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I have been pre-reading the BJU Literature book scheduled in the WG guide and then looking at the questions that he will need to either discuss with me or answer on notebook paper and I have to admit I am a little concerned about how he will do with these. There are some challenging questions and when I look at the answers the teachers guide has I am not even coming up with everything they have. He struggles with going beyond the surface and coming up with deep answers. He is better with it now thanks to the previous HOD guides, but he is still probably not where he should be. So how much help do I give him with this? I know at one point Carrie or Julie talked about letting the dc read the teachers notes. There are a lot of notes and I am afraid this may also overwhelm him. If I do try this do I let him do that before he attempts the questions, or do I just hit some of the high points before he answers them? I really struggle with how much help to give him and know I err both ways at times. I am afraid of spoon feeding him so I don't help him enough or I get frustrated when he just can't seem to come up with things that it seems he should and I help him just to get it done. I would love to hear from others who have used this guide and how much help they gave so I can have realistic expectations for him.

I have tried searching for the post I am thinking of with no luck, but sometime during last year my3sons posted a post about how Wyatt's answers were sometimes right but different than the teacher's guide and all and how she had been looking for exactly what was in the BJU teacher guide. Again, I have no clue where the post may be (time period of the year, weekly check-in, or what). I just remember reading it at the time and mentally tucking away what she had said to some degree (not word for word obviously).

Now, Wyatt is back to reading BJU Lit, which he is really enjoying as well. This ebb and flow between BJU lit and reading classics has been genius. He likes the variety. I have learned NOT to overdo the going over the answers together in the BJU guide though. The teacher's guide has some pretty long, whopping, awesome answers that Wyatt just was not giving fully, and I was sort of getting on him for not giving them. One day I didn't have out my answer key and listened to his answers and thought they were right on track, very insightful, and showed he understood the reading well. Then I got out the answer key and thought, 'Man! He didn't say the half of that, but I wouldn't have either!' So, now, I have him give the best answers he can, and then give him the teacher's guide to read their answers. It has helped him enjoy our discussions more as well as answer more fully each time, thanks to the good modeling of the TG.

I found it. It is in the weekly check-in and it is like the 2nd week of December last year if you want to read through it all.

Thank you! Thank you! That is exactly what I needed to know. That helps so much! That is exactly how I will handle it also.

Great question, Lynn! Thanks for asking this, as I had been wondering about this as well!

Thanks for finding that, TidbitsofLearning!!! I couldn't remember where I'd said it either, and you sure helped! That is what I was going to say here anyway, Lynn! We enjoyed it much more when we went to doing it that way.

In Christ,
Julie