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I am planning on ordering Preparing for my upcoming 4th grader. I am debating the SELF-STUDY DELUXE HISTORY PACKAGE: FOR THE NEWLY INDEPENDENT READER.

I own a few of these books, can get a few from the library, and would have to purchase a few. Could I just use some of these books when I felt that she needed the extra reading or is this an important part of the program? My DD loves to read, but she has read a few of these books already and I am also going to be using DITHOR. I am just not sure if it is necessary or if I can pick what we read and even substitute if need be?


thanks!

These are optional, but I feel they are an excellent part of the program that allows dc to learn to be independent. It is one of the boxes listed in the main part of the plans. I think by doing this box independently in Preparing that they are better prepared in CTC to take over their regular history readings. This is the box that will have them doing their notebooking for history as well so I think that helps them be better prepared for more notebooking in future guides. I think it might be confusing for the student to do the boxes some weeks and not others, but I could be wrong there. We're planning on doing these when we start Preparing in the fall and it looks like so much fun that I've been contemplating doing them myself over the summer!

I will be starting Preparing in the fall and I also plan on doing the self study independent readers for the reasons that Patty stated above.

So, doing ALL of Preparing and DITHOR isnt too much?

If you look at the samples for the week (someone can link there if you ask), you will get the idea of what each day will look like. The foundation of the guides do not change very much through the year. You will see how the independent boxes on the bottom are very important and that dithor is scheduled in 3x per week, I think. Yes, the guides are truly meant to be done fully. The options are there to help if you need to save money, but truly I would scrimp some place else to make sure I could do the guides fully, as each box has a purpose.

Hope that helps,
Mercy

We have done Preparing this year with the self-study option in addition to DITHOR. DITHOR is only scheduled 3 times a week and the self-study box varies in the type of work they do...sometimes it's drawing, sometimes reading with narration, sometimes reading with copywork. My DS has really enjoyed it and has loved having a box to do completely on his own!!!

Oh, you definitely don't want to miss the Independent History section! That's been one of my daughter's favorites this year - she loves the books and the assignments that go along with it!

I can't add any more than the other posters, but just a plug for the Indpendent History.....It's one of the best parts of Preparing!!