First Day of Preparing

[Polly]

It went pretty well considering that we cut down and cleaned up the mess of four trees before school. We enjoyed it. BUT!!! Wow! It sure is a lot of writing for my 8 yr. old son! Let's see: dictation, Bible verse, science Bible verse, English.... That is a lot of writing!

[water2wine]

Sounds like you had a successful first day. That's a lot to get done! If your little guy is getting overwhelmed with the change in writing level for him maybe you can just have him write half of it written for now and help him with the other half just easing him into the work load. Just an idea to ease him into it. I know some families start off at half pace for the first week or two and that is another option. We are so excited to get started with Preparing. Just some stuff around the house to finish first and we are ready to dive into our year. It looks so wonderful.

[Carrie]

Polly,

It sounds like you're underway! Good for you!

Water2wine gave you some great tips that are very helpful. I'll also mention that we recommend doing much of Rod and Staff orally, having your son only write one small portion on paper each day. That really helps keep the writing for the grammar lesson under control.

As far as copying the Bible verse goes, there should only have been one copywork portion on Day 1, which would be copying the Bible verse for the science notebook. The kiddos aren't assigned to copy the Bible verse that they're memorizing for Bible Study until Day 4. So, you may want to doublecheck that if you get a chance.

Aside from the copywork for the science notebook, the two sentences for dictation, and the grammar lesson there should have been no other copying or writing required on Day 1. Hope that helps! After summer, my boys always think any writing is too much! It's as if their hands have forgotten how to hold a pencil.

Seriously though, in history I can't remember whether it was Charlemagne or King Alfred who tried as an adult to learn to write and never was able to do so. His hands were so rough and stiff from wielding a sword that his fingers never did conform to holding a pencil, no matter how hard the king tried! It is rumored he slept with a slate under his pillow to practice. So, boys have an uphill battle in getting their hands to be pliable enough to write well.

Blessings,
Carrie

[juliekay]

It went pretty well considering that we cut down and cleaned up the mess of four trees before school. We enjoyed it. BUT!!! Wow! It sure is a lot of writing for my 8 yr. old son! Let's see: dictation, Bible verse, science Bible verse, English.... That is a lot of writing!

Dear Polly,

I'm so glad to hear you say that! I agree! AND I am so SO glad that my 8 y.o. has thus far been a real trooper! I actually tried to space things out so that he wasn't writing in Science and then right away again in History. I even had to space out the vocabulary cards to 2 days last week. My older 2 are just fine with it. So, I think this is just a real learning curve year in patience and perseverance for 8 y.o. boys and their Mama's!

[dale1088]

I thought it was a lot too, until I realized that I created more than there needed to be. I am putting the assignments in a spreadsheet for dd so that she can work more independently from her workboxes, so I had her copy over the entire poem, and copy the Bible verse, and write down the definition for a coat of arms, etc. And we didn't even make it to grammar! I plan to take a good look at the schedule I typed up to make sure that I am only assigning what Carrie assigns because I didn't need to add to it - I should have known it was enough! I think I did this in Bigger last year too because pulling my dd from school where she wrote all day, to homeschooling, there didn't seem to be enough. In actuality, there was too much in school because it was so much busywork, not meaningful and purposeful.

[my3sons]

It sounds like you are off to a super start with PHFHG! We did PHFHG, and the writing is done in bite-sized pieces and is rotated among the days of the week. This is a skill that dc grow into throughout the year. It's one of those things that probably shouldn't be easy right at the beginning, or it wouldn't be challenging enough in the middle or the end. I think Amy made an excellent point about not assigning more than was assigned. One vocabulary card (which comes up once a week) is enough to begin with, the easiest level of dictation (which only has a sentence or 2 each day) can be used, the guided written narration (done once a week) should be kept to just 5 sentences, and copied from a markerboard even - things that the plans don't mention having dc write answers to (like research questions, science questions, poetry discussions, etc.) should all be answered only orally. Most ladies do a good portion of R & S English orally about 1/2 to 2/3 too. This cuts down on the writing but maintains the learning. So, long story short, I think you'll find your ds growing into the writing portion. I wouldn't worry about it, but it might be a good idea to rotate between writing and activities throughout the day, as well as utilize a markerboard he can copy from if need be. Those 2 things really made my ds be able to manage the writing well.

In Christ,
Julie