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Hi, Ladies!

I'm planning to start Preparing with my oldest once we're done Bigger, but I'm seeing that Preparing is going to take more of my time since my son is currently doing Bigger's Science independently, and the History reading I do aloud with him is pretty short. I'm thinking that reading Preparing's History and Storytime to him will take a good chunk of time each day.

I was thinking of making Preparing's Storytime be the Storytime for all of my children. Would that work, do you think? Or is Preparing's Storytime so specialized that it's better to read it to just the Preparing child? (I will also read my LHFHG child's storytime to her, but she would be with us for the "everyone" storytime also.) We are currently doing Bigger's Storytime with everyone in the afternoons ... works very nicely!

Also, I just read somewhere that I should be with my son for all the "S" boxes. Do you think that holds true if he will be almost 11, and I do everything with him for the first few weeks?

Thoughts? Oh, part of the reason I'm trying to figure out how to streamline is that we are expecting a new baby in late September!

Thanks so much!

The story time in Preparing really goes along with the history. The stories have been very engrossing though and I think could be enjoyed by everyone. They have all been appropriate for the age of my children (9). I can't think of anything offhand that might be inappropriate for younger ears, but I wasn't reading it to a younger child so it is possible that there would be some things that might be too intense for a younger child. That would be something that you might want to consider.

I think if your child is 11 doing Preparing then you wouldn't necessarily have to be there for the "S" boxes. Now that we're about 2/3 of the way through the guide, my dc are doing some of the "S" boxes pretty independently like the vocabulary and timeline boxes are pretty much done independently now. With the history project, I usually just go over the instructions with them and make sure they have the things they need to do the project. Occasionally it requires a bit more supervision, but for the most part they are pretty independent there. For grammar and math we are still doing the teaching part together and then they finish the rest on their own. Most days my teaching time is 2 hours or less. It takes me a bit more time to check their work, but my teaching time is definitely getting less as the year is progressing.

Congratulations on your new blessing! Enjoy Preparing! We certainly are here!

pjdobro wrote:The story time in Preparing really goes along with the history. The stories have been very engrossing though and I think could be enjoyed by everyone. They have all been appropriate for the age of my children (9). I can't think of anything offhand that might be inappropriate for younger ears, but I wasn't reading it to a younger child so it is possible that there would be some things that might be too intense for a younger child. That would be something that you might want to consider.

Thanks! I own these, so I'll look through them more carefully. I might not be ready to read books to my younger children that mention much about false gods. I'm assuming these books do mention them, right? If the books mention them in a way that it's clear that they are false gods, it would be okay with me. My 10 year old is solid in understanding truth about God, so he can easily handle them no matter what.

pjdobro wrote:I think if your child is 11 doing Preparing then you wouldn't necessarily have to be there for the "S" boxes. Now that we're about 2/3 of the way through the guide, my dc are doing some of the "S" boxes pretty independently like the vocabulary and timeline boxes are pretty much done independently now. With the history project, I usually just go over the instructions with them and make sure they have the things they need to do the project. Occasionally it requires a bit more supervision, but for the most part they are pretty independent there. For grammar and math we are still doing the teaching part together and then they finish the rest on their own. Most days my teaching time is 2 hours or less. It takes me a bit more time to check their work, but my teaching time is definitely getting less as the year is progressing.

I would certainly still go over Grammar and Math. It's more the projects I was thinking of. I think my son will be fine to do much of that on his own after I've gone over it with him. He does his Vocab, Timeline, and Notebooking mostly on his own now for Bigger.

pjdobro wrote:Congratulations on your new blessing! Enjoy Preparing! We certainly are here!

Thanks!

We just started Preparing and my DD hasn't turned 9 yet. I stay with her on the T boxes, go through the lesson and what to do on the S boxes and she finishes, and I have her read the instructions to me right now on the I boxes because she tends to skip over things. When we do a whole days work it might take me 1 hour to go through everything with her. The history and storytime take about 20 minutes max.... it's very quick. It takes WAY less time than the history reading plus story time in Bigger.

MomtoJGJE wrote:We just started Preparing and my DD hasn't turned 9 yet. I stay with her on the T boxes, go through the lesson and what to do on the S boxes and she finishes, and I have her read the instructions to me right now on the I boxes because she tends to skip over things. When we do a whole days work it might take me 1 hour to go through everything with her.

This is probably what I'll do with my son, though since he's a little older I don't think I'll have to review that independent boxes after the first couple of weeks.

MomtoJGJE wrote:The history and storytime take about 20 minutes max.... it's very quick. It takes WAY less time than the history reading plus story time in Bigger.

This is extremely helpful! I guess I was thinking that these would take longer. I can manage 1 hour with my son, so hopefully it will work out.

Like I said, we just started... she's done independent work before, but not reading the instructions by herself, so she just skips some of the directions. I think it's a reading issue more than following directions issue. We are only just starting unit 3. I think by unit 5 she'll be fine and we'll be starting on her reading the directions for some of the S work as well (like timeline, history project, etc.)

MomtoJGJE wrote:Like I said, we just started... she's done independent work before, but not reading the instructions by herself, so she just skips some of the directions. I think it's a reading issue more than following directions issue. We are only just starting unit 3. I think by unit 5 she'll be fine and we'll be starting on her reading the directions for some of the S work as well (like timeline, history project, etc.)

She sounds like she's doing great!!! My son would never have been able to do that work at her age! (I hope I didn't sound critical, because I didn't mean to!!!)

Thanks! I own these, so I'll look through them more carefully. I might not be ready to read books to my younger children that mention much about false gods. I'm assuming these books do mention them, right? If the books mention them in a way that it's clear that they are false gods, it would be okay with me. My 10 year old is solid in understanding truth about God, so he can easily handle them no matter what.

I think there is some mention of false gods in Triumph for Flavius since that involves Romans and Greeks. I don't remember how much was in that book and how much was in our other history reading. Within the plans it's all very clear that they are false gods so no worries there at all for your child actually doing Preparing. Probably of all the books that we've read so far (we've just finished Fountain of Life), that would be the one that I would be more inclined to look through more carefully ahead of time. None of the other books deal with false gods that I can recall. As a matter of fact they are very much about Biblical history and give a great insight into the Jewish culture. I have learned so much about it. It has deepened my understanding of the Bible. It's been a real blessing here.

pjdobro wrote:

Thanks! I own these, so I'll look through them more carefully. I might not be ready to read books to my younger children that mention much about false gods. I'm assuming these books do mention them, right? If the books mention them in a way that it's clear that they are false gods, it would be okay with me. My 10 year old is solid in understanding truth about God, so he can easily handle them no matter what.

I think there is some mention of false gods in Triumph for Flavius since that involves Romans and Greeks. I don't remember how much was in that book and how much was in our other history reading. Within the plans it's all very clear that they are false gods so no worries there at all for your child actually doing Preparing. Probably of all the books that we've read so far (we've just finished Fountain of Life), that would be the one that I would be more inclined to look through more carefully ahead of time. None of the other books deal with false gods that I can recall. As a matter of fact they are very much about Biblical history and give a great insight into the Jewish culture. I have learned so much about it. It has deepened my understanding of the Bible. It's been a real blessing here.

Thanks for this information; it's so very helpful! You're also making me more and more eager to dig in to Preparing. I've been learning so much even in Bigger (and actually Beyond, too!).