heartofdakota.com

ok, i am looking a little ahead, but i don't want to double up.
i recently bought a unit study using the Chronicles of Narnia for school year. It looked like such a neat thing to do and it was half the cover price.
i am thinking of using it when my daughter is 9.5yrs (4th) and son almost 11 yrs (5th or 6th -ish).
i am wondering if i should skip the guide they would have done that year or if after we have done that unit study for a year, just pick up in that guide for our next school year?
both my kids will be doing the guides starting at the youngest age of them. they will be in separate guides.
i just feel like they might miss some History if i skip the guide altogether.

Then i keep thinking. .. "Why did i purchase this unit study". i could have just do an extra story-time (family time of reading them together during that year) so maybe i should just sell the unit study. Ugh! i thought, i thought that purchase thru. I need to just stick with HOD and not make things complicated, right?

So any thoughts to reassure me?

Maybe you could do both at the same time and just stretch them out??? I know the older guides are only scheduled for 4 days a week. Maybe you could do the HOD guide 3 days a week (so it would take slightly longer than a year) and do the other unit study 2 days a week, stretching it out over 2 years. Just a thought. I know for myself, I would NOT want to skip a HOD guide. There is just too much fabulous stuff in these guides to miss one, and they each build upon the previous guide.

My ds is 8, but not quite ready to start preparing in the fall. He will be 9 by then, but his reading, writing, and independent skills need to be strengthened. So, I plan to do our State History for the first semester next year. He is the right age for that, and although I could try to squeeze it in along with a guide, I would prefer just focusing on that and getting the most out of that experience.

Also, Carrie has left some room so that we don't have to start them right at 5 or so that we can take a little longer on a guide or whatever. I love how flexible HOD is.

I would say that if your children are on the young side for the guides, you wouldn't be hurting them at all by taking a little side trip. But I wouldn't want to skip a guide.

Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

In His love,
RuthAnn

I wouldn't want to skip a guide, as one of the fruits of doing HOD is all that is gained year after year of doing them in a row. I cannot put into words how wonderful it is to see a skill they've learned blossom from its beginning stage to its independent stage. I think when you skip a guide or do something else for a year, you lose that building time of a skill and instead of dc making it to the independent stage in a skill, they often slip back to the beginning stage of it. For example, the first year we learned written narrations in PHFHG it was definitely a beginning skill for my ds that was hard for him to do without my guidance (blessedly PHFHG's plans helped me out with this). The next year in CTC, which we are doing now, I have had to provide minimal guidance with written narrations, often just giving an idea or two for improvement next time. I can foresee with excitement that next year in RTR, I will be able to just say, "Write a written narration" and my ds will be able to do it independently and quite well. If I'd skipped a guide, we'd either be back to me guiding it, or me overseeing it for sure. Oral narrations are the same way. Vocabulary, lab sheets, etc. all fall into this category too. Skills in HOD are sort of like a snowball - they just keep picking up speed and rolling themselves into bigger and better... well, snowballs. I just wouldn't want you to only be at the stage of helping roll the ball up the hill , get to the top, and then miss being able to give a gentle push to let them roll down the hill on their own, picking up speed as they go all by themselves. Sorry for all this talk about snow, I'm just practically buried in it right now, so it's obviously on my mind. Anyway, if I were you, I'd do HOD 4 days a week, and the unit study on the 5th. day. OR, I'd do the unit study in the summer, and finish it out the fifth day of each week. OR, I'd sell that unit study and get some HOD things with that money.

In Christ,
Julie