PHFHG-basic pkg., deluxe pkg. or both?

[Michelle]

Hi, my ds will begin Preparing... in the Fall and I am trying to decide what I will need. I am wondering how the Basic Package and Deluxe Package are used in the Preparing.... program. How would someone decide if they need one package or both?
Thanks!

[my3sons]

Hi Michelle! You read the Basic package out loud to your ds, and do the Storytime box of the plans along with that. It has given an excellent "feeling" for what it was like to live in that time period, and we've also had some great discussions about how belief in God plays a huge part in how people live their lives and make decisions. It has also been neat to see my ds's oral narration skills grow with this, and this would be his narration skills after hearing a book read out loud by someone else. I've enjoyed reading historical fiction titles with him because it made a nice mix with the history spines we were reading together - and the books were just awesome! Here are the objectives for this part of the plans:
*Day 1: personal connections are shared that relate to the story
*Day 2: differences between the characters’ lives and the students’
lives are identified based upon the historical time period of
the story
*Day 3: the main character’s faith is evaluated for its impact on the
character’s life and the story
*Day 4: oral narration is practiced by retelling the story

The Deluxe package is read silently by your ds. It corresponds with the Independent History Box of the plans, and has daily assignments to be done independently with what he read. The Draw and Write book really helped my ds make some authentic looking pictures of places, people, and artifacts from the time period we were studying. This box helped him improve his oral narration skills from books he read on his own. The notebooking he did was neat, and made for a great portfolio of his work. He also enjoyed his common place book he made entries in from this. I liked that he could do this box on his own, which helped him learn more independence, and gave me time to do other things. This is the purpose for the box:

Oral narration, copywork, notebook entries, and Biblical connections round
out the independent readings. At this age, notebook entries are limited to
copying, tracing, and drawing from a model. Accuracy and attention to
authentic detail are encouraged. Entries are meant to be factual and to
provide a finished product that gives an overview of the history topics studied
throughout the year. Reminders are given for copywork to be done in
cursive.

They were both neat - for different reasons. If you have the funds, I'd get them both.

In Christ,
Julie