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He he... I just have to share this. We started Bigger Hearts today. When we got to the Bible verse part, I told my sons we had to come up with hand or body movements to help us to remember the verse. We have never done anything like that before! My oldest son's eyes got really big and he said, "Oh, Momma, we've bitten off more than we can chew here!"
I'm so proud of myself! I stayed positive and was determined to keep it fun, but I didn't let them weasel out of it. Would you believe that we came up with the cutest movements? And, it really did help us to learn the verse!!

Well, just had to share. It ended up being the high-light of our day! I was so afraid we wouldn't be able to pull it off at all, but I remembered Julie's post about doing the exercise with the children. They were all smiles and my youngest son was just beside himself in laughter. They loved that I got involved, too.

DHT1999 wrote: "Oh, Momma, we've bitten off more than we can chew here!" .

I love it!!

HOD (well Carrie) really does know what we need. I remember when I first started LHTH with my dd and I felt so silly in the beginning doing all the little finger plays, but when I saw my dd light up and really get into it, then I realized just what a blessing it truely was. Now we are doing LHFHG and we all love the Rhymes in Motion. I am so glad to hear that when we get to Bigger we will still get to do "motions." It really has become a favorite for us.

Donna T.,

Now that you have Bigger with extensions in your hand, how do you think it looks for your 10 yr. old.

I'm considering doing it with an 8 and 10 yr. old and was wondering if the extensions would be good for my 10 yr. old.

Your thoughts would be appreciated!

Shannon

Donna,

That is so neat to hear!

Julie is going to be very proud of you!

Candice

sted wrote:Donna T.,

Now that you have Bigger with extensions in your hand, how do you think it looks for your 10 yr. old.

I'm considering doing it with an 8 and 10 yr. old and was wondering if the extensions would be good for my 10 yr. old.

Your thoughts would be appreciated!

Shannon

Hi, Shannon!

I couldn't be happier with it. I love the Extension Package books. There is plenty for my 10 yr old to cover. With the basic books plus the Extension Package books plus the books he is reading for DITHOR, it is plenty. The only area that I will need to add to a bit will be science and that is only because he has previously covered some of the material in Bigger Hearts. There is enough new things in there for him that I don't feel the need to go overboard and he reads alot of science/natural history books on his own, so it's no pressing need. I'll stick to living books for that and not add an elaborate extra science curriculum. I have always followed a delight directed approach with him for science, so his interests will dictate where we go with that. We will be reading through an advanced astronomy text together. He is excited about studying science within the context of history.

He will be following the Language Arts portion of the Preparing Hearts. Otherwise, he'll be doing everything in Bigger Hearts.

The only problem with the books in the Extension Package is that I had a hard time designating them as independent reading for him! I'd love to read them out loud and my youngest son would enjoy the extra books.

Shannon, it's not just the books themselves that I consider to be "enough." The actual assignments in the Bigger Hearts guide are also sufficient, in my opinion. Carrie gives several suggestions of things you can do with the Extension Package books to add more assignments (like written narrations) if desired.

Just wanted to point that out because I wondered about that earlier.

That is good to know, Donna! I just ordered Bigger and I'll be using it with my 11yo next year, who will technically be in 6th grade. I can't wait to get it and look it over! She will be doing additional science as well and I'm also going to use DITHOR. I'm getting excited about next school year already!

Sheila in OK wrote:That is good to know, Donna! I just ordered Bigger and I'll be using it with my 11yo next year, who will technically be in 6th grade. I can't wait to get it and look it over! She will be doing additional science as well and I'm also going to use DITHOR. I'm getting excited about next school year already!

Oh, Sheila, I'm happy for you! I hope you just love it. I have to tell you... if I hadn't gotten a few of those books that I got from you awhile back, I may never have found HOD! It was a couple of those titles that sent me looking elsewhere! Oh, not to worry... I'm selling them, also!!

Donna -

I AM so proud of you! That is so great to hear, and I would have loved to watch that unfold. Now, you've set the tone for a wonderful year of "moving" to the Bible verses! And, it truly is a memory aid. In fact, I have to say the body movements have helped ME memorize more Scripture too - I especially need them with PHFHG because the verses are longer. I don't think my ds could have memorized the Scriptures without the movements. Thanks for telling about this happy moment!

In Christ,
Julie

Donna,

You had me smiling along with your thread too! I'm so glad that you enjoyed your day with Bigger Hearts. I have found that my boys enjoy thinking ahead to add motions to the Bible verse even as they get older, as its a good memory aid for long passages too! I've discovered it also is a real help to me in remembering the verse. At 40, I need all the help I can get in the memorization department!

Blessings,
Carrie

DHT1999 wrote:

Oh, Sheila, I'm happy for you! I hope you just love it. I have to tell you... if I hadn't gotten a few of those books that I got from you awhile back, I may never have found HOD! It was a couple of those titles that sent me looking elsewhere! Oh, not to worry... I'm selling them, also!!

Glad I could help! I wish I had found out Core 3 wasn't going to work for us before I got several weeks into it, but hey, better late than never. It will be fun comparing notes as we go through this journey together!