How old are your kids that are using Preparing?

[playschool]

I am still struggling between using this curr. or another publisher. I really like the emphasis in HOD on the Bible. I had mentioned before that I would like to keep my ds (8, soon to be 9, but because I kept him back a year, will only be in 3rd grade next year) and dd (11 and will be in 6th grade next year, she was kept back as well, but her b-day is a late year one) together. They have both had enough American History, actually my dd has had exclusively U.S. History until this year (she is doing World Geography). ( I have toyed with the idea of using Bigger, but my dd would be too advanced and also like I said, we have already had plenty of U.S. history so far.) I really like Preparing but fear that there are some things my ds could not do well, such as finding things in the dictionary, science readings on his own (depending on how hard the words are, he reads right now on a 2nd-3rd grade level), the amount of writing in some of the assignments, and the research skills. Do most people tend to use this with advanced 3rd graders and 4th graders? Should I expect that by the end of this school year my ds would have improved in a lot of these areas to be able to accomplish these assignments next school year? He is only now learning in Abeka (2nd grade Language) how to use a glossary in the back of his spelling book. I guess, looking at his skills right now it is hard for me to see him using Preparing next year. What do you think?

[3whizlets]

My dd just turned 9 and is in 3rd grade. We are finising week 3 of Preparing. Preparing has been a little bit of a struggle for her because of the independent work required but she is rising to the task! It was tough at first so I helped her along but she is now doing most of the independent assignments on her own. She has had some exposure to looking words up in a dictionary and thesaurus but not much, and she does not like it so that has been some work on my part. The science readings are usually only a few pages so it isn't too overwhelming. You can test his readiness for this by getting one of the One Small Square books and seeing if he can read it on his own.

DD has complained about the writing involved but she is coming from a program that required very little writing on her part. I don't find it overwhelming, this is something I should have done a better job at training her for! Overall she is really happy with Preparing and loves that she can take the teacher's guide off on her own now and do her assignments without too much input from me. She has decided that she is in 4th grade now b/c she feels that since she is more independent in Preparing than our last program, that she should be promoted.

I think your son will be fine. You will need to hold his hand and push him those first few weeks but once he gets the hang of it, he will do it. You can always start slow, help him look words up and help him get through the readings until he can do them on his own. You can even take longer than a week to complete each week in the beginning until you are going full speed after a month or so.

Blessings!

[Allison TX]

Hi playschool. My 3rd and 4th grade boys are both using Preparing this year. We are really enjoying it and all of us are learning so much! Preparing is definitly a challenging program for 3rd and 4th graders, but in a good way. It is also so much fun and extremely God honoring. I have also found it to be very flexible. For example, neither of my boys were writing in cursive at the beginning of the year, so the cursive assignments I just assigned as printing copywork. The 4th grader has been gradually doing more cursive throughout the year. For the first several weeks, I did the research box with them so they could learn how to do it independently. My 4th grader has just recently taken over all the science readings, but I am still reading the science books with my 3rd grader. The readings are easy enough for a typical 3rd or 4th grader, but my boys are dyslexic, so we adjust. All this to encourage you to give Preparing a try. The first few weeks you may need to spend extra time teaching some of the skills that your son is not familiar with, but thats okay. He will pick them up.

Allison

[Carrie]

We're using it with our 4th grader and have found it to be a good fit for him. He happens to enjoy writing and reads quite well on his own, so he settled into Preparing pretty well. It did help for him to have had Bigger to help ease him in with the skills required in Preparing, but even if he had just started in Preparing it would have been fine to work up to him doing these skills eventually. The moms on this thread have given you wonderful examples of how to ease into the program and work up to speed! We're enjoying Preparing very much!

Blessings,
Carrie

[my3sons]

We're using Preparing with our 3rd. grade son - he was 8 when we started it. He has done extremely well with it - it fits him like a glove! We're over half of the way through it now and still enjoying it completely.

I am a firm believer that if a program is going to be a right "fit" that children should find some things easy, some things right on their learning level, and some things a bit hard. I want them to be confident in their schooling - but also to be stretched a bit as well. Preparing has been perfect! It stretches him where he needs to be stretched - digging in for a deeper faith in God, learning to do some research (but in a nice low-key way), discussing with me what he's read by putting himself in the setting of the story, writing narrations for the first time (again in a low-key non-stress way - only 3-5 sentences), attempting some creative writing by using poetry as a pattern (again in a way that is fun) - he took 4 weeks to get into these higher level skills - and I am sooooooooo thankful they are in there because I might have just accidentally skipped right past them otherwise! The rest of the guide fell into the easy/right on his learning level categories right from the start.

He is not a rocket-scientist 8 yo or anything - he does love learning though, and Preparing has kept that love for learning flowing - it has really deepened his faith in God, piqued his curiosity for learning new things, and transported him through time in history as if he was really there to see it. I think you'd find it to be a wonderful fit for both of your dc!

In Christ,
Julie