Beyond->other->Preparing

[wcoffey]

We just began Beyond, and LOVE it! I am planning for the next school year because we will be starting in February. Last school year we did Early American History with Beautiful Feet Books, which took us up to Buffalo Bill. Like I said, we are currently doing Beyond. But next year I want to do a Countries and Culture Study. Could I skip Bigger and do my Countries and Culture's Study and then pick back up with Preparing the following year? I'm just not sure if we can handle 3 years in a row on American History. I know that each year has a different take on it, but it just seems like a lot of American History. We don't do the Language/Math because we use BJU (it's what works for us), so that's not an issue. According to the placement chart this is where my girls fall. Both their birthdays are in January and currently they are 8 and 6 years old. Has anyone ever done something like this? I just don't want to regret it if I don't do Bigger.

[Mom2Monkeys]

I think it could probably work...so long as you continued on with the storytimes, dictation, and oral narration to keep them progressing in those areas so they will be ready for Preparing. Maybe you could do DITHOR that year as well. What will you be using for your county/culture study just to give an idea of what it covers in the skills your dc need for HOD?

[wcoffey]

I like some of the materials that MFW uses. (Window on the World, Global Art, Hero Tales, Ywam books.) But my plan is to create my own but format it like Carrie's TM. I like the flow that she does. We are starting DITHOR in Sept. and we will be reading the Ywam Missionary books for our storytime.

[Mom2Monkeys]

I like some of their materials as well for ECC. We tried ECC this past year before HOD and it was basically teaching for me and letting the kids grab bits and pieces of what they could. If you are going to skip a year to do the country study, I like your idea of using some of their stuff and modeling it after the HOD guides much better than using ECC as is. So will you just basically use some of the plans in Bigger (poetry, dictation, science, Bible...) and just replace history with parts of ECC?

[threegreatkids]

We're just finishing a Countries and Cultures year, and can't wait to do BHFHG in a few months!
If you really can't bear another year of American history, I think Tamara mentioned a really good idea about using the manual for Bigger and just replacing the history with your version of geography study. That way you wouldn't lose the HOD flow.
Or...what about doing Bigger (which is quite different from the other American History programs you've mentioned) but just using the YWAM books for Storytime that year instead of the HOD lists? Kind of half-history, half-geography? Of course you wouldn't be able to use the genre study from the Storytime box b/c they would all be the same genre
Window on the World and Global Art are easy to add in anytime.
The issue we had with a multi-age geography year this year was that the age range was wide and we had to drop some things, but we didn't replace them with age-appropriate ones. So my kids did very little notebooking, for example, and did not grow much in their writing skills. Just thought I'd mention that.
Just FYI, there is a nice study of geography woven into the HOD guides. We have the manuals for LHFHG, BHFHG and PHFHG and from glancing through it seems like geography will be covered well over the years.
Oh, and keep in mind that Hero Tales is used in Preparing! Great book!
Hope you have a great year!

[my3sons]

Oooooo, I can hardly handle the thought of you not getting to do Bigger Hearts! It is done biographically, so it gives a totally different feel of American history than Beyond did (or anything else I've looked at for that matter). Bigger Hearts' Learning through History side also includes a lot of LA skills that did a super job of getting my ds reading for PHFHG. We did vocabulary study, oral narrations, notebooking, experiments, poetic devices study, etc. - all linked to the history. These skills were introduced in Bigger Hearts, and there was a lot of necessary hand-holding as we did them. But, because we'd done them in Bigger Hearts in this manner, it was super easy for my ds to be independent with them in PHFHG. This allowed him to grow in these areas in Bigger Hearts, and we reaped the rewards of that in PHFHG. Because Bigger Hearts is a biographical study of American history, it is a great study after Beyond. My ds loved it as a follow-up to Beyond, and even if you have spent a lot of time in American history, I do still think your dc would love Bigger Hearts! So, for that reason, and for the reasons I mentioned above about Bigger Hearts being a great "trainer" for PHFHG, I'd still say do Bigger Hearts next. But, you will know best!

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Wendy,

The ladies are doing a good job of talking through options with you. With my oldest son, we did a trip through BF Early American History in his early years of schooling (before we had written our guides), and one thing you may want to consider is that by doing BF Early American and Beyond, you'll have early American history well-covered, but you won't have touched upon the rest of American history. So, I would definitely lean toward doing Bigger Hearts to complete your tour through American history. Throughout the HOD guides, we do cover geography weekly in coordination with the history study, so there isn't a need for a separate year of geography study. However, you will know best if your family deeply desires a geography year to meet your family goals.

While each of our programs can be used even if you've missed some of the previous HOD programs, the skills in one guide do nicely prepare a child for the next guide in line. So, there's much to be gained independence and maturity-wise by moving from one guide to the next with your kiddos. Just something to ponder.

We do use Hero Tales within Preparing Hearts, and it would easy to add your missionary biographies into your Biography read-aloud portion of the Bigger Hearts guide. You could also use the missionary biographies for your DITHR Biography study.

My oldest son and I did read through all of Windows on the World as scheduled in our Sonlight core when we did that in his early years of school and found the initial readings to be wonderfully eye-opening, but as we continued on through the entire book in a year it got to be fairly depressing and overwhelming. While I do want my kiddos to know what goes on in the rest of the world and to know about the many people groups who need the Lord, there is a balance to strike in reading about those situations on a daily basis. If I had to do it again, I would spread Windows on the World out over several years, reading it once weekly and praying for that particular people group for a week at a time.

Blessings,
Carrie

[wcoffey]

Thanks everyone for the tips. I think that I will still do a Countries and Culture study but just as an add on instead of replacing Bigger. I don't want to loose a year of HOD. I do understand that geography is throughout HOD's studies, which I LOVE, but I want to focus on the culture of each country. I believe that it's important for my children to learn about the culture and the people, and also how to pray for each country, so If God were to call any of my children to the mission field, or even to be a prayer partner, then they will be familiar with the diverse cultures that are out side of their world. I am going to make up my own study so I can adjust it to our needs. I'm calling it.. "Sharing a Heart for Him Around the World." Again, thanks for all the tips!:)!

[Jessi]

So what are you planning on using to create your countries and cultures study? I am very interested in this for the same reasons you mentioned. I'd be curious to see what you are doing. Thanks. You are making me brave enough to possibly put my own together as well.

[acts29stl]

Voice of the Marytrs has a lot of excellent material for children to learn about Christians in other countries. Check out their website kidsofcourage.com They have manuals put together for different countries and would be easy to add-on to a school day. Plus they give you prayer points to pray for that country and the Christian needs there.

[wcoffey]

Thanks for that website info, I'll have to check it out. As far as what materials that i'll be using...I'm not 100% sure yet. I have a friend who has MFW EC&C. I will probably use the Window on the World, Hero Tales Vol. 1, Global Art, Wee Sing Around the World CD, and Ywam Missionary Biography Books-these are all books MFW uses. I'll add in a cooking around the world book. A missionary coloring book (It has children from around the world dressed in their clothing, a map, John 3:16 writen in their language, and the country's flag). I am currently looking for a good World Atlas ( I have one on order). I also have some materials that I have gotten from Chick-fa-la kid's meals, such as CDs with different languages on them (one has Chinese, another Italian, etc.). Hopefully I can get it all together by February. So I can start it in March 2010.

[threegreatkids]

wendy,

Just remember that Hero Tales 1 will be used in Preparing. Do you want to read it twice, back to back? I'm not sure what we will do about that when we get to Preparing in a year, but we will have had a year since reading it so I think it'll be OK.

The books you mentioned are all great resources! If you find that you are getting burned out doing all of that alongside a full HOD program, you could always spread your countries/cultures study over 2 years.

For what it's worth, what you are planning is what I wish we had done:) If we had discovered HOD earlier we could have done Bigger this past year and added those great missionary/country/cultures resources on in various ways over several years. They were great for opening my kids eyes to God's amazing world. but i trust that God led my family to HOD at exactly the right time, and for that I am most thankful!!!

[wcoffey]

I feel the same way about God leading us to HOD at the right time. We tried Little Hearts and we were not successful, due to my own fault of not knowing how to place my children. (One was ready and one was not.) So we just used the suggested materials. But I told every about it, especially new homeschooling families! I loved it, I just did not use it, until now! And WE LOVE IT!
I will definately be doing 2 years of countries and cultures, if I continue with Bigger. My plan is to have my son, who is doing Little Hands, to take a year off from HOD to do the countires and cultures study that I put together.
I know about the Hero Tales, and I am not sure that I will use it with the C&C study. But if I do use it I won't be using all of it, only of a few of the stories.
Thanks for all your input.!