Avoid Bigger and Preparing together?

[alhempel]

From the posts I have read, teaching Bigger and Preparing at the same time is very teacher intensive. As I look forward here is where we are at. I am currently teaching 4 guides: World Geography, Resurrection to Reformation, Beyond and Little Hearts for His Glory. My 5 year old is very gifted and could have done Beyond but I didn't want to push her. She listens in on a good chunk of her brother's Beyond work and enjoys it. As I look down the road, I am unsure of doing Bigger and Preparing together. Can I do Bigger together next year and the following year go back and do Beyond for my daughter and Preparing for my son? Is it possible to combine and do Bigger together next year, using the left side of Bigger for my daughter and the right side of Beyond and Bigger completely for my son? Then the following year to do the left side of Beyond and right side of Bigger and then Preparing for my son. My biggest concern is my daughter reaching Preparing to early to be ready for the skills needed. Keep in mind I will also have two in high school and a Little Hands when I do Preparing. Any thoughts?

[my3sons]

Thanks for sharing a bit about your family! You are describing my family in about 3 weeks (as my middle ds will then finish CTC)... WG, RTR, Beyond. I think it would be best to combine your 5 and 7 yo. Personally, I'd go to half-speed Beyond right now and combine dd with ds, but before I glibly give that advice... Can you please share a bit about your 5 yo with the first page of the placement chart in mind? Thanks!

In Christ,
Julie

[alhempel]

Emily is truly gifted. She has always stood out amongst her peers and those who don't know her can not believe she is only 5. She potty trained at less than a year, and hit all milestones early. Taught herself beginning reading skills at 3. This is her second year of formal phonics instruction. She will finish her current phonics program in February and turn 6 in March. She can read level 1 and 2 readers fairly easily. She knows all of her letters and writes and types words and sentences for fun as well as copies sentences from favorite books. For Christmas she wants lots and lots of paper. Her math skills are wonderful although not nearly as advanced as her language skills . She essentially is doing both Little Hearts and left side of Beyond and storytime with no problems right now. One week we combined in Beyond and she did great but missed her rhymes any Burgess stories which we could continue if I combined them now. She begs for her own spelling lists and is doing beyonds list 1 while brother does 2. I am mostly concerned that at some point the skills may get too hard for her as she would essentially not fit into the guides by age. But we could cross that bridge when we come to it. It would make my life easier to combine into Beyond now. Also amazing memory. At 4, she memorized the first Sparks Awana book in 2 months and retained it to this day. She knows all the books of the bibles and entire passages of scripture. She is like sponge. Academically she can handle Beyond but I want her to be 5 and carefree, but I don't want to be stressed out trying to cover so many guides when combining is realistic either.

[my3sons]

Hmmm - I think I'd combine them now, and go half-speed at the start of Bigger Hearts. She sounds very capable and able to do Beyond now, and she is almost 6 yo anyway. What do you think of this idea though?

In Christ,
Julie

[alhempel]

Thanks for your input Julie. I am leaning towards combining into Beyond now and seeing how it goes.