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My girls (6.5, 8.5) are currently combined in Beyond Unit 23, except my oldest does math/LA at her level. It is going great and we are definitely enjoying combining for history and science. However, I have been considering moving my oldest right now to do Bible Study from Bigger and possibly poetry as well. Then when they get to Bigger, my oldest would do all the right side of Preparing except science (LA, math, Bible Study and poetry) and the left side of Bigger with her sister. These are my reasons:

1- My oldest seems to find most of the Bible Study questions in Beyond way easy and others that are supposed to make you open up a little bit, she won't really answer well at all. I don't want her attitude rubbing off on little sister who is much more open.
2- My oldest is very good at memorizing verses. Sometimes my younger one seems a little discouraged because it is more of a struggle for her.
3- My oldest has already done the first 10 units of Bigger (long story) and so when we get there she would have to repeat that Bible Study and poetry to stay combined with her sister.
4- If she does poetry from the next guide up - she will get the creative writing assignments in Preparing in 4th grade. I think she will be ready for them (she will be in R&S English 4 and dictation 4 and DITHOR 4/5). Her writing and Language Arts have really increased by leaps and bounds this year.
5- I think she would really enjoy the slightly more independent Bible Study that I see in Preparing.


In all she would miss about 10 units of memory Bible Study/poetry in Beyond and 7 units of Bigger. She would still hear the devotionals when I read them to her sister - and knowing her would probably memorize her sister's verses too!

SO - is this really a good idea? Is there a drawback to doing poetry and Bible from a higher guide - it seems that in Preparing the Bible box and poetry are not correlated with the history - will it mess up future guides for my dd if she is doing different Bible/poetry?

I was trying to think through this and remember the past few years. I think the poetry wouldn't be too big of a deal to do a different guide. It does often correspond loosely to the history, but I don't think the connection is so strong that the flow would be lost. I'm not as sure about the Bible study. I know in Bigger, the Bible study correlates more closely to the history than you might think. If I'm remembering correctly I think oftentimes the Biblical characteristic that is being studied is referred back to the historical character being studied. I'm not for sure if the history connection is as close in Preparing, but in CTC the Bible quiet time that the dc are doing closely parallels the time frame in Biblical history that is being studied. Oftentimes when we are talking about something in history they will tell me how they just read something similar in their quiet time. I think it might be best to leave the Bible study with the guide in which it is intended. I understand your concerns though with your daughters together in the Bible study. I'm thinking you might try separating them for this time even though they are doing the same study. Though this would take a bit more time, it might be well worth it to help your older daughter feel more comfortable opening up and have your younger daughter feel less discouraged. Another option would be to add an additional Bible study for your older daughter, something like Elizabeth Georges, A Girl After God's Own Heart or perhaps a Discover 4 Yourself Bible study. That could be something separate and special for just you and your older dd to do together. Those are a few thoughts I had. If you do consider doing the Bible study and poetry from the higher guide, I would try to look through several weeks and look at the details more closely to see what you think. It gets difficult for me to remember the details from each guide as we progress along so I could be mistaken on the correlations within the guides. I do remember though that when we were doing the guides, they flowed really well and we got a lot out of all the subjects together. In general, I would try to keep the guides as intact as possible because Carrie has done an excellent job of making the subjects flow well together and the time for each subject to be manageable within each guide.