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Good morning! This is Jen in Maine - nice to recognize some folks from the HomeSchool Reviews message board here!

I have a 13yo and 11yos. I have selected my daughter's materials for her 8th grade year this fall, and am quite pleased with the program I have for her. My son is another story! Right now we're doing the Narnia unit study (FUFI) and he loves that. I'm looking ahead to the fall and wondering what on earth to do with him. (I had considered Weaver and MFW with the intent to combine them, but decided not to take that route).

I've often said that if Carrie had programs at my kids' levels, I'd use them! I'm considering the Preparing Hearts program for him, with the addition of the 5th/6th extensions. He will be doing language arts and math at a higher level than the program is written for, so those parts of the lesson plans I won't use. But I'm so impressed with Carrie's book selections for history and science. They are so "me" and at his current reading level (he's great at math and only so-so at language arts, especially writing).

Do you think I'd need to "beef up" the science for him?

Any thoughts or opinions are welcome! I'm hoping we can slide into this new level of HOD and find it a good fit for us.

Hi Jen,

I am new to this board and have never tried the HOD programs. But I have a daughter who will be entering 7th grade next year. I am curious about what curriculum you are happy with for your 13yod. My dream is a program set up like HOD programs but designed to work fairly indendently.

What does Carrie use for her older son? Is there anything "HOD-like" for the upper years already out there?

Sorry if this goes beyond the scope of this forum. I am desperately rethinking curriculum for next year!

Oh, I also don't want to "steal" your thread. I hope you get the answer for your son. The Preparing level looks great from what I can see.

Callia

Hi Jen and Callie,

I am not sure about having to beef up the science but I would think if the reading level is right with the extension pack you should be fine.

As far as Carrie's oldest - my understanding is he is the tester for the levels and then she works on writing the books as her second gets to that level. She has said that she has plans to go through 8th grade the guides are just not written yet.

I know that doesn't really help with your curriculum issues for next year but hopefully that will help you understand where I think Carrie is headed with her curriuculum

Hi Jen in Maine! I'm kmwee on HSR. (We need one of those little faces to be waving 'hi'.)

I think the extension pack for Preparing has some more science.? Not sure, but Carrie is very careful to use the best "living" books available for her science to keep with the CM philosophy. (This has been asked before, so I'm just repeating info.)

Hmmm...wouldn't it be great to be a fly on the wall and peek into what Carrie's oldest "guinea pig" is using?? I'm am just SO thankful that mine are young enough that everything will be written by then. Maybe Carrie will even offer suggestions for 9-12 grades....maybe

Now if Carrie ever wants or needs a few more "guinea pigs" for her curriculum experiments, I might be willing to offer up my soon-to-be 7th grade daughter!

May be a good idea to get the female student's perspective on this curriculum too...no?


Callia

Hi Jen! Also from HSR (wave)

I think it would be a great fit! I just wanted to say that I was looking at the science books in BHFG online and thinking they might be, well, wimpy But I was pleasantly surprised. I got so excited I threw in a little Apologia ZooII . It actually was not out of thinking it was not enough. It was out of thinking these are so cool what if we just... and then after that a beach trip to tide pools at the end of our study got planned. But I also have to confess I have a major problem with saying enough is enough and more is actually more. And I am a former lab geek so it is fun to me to teach my kids about science.

So I guess what I am saying is it is really probably enough. She probably has some cool stuff to go with it in the guide and those books are awesome. But if you decided you wanted to add something that could go with the theme and be stretched out over the year then it would be easy to do and you would just be making something that is already really cool a little cooler or adding more work hahaha! Depending on how you see things. My guess is it would be great stand alone.

Also just wanted to say you all are cracking me up guessing what Carrie uses with her older kid. You really don't think she goes to another unit study deal. I am sure she puts her own thing together in some shape or form and the big guy is a guinea pig too.

Anyway what ever you decide you are going to love it!

Jen,

You've gotten excellent advice from the wonderful ladies on this board. I agree that if the science books are at your son's reading level, then the science should be enough for him. We did not write science extensions in the Extension Package of "Preparing Hearts..." because the books in our science package are suitable for ages 8-12 and have quite a bit of science content in them (in a living book way).

On a sidenote, my 6th grade son has always had a high vocabulary and a gift for reading and understanding difficult books, yet he has enjoyed reading all of the books in the "Preparing Hearts.." science package this year. (Poor test child! Although I don't think he minds!)

Once you get going, if you thought you needed more science, you could always add "Exploring Planet Earth" by John Hudson Tiner from the "Bigger..." package very easily.

I have to say I'm in the "getting really excited about the new product" stage with "Preparing Hearts..." as I'm seeing the threads of the program start to come together. I love this stage of the writing, as I can visualize my own kiddos doing the different parts of the program. I have to say the formatting and editing stage of the program, however, always makes me feel down-trodden, but then the book is finally born and we're all so relieved to have it here!

Blessings,
Carrie

Sorry ladies, I had to run before I got a chance to finish my previous post. So here's the rest. My oldest son is my guinea pig, but in all fairness I had over 300 other guinea pigs in my 11 years of public school teaching, so my son isn't stuck being the only tester (Lucky for him! )

As far as his education goes, I am so eclectic that I put his school together bit by bit in most subject areas. We have followed Ambleside online's year 3, 4, and 5 for the history and literature study suggestions quite closely the last 3 years. It works well for my first-born but certainly isn't for everyone. Prior to that we used Sonlight's Core 1, 2, 3, and part of 4, but I ended up tweaking it so much in the end that you could hardly call it Sonlight anymore.

After much prayer these last few years, my husband and I finally made the leap to realizing that this is God's calling for our lives (rather than it just being a hobby) and are now planning on writing guides through grade 8. We personally want to use these with as many of our boys as possible, so we've decided to try to stay ahead of my second son with our published guides.

I am also blessed to be surrounded by my two sisters and my mother, all of whom were public school teachers for years. My mom taught mainly 1st and 2nd grades, my sister taught mainly 3rd and 4th, and my older sister was a high school creative writing, literature, and grammar teacher. I started out teaching middle school and ended mainly in elementary grades 3 and 4. My sisters also both homeschool their own kiddos and have for years, and my mom and dad exhibit with us often, so we are all personally invested in God's call to homeschool.

When planning the format and subjects for a new guide, the ladies in my family spend hours pow-wowing by phone and in person with me on each subject area, and we all toss around our ideals for each area of study. We talk about what the "perfect program" would be. I weigh how to add Bible to each area. Then, comes the balancing act of how often to do each thing without overwhelming either mom or student(s). Last, I compare those wants and wishes with the skills required by most states, and I come up with what would be the best overall program.

This is much more information than any of you asked for or wanted, and if you've read this far you are very kind. I just wanted to explain a little more about how our guides come to be and why we do what we do.

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie wrote:Sorry ladies, I had to run before I got a chance to finish my previous post. So here's the rest. My oldest son is my guinea pig, but in all fairness I had over 300 other guinea pigs in my 11 years of public school teaching, so my son isn't stuck being the only tester (Lucky for him! )

I think your kids are blessed to have a mom who is so gifted. My kids only get to use the guides which are a reflection of your teaching, with me that does not have a clue, but hey that turns out to be pretty great in the end. Still I am pretty easily convinced that your children are getting the best of the best. And I am thrilled that you guys heard God speak to you on writing all the way to eighth. I am praying God speaks to you again because this is going to be a hard act to follow when we get to high school. We are excited though to make all the family memories we can before the all get there and I know that we will. Thanks for pouring your heart into this! Many families are reaping the rewards and are blessed by it.

is only 10. But I'm wondering....if your sisters, yourself, and your mother were all teachers for years, and homeschool now, are there any thoughts on extending into High School with the HOD product? I'm thinking you could all collaborate on that, too, and come up with wonderful plans. It would be so great to have a curriculum that we could all follow from Pre-school thru High School. I don't know if this is something you've considered; just thought I would put it out there!

in the title!

inHistiming wrote:is only 10. But I'm wondering....if your sisters, yourself, and your mother were all teachers for years, and homeschool now, are there any thoughts on extending into High School with the HOD product? I'm thinking you could all collaborate on that, too, and come up with wonderful plans. It would be so great to have a curriculum that we could all follow from Pre-school thru High School. I don't know if this is something you've considered; just thought I would put it out there!

I am praying God will convince them of this, hehehe! I am with you!

inHisTiming,

You are too kind with your request! Right now, we only have plans to go through grade 8 with our guides, as states vary quite a bit in what is required for high school. So, at this point we don't have plans to go into high school with our guides, but I've learned to never say never.

We have discussed possibly listing our recommendations for a course of study for high school on our website or in our catalog eventually (after we do more testing on our own poor kiddos first of course!).

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie