I love how flexible it all is ...Going to a 4 day Bigger!

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:31 pm

Just decided for sure today that we are going to finish this year up and all the loose ends we have because we jumped into Bigger without really finishing a few things

. But I am so glad we did! I originally thought we would hurry to get into Preparing mid year next year but now I am thinking we will take a lighter stroll. I like the idea of a 4 day week next year and one extra free for nothing but Bible. I just happened to notice that it would be an option for us since we got a little head start on Bigger this year. And then I really got to thinking this will be so great how could I do this every year and I realized hey, Carrie already took care of that for me by making Preparing a 4 day program. YEAH!

I love being able to make decisions like this that just work best for our family without having to stress that it will ruin the flow of the program or mess things up. I just got to feeling that I need a little bit more time with my dd who is delayed on reading before Preparing and why push that for her. We are really making good progress and I am really pushing her as much as I can and have it still work.

Then it kind of went to a whole day of nothing but Bible and character would be really great. So why not! So we will end this year this month and actually start next year next month, hahaha! No seriously. Then we take a month or so and start again so we can have our loooong Christmas break again like last year.

I am not really sure why I am sharing except to say YEAH! But maybe there is someone else thinking of getting a head start with Bigger before the end of the year and a similar idea might be good.

netpea · Post by **netpea** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:07 pm

I am considering doing 2 -3 days a week over the summer so that we can do 4 day weeks next year too. This would work well for my daughter who will be doing Little Hearts. But we won't finish Beyond by summer with my son so we'll just plug away with that a couple days a week to finish, then start Bigger a couple days a week.

I am thinking ahead for Bigger now that I will probably want to do the extension pack as read alouds as well as doing the extra read-alouds for Little Hearts. We used to do more reading than we do now. Other activities push reading aside. It's time for some changes. For instance, I used to try to schedule piano and gymnastics during the day, but I think I'm ready to move that stuff to evenings or Saturdays. Between Thursday morning CBS and Friday morning coop, it seems like we are already running too much during the week.

The other issue we have is with our public school friends/cousins. They are all on different school schedules and have their own activities. So I sometimes get calls that one or another has a day off, lets get together. My kids miss these friends/cousins so we always jump at the chance to get together when it arises, but it often means no school work gets done. If we were ahead from the summer, this wouldn't bother me in the least. We might actually be more "relaxed".

Sorry, I'm rambling, but you got me thinking W2W!

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:49 pm

netpea wrote: Sorry, I'm rambling, but you got me thinking W2W!

Well good I am happy to not be the only one.

BTW we do the extension pack in Bigger as a read aloud and we love it that way.

Vicki · Post by **Vicki** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:11 pm

I was just tonight looking ahead to Bigger, and how I'd like to work through our time with it. I like the idea you have of using the extension pack for read-alouds, and that will be a good fit for us. I think it's great to think things through out loud to others here on the board. It kind of gives you a "sounding board" to bounce ideas back and forth with.

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:02 pm

Vicki wrote:I was just tonight looking ahead to Bigger, and how I'd like to work through our time with it. I like the idea you have of using the extension pack for read-alouds, and that will be a good fit for us. I think it's great to think things through out loud to others here on the board. It kind of gives you a "sounding board" to bounce ideas back and forth with.

I agree it really does help.

I actually found out how much fun it is to do the extension pack aloud because we had already started the science in the extension pack before we decided on Bigger. We were not that far into it but that was hard to kind of exclude us doing it together. And then one of my ten year old dds really reads on the late first grade level but she can comprehend the information in the extension pack. So it follows what I always do for her in reading it to her to keep her on grade level even though she can't read on grade level if that makes sense.

But can't tell you the fun we had reading Pedro's journal and Pocahontas! And then the Science we just read about Marco Polo and tonight we watched the story on TV. Just made it really fun.

But I can see how it would be great to have them read it themselves as well. Just works great for us this way.

Tiffini · Post by **Tiffini** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:56 am

Well, see, I really want to do the extension pack as a read-aloud because I don't want to miss anything - and I know my youngers would love the books, too!! BUT, my older dd wants to have her own special things that is just for her to do. She is so excited about having the ext. pack schedule to do all by herself. Help! I want to do both! I guess I could take my youngers aside and do them as read alouds with them later...In fact, my 7 yo ds is already reading Ben and Me out loud to me - he just couldn't resist it!

Post by **Carrie** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:17 am

Ooh, Ladies! I love brainstorming and planning! It is such fun to think out loud with kindred spirits isn't it!

Blessings,
Carrie

water2wine · Post by **water2wine** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:58 pm

HappyatHome wrote:Well, see, I really want to do the extension pack as a read-aloud because I don't want to miss anything - and I know my youngers would love the books, too!! BUT, my older dd wants to have her own special things that is just for her to do. She is so excited about having the ext. pack schedule to do all by herself. Help! I want to do both! I guess I could take my youngers aside and do them as read alouds with them later...In fact, my 7 yo ds is already reading Ben and Me out loud to me - he just couldn't resist it!

I agree! I hate to miss it too! Is that selfish?

I have my dd using some of the books Carrie recommended to use for older kids to read on their own. A couple of my kids are reading them after I read them. Honestly! And then we do have all those DITHR books for them to do as well. So really I don't feel too bad about stealing their books. But maybe a little. Hahaha!