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I'm wondering if Preparing schedules all the chapters of CHOW except those initial ones that seem to support evolution?

How "hands on" is Preparing? My kids at this point seem to need something interesting activity wise to cement information. Right now we're doing something hands on every day.

How much death or similar detail is there? One of my kids is very sensitive. I know there are going to be battle and death in any world history. I guess I'm wondering about detail and specifics.

What we thought of Preparing:
My kiddos loved it. I had dc 9 & 10 in the program. We did a history project that was divided to last three days of the week, as well as time line activities that really helped them put everything in order, even if they did not remember exact dates. My ds really enjoyed the hands on projects, one of the reasons we switched from previous curriculum, along with being God-centered (the other reason we switched). About CHOW, as far as I remember, just about every chapter with the exception of the beginning chapters were covered, but not in order (and because of that, I could be wrong about them all being covered....maybe someone with a better memory will give you more accurate information.

About the sensitivity issue: I think Carrie does a great job of dealing with the subject matter in a way that will not upset sensitive kiddos...but neither of mine are very sensitive, so maybe someone with sensitive dc will chime in! The boys would rather hear details, but I am thankful that they did not

Hope that helps!!

In addition to the history project you do Draw and Write through history which is a great drawing program to reinforce what they are learning. Also the Science notebooking helps reinforce things by the maps, pictures etc that you draw. My ds loved the star book he made in Preparing where he drew the constellations.

As far as CHOW goes you do all the chapters except the first few. Carrie does a good job of giving warnings in the guide if something is going to be in the readings that kids might be sensitive to. My ds is sensitive, but didn't seem to have issue with anything.

I think Preparing is more hands on than Beyond and Bigger. There's quite a bit of drawing. History Project, Draw & Write through History, and Science has two a week and Poetry if you opt to draw the poem. Most of it is drawing, but dd likes to draw so we are enjoying it all.

We loved PHFHG, and part of the reason we did was because of the hands-on things included each day. I don't think a day went by when we didn't do something hands-on. I have to say the way HOD does hands-on for older students is pretty amazing. I like hands-on projects, but I think they are hard to make appropriate for older dc, which is why so many curriculums just don't include them. HOD has chosen hands-on projects that fit older dc well. I love that the activities are written to match the living books we are reading in history and science. I also love that the directions are written to the student more and more as they get older, so they can be "in charge" of doing their hands-on projects. I've noticed my ds and my nephew both long for more independence in projects as they get older. HOD lets them have it. I don't have to hover and go through things with them. Instead, they take ownership of their work, follow the HOD guide as they would an instruction manual, and then I get to see the lovely final results. My ds has learned to follow step-by-step directions well because of the history projects in HOD. He can put together almost anything, follow directions for recipes, learn new games and hobbies - all because of the projects in HOD. One last thing I enjoy is every child's project turns out slightly different - there are no cookie-cutter copies of things - instead, each child can put his own stamp of creativity and personality into his projects. My second ds's projects look different from my older ds's projects back when he did those guides, and I love that. HTH! Enjoy PHFHG - it's a joy to teach!

In Christ,
Julie