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I was wondering if the CD from The True Story of Noah's Ark is used in the lesson plans for Preparing. I have owned the book for a long time (and my kids have studied it often). I would rather not repurchase the book if the CD is not an integral part of the lessons. If it is, I guess I will bite the bullet and do so.

I also was wondering if the internet portion is used for the Usborne Internet-Linked Ancient World Encyclopedia. I have the original version from before it was "internet-linked." This book is in the extension package.

If I am counting correctly, at this point I only need to purchase 22 of the 49 books for Preparing with extensions AND the deluxe history package.

We have ALL of the books in the economy package except for the Teacher's Guide.

I also have this dilemma. This is really where I believe my son will do the best. He is 10, going into 5th grade. He is going to be using R&S English 4 (because that is where he is anyway, HOD aside) and he will be in Singapore 5A (because that is what he is on, again before we found HOD). Grandpa's Box is one of his favorite books. He has owned it for a few years and has read it 5 or 6 times (by his own estimation). He has read Life in the Great Ice Age at least 3 times. He has read Hero Tales once and read other biographies of almost everyone in the book. We have used CHOW in the past, but he never "pored over it" like the other books. Of the 25-27 books I own, the only one he hasn't already read at least once or twice is the Usborne Ancient World Encylclopedia. I LOVE that HOD chooses books that suit our family well (OBVIOUSLY!), but I'm not sure what to do since he's already read all of these. I don't think he can handle CTC, but then again, he may surprise me. Plus, that's where I'm putting his seventh grade sister and I would really like to split them up for next year. I know I've mentioned this dilemma before, but as I am getting ready to purchase resources, it really hit me just how many of the Preparing books that my son has DEVOURED, re-read, talked about and made a part of his life already. He would enjoy it, but will it properly teach the skills of narration that I feel he needs to work on (the ONLY reason I'm not putting him in CTC) if he can already almost quote the books he is going to be studying?

Again, I'm loving the great resources (and the confirmation of what we've already been doing ), but it's really making it hard to be sure I'm doing the right thing for him.

I can't give any advice about your dilemma, but I can tell you that it looks like The True Story of Noah's Ark is just scheduled to be read - I don't see that the CD is scheduled at all.

The book is scheduled to be read. I had my book a couple of years before Preparing and misplaced the CD, we had no problems doing Preparing without it. (like PP mentioned it is not even scheduled) We just read the book aloud. I did wish I did have the CD only for the sole purpose of one less thing I had to read aloud (it was our first year doing HOD) If my memory serves me correctly, the CD is just the book being read aloud (with sound affects)

The Noah's Ark CD is not used, and the links in the Ancient Book are not used either, unless dc choose to further research by using the links on their own. We had read CHOW in its entirety a few years before reading it in PHFHG, and my ds didn't remember it at all. This kind of saddened me, but I had just read it aloud at night, and he was young when he listened to it. Our second time through CHOW can't even be compared to our first time reading it. The entire left side of the plans truly made it come alive. I think the CM skills of oral and written narration do wonders to help dc retain information. The history projects, timeline, geography, and research were other areas that made everything feel new and fresh. Excellent books just beg to be reread, and you'd be spending a very short amount of time on "Life in the Great Ice Age" and "Hero Tales". My ds has read "Hero Tales" at least a dozen times - he just loves it - I wouldn't worry about that one. "Grandpa's Box" is the one that covers a longer period of time in the guide, and it is the one that your ds has read more of, but that was one of our favorite books from that year! If your ds knows it in and out, praise the Lord, as those stories are His! I wouldn't worry about it, as the pairing of CHOW with "Grandpa's Box" will give it a different feel overall. As far as the narrating skills, he'll really only have a heads-up with "Grandpa's Box" stories, and many books are narrated on throughout the year, so that should be just fine. I think I'd do PHFHG with him, knowing that although a few books will be repeats, it will be so worth it as your ds will be learning so many important skills from the foundation up! PHFHG did an outstanding job of preparing our ds for the increased rigor of CTC. I think this year in PHFHG will be foundational for your ds, and doing PHFHG this year should make it a steady, satisfying journey through the rest of the HOD guides! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for the information about the resource books.

Thanks for the also for the confirmation of curriculum choice, Julie! If nothing else, this will be a fun relaxed year for him and we can focus on his math and English. He actually is a very bright and diligent student. So, I don't have too many worries as far as he is concerned.

He was reading the Trojan Horse book to his little brother the other day. He has read the Viking Quest series 3-4 times; all the D'Aulaire books (including Leif the Lucky and Columbus) several times; the Minstrel in the Tower and Door in the Wall were read at the beginning of this school year (once me reading it aloud and then he read it on his own); Pedro's Journal he did as an extension for Bigger; Tirzah was a favorite in our Egypt and early Biblical history studies; Triumph for Flavius was another he says he remembers and enjoyed. As I read the book list to him, he was excited. I think the Draw and Write through History will be great for him! (He HATES drawing and other "art stuff" but this might help.) Beorn the Proud is one I think he has only read twice. Adam of the Road was a family read aloud. Louis Pasteur and the Einstein books will be interesting for him to read again. (Can you tell we have a lot of biographies in our house? We have the whole Sowers Series, both YWAM Series, a lot of the Childhood of Famous Americans books, a lot of the Trailblazers books, a lot of the LandMark books. We also have anything more than a year old of Master Books creation things for kids-- and a lot for adults. ) But he doesn't mind AT ALL. And if you don't think that his narrating skills will be hampered by already being very familiar with the books, I won't worry about it.

What a rich diet of books your ds has at his fingertips! Just what CM would have ordered up. You love many of the same living books HOD does - I think you'll find HOD a wonderful match! My ds was not a fan of drawing either, but he thoroughly enjoys the "Draw and Write..." books in HOD, and I liked that it greatly improved his drawing skills. I hope you find the same to be true for your ds!

In Christ,
Julie

My kids loved Draw and Write! All except the cursive copywork part but they got over it. They really did like the drawing parts though and felt proud of their drawings that they did with it.

gotpeace91 wrote:My kids loved Draw and Write! All except the cursive copywork part but they got over it. They really did like the drawing parts though and felt proud of their drawings that they did with it.

My son hasn't "enjoyed" either part this week. But, I have LOVED seeing him doing his best, working diligently and moving on!

He loves to READ, loves to play baseball, loves to play chess, loves math. He does NOT love anything small motor too much. I think part of it is his "left-handedness," part of it is his "boyness," and part of it is just "personality." (There also may be a small dose of "Mommy didn't do enough crafts with him when he was little" thrown in there as well. )

But, as I said, things are going well anyways and I am SO GLAD!

Well, when I was growing up, every year my school would give out a little character trait certificate and I always got "Creative". So maybe some of that got passed down to my kids. I'm sorry that he hasn't been too thrilled with it but you can Definitely be proud of him for doing his best and working on it diligently. Maybe he will grow to like it more as the year goes on and he gets more comfortable with it. hmm...both of my kids strongly dislike Math. I wonder if there's a connection there? Anyway, so glad to hear that things are going well. We loved Preparing and look back on it with fond memories.