Below is my original e-mail that I sent to Carrie:
I'm not sure I want to do American History without finishing our "tour" of World History. So, if Preparing won't work for us, I might wait and come back to the American History books once we finish (instead of doing Sonlight Cores 3 and 4).I have really enjoyed perusing your website and I have some questions for you. First I will give you some background information so that you can better answer my questions.
I have four children:
A daughter who just turned 10 (April 1998)
A son who is 8 (February 2000)
A son that is 3 (March 2005)
A daughter that is 18 months (November 2006)
We have homeschooled from the beginning.
My oldest daughter started reading well at age four, mostly by me reading to her. (I did "formal" phonics as a review using AlphaPhonics when she was in kindergarten.) My son started reading at age three. He did some phonics then (after I realized how well he was reading) and finished it at age four. They both are voracious readers, especially my daughter.
I overdo school and yet, at the same time, I am not consistent. It is a real struggle in our family. When we started 1st grade for my oldest, I began working through chronological history with them beginning with creation. We used Greenleaf's Guide to Old Testament History as a starting point. At the appropriated time, we added in the Ancient Egypt guide. I also had Diana Waring's book for ancient times and used Sonlight, Veritas Press and My Father's World to find even more books. As I realized that we were going to be slogging through ancient history forever, I decided to try My Father's World. It did not work for our family. I then decided to try Sonlight but add in a lot of the extra stuff that I had already bought. However, then we ended up going back to Ancient Egypt, even though we were already past that in our studies. With the birth of two kids in the meantime and an otherwise overly busy schedule, we have FINALLY finished Sonlight Core 1 (plus my added stuff which included the Greenleaf Guides to Ancient Greece and Rome, plus the Veritas Cards, plus Story of the World, plus some of Streams of Civilization) and are working through Sonlight Core 2 (with lots of added stuff... and you are probably getting the picture that I want to do it ALL and am not good at picking and choosing only the "good stuff"). We are almost finished with Vikings (it is taking longer because we added in Beorn the Proud) and then we will move on to knights and castles and all of that good stuff. I have a lot of EXTRA stuff for the Renaissance and Reformation period (especially the Reformation). I was hoping to finish Core 2 this year and start American History sometime in the middle of the year. We are only in the middle of Core 2 at this point. I realize that the problem in NOT the curriculum. It is me.
My kids have read a lot of biographies and studied a good bit of American history on their own. So, it is not that they are completely ignorant in these areas. But, I would like to do some more formal study of these things (as you can guess, I've already been collecting books). My children also have read many of the Trailblazer books, the entire YWAM biography series, a lot of the "If you lived at the time of..." American History books and anything else I will let them read.
As far as science goes, I need to get better in this area as well. I had bought the Apologia elementary book about astronomy. We just never seemed to get to it. My son is interested in creation research and dinosaurs and we have almost all of the Answers in Genesis books for children and he reads many for adults as well, actually I should say that both of my children have. I have not been very consistent about doing science with them though. They have both read some of the Christian Liberty Press nature readers aloud to me, as reading practice. This year, a friend had given me the third grade Abeka science textbook and I assigned them readings from that until they had read through the whole things. They also read an Answers in Genesis book about weather and are currently reading one about fossils. But we haven't done any experiments or things like that. I always end up putting off crafts and projects because they seem overwhelming.
We have a good handle on math (although we "over excel" in this area as well). My second grader has finished MCP Book C (the third grade book) and is almost done with Miquon Purple Book (the 6th book of the series-- which are supposed to be 2 per year for first through third grade) and he is in Singapore 3A. My fourth grader is about 2/3 done with Saxon 6/5 and will finish Singapore 4B this week.
I have done well with my daughter in Grammar. She started on the 3rd grade book of Rod and Staff this year and is now working her way through the 4th grade book. We started this after she had done the first half plus a little of First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind and was finding myself not being consistent with it. She occasionally will do a cursive handwriting lesson from a Reason for Handwriting, but already has nice penmanship.
My son is somewhere in the 70s of the lessons for First Language Lessons and he is finishing up second grade. I have not been disciplined to do it with him and we really struggle with the narrations. I really like Rod and Staff's more straightforward approach, but he is not ready for all of the writing that is involved. He is still struggling with neat printing and we have not attempted cursive at all. I think there is just too much writing in Rod and Staff for him to handle it successfully, even though he would do fine with the actual information.
We use Spelling Power for spelling, but don't do it all of the time. Both kids are many lists ahead of "grade level" and rarely get words wrong. I work on spelling more when I have them write something than anything. However, I am not really very consistent about having them do any sort of writing. This is yet another reason I like Rod and Staff: the writing is incorporated. I never imagined myself to be a "textbook schooler" but I seem to be heading more and more that direction, just to "get it done."
Someone directed me to your website for your preschool things. I spent a lot time with my older two just reading and playing and talking together when they were young. Things that came naturally with them, don't always get done with the younger two so close together and the older two busy with school and activities. As I looked at your preschool things (for my older son), I noticed the Preparing Hearts for His Glory that is coming out. Then someone else mentioned they really liked your products. So, I took a closer look. It looks about the right level for my older two children and we have MOST of the books and the ones we don't look really good! (Can you see my weaknesses coming out again?) I was wondering if this would be a good way for us to "get up to speed" in our history and science studies. The only thing I am worried about is having to go ALL THE WAY back to creation and ancient Egypt AGAIN before we move forward. I think that might send both my kids and I over the edge (especially since we've done all of the books that you use for that time period). Is it possible to start in the middle of this book? I had actually thought of doing that and then going BACK to your earlier books to go through American History in a fun, enjoyable way while continuing math and language arts at the levels of each child. Plus, they could read the YWAM Heroes of History biographies and the Genevieve Foster books and the D'Aulaire books that we have if we needed to "beef it up." We also have the Living Principles of American History CD set from Nest Family to "make it fun."
Do you have any advice or suggestions? As you can probably guess, I am slightly overwhelmed with the way we have done school. My children are learning. They are progressing. They are up to speed in math and almost up to speed in language arts. They are good readers. They can converse intelligently about ancient history and quite a bit of American History. I just want to be sure that I am doing the best job that I can be. I also like how your Scripture memory ties in with the lessons. Scripture memory is important in our family. We are currently memorizing 1 John. Even the 3 year old has memorized a good bit of the first chapter.
I am sorry this is so long. I wasn't sure how to explain my situation and ask my questions without giving you a lot of background information. If you don't think that the Preparing Hearts for Glory will work well for us, I will probably still purchase the preschool materials.
I really do like the Christ-centered focus. I also like that it is NOT a complete unit study (like Learning Adventures). Rod and Staff English is working for my daughter. I think it WILL work for my son once we get his handwriting up to snuff. I need to convince my kids to cut out Saxon math and only do Singapore to save some time. (My original intent was to cut out Singapore once they finished MCP Book B, but my daughter begged to keep doing Singapore because she liked it. I just wasn't convinced that it was "complete" enough. Now that she will finish 4B tomorrow, I am. After MCP Book C, my daughter did Saxon 5/4 and somewhere in the 80s as far as lessons for Saxon 6/5. My intent was to let her do through Singapore 6B and then do ONLY Saxon or Teaching Textbooks for pre-Algebra and up.) My son has been chomping at the bit to start Saxon, but I have held off while he is finishing up Miquon and is doing Singapore 3A.
Can you tell why I am frustrated with school? We are trying to do it ALL! It is enough to make me want to give up! It seems like after 5 years, I should be getting better at this (and I actually am), but nothing quite "fits" us.
Sorry this is so disorganized and rambly.
ETA: If my daughter is going to be in 5th grade next year, is it kind of "too late" to be starting Preparing for the way the program will keep going? It seems like I read that in another thread.
) and those are the 2 programs that would be where you would need to be looking. Sounds like you kiddos might be ahead of the language arts and math in Bigger. But, the American history might be a nice change of pace for you and your kiddos. Were you planning to use HOD for math and reading/english or just for history and science??
Mel
How embarrassing is THAT? 
I hope this helps and if not at least you get a look into how wacky my head is. 
