Is Preparing too much?

[tiffanieh]

Hello.

I need help.

I am trying to decide on what to do for next year. We have been doing Bigger with my two boys (7&9) this year (although I haven't been very good at consistency with the guide for various reasons) and so the logical choice would be to go onto Preparing for next year.

But here's my concern:

1. We are considering doing Classical Conversations with a local group on Thursdays. I don't know if it will be too much for us to be doing a RICH and FULL curriculum along with all the memory work we will be doing as well.

2. My youngest (who will be 8 next year) has horrific handwriting, hates to write, so I was not going to teach him cursive just yet...putting it off for an additional year. I see you need to know cursive with preparing???

3. Adding Institute of Excellence in Writing for my oldest and just concerned with the AMOUNT of work that he is going to be doing with all of this put together.

I've done HOD for the past three years, so I do believe in the program, and I'm ashamed with how "slack" I've become lately with just doing the "core" curriculum stuff. There are many reasons for that that I don't need to get into but I need to find my way back to my original plan with HOD.

Thank you so much for all your help.

[pjdobro]

Tiffanie,

I understand. Life gets complicated and sometimes we have to make adjustments just to hang on. I've been there and done that. I have a couple of thoughts for you.

First, CC is just one day a week. I checked it out last year just because I was interested in finding a group setting for my dc to meet some other children. Most of the other families there do some sort of other curriculum the other 4 days a week. I talked with the facilitator at the group I was considering and she tries to incorporated a CM style learning outside of CC. She assured me that you can use CC just as a supplement. It doesn't have to take that much time outside of the actual class time to do the program. Many of the memory things are on tape and are things that she listens to with her children while driving. Preparing is only a 4 day a week program, so that should help too. I think you could easily do Preparing the other 4 days a week, perhaps with a little added memory work if necessary for CC, and then do the CC one day a week if that is your desire. Remember that even doing CC, you'll still be doing your core 3Rs at home plus you are probably going to want to do more for history, science, and Bible than just the memory work.

Second, I hear you on the handwriting as well. My dc do not have the best handwriting. My ds's was especially bad and I was hesitant to start cursive this year. We went ahead though and it is amazing how well he has done. Cheerful Cursive is great! He is really liking writing in cursive and never liked regular handwriting at all. I think cursive is much easier for him, and he is developing a nice handwriting which surprises me. I could be wrong since we are just in Bigger now and doing Preparing in the fall, but I looked at the TM and I think that cursive is only used on the independent history and Science notebooking. I think it would be possible to do any of those in manuscript instead. The only problem might be in the Draw and Write Through History book, the passage the student writes is written in cursive in the book. That might make it difficult on your son to read. So that could be a little problem, but one that you could easily work out. You could consider starting Cheerful Cursive with him now and he would probably be ready for quite a bit of the cursive reading and writing by fall.

I'm not familiar at all with the writing program you mentioned so I can't offer much help. HOD starts a formal writing program in CTC. I'm assuming you feel this is something you ds needs now. I don't know how much time it might take. If it is very time consuming, is it worth giving up the great history study, Bible study, science, etc. that you get in the HOD guides? That's something that only you can decide.

I had one final thought. If you feel like you haven't covered Bigger well this year, would you be in a position to repeat it? If you haven't been doing the left side of the plans consistently and have missed much, then perhaps you would be able to use it again. Or if you aren't going to complete it, pick up where you have left off, and use it 4 days a week. It would be less time each day with Bigger than Preparing and using it only 4 days a week would stretch out the program over a longer period of time. If you aren't too far through now, if you went to a 4 day a week plan now, it might stretch out over next year.

Those are just a few thoughts for you. I hope it is helpful. I have almost all of my Preparing books for next year now and I am really looking forward to it. It looks like such a wonderful, fun program. Grandpa's Box looks like such a fun book that I've had a difficult time not starting it now!

[my3sons]

Patty already helped so much! I agree with her wise words here. I think that you as the parent will need to monitor CC so that it does not take over all of schooling though. It seems like different CC teachers have different expectations, and I'd do some research before enrolling my dc in it to see what those expectations are and if you are really wanting to do what you have to to meet them. As far as the cursive in PHFHG, you can easily have your ds print instead and just have him do the cursive in CTC then. "Cheerful Cursive" is an easy, effective way to teach cursive, and I highly recommend that as it's been a big hit for both our sons! As you consider CC, here is a past thread that may be helpful:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6577&p=47950

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Tiffanie,

Great thoughts have already been shared in this thread, so I'll just pop-in to agree. I'll also mention that it will so important for your kiddos to have the skills from Bigger Hearts prior to moving into Preparing Hearts. So, with this in mind, I wouldn't move into Preparing Hearts until you have truly finished out Bigger Hearts. As we've been homeschooling, we've come to find out that every year has its irregularities and surprises, with some years having many! Steady progress forward is actually more important than jumping into a new guide. So, if at all possible, whenever you are able I'd renew your efforts in Bigger Hearts, knowing the teaching and skills within it will set you up so well for what is to come. I'd take however long it takes to finish Bigger, and then move on to Preparing Hearts. If you've been hit and miss this year, rest assured it is something that can happen to any and all of us, just pick Bigger back up where you left off last and try to teach it as much as possible as written. I encourage you that it will be time well spent, even if you've had to have a break, and will pay big dividends when you move into Preparing Hearts.

One other thing I will caution you about is not to make HOD match your Classical Conversations as far as the history cycle goes. Instead, think of HOD as the core program that keeps steadily moving forward each year. The history cycle matters less than we think, but the skills make much difference in success within a program.

Blessings,
Carrie

[busymama]

Tiffany,
This year I've been doing Preparing, along with going to CC. I can honestly say that I regret the decision to do both, well actually just the CC part since I love love love HOD. I had the same doubts as you, but felt like CC had some good things to offer, and since it was a chance for my only child to be around other kids I decided to attempt both. It has just been too much! Even tho it's only 1 day a week, that really throws me way off. It doesn't allow for any slack time at all, so if we had dr's appt's., or errands to run, or anything at all unexpected come up-then boom we're behind. It's just been too hard trying to keep up with life, basically. My husband works long hours, so it's up to me to do the housework, the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry, and while I'm sitting there at CC I'm going crazy thinking about all the work that I could be getting done at home. Now to be fair, I will say that I'm not knocking CC, it truly does have some good things to offer, and I've come to see that it's a fine Christian group. Perhaps at some point in the future, we'll do it again. But I definitely think it's just too much right now, so we're not signing up for next year. We're actually going to have to concentrate on getting caught up next year, because I like to be done with school in the spring, approximately around the public school time since we're so busy with the garden and outdoor activities in the summer. But thanks to my over-extending myself, we're only starting Unit 14 tomorrow! I'm trying not to panic too much, because I do understand how one of the joys of homeschooling is the flexibility, but what do you do in a state where you have to report like Ohio??? I've already said that I would finish Preparing this year, so now I'm in a pickle for sure....
But oh well, we'll manage somehow. Another unsettling aspect is not only are we behind, but I don't feel like we've been able to do justice to either one. There's a significant amount of memory work that goes along with CC, and he is only 8, after all. I went into it knowing that HOD would be my core, and CC would be a supplement, but that doesn't go over so well with him. He gets upset if he doesn't have his memory work down pat, plus when you're there at CC you get caught up in it all and before you know it CC is looming larger than you'd ever intended. (I really hope I'm making sense here, btw! lol) I really dislike the fact that despite my good intentions, his HOD work has suffered. And since HOD is so full, trying to get in that memory work is just too much, so we've not really excelled at either one.

I also had a thought regarding the handwriting. My son is on the younger end of the scale, definitely not ready to learn cursive yet. But since Preparing is where he placed, we've just done it anyway. It's no problem at all to simply have him write out the schoolwork in printing, rather than cursive. No sweat whatsoever. In Drawing and Writing through History, all I did was write the assignment out on paper, then have him copy off of that. It never took more than a few minutes. You could even type them up, and print them off if you wanted. Either way, that doesn't have to be a concern for you at all.

I really hope this helps you out. Perhaps if you're one of those super-organized, never-ever-run-out-of-energy wonder moms, (that I envy so much, I must confess) doing both CC and Preparing would be doable for you. But I'm not like that obviously, (tho I try my hardest) and it really has been a struggle.

[busymama]

Sorry ladies, one more thing I forgot to mention! The fact that we had an unexpected pregnancy this year slowed me down too. But we are so happy and feel so blessed, after being told we couldn't have any more! (God is good to us!) And this is all another perfect example of what I was saying with my earlier post-you just never know what's going to come up in a year's time unexpectedly. So if you can go into the year with a little wiggle room, that's so much better than going into it over-extended right from the start. Again, hope this helps!

[pjdobro]

Tiffanie,

I went over and read a bit on your blog this evening. You have had a difficult year. I pray God will guide you as you decide what path to take this next year.

BTW, I love the fliers your son made! I love how he is thinking ahead and trying to make a difference.