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We have been going through Bigger half speed since mid-July. My daughter is on the young side of the guide and I'm not trying to rush her. I had intended to extend Bigger out over 2 years, but now I'm not sure. She has gotten into the swing of all the new stuff: dictation, vocabulary, notebooking, narration, grammar etc. I even add in some creative writing with a daily journal simply because she asked me to do so. She's reading on a upper 3rd to 4th grade level and I have trouble keeping enough books on hand because she devours them (not a bad problem!). I'm just wondering if I should forgo my plan and try out Bigger full speed. I know Preparing is a big jump, but she already is used to doing a lot of the work independently because of her two younger sisters being around. I figured on doing preparing half speed when we get to it for a while. She will begin a 2-day-a-week co-op class in September, but our pattern last year was she would finish almost everything before that started and then work on history and science when she got home.

My big problem is I don't want to push her too hard, but I do still want her to be challenged. As it is we start around 8:00 and finish with all three guides (Little Hands and Little Hearts both full speed) by 11:00 typically.

Any thoughts?

I have started all three guides (LHFHG, Beyond, and Bigger) with my now 7 yr old at 1/2 speed with the intent of going 1/2 speed longer than we did in any guide. There comes a point where they just get it and things are going well. One of my keys is when the time it takes him to do the work significantly decreases. He is doing Bigger now at full-speed and has no problems. We will start Preparing about 2 months after his 8th birthday and I will just wait and see what we do for that guide. I am being careful to make sure I am really training him in Bigger because Preparing introduces some independent work. From your description it sounds like she would be ok at full speed. You could always try it and see how it goes and go back to 1/2 if you have concerns.

I agree if you feel she is easily finishing at 1/2 speed and you are tempted to add in something else to fill the time, then it is time to go up to full-speed. Perhaps though when you start your co-op, you might just want to do Bigger 3 days a week and not do it on the days you have co-op or maybe just do 4 days of the Bigger plans in the week splitting the 4th day over the 2 co-op days. Since doing Bigger full-speed will usually take 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day, that would be a lot to add on top of a day of co-op classes.

Thanks ladies...You confirmed my thoughts I was actually considering dropping the science completely because that is one of the co-op classes, but I hated to do it. When I casually mentioned that to my daughter she said, "NO! PLEASE let me keep doing more science!"

This made me smile!

lissiejo wrote:... "NO! PLEASE let me keep doing more science!"

Our sons LOVE the science in HOD! Did you try BHFHG full-speed yet? If so, how's it going? We moved from half-speed to full-speed BHFHG too after awhile with our ds Riley. We did half-speed, full-speed for a bit, then back to half-speed for a month, and finally to full-speed then. I love the flexibility with HOD. All I can say is try it, and you will know! We loved our time in BHFHG together - what a year and a half of gains - academically and spiritually!

In Christ,
Julie