HOD Moms - Questions about Preparing

[abrightmom]

Planning for my rising 4th grader here.

 

He's had a ROUGH school year and it's been my fault. I'm strongly considering Preparing as his 4th grade year. I own it all and the books are wonderful. He would love to use it.

 

My questions are as follows:

 

1. What is the purpose in writing out answers to the science questions (this is done once each unit)? Can't it be done orally?

 

2. How would you critique the writing in the guide? Is the writing more "explicit" instruction or is it mainly still copywork or notebooking stuff? From my preview of everything it seems to be a continuation of the copywork and notebooking with the addition of written narration 1x a week and creative writing with poetry. Is there more to it than that? Does it develop into something more over the course of the school year?

 

3. Is there any writing that you would consider superfluous? I'd like my son to use something with more explicit writing instruction (versus just copywork). I don't think R&S English will work for us in this area.

 

4. Did you modify or tweak this guide in any way that you felt worked better for you?

 

5. If we eliminate DITHOR does this open up time and hand strength for writing? We don't use DITHOR so this isn't factored into the work of the guide (time wise or writing wise).

 

**I'm concerned about pressing on with HOD as it hasn't worked for us in so many ways. But, my son needs a more consistent, level appropriate schedule and I think Preparing covers most areas VERY well. Of all the HOD guides this one gets the BEST reviews. And, despite MY struggles with HOD my son absolutely LOVES Bigger Hearts. He just loves it.

[hopeallgoeswell]

[/color]

Planning for my rising 4th grader here.

 

He's had a ROUGH school year and it's been my fault. I'm strongly considering Preparing as his 4th grade year. I own it all and the books are wonderful. He would love to use it.

 

My questions are as follows:

 

1. What is the purpose in writing out answers to the science questions (this is done once each unit)? Can't it be done orally? It is probably for the notebook and building muscle strength. I don't see why you could not do it orally if you wanted that time/hand strength to work on a different writing assignment.

 

2. How would you critique the writing in the guide? Is the writing more "explicit" instruction or is it mainly still copywork or notebooking stuff? From my preview of everything it seems to be a continuation of the copywork and notebooking with the addition of written narration 1x a week and creative writing with poetry. Is there more to it than that? Does it develop into something more over the course of the school year? I am in week 30 and has been a lot of creative writing from poetry, written narration and research for history, copy work across the board, and write-ups and questions for science. There are questions to prompt the student for narrations and research, though I would not say that any of it is "explicit." I use TCW (WWE hardback) with HOD's readings because it is incremental. HOD's writing seems to go up every guide but not within the guide.

 

3. Is there any writing that you would consider superfluous? I'd like my son to use something with more explicit writing instruction (versus just copywork). I don't think R&S English will work for us in this area. We do not do the creative writing for poetry every week and we don't do R&S for english or HOD science/Bible/DITHOR because I use other things. I think you could cut things out or make them oral to tailor them to your son's needs.

 

4. Did you modify or tweak this guide in any way that you felt worked better for you? I tweak the heck out of it to fit my dd and the kids in my co-op (grades 2-5).

 

5. If we eliminate DITHOR does this open up time and hand strength for writing? We don't use DITHOR so this isn't factored into the work of the guide (time wise or writing wise). I don't use this. Maybe someone else can chime in as to the amount of writing it requires.

 

**I'm concerned about pressing on with HOD as it hasn't worked for us in so many ways. But, my son needs a more consistent, level appropriate schedule and I think Preparing covers most areas VERY well. Of all the HOD guides this one gets the BEST reviews. And, despite MY struggles with HOD my son absolutely LOVES Bigger Hearts. He just loves it.

 

We did Bigger last year and this is along the same lines. If your son likes Bigger, he will more than likely be very happy with Preparing.

 

It seems that you want more explicit writing instruction and are not so happy with the CMish style of writing across the curriculum with copy work and narrations. Is that correct? If you want to use everything else (Bible, poetry, history, science, and storytime), you could just decrease the amount of writing in Preparing and use that time/energy on something that fits your needs better. If you only like Preparing for the history and you need to save money by not purchasing the IG, you could just get CHOW's teacher's manual and piece the rest together using what you want for LA, math, science, and Bible. Oh, but for history you would need to squeeze in Grandpa's Box and Hero Tales where appropriate. You would have to make your own schedule for everything, as well. Just some things to think about.

[blessed2five]

Katrina,

 

I will try to answer all your questions, but we are only in Unit 18 of Preparing and this is our first HOD year. I will say that it is our most successful year in that we are completing the guide mostly as is and we are loving it!

 

1. What is the purpose in writing out answers to the science questions (this is done once each unit)? Can't it be done orally? You could answer the questions orally but I think the logic behind having them write the answers out is to have them independently think and put their thoughts into writing that is not prompted or assisted by "Mom." The science box in Preparing is marked independent and I have seen great improvements over the year in how my dd answers the questions.

 

2. How would you critique the writing in the guide? Is the writing more "explicit" instruction or is it mainly still copywork or notebooking stuff? From my preview of everything it seems to be a continuation of the copywork and notebooking with the addition of written narration 1x a week and creative writing with poetry. Is there more to it than that? Does it develop into something more over the course of the school year? I really appreciate the approach to writing in Preparing. It is a more natural approach and is not necessarily scripted but does develop in difficulty as the Units progress. For example, in the written narration you start the year with a basic 3-5 sentence narration and as the units progress they are encouraged to increase that to 5 sentences while working on various parts of the paragraph; conclusion or the main idea. There are not specific instructions on this, but enough to assist you as the teacher. Also, my dd doesn't even realize that she is doing a "writing assignment." They are more of a fun way for her to write about what she just read. The poetry writing also progresses in a similar way where they are initially "walked through" the process and slowly gaining independence in producing a beautiful paragraph or poem of their own creation. My dd loves personalizing this to make it her "own work." Now comparing this to a more structured program like IEW which I have used with older dc I like this gentle approach better for this age. I know my older dd in RTR is using IEW which is included in the HOD lesson plans and is learning to write with more specific instructions. So I do see and appreciate the writing progression Carrie is getting at.

3. Is there any writing that you would consider superfluous? I'd like my son to use something with more explicit writing instruction (versus just copywork). I don't think R&S English will work for us in this area. We are using R&S 4 with Preparing and find there to be just enough writing to balance out what she is getting in the Preparing guide. I love the short simple grammar/writing lessons and find my dd to be retaining just as much as she did with the long drawn out Phonics Road lessons we used the previous two years. She no longer dreads English!:001_smile: Perhaps if you want to add a separate writing program you could do that on the 5th day since Preparing is only a 4 day program? Just a thought.

 

4. Did you modify or tweak this guide in any way that you felt worked better for you? No, not really. I really have tried for the first time ever to do things as is and it is turning out to be our best year ever! Things are getting done around here that never did before. We do use Apologia science in addition to HOD science, but I would be comfortable just using HOD science if the co-op wasn't available. We love it that much!

 

5. If we eliminate DITHOR does this open up time and hand strength for writing? We don't use DITHOR so this isn't factored into the work of the guide (time wise or writing wise). Again we are using DITHOR but I suppose you could use that time to add a writing program if you wanted to. There is a bit of writing in DITHOR so not doing that would give you more time and hand strength that we are using up with DITHOR.

 

I hope you find the right balance to make Preparing right for you, it is a great Program!

Edited March 3, 2012 by blessed2five

[abrightmom]

Ladies,

 

THANKS for the thorough answers. A couple more questions for Emily :D

 

Emily,

 

Is your daughter using Preparing full speed now or is her pace still leisurely? I went back to some fall threads about HOD and you shared about the slower pace you are taking so that you hit the CTC guide a little later. Has your perspective on that changed or are you still taking it slow?

 

Also, how old is your 4th grader? My rising 4th grader will be 10 if he uses Preparing as his birthday is right after the start of the traditional school year. Some kiddos hit 4th grade as a new 9 year old and that year can make a big difference for a child developmentally as you know.

[blessed2five]

Ladies,

 

THANKS for the thorough answers. A couple more questions for Emily :D

 

Emily,

 

Is your daughter using Preparing full speed now or is her pace still leisurely? I went back to some fall threads about HOD and you shared about the slower pace you are taking so that you hit the CTC guide a little later. Has your perspective on that changed or are you still taking it slow?

 

Also, how old is your 4th grader? My rising 4th grader will be 10 if he uses Preparing as his birthday is right after the start of the traditional school year. Some kiddos hit 4th grade as a new 9 year old and that year can make a big difference for a child developmentally as you know.

 

Katrina,

 

Yes, my dd has been using Preparing full speed for about 8 weeks now and she is doing very well with it. She turned 10 right before that (end of December) so age did play a factor in her abilities to handle more work. Preparing is very challenging in the amount of work these little guys have to complete in just one day! Now that she can truly do the independent boxes alone and most of the S research and vocabulary boxes with minimal supervision we are getting it all done on most days. She is very busy with her gymnastics so finishing by 2:00 is a must! Now as much as I am going to miss HOD next year I am going to use MFW for 1 or 2 years to hold off on CTC until she is in at least 6th grade or 11/12 years old. I will just continue to use the techniques (dictation from my dd RTR, narration, vocab, and poetry) I have learned in Preparing with the books in MFW. However, I will still get to use HOD with two of my other dc. Good luck! :001_smile:

[abrightmom]

Katrina,

 

Yes, my dd has been using Preparing full speed for about 8 weeks now and she is doing very well with it. She turned 10 right before that (end of December) so age did play a factor in her abilities to handle more work. Preparing is very challenging in the amount of work these little guys have to complete in just one day! Now that she can truly do the independent boxes alone and most of the S research and vocabulary boxes with minimal supervision we are getting it all done on most days. She is very busy with her gymnastics so finishing by 2:00 is a must! Now as much as I am going to miss HOD next year I am going to use MFW for 1 or 2 years to hold off on CTC until she is in at least 6th grade or 11/12 years old. I will just continue to use the techniques (dictation from my dd RTR, narration, vocab, and poetry) I have learned in Preparing with the books in MFW. However, I will still get to use HOD with two of my other dc. Good luck! :001_smile:

 

Emily,

 

Thanks for answering my questions.:001_smile:

 

Why hold off on CTC if your daughter has successfully completed Preparing? Are you concerned about the workload, the reading material, the level of independence? :001_smile:

 

I have have heard this a lot, that the upper guides are so challenging. It has kept me from killing myself to put my kiddos in the "right" guides (acc. to the placement chart) and to lean toward combining for content.

[kwickimom]

Planning for my rising 4th grader here.

 

He's had a ROUGH school year and it's been my fault. I'm strongly considering Preparing as his 4th grade year. I own it all and the books are wonderful. He would love to use it.

 

My questions are as follows:

 

1. What is the purpose in writing out answers to the science questions (this is done once each unit)? Can't it be done orally? I feel these questions are more about your child "finding" the answers and forming a sentence answer, than just simply answering the questions. I like that my dd has to find the info independently. Its usually questions that are found within 2 pages of text so it is not difficult to do this, but is a good skill to start learning.

 

2. How would you critique the writing in the guide? Is the writing more "explicit" instruction or is it mainly still copywork or notebooking stuff? From my preview of everything it seems to be a continuation of the copywork and notebooking with the addition of written narration 1x a week and creative writing with poetry. Is there more to it than that? Does it develop into something more over the course of the school year? The written narrations on day 4 Read about History are more than that. Carrie has instructions in the back of the guide for student and teacher to follow to make narrations better. I think that she gives good instruction on this in the box itself, and then in the back of the book. We are on Unit 24 and she has them underlining their topic sentence now. We go over these and follow the instructions in the back of the book and talk about how the narrations could be better. My daughters work is progressing wonderfully. I have also added winning with writing and I dont use R&S though. I wanted dd to do more work with paragraphs.

 

3. Is there any writing that you would consider superfluous? I'd like my son to use something with more explicit writing instruction (versus just copywork). I don't think R&S English will work for us in this area. I dont use the creative writing or R&S. I dont like the poem creative writing at all.

 

4. Did you modify or tweak this guide in any way that you felt worked better for you? We just cut out poetry creative writing and Bible and add in WWW.

 

5. If we eliminate DITHOR does this open up time and hand strength for writing? We don't use DITHOR so this isn't factored into the work of the guide (time wise or writing wise). We dont use DITHOR. Our days are about 3 1/2 hours.

 

**I'm concerned about pressing on with HOD as it hasn't worked for us in so many ways. But, my son needs a more consistent, level appropriate schedule and I think Preparing covers most areas VERY well. Of all the HOD guides this one gets the BEST reviews. And, despite MY struggles with HOD my son absolutely LOVES Bigger Hearts. He just loves it.

 

 

I personally think if you don't use R&S writing that you need another writing program.

[kwickimom]

Emily,

 

Thanks for answering my questions.:001_smile:

 

Why hold off on CTC if your daughter has successfully completed Preparing? Are you concerned about the workload, the reading material, the level of independence? :001_smile:

 

I have have heard this a lot, that the upper guides are so challenging. It has kept me from killing myself to put my kiddos in the "right" guides (acc. to the placement chart) and to lean toward combining for content.

 

My dd is 9 and will be 10 in August. Even though she is doing great in Preparing we are going to take a year off of HOD next year and skip CTC and do a year of American and then jump back into HOD RTR. I think CTC is just too much for next year and I dont want her to be doing that much independent work in 5th grade. Also we are sick of ancients :)

 

We are going to still work on all the skills from Preparing and start making longer narrations and ease into more independence to be ready for RTR.

[abrightmom]

Ladies,

 

Thanks for answering my questions. You've really helped me out as I'm pondering HOD for my oldest. :001_smile:

 

I do like hearing how the written narrations progress and the skills that are worked on in the guide with reading, comprehension, drawing, writing, and thinking. I would also likely drop certain aspects such as poetry writing, DITHOR, and possibly the Bible Study box. We LOVE Bible Study :001_smile: but I relish the idea of studying through the Bible with my children together so I defer to that. I love Carrie's study plans for Bible though (for the record). I would add explicit writing instruction (strongly considering IEW).

 

I really like my "outside the box" plans too so I'm having to weigh each option Very Carefully. I don't want a repeat of our 2011-12 school year :glare:.

 

Thanks again!!!

[Molly]

Seeing as your son seems to be really enjoying Bigger, have you thought about doing Preparing as it, without adding to it, without dropping parts and just seeing how it goes. We had been following a classical approach until we came across HOD, and have found our transition to be smooth, and I am also feeling my children are actually learning far more, because of the connections they are making through the different subjects and activities. My aim is for long term retention and I feel so blessed that God showed me this program, and I know it is going to work so well, and the children are going to have such a fantastic knowledge base, not only biblically but general knowledge.

 

In regard to skipping the bible study, this has been a real blessing to my girls and I. As a family, we are going through the bible slowly, one or two chapters at a time and using Balancing the Sword. But the discussions we have as a family are priceless really. I see the bible study in HOD as more of a bible study leading them toward deep and meaningful quiet times in the years to come. So for us, a must have.

 

I have an 8 yr old doing Preparing and she is really enjoying it. Once she has completed Preparing, I will be moving her to CTC, but I most likely will slow it down a little to start with, as some of the books used in the early units are quite challenging, so I thought that I would work closely with her to ensure she is actually understanding. However, I do believe that by the time she has finished Preparing, she will definately be able to do the written work without being challenged beyond her abilities.

 

Anyway, I pray that God will guide you in making the best decision for your son and your family.

[arstephia]

My answers are in green. We did Preparing last year, so some of this is my best recollection. I have one in Beyond, one in CTC and one in Rev2Rev this year.

 

Planning for my rising 4th grader here.

 

He's had a ROUGH school year and it's been my fault. I'm strongly considering Preparing as his 4th grade year. I own it all and the books are wonderful. He would love to use it.

 

My questions are as follows:

 

 

 

1. What is the purpose in writing out answers to the science questions (this is done once each unit)? Can't it be done orally?

I actually typed out the questions and made a section in the binder for dd to write out her answers. At that grade, getting thoughts down on paper is an important skill. It is part of the writing process on a smaller scale. It doesn't take that long, especially if the questions are typed out a head of time.

 

2. How would you critique the writing in the guide? Is the writing more "explicit" instruction or is it mainly still copywork or notebooking stuff? From my preview of everything it seems to be a continuation of the copywork and notebooking with the addition of written narration 1x a week and creative writing with poetry. Is there more to it than that? Does it develop into something more over the course of the school year? I would say the majority of the writing instruction is in the Rod and Staff, narration, and some poetry. At the 4th grade level, my focus was on complete, full thoughts. I focus on mechanics/grammar more in 5th grade. The flexibility of HOD allows for that.

 

3. Is there any writing that you would consider superfluous? I'd like my son to use something with more explicit writing instruction (versus just copywork). I don't think R&S English will work for us in this area. I used R&S so I can't help much with this. I didn't find any of it to be superfluous.

 

4. Did you modify or tweak this guide in any way that you felt worked better for you?

 

5. If we eliminate DITHOR does this open up time and hand strength for writing? We don't use DITHOR so this isn't factored into the work of the guide (time wise or writing wise). We didn't do DITHOR - I used BJU Reading instead.

 

**I'm concerned about pressing on with HOD as it hasn't worked for us in so many ways. But, my son needs a more consistent, level appropriate schedule and I think Preparing covers most areas VERY well. Of all the HOD guides this one gets the BEST reviews. And, despite MY struggles with HOD my son absolutely LOVES Bigger Hearts. He just loves it.

[blessed2five]

Emily,

 

Thanks for answering my questions.:001_smile:

 

Why hold off on CTC if your daughter has successfully completed Preparing? Are you concerned about the workload, the reading material, the level of independence? :001_smile:

 

I have have heard this a lot, that the upper guides are so challenging. It has kept me from killing myself to put my kiddos in the "right" guides (acc. to the placement chart) and to lean toward combining for content.

 

Katrina,

 

Sorry it took me all weekend to answer...gymnastics and more gymnastics! I will be holding off on CTC for 2 reasons. First of all this dd did not get as much American history as I would have liked due to me and my jumping around and trying new programs way too much!!

 

Secondly, I would like her to be in the same place as my older dd when she hits HS. I think RTR as a 7th or 8th grader is just perfect. This way I can use the same HS plans with both of them. Lastly, my two oldest girls will both be studying American history next year which will be perfect for read a louds which I miss so much. Also, I have a big field trip planned to VA next year.

 

Yes, she probably could use CTC at some point next year, but for us holding off at least until she is in 6th or 7th grade will work better for us.

 

HTH :001_smile:

[abrightmom]

Ladies,

 

Thanks again for answering my questions. You've given me wonderful food for thought. :001_smile::001_smile::001_smile: