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OK, I have either had an inspiration or a bout of insanity--help me decide which.

I have been having the issue that we love and want to stick with HOD for my 10 year old next year (and Bigger for the then 7 year old, maybe part of LHTH for the 2 year old if she's ready ), but don't want to do Ancients again, having already done it twice recently. My thought was that I would somehow try to beef up the Bigger guide my younger son will be doing so that they are both doing American history together. I was discussing this with a dear friend just now who has known my sons since birth, and she suggested to me that I should spend a year letting Caleb pick his history topics and researching those (he is very bright, very inquisitive, and reads and comprehends his readings on a high school level). And then it hit me--we are doing Preparing now. It covers history from Creation until modern. What if, as we are working through Preparing, whenever we come upon a history topic that he would like to delve deeper into, we stop the history portion of Preparing (I intend to finish the rest of the guide on time and use the next one next year), research whatever period that is more in depth, and then move on down the Preparing timeline until we hit something else. Sort of like spreading Preparing's history out over two years. What do y'all think? Inspiration, or just too much coffee after 10pm?

Well I think it could be a good inspiration. I think you just have to ask yourself some questions about your personality and will you go too far off the track and then get over whelmed or are you pretty good about having limits on things. Also do you mind having to put int he extra work to find the other resources. For me I think I would enjoy it because I like to dig deeper and as long as I used Preparing for the guide I think it would work. So to me it does not seem crazy at all. I am very much about making it work for your family and I think HOD is so flexible that it allows us to do things like this. I am using Preparing in a different way. We are going to just do Hillyer, Grandpa's Box and the Psalms, that's it and go through it quicker so we can get to the new Ancient guide. And we have done some ancients before but I want to hit it again with HOD. We mostly did the Biblical aspect of Ancients so we have some holes that could be filled well by HOD plus I just can't pass it up. I also did not want to skip Preparing completely so this is what I came up with. I say if it looks good to you and fits your personality then I think it is a great idea. You could have a very solid history foundation that way.

That sounds like a GREAT idea! I personally couldn't do it because I know me. I would get so far off track, but you know, this is what I LOVE about homeschooling! YOU are the teacher, the mom, the one in charge. We have to take our programs and make them fit our families and not the other way around.

Some here are using HOD because they love the simplicity of the schedule and would not want to do something like this. Others use HOD for some subjects and not others. This really is what makes HOD so different from other unit study programs. Most unit studies do not allow you to use one subject and not another without throwing your whole world out of balance. HOD really does let you be in the drivers seat.

I'm gonna tell you what my personal concern would be, just because that is why I ask questions (like this) on homeschool boards. It helps me to think through and process a decision I'm considering. This may not be issue's for you at all

1- Will this still be exciting 12 weeks from now? IOW, things like this can seem fun while I am in the groovy, artistic mode, but with multiple children, outside activities and wanting the flexibility to run to the park because it's a beautiful day, I can begin to feel frustrated after the honeymoon wears off and I see that what originally drew me to a program (Simplicity) is now missing. I then begin to think the program doesn't work and throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I can't wait to hear what you decide. Will you let us know?

Good questions, Ladies!

We did something sort of similar to this a few years ago when SL wasn't quite working for us. It wound up being a very expensive year (I think I bought out Amazon that year ), and we did sort of camp on the Revolutionary War for about 3 months. I think we will have more success at this time for a couple of reasons. My son is older, and his interests have grown. Also, using Preparing to follow will give us a broader period of time in which to find subjects of interest and a timeline to follow so that whatever we dive into will still be within the chronological timeline. We now have a fantastic library three blocks from our house (no library access before unless we wanted to drive for an hour) and a whole bunch of books on the shelves inside our house, so maybe Amazon won't eat my budget.

My husband thinks it's a fantastic idea. I presented it to my son, who was extremely excited. So I think we're going to give it a shot. Ask me in a few months if I still feel inspired.

mamas4bugs wrote: My husband thinks it's a fantastic idea. I presented it to my son, who was extremely excited. So I think we're going to give it a shot. Ask me in a few months if I still feel inspired.

That's great! I think you will still be inspired. You know if you are the type that can be self motivated and keep things reasonable. I think it would be fun to make Preparing a two year deal. I might ask Carrie what books were on the table but did not make it for Preparing and look at some of those as additions. They would be my first picks if I was looking.