Combining 8 & 10 yr old in Bigger

[faithmama4]

A friend of mine is coming to visit this weekend so I can help her go through her guide to get started. We both know she can handle this on her own but what better excuse for her to come visit? Anyway, she has decided based on her dc skill that both her children would love to be in bigger. They did world history last year and they REALLY enjoy American history. Her daughter is 10 1/2, she now loves to read and she realizes that we might need to bulk up her work a bit to challenge her. Her son(8) is reading and can handle Bigger but may give her some trouble as he had the tendency to drag his feet last year for her. He likes to be in control and they are working on obedience concerns.

She is also using Dithor with both of them. Her dd at the 4/5 level and ds at 2/3.

So I am mainly looking for advice on how to handle having her eldest in bigger when she could likely do the work of Preparing? Does she just do the extensions? or is there more notebooking/writing that she should do?

Any suggestions if the writing seems to be too much for her son? I've heard others mention doing R&S orally with a small section written.

She also has a ds who is physically significantly smaller in growth than his age and developmentally is not quite ready for K work. She is feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought of adding in another guide. Her focus this year is math/phonics with him. I personally think that LHFHG would be very enjoyable for him and her. I do believe he knows his letters/sounds but is not yet blending.

This is also my first year with HOD. Mine will be in LHTH, BLHFHG, and Preparing. This is our fourth yr as a homeschooling family. I am looking forward to this year being more joyful!

Thanks!
Teresa

[MelInKansas]

The older of the two should probably use the extensions to make it up to his level, along with whichever grammar and math level he fits into and sounds like she's already got DITHOR for each on their level.

For the young K-er I would suggest maybe LHTH isn't too overwhelming and still some good learning for him, maybe with handwriting or reading practice if he is ready. It has "older" options that were challenging for my DD.

[StephanieU]

As for LHFHG, I would wait on it and do LHTH like the previous person mentioned. At least use LHTH for everything but letter, number, and color lessons. This is what I am doing with my almost 5yo this year (the 3yo will do LHTH as written). We are adding in math, phonics, handwriting, and FMS - basically what is in LHFHG on the right side minus storytime.

[my3sons]

The extensions extend the areas of science and history in BHFHG. For vocabulary assignments, ds can do 1 card, and dd can do 3 cards. I'd do a higher level of R & S English and math for dd, and she could probably do this more independently if she is a good writer (i.e. just have her write the answers to more of the problems; while having ds do most of his orally/on marker board). Dd can do the dictation, ds can do Spelling List 2. DD can copy all of the poems and illustrate her own poetry book independently. Ds can omit the copywork, as it will may be too much for him on top of the rest of the writing in BHFHG. DD will be more independent naturally in DITHOR 4/5 than ds. I'd plan for things to take longer for the 8 yo - he's younger, so this is natural. I'd probably have dd do a few boxes of Little Hands to Heaven with the youngest on the tail end of assignments that 8 yo is taking longer to finish than she is. My oldest and middle sons enjoy doing a box or two of plans with our youngest so much. The extensions are totally independent, so during that time there would be more time to work with ds on finishing things out. Two Bigger Hearts guides may be nice, as older dd could take the guide and work independently on some things easily while ds finishes things out. Those are just a few ideas! Have fun planning and catching up with your friend!!!

In Christ,
Julie