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amyable
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| Posted: March 26 2007 at 7:51am | IP Logged
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With the new baby coming, I was thinking of getting CHC's lesson plans and some of the books for my oldest. I just wanted to pick your collective brains first! 
What did you think of the supplements? My Temple of the Holy Spirit - Nutrition, Health, and First Aid for Catholic Boys and Girls - Our United States
What about God's Little Angels and Rare Catholic Stories and Poems - are they average 4th grade reading level (I remember discussion that the 2nd grade reader was too hard, and I agree!)
How do they set up Saxon in the schedule? (Like how many lesson per week, when are tests, etc) We have never used Saxon before, but I took a look at my friend's book last week, and I think if I'm ever going to switch out of Math-U-See, this would be the time to do it (knowing my dd).
In order for the lesson plans to work for my dd, she'll need to be following them pretty exactly, not on week 12 in one thing, 15 in a second, 24 in a third, etc.  Of course I'll be helping her, but the whole purpose of me getting lesson plans would be to let her have some independence, at least with knowing what to do, since she is so DEpendent on me for the actual "getting through the daily work"! 
One last thing for now - if she starts in, say, late October, would that totally mess up any suggestions they have for religion and the liturgical year? (see note above about not wanting to be in too many different weeks for different subjects  )
Thank you all for any thoughts - without being able to return many of the things, I wanted to make sure I knew what I'd be getting us into. 
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Celeste
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| Posted: March 26 2007 at 7:22pm | IP Logged
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I have been using, loosely, CHC grade four. I can't answer all your questions, but here's a go:
"My Temple of the Holy Spirit" is okay. We switched to "Blood and Guts" early on--lots more information and experiments, and more fun. B&G takes more time, though, so we're not into the health and nurition segment yet.
I don't use Saxon; I've been using Singapore Math. But it looks like the plans call for a lesson or an investigation a day (four day work week).
I opted not to use their reading comprehension program, so I've never read Rare Catholic Stories or God's Little Angels. Sorry!
Learning to Appreciate Art is lovely.
The plans do a nice job suggesting appropriate activities from A Year with God; which I don't have because it's so expensive and I have Jenn as a sister. The history is a good overview of the regions of the US and of some of the states in each region. Fourth grade is our year for Nebraska history, so that's what we're spending most of our time on. (I'm so helpful, aren't I?)
I love their handwriting programs, esp. fifth grade--copywork of Scripture and Proverbs and preparing a spiritual crib for Christmas. 4th grade is calligraphy.
Spelling combines phonics and spelling, along with memory work.
Language of God is workbook, pretty good, pretty independent, but not as rigorous as I'd like.
Overall I like the plans. I don't think I use them to their full potential.
You probably could turn them over to your daughter, or give her the Independent Study Charts.
I'm afraid this is rather jumbled! I hope it helps somewhat. I'd be happy to answer any more questions.
Celeste
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amyable
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| Posted: March 27 2007 at 6:52am | IP Logged
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Thank you Celeste, it is definitely helpful! Can you tell if they assume you are starting in the beginning of September by where they place Liturgical suggestions in the lesson plans, or are they separate (so you could put them in anytime). Thanks again for your thoughts!
Anyone else, too?
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: March 27 2007 at 7:57am | IP Logged
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I bought them last Fall to use with dd. My dd is my easiest child to homeschool, a strong reader and very independent. Rarely complains. We completed the Temple of the Holy Spirit over the summer. Material was good...dd declared it was boring. I probably wouldn't use it again. We liked the masterpiece art unit. We ended up ditching Language of God for ILL. Dd really disliked it. She likes the spelling. We use Math U See instead. She hates their reading comprehension programs, so I stopped trying to make them work after the third grade. The history is A LOT of work for mom, and not the kind of work I enjoy doing. We did something else instead.
If there are only aspects of the program that appeal to you, you could buy a planner instead, buy just the things you want to use and just schedule things out for her over the summer. That's what I did and it worked great. I don't like being on different weeks at the same time either.
Don't know if this helps. Let me know if you have more specific questions. I can unbury the lesson plans from the shelf and look it up if you wish.
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~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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Celeste
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| Posted: March 27 2007 at 8:03am | IP Logged
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Oops, you asked about the liturgical planning in your original post! Sorry! Yes, they assume a September start, and the lliturg. stuff is NOT separate.
Celeste
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: March 27 2007 at 8:45am | IP Logged
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I ditched the plans pretty early on...I concur with pretty much everything Celeste and Books have said, except my fourth grader really likes Language of God and I use that. I also use my own copywork sheets for handwriting practice. I much prefer Blood and Guts over the CHC plans,though I do read the CHC information aloud. Blood and Guts and notebook pages with anatomy mapping are the bulk of our study.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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SuzC
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| Posted: March 27 2007 at 9:25am | IP Logged
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I'm sure there's talk about Saxon somewhere, but I'll offer my 2 cents. It's worked very well for us (as has CHC - the only falings have been my own ).
We purchased the Dive cd because I was expecting #5 and looking for some back-up. The novelty wore off pretty quickly, becuase it seemed to add a lot of time to her lesson. However, we have gone back to it at several points and in the end I'm glad we had it.
The tests are scheduled after 5 lessons (I think  ) so you might end up doing math 5 days a week if you don't combine a lesson with a test. I don't think tests are scheduled into the lesson plan.
The history and science have been my falings. We use Considering God's Creation, but we will use the CHC supplement this month.
The history was a lot of work, but I think if I had encouraged dd more she could have done it well on her own and stuck with it. Instead we focussed on our state and then it fizzled out.
Dd has enjoyed the reading comp, but I do remember some displeasure in the beginning about it being boring (maybe difficult to understand).
Dd was able (and enjoyed the responsibility) of pulling out the lesson plan binder and seeing what pages/lessons needed to be covered for language arts and math. The other subjects are more mom intensive.
All this to say...the plans worked very well when I needed more structure. My error was in thinking a time had come that I didn't need that structure.
Blessings ~
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Tina P.
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 9:41am | IP Logged
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I've found that CHC works best a grade behind where the child *should* (according to the state) be, if that makes sense. My 9 yo is using the 3rd grade reading comp (very loosely). If you compare MODG and CHC, you'll find that even math is stepped up in CHC. That and the fact that the projects can be a bit of overkill, I found, is what frustrated me all these years of trying to use CHC. We use the lesson plans we bought for religion supplement. Kind of an expensive supplement, don't you agree?
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amyable
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 10:44am | IP Logged
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Thank you everyone for your thoughts on CHC 4th grade! I think I've come to the conclusion that too many things wouldn't work for her, and so will probably skip the lesson plans. If all I wind up getting is Language of God, who needs a lesson plan?? 
It does mean I'll need to spend some more time this summer preplanning, if I want any semblence of order after the baby comes! Sometimes I do wish my firstborn was my organized, schoolish one!
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ALmom
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| Posted: March 30 2007 at 8:24pm | IP Logged
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Personally my children enjoyed reading both of those reading comp stories - but not the questions and answers. We got the books for the stories, read them and talked about them - and did some selective answering questions only when I felt my dc would benefit and would not bog down by it- not very often at all.
My child who hated science liked the My Temple of the Holy Spirit. My science fan has not used it. We did love the supplemental reader that went with it.
We have always used LOG and it was easy for my dc to use and kept them very independent here.
I loved the copy work in the handwriting but the print was way too small for my dc so we didn't use that.
I never followed their math plans. The activities were beautiful for the liturgical year - but we were never at the same place in the same subject and start our year much earlier so none of these things matched up with liturgical year for us.
Just one more perspective.
Janet
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Topic: CHC 4th grade questions
