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I was planning to wait to use Bigger for Colton for 3rd grade since I've already planned out and purchased his 2nd grade curriculum. I've looked at the samples for R&S English 2 and English 3 online. If we use CLE LA 2 for 2nd grade, I *think* he'll be ready for English 3 when we start Bigger. (I think he'd actually flip out if he saw a "2" on a text he was using for 3rd grade because he wants to be doing "hard stuff" ). Is there an alternate schedule for English 3 in the appendix of Bigger? He's very advanced in his LA skills and would probably be ready to go into Preparing for 3rd, but I want him to work on other skills and cover the history component of Bigger before we move on. The reason I want to get this figured out now is... maybe it would be better to return the CLE LA 2 and order R&S English 2 for second grade? We love CLE but I want to get in sync with what we will be using later for HOD.

Also, how much time does the extention pkg. for Bigger add to the day? I was thinking about getting it to use as read-alouds.

I hope all of this makes sense- it's late and the baby keeps pulling at my hair

I you can, I'd just do R&S 2 for 2nd this year and move into 3 with Bigger for 3rd, doing a lesson per day. OR even better would be to not worry with grammar right now and just do R&S 2 with Bigger in 3rd bc it's a gentle start but that gentle goes away quickly! It's a very advanced and rigorous grammar program. Finishing level 6 by the end of 8th grade is the goal, and is beyond what most public schools cover even in high school. You can award high school credit for levels 7+. So there's no rush! My son is starting Bigger next year in 3rd grade and will have had no grammar prior. Really I've seen no need for it and he'll pck it up easily being older when he first starts learning it. I waited a bit with my oldest too and she's 10yo and half way through level 4. It's getting quite challenging!! 5 is going to really step it up. She's retaining well and the retention improves as she does more writing through HOD bc grammar is not as pertinent unless you're writing. And 1st and 2nd graders don't do much writing usually. that why we wait...if they use it, they'll learn it better! They've had no difficulties picking up grammar habig had a later start. If anything, it's easier to learn and it's not drsfert already bc they've not ears it over and over since kindy
So really, you can just wait until you start Bigger and do rod & staff as planned without consequence. But it is plenty easy enough to do 3 in its place by doing a lesson per day of grammar plans. Then in Lreparing and up, you'll have plans for more levels. Preparing has levels 3&4 planned in the guide, CTC has 4&5 (both half speed for balanced language arts/writing), RTR has the second half of 4&5 scheduled, Rev2Rev has half speed 5&6, etc.

There's much flexibility and you know your goals best. Here we tend to not really do level 2 and just jump in at 3, with Bigger or Preparing and have more or less done our own schedule with it just lesson by lesson bc that's what has worked for us. We will be on track for my oldest to start level 5 when starting CTC though so she can follow the plans herself from the guide each day.

Btw, your post makes sense. I hope my answer does bc it's also late here!! And I forgot about your extensions question. I'd say it adds maybe 10-15m. My daughter read them herself and we did some narrations and such with them and it never took very long.

I'd never even thought about *not* doing LA for 2nd grade- I guess it's hard to see the forest through the trees sometimes! Hmmm....something to think about! It's nice to know that if we do English 2 this year and English 3 with Bigger, by the time we do Preparing we'll have English 4 scheduled for us in the guide (not that it's too difficult to schedule it out). I guess I just like having everything scheduled out in one place- I'm such a box-checker

Does it mess up any other part of the LA scheduled in the guide if you are doing English 3 with Bigger? Like spelling lists and whatnot? Thanks!

Not at all-doing Rod and Staff 3 with Bigger will not interfere in any way with the other Language Arts components

blessedmomof4 wrote:Not at all-doing Rod and Staff 3 with Bigger will not interfere in any way with the other Language Arts components

Thanks, Lourdes!