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I was wondering who was doing Preparing this year. I would love to hear your experiences so far with it.

Edie

Hi Edie,

I am doing Preparing with my nearly 9 yr old daughter.....we are about to start Unit 4. We are loving it! Is there anything specific you wanted to know?

cirons wrote:Hi Edie,

I am doing Preparing with my nearly 9 yr old daughter.....we are about to start Unit 4. We are loving it! Is there anything specific you wanted to know?

I have a young 9 yr old dd (September birthday). Have you found that things are on level with the academics for your dc's needs or do you think they go too slow or too fast. My dd is very bright. Can you speed up things if they seem too easy or skip things?

What are your favorite parts so far?

Just trying to get a feel for what to expect.

-Edie

We are! We are starting Unit 4 this week. My DS will be 9 in March, is bright and reads way above his grade level. Preparing seems just right for him right now. There is A LOT more writing in it than Bigger, but he seems to be doing really well even with all the writing -- no complaining, tears, etc. He loves having boxes that are "his" -- meaning he is responsible for reading the directions and completing them on his own. He just did his science experiment yesterday...I laid out what he needed for it and he completed it all and then we discussed it together. Science right now is his favorite! If he hadn't done Bigger last year, he would definitely have a harder time doing as much on his own as he is right now in Preparing, though.

I think you will have to see how your DD does with it and then go from there as to if you need to speed up or slow down. It would be really hard to speed up Preparing, IMO. It takes us at least 3 hours to complete most of it, but that also includes English and Math. We usually still have 2 or so boxes left to do after lunch. I would say it takes most kids at least 3.5 or so hours for sure. As far as skipping some of it, I think if you skipped too much, you might miss out on the depth and beauty of Preparing -- part of the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education is reading short amounts of the material in one sitting that you take a while to "chew" on/narrate/discuss. Sometimes we have skipped an art project or two, but I do my best to get all the boxes done as much as possible. It all ties together so wonderfully, I would hate for someone to miss out on that!

HTH! Let us know if you have any other questions!

doubleportion wrote:

cirons wrote:Hi Edie,

I am doing Preparing with my nearly 9 yr old daughter.....we are about to start Unit 4. We are loving it! Is there anything specific you wanted to know?

I have a young 9 yr old dd (September birthday). Have you found that things are on level with the academics for your dc's needs or do you think they go too slow or too fast. My dd is very bright. Can you speed up things if they seem too easy or skip things?

What are your favorite parts so far?

Just trying to get a feel for what to expect.

-Edie

Hi Edie,

My daughter would probably be classified as above average in a school classroom (not top of the class but above the average) and she finds Preparing enjoyable and challenging at the same time. I would definitley not say it was too easy at all. One of the beautiful things about the HOD program is that it is not so much about how intelligent your child is but building great skills to be able to learn more independently. It caters for such a wide range of abilities within one program because your child can answer/write/respond to the various subjects at the skill level they are at. So if your daughter is very bright, you can expect more from her in a narration, or more detailed responses to questions etc.
In regards to DITHOR, because my daughter's reading age is higher than her writing skills, I have bought the 4/5 girl book pack, but I am only expecting her to do the 2/3 activities because her skills in writing and composition are needing more work.
Personally, I would not want to skip things! It is all so beautifully connected and this really helps solidify things they learn in history, science and bible. Doing everything as is takes us about 3.5 hours (with 2 or 3 5/10 min breaks) and possibly a bit more or less on some days depending in DITHOR.
I suppose you could speed up some things, maybe doing more maths or grammar each day than recommended as they are quite short lessons, but I would do the program as is for a while first and not push extras. You could always add the extension readers if she was wanting more reading material.

Our favourite parts so far? My daughter has loved Grandpa's box for history, she loves the hands on projects for history and the timeline. She enjoys doing R&S grammar (we are doing 3) and she is very eager to get through all the DITHOR books that are sitting on our shelf waiting to be studied! She loves it when I read to her for anything (maybe has something to do with being able to sit with mum and have a snuggle too! Lol.)

You will be blessed by the program....do not underestimate how much they can learn with this style of learning....it is beautiful to watch how much they get out of it!

Blessings,

Corrie

I don't think it goes too slow or too fast. But it is very full. I can't imagine doing this in 3.5 hours. In fact we're the opposite end. We can't ever seem to complete a full day as written. But we're doing a different math, english. We go 5 to 5-1/2 hours that includes an hour break. It has a lot of drawing and my dd loves to draw. Her favorite is the history projects and the Indpendent History Study. There's also a lot of writing and I don't get too much flack from it. It's doable. I don't know where you would shorten unless you just did the basic package. But even so with that, we couldn't finish Tirzah because we ran out of time to read the 2 chapters a day. We loved Aesops Fables! It was a nice, fun touch to the program. We're staring unit 11 tomorrow.

I am doing Preparing with my ds who is 10, and he would be considered above average as well. I could not imgaine speeding it up. It takes us the full 4 days, sometimes finishing a few on the 5th day. Most days it takes 4- 4.5 hours. He is doing the extensions as well. To increase the "difficulty" I let him do most of the boxes by himself. He loves the independence and feels challenged. I asked him if it was too easy and he said no. He reads history and storytime, then we discuss it.
If I looked at the placement chart he falls between Preparing and CTC. The skills he is learning in Preparing will make CTC that much better. For example, when we started Preparing his written narrations had a ways to go. Now we are starting Unit 16 and I have to remind him 3-5 sentences. And just last week he worte a beautiful, descreptive poem. If your dd placed in Preparing on the placement chart, then she is placed correctly. Enjoy the year and the growth you will see. HTH

mskogen wrote:If your dd placed in Preparing on the placement chart, then she is placed correctly.

Well, on the chart she placed in skill level somewhere around CTC or RTR. But the skill level is sometimes not as important as the age appropriate content. She is still only 9 and a sensitive girlie girl.

Thank you for all the posts from everyone. They are giving me food for thought. Nice to see that there are other bright children in similar age ranges that are finding it the right amount. We are currently using another Charlotte Mason style/based curriculum and dd is used to doing plenty of narration, written summaries and illustrations. I do know that her writing could be more refined. I wonder if there are more specifics about form and organization of narration in the TM?

I am very Type A and like to plan and know what to expect, but even in all that I know God is the one who directs. And His plan is the most important thing to follow!

Edie

doubleportion wrote: I wonder if there are more specifics about form and organization of narration in the TM?

I am very Type A and like to plan and know what to expect, but even in all that I know God is the one who directs. And His plan is the most important thing to follow!

Edie

Lol...I am Type A too and I find HOD manuals very thorough, clear and precise, but yet still flexible enough to adapt to your child. The manual includes specific instructions for the parent regarding narration and also for the student to read for themselves which is a great idea. You will find these in the appendix of the manual.

Corrie

Great responses here already from those doing PHFHG now! I did it a few years back and will just add that in the area of writing we appreciated the variety. The written narrations were linked to the history, and the guidance was excellent. My ds had a difficult time limiting his sentences for his written narrations. This taught him to be more concise and choose carefully what he included. The length gradually increased. The creative writing lessons that accompanied the classical poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson sparked his interest in creative writing and helped him use poetic devices properly. R & S English began to provide more structure for organized and clear writing (which continues to increase each year). We loved it. I have 3 sons doing HOD, and in general, I think it's nice to come into HOD in the middle of a target age range. HTH - HOD has been a blessing in our home; may it be in yours too!

In Christ,
Julie

my3sons wrote:My ds had a difficult time limiting his sentences for his written narrations. This taught him to be more concise and choose carefully what he included. The length gradually increased.

Thanks, Julie! That could describe my dd some days too. It is usually not that it is too short, but instead it is sometimes lacking in cohesion or missing the most important points. I know more specific instructions on the hows of narrating would benefit her.

Interested to get my hands on the TM and give it a thorough once over.

Thanks for such great info everyone!

Edie

I love Preparing Hearts! I started it in 3rd grade with my oldest and it was so good, my 1st grader didn't miss anything. We had to do it half speed all of 3rd grade because 4 hours was challenging enough. Instead of skipping things, I just did what we could get done in 4 hours. This year, my 4th grader is a little above average and a good reader. My 2nd grader is very advanced. I'm doing Preparing Hearts by just picking up where we left off. It is challenging for us to get it done in 5 hours. I stop there. If I do 5 days/week, we can get a unit done. It's most challenging for my kids in the amount of writing. But, they really enjoy it and would rather do some every day than skip anything. We start with math, then dictation and Rod and Staff English, then DITHOR. Then, we dive in and see how far we can get. The material is wonderful and I love how engaging it is. My kids are learning independent work well and I can do teacher directed work once for both of them. I feel like they are very worn out at 5 hours. I'm not sure why it takes us longer than most. Sometimes I feel bad about that, but I think some has to do with the math we do. It takes about 1 hour/day, which is in line with public school. My kids struggle in narration and all the handwriting in it. They thrive in the story times and projects. Any advice to help them in struggles is invited.

We are doing Preparing and loving it, even though I did have to change my plan for the year. With my son, who I would also say is very smart for his age, we found Beyond too easy last year So I took a few weeks to read through the history and reading, then went on to Bigger and was able to finish that last year. I was so glad that we did that, because Bigger was the perfect fit for him!
But then a strange thing happened, when we got to Preparing I found that we couldn't get it all done in one day, it was taking way too long. Like Sue Ann, I wondered what the problem was, but then I figured it out. Although the level of difficulty is just right for him in all the areas such as history, reading, english, science, math, etc., the amount of writing is just too much. He is either a sllooowww writer, or a sloppy one. And that's where we get hung up, something that should take 20 min. or so instead turns into 45, or 50 min. After I realized what the problem was I quit pulling my hair out. And again, that wasn't frustration with HOD, but rather with feeling like I had made a mistake by bumping him up a level and not knowing what to do now.
But then the good Lord answered my prayer, in a most unexpected way. After being told we could NOT get pregnant again (impossible) guess what? Surprise! Our little miracle baby is due June 5. Yay!!!
So because of the pregancy, and having to go to the doc every week because I'm high risk, and the need to nap every day, etc. there's no way now we can spend that many hours doing school every day. I realized I need to just do Preparing at half speed. That way we're still making progess, but we're able to actually delve into the subjects more in depth and do all the little finishing touches that really cement things like I had wanted to before but couldn't when I was practically cramming it in. The joy of homeschooling is now back in our home for both of us, and we don't have the pressure of feeling like we're behind all the time. I really feel like the Lord led me to bump him up last year, knowing we would need to slow it down this year (and next, so I can enjoy my new baby). Because of his age, he still won't be behind even with taking 2 years instead of 1 for Preparing. And after that, we'll be back on track.
Just goes to show we can make the best plans we can, but God is always in control!
And I have to say that I really love HOD. Beyond and Bigger were great, Preparing is wonderful, and we're looking forward to the future guides-and starting all over with the little one!