For those of you that started your HOD journey w/ Prepare

[my3luvs]

Did your DC take a little bit to understand/complete dictation? My DD will be starting Prepare in July and we are new to the CM method. She has not done dictation. She will do fine with copy work and has done well with cursive so I am opting not to start her in Bigger. I am wondering if I will need to go slower with the dictation portion.

[4Hispraise]

We started our HOD journey with Preparing for a then 9 yo (1st year home from ps) and 10 yo (always schooled the CM way). The 10 yo did great, the 9 yo had a little difficulty. There are multiple levels of dictation in the guide, so once I realized he was unable to complete one level without repeating the passage more than once or twice, we dropped down to the lower level of dictation. By the end of the year, he was in the level I expected. HTH

On a side note, not knowing your DD's unique situation or personality, I will tell you that my 9 yo struggled with the written narration more than anything. He needed LOTS of extra help and encouragement at first. That surprised me because in ps he was a very strong writer. Narration was just a new form of writing for him, a skill he had to learn. In the end, he did quite well. Just telling you so if DD struggles at all in this area you won't feel discouraged. There is a time of adjustment and growing accustomed to anything new for all of us.

Hope you all enjoy your year of Preparing as much as we did!! It is a lot of fun and a great year of learning.

[LynnH]

We started our HOD journey with Preparing when my ds was 10. He caught on to dictation quickly. I would have him write any new words or any places where there were punctuation on the white board. He did start out missing the passage on the first try sometimes, but by the second try he had it. As we got to the end of level 3 it was harder and he had to focus a little more. I agree with 4Hispraise that the tougher adjustment was the written narration. He needed a lot of help at first to be able to restate things in his own words, and to capture the authors voice and still get the details of the story.

[my3luvs]

Thanks! I know she will have some trouble with narration. I have already started asking her to narrate things and OH BOY. LOL. She will get it though.

[my3sons]

CM methods do take a bit for dc to learn as they require many great skills. I too want to encourage you that I have learned that CM skills are like a marathon, bit by bit progress with a strong finish! My oldest ds has now been through 3 levels of dictation and my younger ds through 1. The positive effect dictation has had on their spelling and writing with proper grammatical skills has been amazing! Especially for my eldest, who struggled with spelling early on. The Appendix has excellent tips for written narrations and dictation. I have marked them with sticky notes and refer to them often. Using these tips as guidelines has helped me be able to know how to help move my dc along in dictation, written narration, and editing skills. These skills reach across all subject areas and are so worth the time to teach well, and I think PHFHG did a super job of helping me to do this! Have fun with PHFHG - it is a joy to teach! I'll be doing it a second time with my middle ds this coming year after finishing out BHFHG. We'll have to swap stories!

In Christ,
Julie