My oldest is a rising 4th grader and will be 10 this fall. He completed and LOVED 11 units of Bigger, all of CC and writes well in cursive, is nearing the end of Level 3 in dictation, and is partway thru English 3. He could finish it or start 4 with Preparing. He is a good reader with high comprehension and decent narration skills. Bigger, while beloved by him, seems too easy and I decided to put it aside because we needed a break and I believe he should move up to Preparing. He could easily do his own history reading in Preparing.
My other boy is a new 8yo and has not done a HOD guide but has completed Emerging Readers, is in the second half of Cheerful Cursive and cruising, and is somewhere in English 2. He has blossomed this past year. He has strong fine motor skills, is an excellent oral narrator, and has incredible focus. He is also determined EXCEPt when it comes to reading. He doesn't want to read. He is a great reader and I don't understand it but I think he doesn't want to work thru a book unless it grabs his attention immediately. He is just starting 2nd grade math this week and I think he'll work fast thru a lot of it but time will tell.
I have gone around and around with this and there is no clarity. My oldest places solidly in Preparing with extensions and could do CTC but he needs the narration work in Preparing and it's a fabulous guide. My middle guy places solidly in Bigger but my oldest has already completed 11 units and grown past the guide. I have thought a lot about this scenario:
Take the next 5-6 months (to the new year) and have the oldest finish English 3, keep going in dictation, finish reading Bigger books and Extensions on his own (there aren't many left). Get halfway thru 4th grade math. Read a lot. Second son finishes English 2, gets quite a ways into Dictation 2, flies thru 2nd grade math though he won't finish, works hard on reading (DITHOR may help him) with a goal to build fluency and endurance. Start Preparing in the new year with oldest in English 4 and middler in 3 though the 8yo won't be thru 2nd grade math and will have had no previous HOD guides. Oldest uses Extensions from here on out.
PROS: boys are combined! We study together and can use HOD.
CONS: It could totally backfire, younger son misses guides before Preparing and is still slated to hit CTC at 9.5. Not sure about length of day for him at that age and not sure about WWTB in CTC and Medieval Writing with IEW at 10.5. Oldest is solidly in Preparing now. He could do extensions now and I hate holding him back as Ive done in the past. I think this worry might be silly because the guides have extensions each year so though he'd be half a year behind the extensions up the challenge.
The other option is to do what I have tentatively planned in my signature. On paper this seems like too much for me each day.
Third option is put 8yo in Beyond, add in poetry copy work in cursive to build fluency and work on his attitude toward reading. I am not sure if Beyond is an appropriate challenge for him though. I could add in some simple notebooking 1-2x a week. This plan puts a guide between the boys, keeps them on grade level, and keeps my teaching burden more balanced in a separate guide scenario. The big con is the boys really enjoying learning together and my middle son is eager to work with his brother.
My 6&8 year old don't combine well. We tried that in LHFHG this past year and it was a bust. She would be ready for LHFHG now
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He has read many of the books as well. I don't know if I have it in me to make him slow down and use them for "school" when he has read them in the recent past.
At one point I threw in the towel and just stopped using HOD altogether. Sigh.