Preparing for Preparing

[Motherjoy]

I have three boys in Bigger. They are. 7,8, and 9. My current plan is to keep them together, but I might considering separating the 9yo at some point because he will miss the last guide.

Anyway, I haven't been doing DITHOR at all. We are on unit 21 of Bigger, and I want to make sure they are all ready for Preparing. (Especially the 9yo.) Should I go ahead and start him on DITHOR now and continue through the summer ? We school year round since the summer heat means being indoors more during those hot months. We plan on starting Preparing in September.

Also is there a thread that shows how someone set up workbooks and work areas for Preparing? We've done the guide before, it was the first HOD guide we used with our oldest. But I only did it with one kiddo, so I cod use tips

[StillJulie]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10426

[MelInKansas]

Do you plan to have more than one guide for your 3 kids doing Preparing?

Preparing may be early for that, but I would think by the time there are 3 kids in CTC you would want each to have their own guide to look at, because they do read the directions and do the independent work out of it. A friend of mine who has 2 girls doing Preparing this year said independent work has not been going well for them this year because of only having one guide, either the mom was using the guide when one of the kids wanted to use it, or both kids were supposed to be doing independent work and struggling over using the guide together. Just a thought to share.

I used Julie's pattern almost exactly and was so thankful to have so much set up done already, and the tabs for the Narration tips, Dictation, Poetry, and Math schedule are great to have in there. I am going to start putting tabs in all of my guides! (except the one that is unbound).