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I am using MFW Adventures and am enjoying it. I am also looking at ECC from MFW. However I am also looking at Preparing and Bigger. Love the look of both MFW AND HOD. I am toying with the idea of using MFW ECC next year then do Preparing for 4th. I would love to get another year of US History in before we start the 4 yr cycle of World History. Would going back and doing Bigger with extensions for 5th grade be doable? WHat would be the pitfalls?

HOD is different from MFW in that it isn't about the time period it is more about skills building on each other, that is why the programs are geared for certain ages. Going from Preparing to Bigger would be a big step backwards. If a child was successful in Preparing they would probably feel that Bigger was not challenging enough. In Bigger they work on really improving with oral narration. In Bigger there isn't written narration or creative writing other than what is in Rod and Staff. In Preparing they learn to do written narrations and also have creative writing activities connected with Poetry. In Bigger you do all the reading to dc. In Preparing they take over the science and some of the history reading. This then prepares them for CTC where they take over all the history reading. If you look at the sample weeks of the guides from Bigger on up you can see that the Independent or I boxes increase. Also the level of thinking required increases as well.

I agree with the pp. We are just finishing up Preparing and did Bigger last year. There is no way Bigger would be challenging enough for a kiddo who just finished Preparing! She would probably get bored and lose skills that were gained. There are posts comparing the styles of MFW and HOD. It might help to understand how each program works in order to make a clearer decision.

I've used MFW Adventures and ECC, HOD Bigger and about to start Preparing. I totally agree with pp. The difference in skills would make it feel like a step back if you did Preparing first.
I think you could easily do Bigger coming from ECC and then Preparing. Bigger is a very different approach to American history than Adventures.
I think your child(ren) would enjoy it. I also think Bigger will be a step up from ECC in the sense that the readings are a much different style, and it would also be a very good preparation for Preparing. My oldest did CTC in 5th grade. She is a very strong student, but I look back and can see that she could have done Preparing and it would have been a good fit for her too. It would have helped prepare her a little better than moving from MFW right into CTC.
Hope it helps!

Thank you ladies. This is food for thought.