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Hello,
We used HOD for the first time last year. I now have 5 children (looking to streamline a little this year) and this question pertains to my older 2 children. Last year my DD (now 10) did Preparing and my DS (now eight) did Beyond. They loved the books and we had a great year. My DD 10 has never studied American History and she really wants to, and I really want her to as well. She is burnt out on world History as we came to HOD after 2 years of World History Cores with Sonlight. My DS 8 fits perfectly into Bigger. I was thinking about doing Bigger with them together this year, and having my DD10 do the extension guide and DITHOR on her level. Then, next year move her (then will be 11yrs. old) to CtC and my DS (then 9) to Preparing. I am curious of your thoughts on combining them together in Bigger this year. My DD10 is already doing an IEW writing program, Singapore Math 4B, Watercolor Painting, etc, and I feel very confident in tweaking the rest of the Bigger guide in the skills areas to meet her needs. Thoughts? Does this sound like a good plan??? If so, I also have a few questions. Are there written narrations scheduled in the Bigger Extensions Guide? And thinking ahead to next year, is it very teacher intensive to run Preparing and CtC at the same time? I would probably slow down Preparing for my son next year to half speed for a while anyway because we are in no rush here and I think he could use the extra time to prepare him for independence in the guides to follow. Thanks in advance for your help.
Homeschool Mom to DD 10, DS 8, DS 5, DD 3, DS 1

I think your plan sounds pretty doable. I certainly wouldn't be afraid to give it a try, anyway! I'm sorry I cannot directly answer your question about the extension/narration requirements in Bigger, since I haven't looked at anything to do with the extensions... However, since you're pretty familiar with the requirements from Preparing I think it would be easy enough to add those for the extension books, if they're not already required.

The biggest concern I think would be to keep up the skills that your dd learned in Preparing so that she's ready to jump to CTC the next year, otherwise that would be a really big jump from Bigger as written to CTC as written.

As far as running Preparing and CTC together, I think it is possible because they really begin to do more independently in those guides. Especially if you're running Preparing at half pace for a while.

I think you certainly could do that, but it might be difficult for your older one to not feel the "step back" in skills and reading/comprehension level. Maybe you could look at CtC with her, the books and the sample week and see if she could get excited about that. She will do American History in Rev to Rev and MtMM so that is just a couple of years away, if she keeps going in the guides instead of moving back first.

Now this doesn't streamline or give you less reading to do, but your thinking you will be moving back into Preparing and CtC next year makes me think this isn't the #1 priority.

The extensions in Bigger are just extra books for the child to read on their own. You can certainly require oral or written narrations of the readings to keep her sharp. If she is doing grammar, writing, math, and DITHOR that will also add difficulty to her school day, but not length and depth, and not really other independent projects that the later guides have for them to do. Science will also be very light for her (though again extensions are meant to add into this, but not with activities, more with concepts).

I hope this makes sense.

I think your plan sounds great! There is a schedule in Bigger that lists the daily readings for the extension package. The guide gives a brief list of suggestions for assessing your child's comprehension of the extension material as well. I think if she's doing DITHOR at her level and all the other things you listed (is she also using R&S English?), she'll be appropriately challenged. I'd give it a try!

Thank you all for your very helpful thoughts. Yes, I feel my DD10 will be fine with skills (I forgot to mention she is doing her level grammar, and we added in Latin for Children. We also do Apologia together in co-op so the science portion isn't an issue. I like the Bible Study part in CTC but maybe I can find an alternative for that.

While the bible study in Bigger isn't independent work for your dd, it really is wonderful! I'm getting so much out of it and so is my ds8.5! I don't know that it'd really be necessary to add an extra bible study for her. You could try it as written, and if it doesn't feel like enough- then go from there.

To up the challenge a bit for her, you could have her read the history and science sections aloud while you are listening in to make sure that it's correct.

Ok. Thank you all for your helpful advice! We will be starting Bigger Hearts next week! I like the idea of giving my daughter some independence with the Bigger's Extra Package for History before moving her to CtC, and giving her a good foundation in US History. I think I will have her do a written narration where the Bigger guide has the students orally narrating on a certain day for history. Also, with the Language Arts and Latin programs we are using this year (along with DITHOR - which we weren't very good about getting to last year with the new baby), I think she will be fine and ready for the skills required for CtC. Thanks again!