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Before I decided to use Preparing I bought a writing program to use with my oldest next year. For those of you that have used Preparing do you think it would be too much to add a writing program to Preparing.

Janet

How old/what grade is your oldest?

She will turn 9 in May and be a 4th grader next year. She is a very strong reader, but she is not a strong writer. I would like for her to become more confident writer.

Janet

The following guides after Preparing have planned writing instruction with a great writing program. Are you using R&S english? That has some writing instruction in it as well.
I would think an extra writing program might be too much for a 9yo in Preparing...it's quite meaty I'm sure, as my almost 8yo is in Bigger and it's pretty meaty! The writing is plenty! There is writing in the History and Science Notebooking and my mind is blank, but I know there is more in Bigger...so obviously, Preparing would have even more! Plus, I believe they start doing written narration lessons then too.

My personal opinion, and I think I've likely learned this from this board...is that narration skills are a pre-req for good/confident writing skills. First oral narration, then written narration, then your own writing....this progression is a superior method and sequence IMHO, and having to do too much writing, too soon, with too little skills to base it on could be more harmful than helpful! Plus more time waiting on it means more time to read great books and authors for storing up great writing examples to build from.

What program is it you are considering?

Carrie might have a totally opposite thought on this, but I imagine Preparing is plenty in all areas!

I am using Rod and Staff 2 right now. We just started and it has been extremely easy for my dd. We started Bigger a little over a month ago. The left side of the HOD guide is a good fit, but most of the right side is a little easy. Doing two lessons a day in cursive, grammar, and math makes it a great fit for her. We are planning on schooling year round which should put us starting Preparing sometime late this fall. She is very smart, but we have switched too many times and I have not been as consisent as I should have been. HOD has been the first program that my dd and I both like and is doable.

The writing progression that I had planned on using was using Writing Tales 1 next year. Then using Writing Tales 2 in 5th grade. This would lead us into Classical Writing for 6th grade through high school. My husband has mentioned putting the kids in private school for high school so I want to make sure that she is a strong writer in case we need to do that. The other consideration for Classical Writing is that it has online writing classes for high school. That is something that is important to me because it would be a good compromise between private school and homeschooling.

Janet

Janet,

The writing in Preparing Hearts is enough for kiddos within the target age range on the guide. It is also a jump up from the writing scheduled within Bigger Hearts. However, if your heart is really leading you to do another writing program, you could easily add it in on the 5th day of each week. You could even do it twice a week if needed, but I wouldn't recommend doing any more than that. You'll also want to make sure that you're not omitting parts of Preparing Hearts in order to do the additional writing, as your daughter will need the skills covered in Preparing to help her be more independent when she gets to CTC.

Blessings,
Carrie

jg_puppy wrote:She will turn 9 in May and be a 4th grader next year. She is a very strong reader, but she is not a strong writer. I would like for her to become more confident writer.

Janet

You are describing what my ds was like exactly at the beginning of this year when we started PHFHG. The creative writing lessons done in PHFHG along with the Robert Louis Stevenson's poetry has helped my ds to blossom into a creative and confident writer. I don't think I'd add a full-blown writing program to PHFHG. There is quite a bit of writing, between the notebooking, written narrations, copywork, dictation, grammar, DITHOR, lab reports, etc. We liked the way we eased into creative writing - it seemed foolproof to me, even though I was worried about my ds learning to write well. In Creation to Christ, there will be even more writing with Write with the Best. I think I'd either hold off until then, or if you want to add the writing program on the unused fifth day of the week, that might be a good way to test the waters with that as well. Back in Feb., I actually wrote a post about my ds's growth in writing that I thought I'd link you to:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2767

You will know best, but if your dd isn't a big fan of writing at this point, I'd let PHFHG do its "magic" and not overload her an additional writing program. But that is just my 2 cents - you know your dd best!!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you for all of your help. I like the idea of maybe using the other writing program two days a week since I already have it, but I will just have to wait until we get Preparing before I make a final decision.

Janet