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What do you do if you hit a wall with combining children? If one is younger and needs more time to mature but they have been together in every guide for a few years?

We are completing Bigger this year with a 9yr old 3rd grade boy and a 7yr old 2nd grade girl. I had planned on keeping them together in all the guides but am beginning to wonder if I should have taken a closer look at the guides before deciding this. I think I will have to modify Preparing for the younger child. Most of the modifications will be in the Draw and Write Through History book. I am pretty sure she can handle everything else in the guide except the amount of writing in this book. So my worry is if I have to modify already, how much more will I have to modify with each new guide. I really don't want to do half pace with one child and full speed with the other.

Although, I wonder if I am underestimating her... maybe I should wait until the end of our school year with Bigger before ruling out her ability to do the copywork in Draw and Write Through History?

From my (limited) experience, if they can complete Bigger as written, they can do Preparing. You might have to start out half speed for a few units to get the hang of it, but we didn't have much issues after that.

If a passage was super long, like the days they have to copy in their common place book (a requirement for more neat work in our home) I had Jayden split the copy work up. So she'd copy a bit, then read something, then copy more.

It really is amazing how much they grow and develop through each guide-so you may very well be feeling better about it after she finishes Bigger. There may also be a possibility that, even if you have to modify writing requirements at the beginning of Preparing, that she may grow into being able to handle it all without tweaking. Starting out half speed might be a good idea.

Thank you ladies for taking the time to comment. I know I don't want to combine them and have one doing full speed while the other is doing half pace. I really don't feel that combining them in Preparing with some modifications at first would be an issue and that is really what I am leaning towards doing, it's just that I don't want to always have to modify the guides and be pushing my youngest too hard.

If I decide to uncombine them I would most likely take a year off of formal history and other subjects (still doing math and LA) to do a homemaking focused year for her. I think she would really soar with this type of attention from me and it would be so much fun. I suppose I could just keep combining until we hit that spot where it is too hard to do so and then take a year off from HOD at that point.

Hi! I'm digging up an old post here, but wondering what you decided to do and how it worked out, joyfulhomeschooler?

I am in the same boat with Beyond (8yo son and 6yo daughter). Wondering if I should start the process of uncombining them, but not sure how to actually do it.
I love the idea of a homemakers focused year for my daughter!

Thank you!
sara

I think that if it were me, I would check the placement chart and see if your 8 year old places in Bigger. If so, then I would give them a bump in level and leave this 6 year old in Beyond. Since Bigger is a larger leap in abilities, I would probably start out half speed. And if you need to, so that you can get in the grove of things better, go half speed with Beyond as well. I would keep math and reading at the same level they are doing and adjust as needed. I would start the 8 year old in R&S2 and keep the 6 yo in the weekly grammar activity in Beyond.

If your 8 yo places solidly in Bigger, you may be able to just go full speed as well and not slow down at all. It might take you a little while to get used to running 2 levels. But we found it very easy to run multiple levels. Every one loves doing their own thing for the majority of the day. I love it too because I can then just focus on each child where they are, challenge them individually, and encourage them when they need it. Plus, if one child is sick, no one else is held up! That is probably my absolutely favorite part. Before, I used to have everyone take off school because one child is sick. Now, only the sick child gets a sick day

Thank you, Nealewill! He would do fine in Bigger, I think. Unfortunately, I started him late with spelling, so he is only on unit 20 of the first spelling list. I definitely felt that he needed to start with list one since he had no prior spelling. I don't know if I should wait to bump him up to Bigger until he finishes spelling list one (14 more units)? He also balks at having to write more than 2 sentences. That is one reason I was ok with him in Beyond, hoping the extra time would increase his writing skills.

So do I bump him up without finishing Beyond? Do I wait till his spelling list one is done before bumping him up? Do I let him go full speed and my daughter half speed through Beyond? She is well placed, but doesn't seem to completely comprehend all the readings. Not sure if that is the distraction of her older brother during reading times, or feeling "younger", or she simply needs to go more slowly through the stories, or what. I don't even know what going "half speed would look like and if that would be confusing while her brother is going full speed? (I'm thinking of History in particular.)

Thank you!

My son hates to write too but is doing a lot better. I would probably go half speed for both for a few weeks. See how they do at that pace. It would give you time to figure out how each child is place. I would keep up with the math and spelling though - that would be full speed. Then, as you feel comfortable, bump them up. My guess with your son is that you will probably stay half speed for a bit (maybe 10 units or longer if need be). It is a bit more writing. I didn't think my son would do well with it but he has surprised me significantly. My plan was to just go half speed for a while but I didn't end up needing too. So for your son, I would go half speed for as long as he and you need. And with both of your kids, by slowing it down a little bit, it would end up eventually putting both of them in the middle age range for each guides. But you might not need to slow down your 6 year old. I have found that girls thrive on the lowest age range of the guide. My son does fine in the middle age range. I think it just depends child to child.

You mentioned you don't want them doing the same guide at different speeds. Is there a specific reason? Part of why I asked is I have penciled in Preparing as when my younger two will uncombine. My thought was that we would start ds on Preparing "immediately" after completing Bigger (we school year round, with 1 week off after completing a guide). Then dd would start DITHOR and continue with the 3Rs where ever she is. Then, once ds is going well with Preparing and DITHOR is going well for dd, we would start Preparing half speed for dd, doing half speed for as long as necessary.

Thank you , Stephanie and Nealewill.

Nealewill, do you mean to bump him up to Bigger right away (without finishing Beyond) and go half speed? Both kids are currently in Beyond (unit 10). Should I wait until he finishes the spelling list one before bumping him up? (he is on unit 20 of spelling list one).

Stephanie, I am not against having them in the same guide at different speeds, I just wondered how that would practically look. If reading the same history and doing the same projects a few months apart would be weird? I have no idea. It might be fine.

Would stopping the history in Beyond partway through and skipping my oldest to Bigger be confusing?

I honestly was never planning to uncombine them. I was hoping with the extensions, I could keep them together all the way through. I am wondering, because of their hard time concentrating on the readings when they are together, my youngest having to narrate next to her older brother (he does WAY better at narrating at this point), and my oldest having the capacity to move up to Bigger, if I should try to uncombine. I don't want my daughter to feel "worse" at school in comparison to her older brother because he is able to do the narrations and memory work very easily. I wondered if they had their own guides, if that would eliminate that potential comparison in her mind. She is placed well, but I could easily do Beyond half speed with her so she can thrive and really comprehend the readings. I think she is fine full speed as well.

It appeals to me to put my older son in Bigger also because he would be challenged more appropriately on his level, I think. I don't want to keep him behind if he can be appropriately challenged at the next level.

Does this make any sense? I guess my hang ups to moving him right away are: 1) spelling, since he is only on list one, and 2) history. Would skipping to the history in Bigger be a confusing jump part-way through Beyond? Also, 3) having them in back to back guides for Bigger/Preparing eventually, which I hear is not a good idea. That would probably be our timeline at this point.

Thank you for your thoughts on this!

As for jumping to Bigger in terms of history, I don't think it would be a huge deal. What unit of Beyond are you on? There seem to be chunks of history, so just changing at the end of a chunk should be fine (most of the time it is obvious to spot because you change books).

As for narrating, in Beyond, it is really only the storytime they are narrating on certain days. Would it be possible to just to have them do storytime separately? For some of the books, you could find the audio book. Then just alternate days you read to each child. On Day A, read to the older one, and then on Day B read to the younger. While you are reading to one, the other could finish up any copywork, etc and then go listen to the audio book (with a real book to follow along with). Then, do the activity with the one you read to and then when the one listening to the audio book. Or you could just do two different storytime books - one with each child. That would be less work on your than doing 2 guides. For Bible, just alternate questions with each child that don't have unique answers.

Personally, I think keeping them together makes sense at this point based on what you said. If you have to do certain parts of the guide separately, then it would still be less work than doing 2 guides... You could definitely do the history reading and rotating box together, so that just leaves parts of poetry and Bible and possibly all of storytime that you might have to repeat with each.

We've done kids in two places in the guide a couple of times now. I did it when I was uncombining at first (LHFHG, about midway through DD2s abilities just skyrocketed so I felt that separating them was best because DD3 was perfect at half speed) and then in Bigger for a few units because it only took about half a year for DD3's abilities to catch up. It was really not a huge deal, I just had to keep any toddlers from pulling out the tabs I used to mark our spot!

I like your idea, Stephanie, of having your older start Preparing and younger wait to start it half speed until DITHOR and the 3 R's are going well.

Part of me would like to jump my older son up just because I fear he is "behind". Bigger would probably be a challenge for him, but he could place there (with maybe some grace in the writing department! ) I would like to see him placed closer to his age range and doing more challenging work. He can place in Beyond as well. But maybe that is not a good fear and I should just let things stay as they are.

I can see finishing Beyond together (as long as dd doesn't start to feel "worse" at school compared to her brother). Then next year, move my ds up to Bigger right away and keep dd working on her 3 R's for while before starting Bigger at half-speed. I don' know if she will be to DITHOR by then, she is still working through phonics right now.

Having a separate storytime book is a good idea too. I would probably do that if I kept them together.

Thank you, MomtoJGJE, for the encouragement about being in the same guide at two places.

I don't know if it is worth the effort to uncombine them, but I would hate to keep my son back if he should be challenged to go ahead. Beyond is definitely easy for him. It is a good challenge for my dd.

I will need keep praying about this...

You could skip that box for the younger child or just have her do the work in print instead of cursive. I have 3 in Preparing (10, almost 9, and almost 8.) The two youngers don't do the Independent History box (it is listed as "optional" in the front of the guide.) My hope is that they will be ready for that box in CTC next year, but if not I just tweak A LOT when I need to. Its so much easier for me to tweak than to do two separate guides with separate history streams for children that are so close in age.

It looks like you've gotten some really great responses here. We never did end up uncombining and it is still going very well. We're having some little issues but they are to do more with the older child, his age, and focus. The 9 year old is doing great with CTC and finishes before her 11 year old brother most days. We're on unit 10 and loving just about everything in CTC. Hope that helps in some way.