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Is there ever a time where a child would fall in the age range and still use the extensions? My oldest definitely does not need them, but looking forward to when my others are in guides that have them.

I was wondering the same thing the other day. My dd will be starting Bigger in the fall. She definitely does not NEED extensions. But, I was looking at some of the extension books listed, and thought it might be fun to read some of them. Carrie said they could be used as some extra read alouds for literature, along with the storytime books. I will probably begin half speed, so I thought I could incorporate some of them, just for a little extra. DD is a slow reader, but she enjoys listening to me read. Almost half of them are in our public library, so, we'll see.

My daughter was 9 last year for Bigger so in the age range but the extensions said that it would make Bigger a 4th grade program and she was 4th grade so I made her do them at first. After reading some of Julie's posts on the extensions I decided to just let her read them at her own pace and not require any more narrations on them since she fell into the age range. We just started Preparing and she is 9 going on 10 so I will do the same and let her read them at her leisure but not do the follow up activities for them. You only need them if the child is ready for more of a challenge.

netpea wrote: You only need them if the child is ready for more of a challenge.

See, that's what I'm wondering about though. Because we school year round, we are easily able to go half speed to start out and still get finished with a guide in less than a full 12 months.... pretty close even if we go half speed for half the guide. All the following figuring is if everything continues to go as it is going now.

Grace is over halfway through Beyond now (ending 1st). She'll finish Beyond and start Bigger (mid 2nd) before she turns 8. She'll be about 8.5 starting Preparing (starting 3rd). So she's not even at the upper end of the age range. But, she's flying through Beyond.... now she's not asking for more, and she's progressing nicely (like the HOD tip said today... it fits her great. She can do all the work perfectly) It takes her about 9-10 calendar months to go through a guide. She will never complain about less work It's not so much her that I"m thinking of.

Julianna is fairly advanced. She's flying through LHFHG with no issues at all. She will start Beyond in the middle of K, and Bigger in the middle of 1st. (yes I just read that, and had to check to make sure that's correct!?!) She's not even in K yet technically. It takes her a full 12 months to go through guides right now because I'm trying to separate her from Grace a bit. I could STRETCH somewhere and have her start Preparing at the beginning of 3rd, but that would mean going through more than half a guide half speed.... she's BEGGING for more work every single day.

Evie is also advanced. If she continues figuring out things at the pace she is now will not be able to wait until K to start LHFHG. I thought we could do LHTH as written twice through for her, once with younger options and once with older. Even if we do that and add in K level FMS from LHFHG it would still have her doing LHFHG before she would technically start K, but I'm quite confident as we are 3 weeks in to LHTH that she will be fully ready for LHFHG when we finish it. Which would put her starting Beyond in the middle of K like Julianna.

So, if I stretched them out to start the higher guides later (and yes I'm aware that I should!! ) They would still be in the age range, and still fairly early in the age range, but would they then need the extensions? To maybe challenge them more? Would doing the extensions help me stretch Bigger and Preparing out more to make them older in the guides?
So when/how do you determine

I wouldn't worry about Julianna yet. If she gets to that point you can add extensions but it is also possible that she will need to slow down at some point. My oldest was advanced at the beginning but needed to slow down for a while at 2nd grade. He is very bright but needed to mature a bit before moving on. not saying that will happen, but it could...