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If anyone or Carrie is familiar with this Abeka text, is Preparing similar in content? Obviously the style is going to be different. Do they cover the same basic things? If dh agrees to switch from Abeka to HOD next year, I am just trying to figure out whether to separate her and her younger brother, and if so which program would work the best for her based on her skill level and what she has already covered. She's been using pretty much all Abeka since first grade with the exception of some Sonlight here and there (not consistently, and some history readers from CLP). I think my ds would do well in Bigger. He could possibly do okay in PHFHG, but may be a struggle, due to a lack of narration skills and writing narrations, which he is not used to. Thanks again for your help!

I haven't looked at that particular ABeka text in a long time, so I can't really say for sure how it would compare to the coverage in Preparing Hearts for His Glory. Overall, I would think I'd be safe in saying that Hillyer's text would be more living in its presentation, as is Grandpa's Box. Preparing covers the scope of world history, giving the panoramic view. I'm assuming that ABeka's will also do that but will read more like a textbook with many facts rather than a storytelling style.

As far as placement goes, if you get a chance to look at the placement chart and really see where each of your kiddos fall on the chart (all combining scenarios aside), you'll get a clearer starting point for both of them. Then, after you've pinpointed where they each would place on his/her own, you can entertain combining options (or not, depending on where the child places on his/her own merit). Here's a link to the chart: http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

Remember to give the most weight to the first page of the placement chart (which includes the 3 R's).

Blessings,
Carrie

When I first thought of using HOD, I thought that I'd combine. Now, I am not sure. My ds will be 9 in 3rd grade next Fall. He seems like he would fit in the upper skill range of Bigger, although with some minor tweaking he could use Preparing. My concern is the amount of writing in Preparing. He can write up to 6-7 original sentences on his own on a given topic if it is of interest to him. 6-7 sentences is the most though, after that he runs out of ideas. He can write his own story with these many sentences of about 5-8 words, although his spelling would not be perfect but for his age he is an excellent speller, and he occasionally forgets his periods and capital letters. When I give him an informational topic that he does not like or is not interested in that is where he struggles to put words down on paper. He has not yet learned cursive but I was waiting until 3rd grade to teach him. I guess when it comes to dictation, copywork, and compositions how long are the passages in Preparing as opposed to Bigger. Is a child required to know how to use an encyclopedia in Bigger or Preparing? He is just getting used to looking up words in his glossary at the end of his spelling book now in the 2nd grade.
After looking more closely at her book ( she does DVD so I was not that familiar with her course and how much History is involved), I realized she is only getting a little glimpse of each Old world country's history and learning about its geography. They just jump around from one country to another. I do not believe that it is as indepth in tying all of it together as Preparing is. I think her skills are up to the new Ancients program, although she has never done narration and notebooking before. There may be a little learning curve for her there. She is a good reader, but she prefers and feels more comfortable with books that are below her normal reading level. I have many times encouraged her to read Caddie Woodlawn but for some reason I think she is intimidated by the length and skill level although I know she could do it. She loves to read the YWAM missionary biographies and just finished the Betty Greene one (not sure what grade level they are). She also likes reading Nancy Drew. She has recently read The Incredible Journey but kept a dictionary by her side so she could look up the meaning of words that she was not familiar with. I say all this to kind of let you know what kind of reader she is and her skill level. Although she is going to be in 6th grade, I do not know if she will enjoy reading books that are too much higher than the ones listed. I am afraid if the independent reading choices are too difficult for her the information may go over her head or she may be intimidated and not enjoy the reading whatsoever. You have to understand that my dd thinks that she has to understand every jot and tiddle of what she reads and gets very upset if she does not understand everything to its fullest extent. She will read and reread something until she feels like she has a grasp on everything and many times I have to say you've read that enough, it is time to move on to something else. She takes the fun out of reading for herself sometimes. I try to encourage her that we do not have to understand everything we read to its fullest extent especially when we are reading for pleasure because then it ceases to be pleasure reading. Because she is so much of this mold, she is not the biggest fan of reading, but does most of her reading because she is required to for a book report or Book-It reading. I guess I want a program that will include books that she will enjoy reading and not have to struggle so much and I figure over time she will gain the confidence she needs to tackle more difficult books. Sorry so long.

It can be challenging to know where to place them, can't it? For myself, I felt much better just ordering the manual itself and reading through it cover to cover. That's when I knew that Preparing would be a perfect fit for my 12yos. I could easily see that the notebooking, dictation, narration, and reading were right on the level he needed them to be. I wasn't sure just by looking at the samples, because so much of the meat of this program is contained in the amazing teacher's guide. I could look at samples and book lists, but it wasn't until I could read the guide that it all clicked and I saw just how rich is Preparing Hearts!

For your son, keep in mind that Preparing includes three levels of dictation. These range from easy to challenging, naturally. I don't know if you can clearly see samples of this anywhere here on the site? If Carrie doesn't mind, I'll share with you three randomly chosen dictation samples (one from each level). Carrie, please let me know if it's not ok to do this.

Easiest Level
"After the rain in the winter, we can slide on the ice."

Medium Level
"Do you see those black clouds coming up in the west? I think it will rain in fifteen or twenty minutes."

Most Challenging Level
"The wind blows a gale, but the boys are so excited that their mother has promised to allow them to go out in the bitter cold. The largest boy is twelve, and he will not find it very difficult to care for his brothers."

Does that help? And it seems to me from what you've shared that your son could handle the amount of writing in Preparing Hearts just fine. I think it will increase his skill without overwhelming him. I guess his English skill level and the ability to do the independent reading are the next things to consider?

As for your daughter, it might be a good thing to let her work at an easier reading level for a while to boost her confidence and speed in reading. I think that the literature used in HOD is just amazing, truly the best of the best. I'm sure it would help ignite a love for reading. I think Preparing would be plenty for her, even without the extension package. How is her grammar? Would you be switching to Rod & Staff?

Thank you MainelyJen! I was thinking that if I did use Preparing for my ds, I would just use the grammar and math from the Bigger Manual. He is now reading books such as the Boxcar children and Magic Tree House books, so I am not sure if by next fall he would be ready for the independent reading listed in Preparing. Earlier in the current school year, he read mostly all of the emergent reader set. (I used the emergent reader set for fun reading for my ds. I just used the list and checked them out of my local library.) He is currently using Abeka 2nd grade books for Language, Reading, and Math. I was thinking of switching him to Rod & Staff 2 for Language ( I hear it is quite advanced), and Singapore for math (he'd probably have to move a grade level down in Singapore being that Abeka's scope and sequence and methods are quite different from Singapore's. We've been wanting to switch ds's math eventually anyway whether we used HOD or not.)
DD (age 11, will be 12 and in 6th grade in the middle of Sept.) is currently using Abeka 5th grade materials for everything. She pulls an A- to a B+ in Language, but due to what I am hearing of how advanced Rod & Staff is, I was thinking of moving her down into their 5th grade book (not sure, though). I am not sure about Math though. I know that I would not do a good job teaching her Abeka Math. Right now she does fine because she has the DVD, and in 6th grade you still have to purchase the full DVD package for all subjects. Obviously we are not going to pay for the full package in order to just get the math instruction. I was thinking of Saxon 7/6 with the Dive CD, possibly TT at a higher level than her grade level, but I think Singapore would be out of the question at this point. It would be too hard "to teach an old dog new tricks." She is used to the traditional way she has learned math so to stick her with a math with a whole different way of instruction would be confusing and frustrating for her. If she was younger of course I would consider Singapore. That is a little more about my children.
I also have a dd (5, will be 6 in Sept.) who I wanted to use LHFHG with. I am not sure though that time-wise I can pull it all off. I am having it easy this current year with my older dd using DVD's for all subjects, and just really teaching my ds, with dd 5 tagging along using workbooks for fun. (Just to mention, I also have a little 2 year old running around). I keep reading all of the threads of separating vs. combining and am unsure what it going to be right for our family and also doable.
I still have to pray that my dh will let my older dd switch curr. next year as well. We'll see. Thanks for your time and help!

I have another question. Are those dictation passages toward the beginning of the curr, middle, or end? I do believe my ds could handle the easy ones. I am just wondering how quickly they progress in difficulty and by the end of the year how difficult they are as opposed to the beginning. Thanks!

Just bumping this up to see if MainlyJen or anyone could respond to the information I recently posted yesterday morning. Thanks!

playschool,

Based on what you've shared, if you are desiring to combine your two older kiddos, then I think it would be best for both to use Preparing Hearts with extensions. If you end up only doing HOD with your son, and not including your daughter, then I would go with Bigger Hearts for him instead. One other option to entertain is doing Bigger Hearts with your son and having your daughter do the new ancients program mainly independently. This would work well if your daughter is used to working fairly independently and has good study habits.

I'm going to lay out a plan for combining both of your kiddos in Preparing Hearts (below), but if you feel your son just wouldn't be able to do well with Preparing Hearts, then you may wish to think more about doing the Bigger/ancients idea I mentioned above.

If you do combine both kiddos within Preparing Hearts, you're correct in thinking that you'd need the right side of the Bigger Hearts guide for your son's Rod and Staff English 2, the Singapore Math activities (with him most likely placing in 2A/2B), and the Cheerful Cursive or Italic D schedule. Or, if you're covering these areas a different way, you could do without the Bigger Hearts guide.

If you switch your daughter to Rod and Staff English, I'd most likely place her in English 5, taking 2 years to do it doing half each year. Then, in grade 8, she could do all of Rod and Staff 6 (which is what we recommend kiddos get through by grade . She'd also be able to use the Level 4 dictation passages in Preparing Hearts, or if that appears too easy you could use something else for spelling instead if you prefer.

I can understand your wish to remain with a style of math that your daughter would understand best based on her previous math experience. Either of the options you mentioned would work for that. Saxon has quite a bit more practice each day, which can be overwhelming, so you may wish to look at that part of Saxon pretty cautiously.

It sounds like both kiddos would be ready for DITHR as well. I'd put your son in Level 2/3 and your daughter in Level 4/5 (just to build her confidence, even though she could do Level 6/7/8). You could use our book packs if you desire or choose your own books for them for use with DITHR. Here's a link to the Level 2 Book Pack which would be for your son: http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional2.php
Here's a link to the Level 4/5 Girl Set for your daughter. If those books look too easy, you could instead choose your own books for her.: http://www.heartofdakota.com/DITHOR45-girls-pack.php

I'd recommend starting your kiddos with Preparing Hearts and getting in step with that program first. Then, once you've hit your stride, you could add DITHR, doing it 3 days a week as scheduled in the Preparing Hearts guide. You will most likely need to downsize the writing within Preparing Hearts for your son a bit, expecting less from him than from your daughter.

If your 5 year old seems ready to go, you could do LHFHG with her at half-speed, which would keep your time with her to 45 min. daily. You could bump her up to full-speed once you get settled in the rest of your schedule. Even if she stayed at half-speed all year in LHFHG, you'd be fine. Her retention won't be as good as if you were doing it full-speed, but she'll still be working on her needed skills and be gaining in all areas.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you Carrie for taking the time to respond to my concerns. I know you put much thought into your advice for me and my kids. If I were to just use a program for my older dd, I'd probably choose the ancients program. Because of what she is studying now, I think it would flow quite nicely. If I were to choose a separate program for my ds, like you said, my thought is that the most perfect fit would be Bigger. It all depends on if I separate them or divide them and what we can afford financially. I do believe that combined, as you said, that Preparing seems like it will work best. I have all of the info. I need now I just have to pray about what will be best for my family (of course in accordance to what my husband decides about dd either continuing on in ABeka or not.) If he wants to keep her with Abeka, than we will use Bigger with my son. If not, then we will have to decide whether to combine or not in HOD. Thanks again for all of your recommendations. By the way, one last question, in R&S English why is it that you recommend they finish the 6th grade book by the end of grade 8, instead of the 8th grade book by the end of the 8th grade year? Thanks again!

playschool,

Rod and Staff is VERY advanced grammar-wise. Truly, by going through English 6, kiddos will have the equivalent of high school level grammar instruction. We will continue to do grammar in high school with our own kiddos, just because it is excellent practice for better writing, however most high schools these days do not cover grammar at all.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you! That answers my question about R&S English. Thanks for informing me of that.