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The reason I'm asking is because ever since I laid eyes on the Prarie Primer, I've known that I would like to do with my oldest DD in a couple of years. We LOVE the Little House books and I think that it would be a really fun thing for us to do. We will be starting LHFHG this fall and DD is almost in the middle of the age range (she will be 6 in Feb). I have heard that is a significant jump in skill/difficulty between BLHFHG and BHFHG and between BHFHG and Preparing. I would like her to be at the older end of the age range by the time we get to Bigger, but at least by the time we hit Preparing. SO I was thinking about taking a year off from HOD after Beyond(1st grade) and doing the prarie primer with her for 2nd grade then coming back to HOD for 3rd with Bigger OR going through Bigger(for 2nd) and then doing the prarie primer for 3rd grade and then coming back to HOD for 4th grade in Preparing. Either way, this would help move her to the upper end of the age range for the HOD guides, but I do worry that it will cause a lapse in her dictation/narration skills, etc taught in HOD to take a year off. Anyone else done anything like this?

Also, I know this is a few years off but I am a SERIOUS planner. lol Doing this may also enable me to combine DS and DD when we come back to HOD too depending on how I go through the next couple of years with him.

My oldest ds was obsessed with the "Little House on the Prairie" books too! He read and read and read them. It was a phase he went through until we did DITHOR, which had him reading from all genres and sparked an interest in many other genres too. So, I understand the interest you and your dc have in this. Generally, leaving HOD for a year and coming back to it would result in dc regressing in skills that are meant to be taught incrementally. "The Prairie Primer" is for children in 3rd-6th grade. It does not include math, spelling, grammar, reading instruction (i.e. story elements, genres, etc.), oral narration and written narration instruction, step by step writing skills instruction (i.e. how to summarize, write an organized paragraph, etc.), editing skills, dictation, notebooking, or scientific method instruction. These are the more incrementally taught skill-based things that are not a part of "The Prairie Primer", but other areas not included would be subject areas such as poetry study, corresponding music, Biblical devotions, Scripture memorization, etc. Also, by taking a year away from HOD your younger dc will not be in any better position to be combined with their older sibling(s), as they will not have had skills taught to them in an incremental way that moves them along either.

So, I am wondering if it would be possible to do HOD 4 days a week, and on the fifth day do "The Prairie Primer"? I think this could be very fun! There are many things to gather for it - just looking at only the first week of plans of "The Prairie Primer" these uncommon things jumped out...
certain books from the library, a firearm safety booklet from extension office, a Yankee Doodle song cassette tape, cracklings (fried pork rinds), a hog’s bladder from a slaughter house or butcher shop, a corn cob, items to make homemade butter, picture of a brindle bulldog, items to make molasses-on-snow candy, materials for a whittling project, pictures of a trundle bed and samples of leather, venison, lard, and rusty metal, and owl pellets

This is just from the first week of plans! I am thinking it may be more doable to do this just once a week over the span of several years and enjoy it (and gather for it) slowly. You could then gather what you are truly able to gather, and have more time to do so, but maybe just pick and choose the things you really wanted to do without feeling like the primer was your dc's only schooling for the year. By doing HOD for 4 days, your dc will all be moving along nicely in their skills in all subject areas, and by doing the primer one day a week for extra learning, you wouldn't feel like if you missed something in the primer (i.e. the owl pellets, or the hog's bladder, etc.) that it was detrimental to their learning. You also wouldn't be feeling like you needed to add, add, add to the primer to keep LA, science, etc. skills moving along. I hope something here can help, but I will say that the beauty of using HOD's guides from year to year is dc are steadily progressing and growing in all areas of their schooling, which just makes for one happy mama and lots of happy dc!

In Christ,
Julie

I have used Prairie Primer and to be honest, I feel it would be a good "fun supplement" to a HOD program either doing as a 5th day study or as just a fun afternoon study outside of the HOD lessons (which in the earlier guides would mean you are done before lunchtime and would have time do an afternoon fun add-on, or as we are doing again this year, a summer study! We are doing one of the books this summer with my 2nd and 6th grader just to keep summer from getting long. Prairie Primer is not a complete program like HOD. Also, as much as we LOVE the Little House on the Prairie books, we really couldn't do them all with the Prairie Primer. It started to get a little old. Doing a book a year or a book a summer keeps the books fresh and interesting. I wouldn't skip a year of HOD to do the Prairie Primer alone.

I just wanted to add that I'm finishing a "trip around the world" year for K with my ds, because we finished LHFHG too soon, and I have *really* missed the little-to-no-prep plans! I was fine for a few months, because the plan was still new, but the last few months I considered ditching it all and starting Beyond *several times*! Julie's advice sounds great...I'm bookmarking it for if I get the bug to try something new

Thanks for your responses! I had never even thought of using it on the 5th day! That would probably be better anyway, now that I think of it! I hadn't really thought of it being a summer only thing either. lol. Shows how much thought I've REALLY given this, huh?

If you want her to be toward the end of the age range as she gets to the end of Beyond and gets ready to go in to Bigger, you can always slow down Beyond by doing it over 2 years and do the Prarie Primer in the days "off" from the guide. Just another thought..