How does Preparing relate to the next guides?

[countrymom]

My question is mainly a history question. I understand the skill progressions in the guides and I have the Preparing guide already and see the wonderful job the guide does in moving children forward. I envision Preparing laying the historical foundation for the other guides and am wondering if most of the history events covered in Preparing are covered again in the time period guides? Would there be events covered in Preparing that are not covered in the future guides? I am grappling with my just turned 8 yr old beginning world history, hence my questions.
The other part to the equation is my children cover Bible history very well in our church children's Bible classrooms each week, as well as in our family worship. We have actually already read "Grandpa's Box" (about 2 years ago) and the children's divisions at church are just starting from Creation this month. My son will hit Preparing in April (turns 8 in March) so we will be duplicating everything just covered in our church program. I don't want to skip Preparing, I am just grappling with what to do with it. Thoughts?
Edited to add: I believe my son is ready for the skills (except spelling ) and he does well with books written for older students, so I am not worried so much about him being ready in that way. I guess I don't really know what I am asking

[LynnH]

Preparing does lay the historical foundation for things covered later. Carrie has referred to it as giving them hooks to hang future knowledge on. I know several times in the following guides my ds would say "Oh I remember him!". The future guides go into a lot more detail about certain things. I am sure my ds would have had more trouble remembering those things if they hadn't been touched on in Preparing. I do think there were some things covered in Preparing that either are not covered in the other guides or they are just briefly covered if Preparing covered them more thoroughly. I can think of one story about Horatio's bridge that is in Preparing that my ds loved and I am pretty sure that it wasn't anywhere else because he kept looking for it. I know certain parts of the Old Testament history are emphasized in Preparing that are not emphasized in CTC. As for thinking about your 8 year old covering World HIstory I will say Preparing is such a gentle approach to World History. There are some violent descriptions in CHOW, but Carrie gives you a heads up to that in the guide so you can skip them. Things that are pretty horrible parts of history are introduced, but in such a way as to not scare younger children. I am thinking specifically about World War II and the Nazi's. The storytime book you read gives just a glimpse into that time period without giving any of the true horrors.

You said you were aware of the skill building things, but I just wanted to say the Preparing really is such a crucial foundational guide for the skills that come in the later guides where what is required of the student really increases.

[MomtoJGJE]

I have no idea how it relates to the later guides as I'm in Preparing with my oldest now.

But I can tell you that going through things in Preparing is totally different than other Bible history.

My kids are well entrenched with Bible history. Our church is awesome about it... they go through from creation to revelation every three years, meaning it takes them three years to get through that much information. They do this in Sunday School and also in AWANA. So twice a week they are hearing about Bible history and repeating the cycle every three years.

Plus as a family we talk about the Bible and read through the Bible. Jayden is also in a kind of co-op class that is creation to the Greeks? Creation to something... I can't remember. Basically the first half of Preparing, but taught in a different way with different materials.

Jayden has learned SO MUCH through Preparing. Honestly *I'VE* learned so much through Preparing! But then again I was in public school and I never really put it together that the Bible and everything else in history were happening at the same time

Anyway, I would definitely not skip anything or think it's redundant. It puts a completely new "spin" on everything.

Plus, I don't know that you could ever go wrong with more Bible learning.

[Gwenny]

I agree with the pp. Also, I think it's nice for my daughter that as she is working on written narrations, it is on a text that she is familiar with. They work with the subjects, not just hear it.

[luv2homeschool]

I just have to think that a lot of Grandpa's Box went over his head if he was only 6 when he last heard it. We read American Pioneers and Patriots 2 years ago (with MFW Adv) and then are doing it again this year with Beyond and my daughter is still enjoying it. I wouldn't worry about doing it again. Grandpa's Box is interspersed with CHOW, and they can really make connections between the two.

I think I read that Preparing is a "sweeping overview" of history and then the later guides go more in-depth on the time periods.

[twoxcell]

My ds is in Preparing right now and he just finished unit 17 last week. We are both loving it. The history in Preparing is awesome and there is no way I'd want to skip any of it. Carrie just does such a great job of weaving secular history with biblical history. I don't think it would matter that your dc has heard Grandpa's box before or studied the bible stories. I don't think it is possible to here any bible stories too many times. We haven't done the guides after Preparing yet but I'm excited that my ds will be going into them with a good understanding of the full sweep of world history.

[pjdobro]

I agree that Preparing really sets the stage for the future guides in both skills and content. I hear my dc telling me this year with CTC that they understood what they were studying so much more because they had already learned a bit about it last year in Preparing. I think the overview of World History in Preparing really does gives them a nice framework to go back through later and add more detail. The integration of Grandpa's Box with other sources like CHOW really makes it a fun way to look at history. It feels like this year in CTC it gets more serious. It probably isn't so much that it is more serious, but it's more in depth and at a higher level so that makes it seems much more serious. If you didn't do Preparing, what would you do? I really think skill wise, the jump from Bigger to CTC would be overwhelming so if you didn't do Preparing, you would probably have to do something other than HOD. If you did that how would you incorporate the building and progression of skills? I don't think you'll find it a problem to be covering something that your ds has seen before. It will be covered in a fun way that he'll enjoy, and it will be like coming back to see an old friend since he is already familiar with it.