I love how the HOD guides are gradually guiding my dc to independence. Like Lora Beth, my dc have a fair amount that they do independently or semi-independently this year in Bigger. We didn't start out the year that way, but as the year has progressed they understand what to do and often complete it on their own. If I wasn't so selfish with my TM, I think they could probably do all of the work without me.

I am not ready to turn the reins over fully yet though so we typically will go over a few things together and then I allow them to finish independently. They typically have math and grammar follow-up work to do alone. Their cursive is independent. The timeline, vocabulary, and any notebooking is done independently after I go over it. This is one of those areas that I think they could easily do on their own if I would only let them have the TM.

By the end of the year, I'm going to try to be more generous and allow them to start doing some of these activities more independently.
In Preparing, there is an independent history section and the science is independent. The vocabulary, research, history project, geography, grammar, and math are semi-independent. That means you will go over the instructions with them and then allow them to complete the activity on their own. After you are into the program a while, they will become more and more independent with those semi-independent tasks. The following year in CTC, the children will begin to read their own history. Each year more and more of the boxes become independent. You can take a look at the first weeks in each guide to see how each guide becomes progressively more independent. Starting with the Preparing guide, the boxes have little marks in the corner that designate whether they are to be done independently, semi-independently, or teacher directed. The boxes with I are totally independent, the S boxes are semi-independent, and the T boxes are teacher directed. Those T boxes get fewer and fewer each year. So rest assured that your teaching time will continue to decrease after Bigger.
From what I've read it was Carrie's intention that the children would become more independent as they got older so that the teacher would be able to spend more time teaching the younger children. Also, Charlotte Mason's philosophy was that children should take over that reading and learning on their own so that they become lifelong learners. Our job as teachers is to help them learn how to learn. We teach them how to connect with the material in the early years so later on they can connect with the material on their own and become lifelong learners. HOD has a wonderful steady progression of skills that help us to teach our dc to learn on their own. I love that!
