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My 9yr old son and my 7yr old daughter are doing bigger this year and I have been having my son read the extensions because he has always been a more advanced reader and I just felt he could handle it. He is handling it and so far has almost completed pedro's journal and all the Child's Story readings. He had a harder time with the science extension so we have been reading that together taking turns reading aloud. He came to me and begged not to read A child's story anymore. He said it was jus so boring. I had him read it out loud to me and I noticed in this book as well as the science extension there are words he has a hard time with. Should I be worried?

The Bigger extensions really are for children 10-11. I wouldn't for any reason have a 9 year old read the extensions. Even if their reading level is advanced, the amount of work in the guide without extensions is more than ample. Adding the extensions simply "extends" your child's day in an unnecessary way. You run the risk of burning them out and you, as well, if you have them do extra work. If, however, you want to provide them more challenging reading then I would suggest finding some great books on audio and having your child read along with the book to develop their vocabulary. This would be totally separate and might even be a free reading activity later in the day. Just something to think about. But bottom line - I would let the extensions go.

I totally agree with deltagal's wise words of advice here! Set those books aside for a few years, and he can then read them at that time for fun. This is what we do with extensions - we don't want to miss them, but they are too advanced for our dc as they are not in the extension ages when they are doing the guides. BHFHG is a full enough program on its own- just enjoy it without the extensions.

In Christ,
Julie

We did extensions last year for my 9 yr old in Bigger. It was more for fun reading though. He did not like the science text so he skipped that. Just let him read what he likes at that age.

Thanks for the replies. I think I will just let him read the ones he is comfortable with and skip the other ones or read them with him. When I sat down with him and we both read the science extension we both actually enjoyed it and got so much out of it. I don't want to skip it A Child's Story on the other hand I could handle skipping. We will give it a try with me reading it to him for fun and see how that goes. He is really enjoying Pedro's Journal though so I won't ask him to stop, and I suppose we will just play it by ear with the others.

I am still a little concerned with his reading level though. Isn't A Child's Story written for a 4th grade reading level? I am not saying that a 4th grader needs the extra history with bigger I realize Bigger is enough history for that age or grade. I just worry that my son has fallen behind in his.... reading or phonics. Is being able to decipher BIG words part of phonics? Or is it something else that I need to go over with him? Should I be doing an added vocabulary program with him to get his reading skills back up to grade level I guess is what I am asking. Or phonics... or what?

Reading levels fill a necessary purpose in that they give a common standard for leveling books. Unfortunately, however, the regiment of standard rules cannot take into account some very important factors in determining that level. For example, the length of a book, the number of pictures in a book, the size of the font in a book, the familiarity of the topic of a book to its reader, the manner of speaking in a book (whether it is the same as today or more old-worldly sounding), etc., are all things not considered in assigning reading levels. All of these things make much difference to the reader's success in reading any given book. So, while I do find it somewhat helpful to know a book's general reading level, I have put less stock in that number due to these unmeasurable things. History based books, as well as science themed books, often cover very new topics for elementary aged dc. I would think that some of the above factors along with the topic of the reading material account for ds not being a solid match skillwise with the extension material, and as has been shared already, that was not HOD's intention anyway. I'd not worry about it at all. As long as he is reading DITHOR books that fit his reading level, he is doing swimmingly well! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie