What do we miss from Preparing?

[netpea]

Hi, I've read posts from several women here lately talking about how Preparing lays the foundation for the upper guides. My ds11 didn't do Preparing. He went from Bigger to a couple of MFW programs and is coming back to HOD. He places squarely in CTC. My dd8 places squarely in Bigger. I don't want to put them both in Preparing, I want to place them where they belong and I do think they need to be in separate guides so they can both have their own work. My question is, what will I need to work with my son on initially that he missed in not doing Preparing? I have the Preparing manual, are there parts I should read through before we start CTC to help him along? I don't want him to be struggling in any areas but he does need to be challenged this year and he does place better in CTC.

[beverett]

I was also just wandering the same thing... we did Bigger this year with my middle two, but my 10 1/2 yr old fits into CTC and I really want to put him there. I was just worried we would miss something without doing Preparing first. I really would like to see what others say to you!

[LynnH]

The main thing that they miss by not doing Preparing is the initial instruction on how to do written narrations. Preparing starts dc off slowly so that they learn this skill in a gradual manner. In CTC you just jump in to written narrations and they are longer than the ones in Preparing. In Preparing there are always questions they are answering to help formulate their written narrations. In CTC the questions stop about half way through and they formulate the narrations without this to guide them. Also Preparing is where the Independent boxes really start and in CTC there are more of them. In Preparing the parent still reads the history spines,but in CTC they are expected to read them on their own. Since he places solidly in CTC then I would just spend some time really instructing and going over written narration based on the guidelines in the appendix. I also would give some guidance for the first few weeks for the Independent boxes, until he gets the flow of things. He may need to work up to being able to do these by himself. I wouldn't read the history for him though. It will add way too much to your day. Also if studied dictation is new then you can read over those guidelines in the guide. I just realized last year that I wasn't making him indent when he did his studied dictations.

[netpea]

Thanks Lynn. That's what I was looking for. Funny I recently realized that I wasn't having my kids indent on their dictations either.

[netpea]

We are gearing up to start CTC on Monday. I will take extra time with him next week to see what we need to work on.