What next?

[SMiles]

Ok, so this may be a bit premature, but I have been thinking about our next guide. My dd 9 and ds 11 (both have fall birthdays) and I have been doing CTC which we are loving. A few years back we did Beyond together and loved that. Both kids are doing well in CTC. They are doing their own R & S levels and math levels. My younger is doing spelling from R & S as well.
So my thought is to just continue on with each guide as they come out and we are ready (we are a bit behind right now). But my ds is very laid back and I wonder sometimes if doing more of the independent boxes would benefit him. But then what to do with my dd? I could put her back in Preparing, but she does not need to go back due to not getting the material. She is understanding and participating in any and all discussions. At this point we are doing everything together which I love because we find ourselves talking about the lessons we are learning all the time. Maybe I should just continue and expect more from my son. He is a strong reader and loves to write about things he chooses. I am just starting to implement Write with the Best so maybe that will steer him to a more take charge attitude. I just read a post from Carrie about having her son write more and the requirements he has had since he was in 3rd, I think.
Maybe some of you have similar experiences or thoughts that you would care to share with me. I am not unhappy, just wondering if I should up his work in some way.

Thanks for your thoughts,
Sherry

[my3sons]

I'm glad you have had a great year with CTC! We did too. We just finished a few weeks ago, and are looking forward to RTR. I am wondering if your dd is able to do the "I" boxes independently? I do think it is important for dc to either do the "I" boxes independently, or to be steadily moving in that direction. CM said dc should be independently reading their history and science by the age of 9, unless they had reading difficulties, in which case reading should be worked on until they can read it independently successfully. This helps with comprehension, retention, and narrating ability. If dd is not near being able to do the boxes independently, it may be worthwhile to have her do PHFHG and have older ds do RTR. I cannot imagine doing all of the RTR reading out loud - that would be quite a lot to do. If she is able to do the reading, then you could easily have them rotate using the books so they can both be able to do the work independently. Then, you could meet together for the discussion portions. What do you think about all this? I'd love to hear your thoughts on your dd and independent work, so we can chat more about ideas.

In Christ,
Julie

[SMiles]

Thanks Julie for responding. No, my dd is one of those varied interest girls who has taken her time with phonics and is now into that "getting the fluency" stage. She does well in reading, but is not where I think she should be for her age in fluency. She does not have any learning difficulties so PTL we don't have that to work though, but she has 20 ideas a minute and had decided that she was not good at reading when she was little so I took it slow. She is very creative and articulate. They love audio books and listen to them all the time. I have not really had either dc doing the independent boxes on their own. I believe my ds could do them, but since we were doing the program together, I have not had him do it. Does that give you more of a picture of where she is at now? The two reasons I hesitate to put her back in Preparing is because I am not sure how she would take World History again (She is the type to realize it is WH again.) and I would like to do the materials together.
Thanks for chiming in. I always appreciate your advice because I know you are right there working with Carrie.

Sherry

[my3sons]

Thanks for sharing here! This is a tough one to answer, and I've actually been pondering it and praying about it for a bit here. It is wonderful that you enjoy doing your 2 dc together, and you've had such a happy time homeschooling that way, that it seems logical to continue doing so. But, when I think of RTR being read aloud, this would be a lot of reading - even more so than CTC, and this will only continue. Not to mention, dc do need to start doing independent reading and work at these ages, especially your oldest, which seems difficult as your youngest isn't ready for that. I know you know all of this, I'm just thinking out loud here and weighing each side of the coin. If you continued with the 2 of them together in RTR, you could have the goal in mind that they need to move toward independence so by the end of the year they are doing pretty much all that should be done independently, independently. This will be important with moving forward in the guides together. I wonder if you could ease your dc into this by having your oldest do the science in RTR independently, and your dd do the science from PHFHG independently? HOD has dc do the science independently as a stepping stone to doing the history independently, so this would make sense to do first. This would be easier on dd and a good intro. to independent work. It would also let your older child get used to doing independent work too. You could have them independently alternate doing the research, Independent History Study, and Bible Quiet Time as well, knowing you may have to hop in and help dd with some of the research.

The Storytime could still be read out loud, and I guess the Reading about History box could be as well, but an overreaching goal for the year would be for your dd to use DITHOR to continue strengthening her reading skills so that by the guide after RTR, she could hopefully take over the reading herself, which would equip your ds to do so too. The other option would be to separate the 2 of them, with your oldest doing RTR and your younger doing PHFHG. This would fit each of their individual needs better, but may not be the best choice if combining has been such a good fit thus far. One good thing about having the PHFHG guide to do the PHFHG science with dd would be you could see it and weigh whether at any point it was just better to have dd do that instead. I know this isn't a set answer, but I just wanted to try to think through this with you. I have prayed for you in this decision, and I know you are doing the same - so I know the Lord will help you with this decision as He is always faithful.

In Christ,
Julie

[SMiles]

Julie,
Thanks so much for thinking and praying through this with me. I know that the Lord will give direction. I do value and appreciate your insight from someone who has been doing the HOD programs for years. I did have one more question in regards to this and maybe you can answer. We did Beyond a couple years back and to be honest, we were on furlough and my mom also passed away so we did not move too fast. When I checked out the next two levels of HOD, I hesitated because I did not want to redo US History and for Preparing I was leery of CHOW (I have since researched it and found out much more about it. I just helped my friend get into HOD with PHFHG). So now with us doing CTC (World History), I wonder if going back to doing World History in PHFHG isn't going to be overkill. I know that these guides have been extensively researched and prayerfully written and I do wish I had found HOD earlier in our homeschooling life, but I am just wondering how much overlap DD and I will experience in Preparing. Since you have used both, can you give me an idea of what to expect?

Thanks again for all your help,
Sherry

[my3sons]

We had read CHOW a few years before doing PHFHG, and when we reread it for PHFHG it was completely different. Because of CHOW being paired with "Grandpa's Box", the connections really hit home. CM often talks about giving dc "hooks" on which to "hang" history. I felt like PHFHG, since it was a 1 year sweep of history, gave the backdrop for hanging the "hooks" of the 4 year history cycle that follows. PHFHG was the landscape of history, that helped my ds have the hooks to hang for CTC. He could see the ancients place within the scope of history better. CTC delves deeply into the ancients. My ds especially loved "The Story of the Ancient World", and "Ancient Greece" and "Ancient Rome" were excellent at giving a picture of the way of life for people living at that time. I enjoyed delving deeply into the geography of the Bible lands in "A Child's Geography of the World", and this was very different from the geography quick-finds and history theme related questions we did for geography in PHFHG. The study of "Genesis Finding Our Roots" we did in CTC was a totally different way to weave in the Bible than "Grandpa's Box" in PHFHG. "Genesis..." has a focus on genealogy, chronology, and prophecy, where "Grandpa's Box" focused on retelling the stories of redemption from the Bible (as a grandpa would tell his grandchildren) - a totally different feel, yet both conveying God's hand through history (a primary goal of all of HOD's history every year that I especially love). The Storytime books in PHFHG had us clipping through time, while CTC's had us slowly spending more time delving into each part of time. The history projects were all different - no repeats at all. The CTC Student Notebook had a totally different feel to it than the PHFHG binder we made. The staircase timeline in PHFHG was totally different than the Student Notebook in CTC. The science links were different as well. In PHFHG, the science was largely focused on biomes and biographies that addressed the areas of life science, physical science, and earth science, whereas CTC focused all on life science (again the idea of broad -in PHFHG - to narrow - in CTC). The 2 years felt different to us, yet somewhat familiar enough to begin "hanging our hooks" successfully. HTH - I wouldn't want anyone to miss either year. As with all of the HOD guides, they build upon one another beautifully.

In Christ,
Julie