HOD preparing

[mhaddon]

I'm looking into this next year with my two boys, they will be 7 and 9 when we begin. I'm wondering if preparing is really that heavy on material and hard to get through. We've been doing CC and MFW this year. MFW seems very easy to get through. I do love the MFW format of everything being on one page and I know that HOD is a page each day which can make it hard to flip through. Has anyone had trouble with this format make a planner on one page for each week? If so I'd love to see it!  How heavy is the material? I know for our LA/grammar we will be doing essentials so I will not need that portion.

[tjlcc]

I used Preparing for the 2012-2013 school year with a 9/10yo and a 7/8yo.  I expected more from my oldest obviously.  He did the written narrations himself, while I scribed for my younger.  My oldest read the storytime selections independently.  I read some of the independent history selections aloud, as I wanted my younger to hear them, and knew I could not trust him to read them himself.  They enjoyed CHOW, and loved Grandpa's Box and Find the Constellations.  I skipped Pedro's Journal and some of the science selections.

 

You could definitely use this with a 9 and 7yo as long as you're willing to tweak if necessary.  If you want this to be an independent program, I suggest waiting until your oldest is capable (say, 4th grade) and just let him have at it.

[mhaddon]

I'm not expecting independence so much as my oldest has dyslexia so we would do most of it together. My daughter will be in first grade so I figured we could all just listen in. I guess I'm not sure what to expect, lol

[twoxcell]

If you want to use Preparing as intended then I would not attempt it with a 7 year old. It is quite full and the independent work would be too hard. My ds used Preparing for 4th grade when he was 9 and it was perfect for him. It would be possible for you to tweek it and make it work for those ages but that depends on your goals. Do you intend to use the HOD guides after Preparing? If so then you would end up having to adjust again. HOD works very well when your dc are properly placed within a guide. Have you looked at the Placement Chart on the HOD website? That will help you see where your dc fall in the guides. Obviously there are people that use the guides and disregard the placement but I do not recommend that.