one another.

Blessings,
Carrie