gardenmama28,
I happened to be online today for something I needed while writing, so I'll just take a few moments to respond.
Thanks so much for popping back to share a bit more about your daughter! That does really help give a fuller picture of where she is at and where her strengths are.
It sounds like she does like much of the program, which is great! It also sounds like she is appropriately placed, which is great as well.
It is not surprising that the two parts of the guide that she is balking at are the notebooking assignments. This is because those assignments are actually the more difficult parts of the program, as kiddos must copy
and sketch to complete the assignments. The assignments are longer and can seem challenging to students at first. It also the area where I see the most growth in my own boys as the year progresses. We are doing Bigger Hearts right now with our fourth little son and are at week 27. We have seen him make huge gains in the notebooking area this year, but I can definitely remember the challenge of those assignments that he had in the first half of the guide!
I can see your daughter's creative bent with the suggested notebook assignments you mentioned she might enjoy, and while you can definitely change the notebook assignments to suit your purposes, it is good to consider what the purpose of the assignment is meant to be. In our guides, the notebooking assignments are meant to cement actual facts and to help students represent real places and true scientific information. So, in changing the assignment to a creative one, the student would be missing out on the facts and instead be creating his/her own version of history. The good news is that the daily history projects as well as the unit projects in DITHR are designed to meet the creative need that your daughter has. The poetry is also a creative, higher level thinking subject that feeds that need too.
My second son is a hugely creative child, and it may encourage you to know that he uses his creativity wherever he can during his school and also often branches out from something he learned in school to make his own projects, creative writing assignments, poetry, drawings, etc. long after school is done.
For example, during Bigger Hearts he loved illustrating the poems. He made beautifully creative art projects and really did a great job with his science lab sheets. Sometimes he would write his science procedure in speaking bubbles with some humor interlaced with the facts. Often he would add additional creative touches to the history and science notebook pages. Right now, he is junior in high school, and he chooses to draw an illustration of how he envisions something from the book beneath his literature journal entry every day. He has chosen to do his timeline in for high school in a color palette of only 3 colors, varying their intensity and how he mixes the colors so that his timeline has a certain flow and feel to it. He gives amazingly detailed narrations, painting pictures with his words so you can literally visualize what he is saying. His maps often have hand-drawn decorative borders. His science lab sheets often include wondering questions at the end that he wonders about and just decided to jot down. He has loved the history projects through the years, as they are right up his creative alley. He takes joy in interpreting poetry and definitely has favorite subjects. Yet, he still has areas that are not his favorite. He does those areas well, and without complaint, but they are not as inspirational to him. I share this so you can see that HOD works well for a creative child, but it does not guarantee joy in every subject.
For now, if you desire to help your daughter with her notebooking pages, you should certainly do so! You can draw alongside her on your own paper, or help her with hers. If you feel it propels her along to outline some things for her or to guide her with any needed mapping, feel free to do so. Over time, she can take over more of the assignments herself. Sometimes, all a student needs is to feel like the assignment isn't so long, and with you helping it will go more quickly. I think that as time passes and your daughter gets used to the level of work required for the notebooking assignments, she will eventually be less overwhelmed with the work and more comfortable with what is expected.
If you think back to the early stages of any new task that you were asked to do, you will probably remember feeling similarly to the way your daughter feels now. New tasks are a challenge, and until we gain some proficiency with them, they continue to bring trepidation instead of joy. It is encouraging that your daughter seems to be enjoying most of the guide.
It is not surprising that she is finding challenge in the notebooking and narrating areas. Most kiddos do! As mommas we want our kiddos to love every part of their school day, but the truth is that there will always be areas that are not their favorites. Often these areas are the ones that are the hardest for the child. So, for now, just jump in and help her make those assignments that are not her favorite move along as quickly as possible. Do some of the writing for her if needed, and let her finish out the rest. Help her color some areas if needed. Enjoy the parts of the guide that she loves, and keep steadily progressing in those areas that are less enjoyable.
Even when I taught in the classroom, no matter how fabulous my lessons were, there were always children who didn't love what we were doing at one moment of the day or another. This is because kiddos all have areas that are their favorites and other areas that are not. If we change things to always teach toward a child's area of strength, or change things to teach to the child's passions all of the time, the child quickly learns that he/she does not have to do a task unless he/she enjoys it. Ultimately, that type of thinking does not build a child's character and does not serve him/her well in life. We all know that there are things that we don't enjoy doing that still need to be done (and done well). This is the type of thinking that I try to instill in my own boys when they come up against something that is a challenge or isn't their favorite. Often just helping them through those tough areas make the tough area more palatable (sometimes even enjoyable)!
Third grade is a transition year even in the public school. It is full of new things, more reading, more writing, and more rigor. Second grade is often much of a review of first grade, which makes third grade seem all the more different. Be encouraged that the ground work you are laying in Bigger will make Preparing a joyful experience. This is where the real teaching and learning of skills begins to pay off!
Blessings,
Carrie