IS finishing a guide necessary?

[deut6family]

I would love some advice on what to do next....

My DD is 7 1/2 and in 2nd grade. We have been doing Beyond for 1.5 school years. We took it very slow last year when she was in 1st grade and have caught up a lot this first semester. I was hoping to have the book completely finished by the end of December so we could start Bigger in January.
Here is where we are:
Spelling- Finished with all the lists
English- Did the 1 a week English about 3 times a week- so All completed
Storytime- Still have 1 book to go
Emergent Reader- still have 3 books to go
Singapore- Almost done with 1B, ready to start 2A in January

Left Hand side of the book- we have about 7 weeks left of lessons

I am kind of wanting to "jump ship" and start her in Bigger in January even though we will have not made it to the end of the guide. I think she is ready. Her reading is probably a 4th grade level, same with spelling. Her handwriting is excellent and she has taught herself cursive this year. The only area she struggles in still is Math, but we can slow down if need be. I just feel like #1 I am getting bored with Beyond and #2 She needs to move up to the next level and be challenged. So the real question is should I just end the Beyond guide at the end of this month or even the end of January even if we are not 100% done with the guide? I don't want to move on to Bigger mid year if it will be too hard on her. Or should we just stick with Beyond, finish out the left hand side and readers... but up the Math level, Add in English and maybe DITHOR? Thanks for all your help and advice!

Sarah
DD (7; Beyond)
DD (5; LHFHG)
DD (4; LHTH)

[psreit]

My personal opinion is to finish Beyond. I know when you're near the end of a guide, you get excited about starting something new. But, there is still a lot of good reading and Bible left in 7 weeks. We completed LHFHG and Beyond. I stopped about midway in Bigger last year because my dd was having some difficulties, not with HOD, but at the time, I felt we just needed to stop, thinking that would be the best way to focus on her math and reading. It was a hasty decision that I now regret. I no longer have the Bigger set, so I am just going to wait until next fall and begin Preparing. I feel like we have missed out on some things because we didn't finish Bigger. My daughter is moving forward in certain skills, but I know there are skills in Bigger that would have benefitted her if we would have finished it.

Since the right side work is almost completed, you could begin to add Bigger spelling, English, DITHOR (when the ER books are completed), as well as the storytime, but continue to do the left side of Beyond until it is finished. Take it from someone who only did part of a guide. I will always wonder what we missed.

[MelInKansas]

I see what you are saying, and I understand. I skipped the last few weeks of LHFHG with my oldest for a number of reasons. But she did miss some stuff because I did that (I skipped all of it though, not just History/Bible).

Could you skip several weeks of the end of Beyond and would she still probably do okay? Probably.

Would you be missing something if you did that? Definitely.

There is good wrap-up towards the end of the guide and IMO the activities and bringing things all together is best at the beginning and end of each guide.

I did keep my DD going with math (she went up to 3A before we were finished with Bigger) because she has moved through that more quickly than other stuff. So as the other person suggested, you can go ahead and start the next level with math, grammar, etc if you want to. That might make the transition up to Bigger a little bit smoother.

[chillin'inandover]

Sarah,
I think you should finish the guide. There is so much to each guide. For different reasons I didn't finish a guide-Bigger-. It took me 2 years to get back the skills missed. Do you have Bigger? You could use it for the next spelling list, which is dictation. You could start grammar Rod&Staff. You could continue in math. Once the ER is finished you can start DITHOR. Were you planning on doing 1/2 speed once you start? By adding subjects from Bigger you have finished in Beyond you won't need to go 1/2 time. By slowly adding each subject this will allow an opportunity to figure out all the new areas too. There is a learning curve for the teacher too. 7 weeks will go fast!

[Nealewill]

I think it is really up to you. I know at some point my middle child will not finish a guide (either Beyond, Bigger or Preparing) because I plan to split him up from his sister. So if you have pretty much wrapped it all up in Beyond (and I am going to be the old ball here), I will skip to Bigger in January. But that is just me. Because we started school so late this year, I may or may not have my oldest DD finish preparing. We started something else for 7 weeks and I was so unhappy with it that I ended up switching to HOD beginning of October. Now I feel very behind. So I haven't decided if I am going to finish Preparing for my oldest (like the last 4 weeks of it.) My opinion changes daily LOL.

I think you should do whatever you are leaning more towards doing. It will all work out in the end.

Daneale

[MomtoJGJE]

Well.... I doubt anyone will burst in flames if you don't finish but might I suggest that since the longest thing you have is 7 units that you just finish? You could even just do the left side, two lessons per day and still be able to start Bigger in February. It's really a fun guide. I totally understand just wanting to move on. My 3rd was REALLY ready to move on into Beyond from LHFHG when we had about 8-10 units left. I just doubled up (because she could do it so well) most days and finished it early.

Also like someone else said, you could just start her where she is in all the different boxes, using Bigger for the ones she's at that level for, and Beyond for the ones she's in that level for.

It took me forever to get to the point that I realized that I didn't have to have math/LA/reading all at the same page as the other stuff. I do try to keep the left side (in Beyond) all together on the same day, but the other stuff I no longer do.

So my Beyond child is in unit 14 or so... She's finishing up SM1B, finishing up the grammar lessons in January, finishing up the ERs probably in Feb, and going to be starting cursive pretty soon. So it will be absolutely fine to use Bigger for all the basics and still using Beyond for the history/science.

[deut6family]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I love that we have a board like this where I can run to for advice. I think you all have convinced me to stick with Beyond and finish up. I do not have a Bigger guide. For those of you that do, do you think it is necessary to have the Bigger guide to do Singapore 2A (are there activities in the book?) or to start the Rod and Staff grammar? Or should I just buy the workbook and textbook for Singapore 2A and make my own schedule for Rod and Staff? So then I will be starting Bigger in March with 3 months of the school year left- do you all think it is a good idea to start then or should I just wait until August and find some other things to fill in the time from March? I've never started a guide at the end of the year before. Advice???


Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and help this momma out!

Sarah
DD (7 1/2 Beyond)
DD (5 LHFHG)
DD (4 (LHTH)

[mom23]

I have skipped the end of a guide before...a couple of times... but don't feel there are problems because of it now. For my dd the guides we missed the ends of were below where my she should have been placed in the first place and she was more than ready to handle the next one. It just took me a long time to figure out correct placement when we started with HOD! Now that I think about it, I guess I skipped the end of LHTH for my ds, as well. I had taken it very slowly, mostly because I was just a busy Mama and didn't always get to a full lesson for him. He simply "grew out of" that guide before we were done with it. So, I guess that's different advice than most would recommend.

However, it sounds like you're leaning towards finishing Beyond-so in response to your questions: I really would recommend the Bigger guide for the math activities. The Rod and Staff schedule is no big deal, you just do a lesson a day. The Math activities, though, are in my opinion more important. We don't use Singapore Math, and I feel that's partly due to my not using the Math activities suggested in the guides. They bring that solid understanding to the concepts, and concrete experience that is so key to a firm foundation for Math. Without the activities, my kids didn't get the concepts well enough to retain them and when the reviews came back around they were completely lost. Your second question about starting a guide with only 3 months left in the year-I'd go for it! We normally school year-round, but had to take this past summer off because of a move. When we came back to start the year, my child who was partway into his guide did so well, slippling easily right back into the requirements and the familiarity of an old guide. It was a much rougher start for my 2 kids in completely new guides, because we were against a new schedule and new and harder expectations. I know people do it all the time, but for me it's much easier to carry a guide over than to dive into a new year with a new one.

[MomtoJGJE]

R&S you do not need the guide... it's one lesson a day. All instructions are in the R&S book.

As far as the hands on activities for SM. I think they are great! I think that you CAN do it without them, but the kids won't have as good of a grasp of the concept.

I do have to admit that I don't do them with DD3... First of all, singapore math is how I do math anyway, and second of all I've done it before so I get the what and why of the hands on stuff. So even though I don't do the things necessarily listed in the guide she DOES get hands on activities comparable to the ones in HOD. I just learned that 99% of the time we didn't have the items needed to do the ones written and I was having to improvise anyway.

But as far as beginning a guide at the end of the year.... we school year round. So none of my kids are in the same spot in the guides. We take off when we take off and do school when we do school and they've never had trouble picking back up where we left off.

[my3sons]

One of the things I love about HOD is that I can just open up my guide and teach from the daily plans each day without a ton of flipping around. I love that it is all right there for me at a glance. My dc love this facet of the plans as well, as they begin to use the plans as a Student Planner starting with CTC on up. So, just know that is where I am coming from when I give this advice! I'd just do my same amount of time of school (i.e. my 2 1/2 hours or so I'd been doing with Beyond when doing it all) in order of the daily plans, checking off boxes as I went. Some subjects have already dropped out (i.e. spelling and English, and soon math). Storytime will drop out next. then, eventually Emerging Readers. This will naturally cause you to clip along faster with your unfinished parts of the plans (i.e. the left side). It is tempting to just kite along with and finish LA and math, but then dc miss the history and science connections, the chronology of it all, not to mention the needed honing of LA related skills such as oral narrations of history/science readings. If you did this plan of doing school the same amount of time each day (i.e. 2 1/2 hours), checking off the remaining boxes in order as you do them, you'd have some days where you get through 2 boxes of the same subject (i.e. 2 history readings and activities), resulting in completing 1 1/2 days of plans or more each day, and you'd probably finish all of Beyond in a month or even less, and be able to start Bigger Hearts with every subject area being neatly wrapped up, so you could start on Day 1 of the plans for Bigger Hearts for everything. This always gives me a feeling of cohesiveness and makes sure we are doing each subject area in balance for the year. If you end up not doing the last 1-2 weeks of a guide, due to extenuating circumstances, I think that is fine. Any more than that, and dc start missing needed things to be ready for the next guide. Hope something here helps, Sarah, as you ponder what is best for you and your dd!

In Christ,
Julie