heartofdakota.com

DD will be 9 in a couple weeks, and is a rising 4th grader (so right on the line to make it difficult to decide about extensions!). I'm going to add in some of the extension readings, but not with extension assignments. I'm going to start transitioning her to some more independence within Bigger. We are not quite half way through and due to "life" this year, I have not been consistent in our school days. Some days we do great, others never happen at all. We'll be part-time schooling through summer.

DD wants to do the history reading herself. I want her to do the science reading herself, but she says she has trouble slowing down her reading enough to picture the "stuff" in her head and doesn't want to miss anything in John Audubon, so she wants me to read that to her. That's a testament to how great the book is! LOL. I'm not sure if I should wean her into it, just make her do it and figure out how to help her s l o w down so she can visualize and savor and absorb, or just read it to her for now and let her enjoy it, then move to more independence with the next science book. And if I do have her do one of those first two options, how do I do it?

Next, if she is reading history and/or science herself, how do I know she's narrating accurately and has the right info for the projects/notebooking? Do I need to be reading ahead? How do you oversee the independent readings whether it be extensions or regular?

Are history and science the best subjects to start her moving toward independence?

I am also curious about this as well...

In PHFHG, dc read their science independently. In preparation for that, if I needed to choose something for my child to read independently in BHFHG, I'd choose the science. On Days 1 and 4, it will be important she orally narrates to you, so on those days you'll need to skim the few pages of reading. I did this when we did PHFHG's science - it's not hard to do and can be done even just right before they narrate as well as during the narration. On Days 2 and 3, I'd give the Bigger Hearts manual to her and have her follow the directions carefully in the box independently. On Day 4, she can do it fairly independently, but will need you for the short discussion at the end.

If you needed to choose another thing for dd to read independently, I'd choose the Storytime. I would be sure to do the rest of the box's interactive follow-up things, however, as they are important skills to learn and take only a handful of minutes to do. You can skim the chapter before doing them and should be fine.

I wouldn't have her read the history independently, as those books are excellent read-alouds and contain many difficult to pronounce names and places. They are also the basis for the whole left side of the plans. Dc don't take over the core reading of their history until CTC. Other than than, just teaching independence in other ways goes a long way with my dc, like teaching them to read the box's directions, to get out their books and needed supplies, to hand things in for me to check at a certain location, to put away their things when finished, to check off each box when its completed, to finish each box in an approximate amount of time, and to transition well between things all helped my dc become more adept with independence. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you Julie!! So, science and storytime it is! I feel good about that I was worried about having her do storytime herself b/c I felt like she needed to be read aloud to as intended, but then I realized...I'm still reading other subjects outloud to her, I have other children whose storytimes she'll be hearing, and we read other times outside of school as well. I'll likely not make storytime independent everyday though. Your insight is so helpful!

She needs the other mentioned skills...desperately. I know she is ready for the material of later guides, but she is not in any way ready for the independence and following directions. So this will be great training for her!

I'm so glad something here helped, Tamara! Have a wonderful Memorial Day!
In Christ,
Julie

Tamara,

You've already gotten great advice, so I'll just paste a response from a previous thread where I mentioned some ways that we made Bigger more independent as well:

When we did Bigger Hearts with our son, we looked at it as a year of training him to read from the guide and to do his own readings. This really helped my son be quite independent and was excellent preparation for learning how to follow written directions!

I had him do his own history readings and science readings (because CM says that a child of 9 who is able to read his/her own books should) and mine could. I had him get me when he was done reading and we did the follow-up activity together. However, before coming to get me, he was responsible for reading the directions for the activity (in the bottom left box) and getting everything ready for me as best as possible so that when I arrived, we were ready to go! He did his timeline, art, notebooking, and vocabulary (eventually) on his own, reading right from the guide. I just checked them when he was done. He practiced his Bible verse on his own and did his Bible verse copywork on his own. He also read over any questions in the Bible study box, and thought about the answers prior to me coming to discuss with him. Then, we did the Bible Study discussion. We listened to the hymns at lunch with all of the kiddos and me singing along.

My son did Cheerful Cursive on his own, following the schedule in the guide. He often read over his English 2 lesson and was started on it by the time I joined him. We always did at least half together though, to make sure that he got it. He always began his math on his own and I would go over the textbook lesson with him after he'd looked it over.

I did formally set aside a specific time each day to teach Drawn into the Heart of Reading, as its such an important area to make sure kiddos are thinking beneath the surface of what is read and learning to read with discernment.

My son honestly did the science completely independently, with me just checking in with him to make sure he did his lab sheets correctly and seeing that he had performed the experiment correctly. I did listen to his oral narrations with the science book in hand. Sometimes, he narrated to a younger sibling (with me looking over his shoulder).

The Extension Pack readings are meant to be done independently.

These are just my thoughts, and you will certainly know best, however I wanted to give you some food for thought on some ways to still cover the skills that are woven within Bigger Hearts while making it more independent.

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie, now that is the post I was looking for!! Thank you. I think we will start with what I posted above for independence, and work our way up to what you did. She is going to need that transition time, not b/c she can't handle the readings and assignments, but b/c she has forgotten how to follow directions AT ALL and staying on task is an issue if there is writing involved.

You ladies are great! These ideas are going to help me keep things moving along through summer, without anyone getting burned out. Plus, PHFHG won't be a shock to her when we get there! You don't know how much that means to me! Now to break the news to dd that I won't be reading John Audubon to her. LOL.

Carrie, am I right in not doing anything along with the extension books since she is 9, but in 4th grade?