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I asked about whether to combine my older children (8 and 6) in Beyond or put them in separate programs and got some great advice, thanks! I've decided to combine them and add in some extras for my son (8 year old 3rd grader in the fall). I want to add in R&S and Cheerful Cursive for him as well, do I need to purchase the Bigger guide to go along with these or is it just do a page each day until you finish the book type thing? I guess I'm wondering if it would be worth it to buy the guide or if I can just buy R&S and the cursive book and schedule them myself? Thanks!

Some people have the older child do the right hand page of bigger while doing the left hand side of Beyond, so then you would need it. But if you would only be getting it to do R&S and cursive, then I would say no. R&S is just a lesson a day and cursive is just a page a day. If you want to start dictation this year though you will certainly need the guide. HTH.

I am doing the exact same thing: Beyond with my 1st and 3rd grader, this coming year. It will be my first time using HOD so I am certainly no expert! But I did choose to buy the bigger guide. I want to use the math work that coordinates with her math (she's in Singapore 2) and the spelling/dictation as well as the English/handwriting. I know myself, and I didn't want there to be any stumbling blocks! Better for me to have a box to check then to assume I'll just getter done!
Not sure how helpful that is, but I hope we can compare notes in the coming school year!!

I did this when my dd was in 3rd grade. I bought the Bigger manual, but didn't end up using it. Even for things that I should have used it more consistently on (like math activites or dictation) I found myself not refering to those things because it was just a pain to drag out a different manual and find the pages we needed and I didn't feel like it was worth it. I just tried to "wing it" on the math-not something I recommend, by the way!-and it was easy to let dictation slide because it wasn't really challenging to her, and it seemed redundant to make her do it. In hindsight my advice would be to get the Bigger manual and make copies of dictation pages so you have it for easier reference. If you're doing a higher level of Singapore either buy the Singapore textbook, or mark the Bigger manual with a post it note tab so you can do the activities that go along with your workbook. When we didn't do the scheduled activities the concepts didn't stick with her, even if she did seem to be able to do that workbook page.

I guess, you only mentioned cursive and R&S, so, like pp said you don't need to refer to the manual for those things . Math and Dictation are the more necessary things for which you might want to buy the extra manual, in my view.

We are currently doing Beyond with my 1st and 3rd grade daughters (we school year-round). I have the Bigger manual, but I don't use the actual manual day-to-day (I have it on a shelf upstairs). However, we definitely needed to have it for dictation. I photocopied all the dictation exercises and cut them up and glued them on index cards, storing them in a card-file box. My third grader does dictation every day, and while it was easy for her in the beginning, it certainly isn't now (she is two-thirds of the way through the dictation exercises in Bigger). She doesn't like dictation much, but it's quick to do, and her spelling has improved tremendously since we've been doing it. We use a different math program. As pp.s have mentioned, the Bigger manual would only be needed for dictation or math. Rod and Staff is simply do a lesson a day...