Stay with Bigger or go to Beyond?

[mrsrandolph]

My 7 and 9 year olds are currently in Bigger. I think they are ready for beyond except for 1 thing, and that 1 thing may be too BIG. My 7 year old son is VERY IMMATURE fine motor wise. He is also VERY intelligent. Like, for his math, he tells me the answer, I write it in marker, and he traces over it.

He can write his name, but it looks like a 4 year old wrote it.

Should I just stay in Bigger and give him more time to mature (he will start occupational therapy too), or move ahead to Beyond?

[StephanieU]

Do you mean they are currently in Beyond? Bigger chimes after Beyond.

[Nealewill]

I think Beyond has a lot of fine motor skills stuff in it and I think your 7 year old may be happier there. Bigger has a lot more writing in it. I am glad that I waited with my son to do Bigger until this year because he wasn't ready for all of this writing last year when he was 7. We did the Beyond guide as is and it very much prepared him for Bigger. And my kids LOVED Beyond. You could still stay doing the same story time with both kids. You could still move forward with the spelling and math you have been doing. If the 7 year old is doing grammar, you could keep doing what you are doing. But the Beyond guide helps kids with writing buy having them copy the poems. It helps them build up their muscle skills. If you don't already have the R&S workbooks from Little Hearts, there are a ton of fine motor skills in those books. I highly recommend adding them in. I got my son a couple of them so he could practice cutting - the 1st grade option books have lots of cutting.

[psreit]

You mentioned Bigger to Beyond. I'm assuming you mean Beyond to Bigger, according to your signature. If you are not finished with Beyond, why do you want to move ahead? I would just keep them both in Beyond until it is finished. If you need to modify the 3 R's, you can do that with either of them. I definitely would not move the 7yo. If you feel the 9yo should be in her own guide, then work through Beyond at a faster pace than the 7yo. I wouldn't skip any of it.

[Mumkins]

I regret combining my oldest two. it was good in Beyond. In Biggerr, it went ok. Preparing, I could tell I was dragging him along. In CTC, I had to split. He was/is exceptionally smart. But he just wasn't ready for all that writing. Move your older up if neccesary, but, its better not to drag the younger along. Bigger does have extensions if you need to up the guide next year.

[mrsrandolph]

YES!! They are currently in BEYOND.

[bethelmommy]

If your ds is still struggling with the amount of writing in Beyond, I do not think you want to move on to Bigger. There is quite a jump in writing from Beyond to Bigger. My dd did fine with writing in Beyond (spelling, math, copy work, and even started cursive). When we started Bigger she could not keep up with the writing, even at 1/2 speed. She was frustrated and I was frustrated. I had to give her a several month break just focusing on the 3r's and then restarted Bigger 1/2 speed in January. We are on week 3 now and she is finally completing 1/2 speed in a somewhat timely fashion. Intellectually, dd is more than able to handle Bigger at full speed, but I realized I would be doing her a great disservice as we move through the guides to continue at that pace when her writing is not ready. While she was sad to no longer be combined with her older brother, overall dd is MUCH happier with her school schedule and my ds is much happier moving full speed ahead on his own.

[Nealewill]

okay - I see. I would keep the 7 yo in Beyond and move the 9 year old to Bigger if that works for you. Make sense? I found my oldest and middle child were night and day different in abilities. And they are 2 guides apart. My youngest is doing Little this year but that is only because she did Beyond last year. Next year, my youngest and middle child are going to be 1 guide apart next year and forever after that.

[LynnH]

What week of Beyond are you on? So are you considering not finishing the guide and if so why? That would probably help people know how to answer. I know the usual recommendation is to finish out a guide. If your dc are finding the guide easier than they did at the beginning that is exactly what you want to see. You still want to finish the guide even if it is fairly easy for them. You could always relook at the placement chart when you finish Beyond and make sure your 9 year old isn't ready for Preparing and if so then you could split your dc and move at a slower pace with the 7 year old.