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I posted this in response to a great question by Florence on another thread and thought it may be of some interest to all of you other wonderful planners too! So I pasted the thread below:

We are planning on adding an additional writing component for each of the 4 guides to follow Preparing Hearts. Rod and Staff does a wonderful job of covering the basic skills needed for technical writing and for poetry. However, we also want to add an element of writing that is more creative. Right now, barring any major change, we are planning to use Story Starters by Karen Andreola for the next 2 guides to follow Preparing. We will use half of the book one year and the other half the next. While this book is a wonderful value, it does need some structure to help moms use it fully, so we will schedule it all out in the guide, making it very easy to open and go. Here is a link to the Story Starters book at CBD: http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/ ... iew=covers

After that we will use an additional writing component for the next 2 guides as well, most likely choosing Igniting Your Writing Vol. I and then Vol. II. Of course the long-term plans could easily change but there will definitely be some additional writing scheduled weekly in addition to Rod and Staff each year.

We will be continuing with oral narration/written narration practice, studied dictation, poetry, and copywork of some sort (along with other brief written assignments as well) to hit all of the facets of writing.

Blessings,
Carrie

Looks interesting! Writing was one of my favorite subjects when I was a child, and this book looks like it would be great for sparking creativity!

Off topic, but I have to ask....the 4 guides you are working on now to come after preparing...is this where you are going to stop? Or do you have plans to continue on through high school?

I have taught "Story Starters" at our homeschool co-op a couple of times and it is WONDERFUL! I absolutely adore that book! Carrie, I love that you are scheduling it out as I have it sitting on my shelf but have only used it when I teach it at co-op because I can't seem to make it fit into my day. WOO HOO

LOVE your choices, Carrie! I had been wanting to use Igniting Your Writing with my girls, but there has no place for it up until now.. so glad to hear that we can likely look forward to them in the future! I have also heard so many great things about Story Starters.

Thanks again for all of your hard work!

OOOH, that sounds awesome! I can't wait!!!

This is so neat! I just "happened" to pick the Story Starters book up last weekend! I have heard many great things about it, but I haven't had a chance to sit down with it myself yet.
God is so good to let me find it early, so I can have a chance to look through it now!
Thanks for letting us know, Carrie!
Charlene

Carrie, Thanks for giving us a peak into the future HOD guides!! I have a 6yo, LHFHG, 4yo, LHFHG (listening in!) and 5mo, (napping through most of it!! tehe) and I am having such a blast with the HOD program! My kids love it and I am learning so much too!! I can hardly wait to go through 2-8 grades again with my kiddos!! I have a friend who has used the Story starters and loved them...I copied your post to her...she and I both feel we have found a kindred spirit in the curriculum world and praise God for you and all of your diligence!! We look forward to using the guides over the upcoming years!!

Eryn

I so agree with you about R&S just being a little shy on that writing component. I am so excited that you will be using story Starters. It's another thing on my shelf I could use a little direction in using! So we will look forward to using it with you! Thanks for letting us know the future! Besides being fun it has been so helpful to me and relieved much guilt from all the great things I have on my shelf but just never got it together to use the right way.

My daughter just took a 'Story Starters' class at co-op...and it sparked some real creative writing in her. She has struggled with spelling...but it didn't stop her; she just had me help her correct the words she got wrong. I think it's a great idea for future manuals!

Ooh, I'm so excited to see your feedback on this! My sisters and I are thrilled with the Story Starters book. There are so many things to love about it, not the least of which is that it takes one of the most difficult stages of writing (brainstorming/pre-writing), and gives kiddos a wonderful jump start both through the pictures and the story starter itself.

Combined with Rod and Staff and the other writing we'll add to the guide, it will provide a much-needed creative outlet for kiddos and help them get their pencils flowing! We had used two years of IEW's SWI- A and SWIC-B with my older son, and while I thought it was wonderful at first, the formulistic approach slowly sucked the life out of my creative son's writing. My older sister had a similar experience with her oldest 3 kiddos. We both determined that there are other ways to get the formulistic approach covered (such as through Rod and Staff), but there is also a need for a creative outlet for writing too.

It seemed that my oldest son wasn't quite ready to do Igniting Your Writing independently until 6th or 7th grade, so we have been on the look-out for a good creative writing course for the in between years (which would be grades 4-5). When we saw Story Starters and really sat down and poured over it, we knew we'd found what we were looking for! It will take me some organizing and planning to make it open-and-go, but I am inspired that it can be done!

Karen Andreola is truly a gifted writer, and I feel blessed for us to get an opportunity to include her latest book in our guide!

I'm SO excited that you're all excited!

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie,

I love seeing your plans, too. I know that I don't have near the "looking ahead" experience that most here do, but I have browsed through the Story Starters book and thought it looked wonderful! I'm so glad that you're going to schedule it for me! I truly appreciate all your hard work, and benefit from it daily. Keep it up!

Kathleen

Carrie,

It is so wonderful of you to share with us your ideas for the future guides. Whenever I read one of these posts I get excited all over again about using HOD and continuing to use it throughout my dc's school years. Thank-you for sharing with us.

Carrie,
This definitely helps relieve me. I really want my children to learn how to write both for work and for pleasure, but getting that done is a task I was not sure how to accomplish. I am thrilled that you are interested in not just the basic components of writing, but you also see the need to tackle the many different facets of writing. I sure wish I had had this kind of exposure to writing and English in my elementary and jr. high years.
Keep up the good work, and may God bless you with more great ideas (and the creativity to get them all to fit in so nicely as you have done in the past .

In His love,
RuthAnn

I am so excited to see where you're headed with writing! I saw this book before and loved it-- but it didn't tackle all the areas of writing and I'm not brave enough to take on combining/scheduling a mix of writing curriculums. I'm so happy you are going to be doing that for all of us! I can't wait til my dc (especially dd) gets to this. I know she will LOVE writing lessons like this! I'm so glad to be a forever HODie.

I had never heard of Story Starters, but took a look at it online and it looks awesome! I'm so excited to be using it in the future with Samuel. Every time you post about upcoming guides, I feel more and more excited about doing them with my little guy! I feel certain that God led us to HOD and we will be sticking with it all the way through -- maybe even through high school (hint hint!)