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Just curious - Who else will be using Preparing in the fall? What else will you be adding?

I'll be using it with a 10 yob, Luke. (He turns 10 in 20 days!) He'll be doing R&S 4 for English; MCP for Math. My plan is to do 3 or 4 genres from DITHR this year.

His other activities are Kajukenbo (martial arts), piano lessons (soon to switch to guitar), and Cub Scouts.

Great Thread!! I'm curious too.

Yes, we are planning to use Preparing this fall. My son will turn 9 this April. Probably use Rod and Staff 4 (he's in R&S 3 right now . I'm not sure about the math. This year we did R&S math 3 and Math-U-See. I was hoping to get some guidance from Carrie on the math for next year. Since I'm so new to HOD, I haven't decided on what else to add. I think the DITHOR sounds very interesting though.

I'll be using it with a 10yo boy too. We'll be using R&S English 3. We began the R&S English this year, but haven't gotten that far, so we'll just repeat.

We'll be using MUS for math, rather than Singapore.

I'm not sure what we'll add in as far as DITHOR is concerned. I'm a first time user, so I'll have to dig into it once I order it.

hugsathome,

I thought I'd chime in on your math question. I'm not Carrie, and this is just my experience and preference. So take what you like, and chuck the rest

We used Singapore for two years and really enjoyed it. I don't think you can go wrong with Singapore. We liked it for all the reasons that most people like it: mental math, easy to teach, etc.

I switched to MUS last year in an effor to streamline our homeschool over the years. I really wanted to use a math curriculum that went from K to 12 for convenience, and regularity sake. As I looked at Singapore's math for high schoolers, I wasn't impressed. I liked what MUS offered in all the grades, so we switched.

My son loves math, and the switch has been fairly easy. The only thing that I noticed was that word problems in MUS were harder for him initially, becuase they were worded differently than in Singapore. He was used to standard clue words like "altogether" in the Singapore problems. They sort of showed him what to do. However, he wasn't really thinking through the words of the problem. Does that make sense?

This may not be an issue for other children. Reading has been more of a struggle, so I wasn't surprised by this. Anyway, those are the reasons that we chose MUS.

I'll be using Preparing with 2 girls, who will be 9 and 10 then (the 10 year old has a January birthday, so she will be 11 mid-schoolyear). They will be in 4th and 5th grade.
I have found Singapore has grown on us, so they will move up to level 3 for the 4th grader and level 4 for the 5th grader.
They wiill both use Rod and Staff English 3, since we began with English 2 this year, and they had no real formal grammar before.
We are using all the resources recommended, but I will have to see how my 5th grader's reading comes along before I decide whether or not to use the 5th/6th package of books.
We will also use DITHOR-again, the level will depend on reading and writing improvements with my girls.
I am having such a good year using Bigger as written, that I don't plan to change a thing in Preparing!
The 4th grader will probably go back to gymnastics and maybe continue ballet , which she started this year, and the younger will continue with ballet and maybe add in tap. I'd love to add instrument lessons, but don't know if we can squeeze the budget any more

I think this thread got buried in the board, as I know many more moms are using "Preparing..." next year!

I will be using "Preparing..." with my second son next year. He is 9 and will be a fourth grader next year.

As to Singapore, hugsathome, I'd be glad to help with any questions you might have. Here's a link to a thread about why we use Singapore Math in our guides:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=112

Here's a link to the Singapore placement test, if you're coming from another math program:
http://www.singaporemath.com/Placement_Test_s/86.htm

Ask away if you have other questions!

Blessings,
Carrie

Oh please do not make me jealous! I love what preparing covers and what it uses. I love what we are doing too. But I know I am going to cry when I hear how fun preparing is. But I guess I still want to hear. So when you all get your manuals and start using it please let us hear your stories!

water2wine wrote:Oh please do not make me jealous! I love what preparing covers and what it uses. I love what we are doing too. But I know I am going to cry when I hear how fun preparing is. But I guess I still want to hear. So when you all get your manuals and start using it please let us hear your stories!

Yes.., YES..., A thousand times YES!!!! I feel your pain W2W! I will not covet, I will not covet, I will not covet!

MamaMary wrote: Yes.., YES..., A thousand times YES!!!! I feel your pain W2W! I will not covet, I will not covet, I will not covet!

At least we will get to start kind of mid year since we started Bigger early. I am not wanting to rush through Bigger. I love it and my kids really need the History there BUT I am excited to use Preparing. I think I will go ahead and covet a little bit.

water2wine wrote:

MamaMary wrote:
At least we will get to start kind of mid year since we started Bigger early. I am not wanting to rush through Bigger. I love it and my kids really need the History there BUT I am excited to use Preparing. I think I will go ahead and covet a little bit.

Yes, we probably will place our order for Preparing next February, so that's not too bad. AND..., since you are coveting, I will too!

We'll be using Preparing next year with my ds who will be 8 turning 9 yo. We'll be using Singapore 3A/3B, and R & S English 3. I'll be doing DITHOR Level 4/5, covering 4-5 of the genres. We'll be doing the guide as is, and like Lourdes, we've been having such a great year with Bigger..., that I am eagerly anticipating Preparing... Thanks for this thread - it's great to see who here I'll get to go through it with! And w2w and Mary - I don't think it's a bad thing to covet doing a Christian curriculum with your children - it's like coveting more time with God - and that's a good thing!
Julie

I wanted to use it with my 12 year old, but he's not keen on anything right now, so I didn't get it. (yet!)
but I know I will be using it with my 9 yr old after he does Bigger this year.
And that might be earlier then I think-when our box came today he informed me we would be starting it monday.

my3sons wrote: And w2w and Mary - I don't think it's a bad thing to covet doing a Christian curriculum with your children - it's like coveting more time with God - and that's a good thing!

I love having something to look forward to. I want to hear all about it! Can't wait until people start using it and talking about it. I'm excited some of the families here will be using it because I want to read all your posts!

Hi,
I'm Charlene and I mostly lurk on this board, but I wanted to join in on this thread. We plan to use Preparing next fall for my 10yo dd (5th grade). She is currently using Bigger and loves it. Math is not my dd strong suit and we found a nice fit for her using BJU Math on Homesat, so she'll continue with 5th grade BJU math. She is using a formal grammar program (BJU again) this year for 4th, and though she's doing well with it, I"m thinking of relaxing a bit next year for her. Perhaps, as I saw Carrie mention in another post, doing formal grammar every other year with her. So LA has not been decided at this point for us yet. I'm sure we'll use the extension books because we love history read-alouds here at our house. Currently, my dd is involved in piano lessons and since we live in New England we have an indoor homeschool sports program that meets once a week for exercise. She and her brother really enjoy it.
We're looking forward to seeing the sample week for Preparing posted on the website soon and using the new curriculum next fall.
Charlene...
10yo dd Bigger
7yo ds Little Hearts

Charlene,

I'm so glad you popped in out of lurkdom! I'm also happy that your dd is loving "Bigger..." this year. We'll have so much fun doing "Preparing..." next year with all of the moms who have already shared that they'll be using it too!

Blessings,
Carrie