Bigger Hearts or Preparing Hearts for 8 year old

[Donna]

Hi
I have a little girl who has just turned 8 in Jan. and I ordered the Preparing Hearts for her as I was trying to skip the American history because we live in Australia and start with ancient. Upon starting the programme I am so excited, we just love it and I am thinking I don't want to miss anything. Emily has nearly finished R&S English 2 ( eight weeks to go) and is on Saxon 3 but has only just started cursive. She is also doing Latina Christina and I guess I am looking for some feedback on the benefits of doing Bigger Hearts compared to Preparing Hearts. Mike did make a good suggestion that I could do half of Preparing Hearts each day but then I thought rather than take two years to do it I may as well do the younger one first.???

Thankyou
Donna

[MomtoJGJE]

Well, it depends on what your goal is.... if you want to start with not American history, then you could do Preparing half speed. You wouldn't have to do the whole program that way (take two years), just some of it, until your dd felt more comfortable. And if you do 5 days a week, you still might get done in a year (I really don't know, was just thinking that it might be possible). But if you didn't really care about the American history part, then you could do Bigger with her. I think if I were in your situation I'd start with Preparing half speed.

[my3sons]

Bigger Hearts has more teaching helps and involvement for oral narrations, notebooking, art projects, and science exploration. It has less writing overall. You do the reading in Bigger Hearts. In PHFHG, dc read a portion of the history and all of the science. They have 3 day history projects as opposed to shorter follow-ups in Bigger Hearts. They should be able to orally narrate fairly well because they are learning written narrations in PHFHG. The Bible memory work in PHFHG is longer, passages instead of single verses, and the discussions are deeper. The Storytime read alouds in Bigger Hearts reinforce the story elements and Godly character traits in the reading program DITHOR, in effect double-dipping dc in these important skills to promote excellent retention. Dc begin creative writing 1 x a week in PHFHG, along with the classical poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson. There is not creative writing in BHFHG. These are just some of the more key differences I can think of between the two. We've done both BHFHG and PHFHG, and both are outstanding programs. I would personally choose between the two with a focus on which program will best fit your dd's abilities right now, as the history in great whether you're an American or not, and both guides are awesome! If you are really wanting to do PHFHG no matter what and she needs time to grow into it though, Mike has a super idea of starting half-speed and then going full-speed when she's ready. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Donna,

The ladies are doing a terrific job of talking through your options, so I'll just post one more thought for you to ponder. From my perspective, taking all thoughts of the history cycle out of the equation, it would be more challenging to do Bigger Hearts full-speed than to do Preparing Hearts half-speed over two years.

My concern with doing a guide at the level of Preparing Hearts at half-speed over two years is that when the child heads into the following guide he/she will find the full-speed workload to be a big shock. I prefer the incremental approach, using a guide as close to the way its written as possible, steadily moving through the skill progression.

However, you will have to know how much the preference of which history you wish to study matters. This is something I cannot weigh.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Donna]

Thank you ALL for your imput, it has been a tremendous help. I have appreciated your ideas and advice. I have decided to do the Bigger Hearts first as I am thinking I would rather enjoy one complete programme and then move on. Carrie I just love what you have done, thank you so much for being a blessing to so many.
Donna )