Thinking ahead

[hopeallgoeswell]

I am a planner. This has been in the back of my head. (And I keep my eyes open for great deals on next years curriculum!) I started my 7.5 yo dd at the very beginning age recommendations for the guides. She is in 2nd grade starting BHFHG. My question is this: If she does well in this guide and has all of the skills down, how would moving her into PHFHG in third, CTC in fourth, etc. be? I would love to hear from "seasoned" homeschoolers who have taken that path. My only worry is, once we get to upper level guides, will she be burnt out? Would any of you have waited a year or two to start the progression? Or, are you and your dc happy and thriving with the road you have taken? TIA!

[Tree House Academy]

I would not skip a guide with her. First of all, you are skipping some very important skills that she will need to move on to the next guide. And secondly, she will miss all that fun still in Bigger!

My son is turning 7 at the end of this month, is a 2nd grader, and is doing BHFHG. We love it. I am excited to start Bigger next year too.

[Marcee]

I agree with Rebecca. I wouldn't skip.

[hopeallgoeswell]

Oh, no. I don't mean skip any guides. Sorry if it came across that way! She is doing Bigger... now. Next year, her third grade year, I plan on putting her in Preparing... The year after, CTC. The thing I love about HOD is how the skills build each year. I am just worried that if I keep her on this progression, since she is on the younger side of the age recommendations, she may be burnt out down the road.

[Happy2bMommyof3]

I would worry about her getting burned out if it comes later...today has enough trouble of its own

[GinainMD]

Perhaps you could spread Bigger out over two years and then move onto Preparing for her 4th grade year to give her a bit more time to mature. Just a thought.

[Tmisek]

Hi!

If your dd is doing just fine in Bigger I would think she should be ready for Preparing after that, since the guides do a great job of preparing your child for the next level. There is always the option of going half-speed also (now or later)...if you feel like things are moving too fast for her. If she is handling the work fine, though, I doubt she will have any difficulty . I also plan to have my youngest doing Bigger as a 2nd grader since I would like to keep her combined with my son.

[mamanlait]

My experience: We tried advancing our 3rd grader to Preparing at full speed last year. We breezed through Bigger's LA and Math, but struggled with the history reading (if that helps). The only area we were a bit behind in was Cursive prior to starting the guide (I just didn't like the looks of her cursive . Preparing was difficult for dd with all of the writing and independent tasks at this age. She felt very frustrated by the indep. art/history projects, timeline, narrations, I could go on. But the history text was much easier for her to comprehend then Bigger's. I would say if Bigger is going well, it would be much easier to continue at the current pace and when you get to Preparing slow down to half-pace for even as much as 10 weeks until you really feel your child has matured into the big jump in writing, reading, and independent tasks. We actually ended up doing this (we did math daily, however, but it isn't scheduled like it is in Bigger so it was easy to do). It worked out so very well at half-pace. Around week 9 of Preparing (18 weeks into the curriculum -- at half pace), my dd was very capable of moving forward full speed ahead. We actually started full speed right after she turned 9 and began 4th grade according to local school placement. She now LOVES art, timeline, projects, and doesn't cry during written narrations.

In terms of half-pace: it is so simple to do with Preparing. We worked on the same memory verse each day, added Math for each day (I checked the box twice, one for each day in these subject areas . We focused more on researching topics on the computer that we were reading about and savored the subject areas a bit more in history). If the day went a bit fast at half-pace, I'd assign more readers for her (sometimes picture books on the history topics, other times, fun wholesome reading). We really enjoyed this pace and I would love to be able to slow down and enjoy some rabbit trails more in the future. We might finish Preparing early since we are now on wk 14, heading towards CTC at full speed. I'm secretly hoping to get to CTC early and spend a few months at half pace again!

Amy

dd9 Preparing
dd5.5 LHTFG

[hopeallgoeswell]

Heather, I know! I just like to keep my eyes open for good deals on next year's curriculum throughout the year.

Gina and Tammy, She is doing very well in BHFHG. She has not whined once! Big jump from last year . Maybe I will slow down PHFHG or CTC when we get there, if needed. Though, I really don't want to do that much "ancients" in two years!

Amy, Thank you for sharing you and your dd experience. Do you think it would be doable to help with some of the independent work for the first few weeks and then ease into the independent parts if that is where the kink is?

[mamanlait]

We did most of the independent work together anyway. All of the writing is where we struggled with our younger Preparing child. I didn't really want to limit that since it was important to have that down pat as we moved closer to CTC.
Amy

[hopeallgoeswell]

Thank you, Amy!