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You know, ladies, I have loved our summer break, but the kids and I were SO ready to get back to our days with HOD! My younger son is in camp this week and he will not start Bigger until next Monday...but my older son got started yesterday. He will have to leave for two weeks at the first of August, so I am getting a jump start for him now.

I am so excited. We read the Boyhood and Beyond book for the first time this morning and I just loved it! My son is really enjoying Science and History too. He even decided that he wants to do RTR as a 5-day program and finish it a bit early so he can start Rev to Rev before the end of this year!

So glad to be back!

YEAH!!!

Rebecca,

You're making me EAGER to dive in! We're actually finishing up "fair week" here...so I have plenty of lanudry and scrubbing of floors to keep me busy to finish out this week. But, it has been HOT here - like 110+ heat indexes. And, it's really not supposed to get better at all for the rest of July. I was seriously thinking this morning that since it's too hot to enjoy being outside maybe we should just start school a little early and get a routine rolling.

We're beginning RTR along with you! I'll have to check out your week-in-reviews to get a sneak peek ahead at what we have to look forward to. Glad you're enjoying it!

Kathleen

We are definitely enjoying it! My son didn't really take the summer "off" - we did Singapore Math because he was a bit behind where I wanted him to be and I didn't want him to lose what he had learned. However, I can definitely tell that he is not in the swing of things yet with RTR (granted, it has only been 2 days!. LOL) Today, he handed me some work that I handed right back to him to do over. Maybe I expect too much at his age, but I think when a child is in "middle school," they need to be acutely aware of what they turn in as "finished" work. My son learned the hard way at the start of last year and it looks like this year will be no different. *sigh*

Congrats on starting already!

We'll also be doing five day weeks this year. My son would like to get to do all the guides that will be written, so he's going to work five days per week. This way he'll get to do all the guides. He loves them and can't wait for the next one! By the time he's in ninth grade, he'll be in the Geography guide and then we'll slow him down to doing four day weeks, so then he'll just do one guide per year.

I, too, look forward to seeing your week in review posts, as we'll be beginning RTR in March! Blessings as you get into the swing of the new school year!

My dd12 (also 7th grade) is going to start RtR August 1st. We are both excited about it, and we also have decided to make it a 5 day program, along with Rev2Rev and the next, so she can get further through the guides in high school. I know it isn't necessary, but we both really hate to miss any . She (and I) may lose stamina before its over, and decide we can't handle the pace. I'll be ok with that, but for now that's the plan.

I will be "watching" you since you'll be just one step ahead of us !

Angie

We ended our first week with a mini vacation this weekend. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I will try to share on the Week in Review thread sometime later today. Overall, my son is going to take a bit to get back in the swing of school.

I SO needed to read this thread. My sweet kiddo (6th grade) and I are new to HOD and are beginning with preparing. I plan to use Preparing, CTC, RTR and Rev2Rev five days a week for the next four years and hadn't seen posts by anyone wanting to do the same thing. SO excited to hear that I'm not completely nuts! I considered starting with CTC, but felt after looking at Preparing that my daughter needed two of the things it offered before we set off on our CTC journey: Preparing seemed to gently prompt children toward more independent work AND I liked Carrie's explanation of this one year overview being like a set of "mental pegs" on which to hang all future history learning.

I've asked THIS question elsewhere, but will also ask it here, as this thread if full of people who have recently been through Preparing: What about the grammar with my 6th grader? I'm using 6th grade math, and everything else looks super...except I'm not sure about the grammar. Should I bump it up to English 5? Keep it at English 4? Her grammar is at or above grade level, and her writing is prolific but not technically great. Thoughts?

Thank you!

-Rebecca

If she is already in R&S 4 and doing well, I would keep plugging along with it. If you are switching over to it from something else, I would bump her to level 5. It is considered the starting level for older children.

Thank you.

We're planning to start RTR on August 15, so we'll be joining you soon (God-willing)!!

God bless as you start!