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Hi All,

I have posted only a few times (1st yr HODer) and just got my order last Friday! I cannot tell you how excited I am to begin! I have one question, though. After looking through the Beyond guide for my 7yo, I am not convinced that it is enough for him. When I was looking at the placement page, he placed very well into Bigger for math, grammar and using the emerging readers. The only thing I was concerned about was the amount of writing. I am now wondering if he would be better off doing the Bigger guide at half-speed. I was thinking if I do Bigger 1/2 speed this year, I could finish it next year at full-speed. Then I would start Preparing at 1/2 speed (because he will be on the young side for that one). The following year, he would be in 4th grade, and we could finish Preparing, setting him up nicely for CTC the following year. I was thinking this would give him a better challenge, give him time to mature, but not overwhelm him. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks!

Laura

Well, I don't know all about your situation, but I'll share my experience because your son sounds similar to my daughter at the beginning of this past school year. She was actually ready for DITHOR in reading level, and according to the placement chart placed in Bigger for everything except writing, which was border-line Beyond/Bigger. She was just-turned seven and we put her into Bigger half-speed, including DITHOR. The result was that even at half-speed our days were SO LONG. My daughter is a perfectionist and she wanted her notebooking pages to be just right - and the amount of writing in them was a lot for her. The writing in Bigger half-speed is more than Beyond, and it was too much for her. (We did the poetry copywork and the handwriting, which I'm just realizing by reading recent posts was probably a mistake). In the end we completed 10 units of Bigger half-speed and then gave up. It was just too hard to motivate her to do all that writing. She could do it physically, and didn't complain much, but she was so distractable that things took forever. She is now happily doing Beyond (we waited a little to combine her with her younger sister), with a few beef-ups.

So, all that to say, I think Beyond is probably right for your son if the writing in Bigger looks like a lot for him. If he is second grade and you want to beef up Beyond just a little you could add Rod and Staff English 2 to Beyond (just complete one lesson a day- do 1/3 of the written exercises and the rest orally). You could do the math from the Bigger guide, too. If you want to step up the listening level a little, the "classic" storytime titles seem to be the most challenging in terms of vocabulary, etc.

Anyway that's my suggestion for what it's worth. I'm actually glad I messed up placement last Fall because it has enabled us to combine this year, but Beyond would have definitely been right for my daughter as a 7 year-old who placed in Bigger for everything except the writing. Perhaps you can look at the sample first week of Bigger online to carefully consider the amount of writing. HTH

If you think he could do the writing, Bigger is a fantastic guide. But we are really enjoying Beyond so far too (we are now on Unit 7).

We are doing what you said about Bigger at 1/2 speed this year with my almost 7 year old daughter. It is a lot of writing and although academically the material is at her level the amount of writing would be way too overwhelming for her at full speed. We also are not doing DITHR yet.

That being said, I am only doing this because she has completed Beyond. There were SOOOO many skills in Beyond that are built on in Bigger. I think I would be tempted to do the same as you are, but know now that the wiser choice for me would be to do Beyond first. If you feel like he's ready for grammar instruction you can always add in the Rod and Staff grammar now. There aren't any extra directions in Bigger, just assigned pages which is 1 lesson per day.

Thank you ladies for your input! Can I ask one other question? What kinds of skills are learned in Beyond that he will need for Bigger? I definitely want to place him correctly, but I am struggling with not moving ahead. This is going to sound a little silly, but I know It will drive me crazy to be in the middle of guides at the end of every year. Also, because my older son will be doing Preparing, I am only planning on schooling 4 days per week. If I stay with Beyond, how do I schedule the extra days? Please help!

The emerging reader schedule is included in Beyond so that is easy. The math is up to you. If he is ready for 2A/2B, you can simply buy the Bigger manual for the related math activities. Did you have him do the Singapore math placement test to see where he places? My kids were usually farther in math than in everything else so we always did it that way.

and if he is ready for grammar then I would just add R&S 2. We do 2/3 of R&S orally and only 1/3 written. Writing is an area you just don't want to move ahead in if he isn't ready. My 12yo still hates to write. He is a very bright kid. I did Beyond with him at age 7 and it was perfect.

The poetry is a good stepping stone to studying poetry more formally.

The history activities are good at getting them ready to do more formal history with notebooking and narration.

The science begins to prepare them for thinking through experiments and the processes studied.

The grammar is an excellent introduction and very light unless you choose to go ahead with Rod and Staff grammar 2.

I think the biggest thing is that you talk through a lot more in Beyond rather than writing it all out as well. My daughter is already used to thinking through experiments, so writing it down isn't so overwhelming. We've already talked about looking for unfamiliar words, so definitions for vocabulary is just the next step. She's been studying poems weekly for a year, so now that we are talking about rhyming patterns and poem structure she can see it faster. She really got into the activities for the history so doing something written down is just an extension from what she learned last year.

We are going half speed because she is on the younger side and we have a 2-day-a-week homeschool class she attends. I think we're stretching it over 2 years and then we'll do Preparing in 4th. We are doing full speed grammar and math (our own program) though because she can more than handle those two subjects.

As far as scheduling 4 days I just divy out the work so it's not too much on any one day. We do an extra day of math when math is light on one day. I only do 3 days of Bible and use the 5th day of history reading (always from the Bible) on the 4th day in place of the verse. My daughter memorizes verses quickly (I wish I could retain them like her!) and so this has worked fine. We also did the 5th day grammar assignment on whatever day of the week had lighter work. Science was only 2 days a week so that wasn't a problem. We always do art projects on Fridays for fun and sometimes I might have a short assignment we had missed for one reason or another on Friday. This worked out great for us last year!

You've gotten great advice here already; I just wanted to add that I feel that with these younger guides, especially (including Beyond) that they appear to be more simplistic than they really are when you start implementing them. The areas you mentioned your dd placing in Bigger can easily be incorporated with the Beyond guide and if she's placing in Beyond in the other areas on the placement chart you've probably made the right decision. There's just more meat there than I realized when I was looking through on my own-it's different when you're going through it with your child.

Thank you everyone for the additional info. I guess I'm going to have to go back and look through Beyond and pray about it some more. You have dwfinitely given me more to think about. Thanks!

Laura