heartofdakota.com

I am going to be doing Bigger with my three children and the oldest will be doing the Extension Pack. She is past the level of dictation in the Bigger guide. At this point, I have every intention of continuing with Preparing for the following school year. My question is - and Carrie may be the only one to answer this - do you think it would be worth it to purchase the Preparing Guide this year if only to use for the Dictation passages included. I know that I could find my own passages from her reading, but I don't know how to pick the most age appropriate passages and I thought it might make it easier on me to use the Preparing Guide since I"m assuming the passages will be the level of dictation she is ready for. Also, how often do you recommend Dictation for her since she won't be following the Bigger schedule for LA?

Thank you! I'm so excited to get started in a few weeks!

Tiffini,

It sounds like we'll be doing the same thing next year, and I've had some of the same concerns. There's a thread somewhere concerning this...I'll try to find it and come back to post the link if I do.

BTW, we're back from our trip, so dd's can begin emailing again. I'll tell my dd to email yours!

Wendy

inHistiming wrote:Tiffini,

It sounds like we'll be doing the same thing next year, and I've had some of the same concerns. There's a thread somewhere concerning this...I'll try to find it and come back to post the link if I do.

BTW, we're back from our trip, so dd's can begin emailing again. I'll tell my dd to email yours!

Wendy

Could this one be the one you were thinking of?

http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/view ... =dictation

Yes, actually...the first link in Carrie's replly is the one I was remembering.

My intent is to try the dictation in the manual, and see how ds does. I feel that the actual spellings of the words he has mastered, but we've never tried to do dictation, so I'm wondering if that will add more difficulty for him. If it is too easy, I plan to try what Carrie suggested, or possibly buy the Preparing manual. I'd love to just order it now, but I'm afraid DH will not allow that...we still may have to order more things for our Bigger...year! I know that's not very helpful, just wanted to lend some support and let you know you're not alone!!

We are also wondering the best way to handle more advanced dictation! My daughter is also doing Bigger with the Extension pack - and will definitely need more difficult dictation. Looking forward to some good ideas!

Definitely read the link that netpea gave in her post above. Within that thread, there are 3 more links that I direct you to in my post on the thread! Each one is well worth reading and will explain how to do higher level dictation CM-style. The last thread also gives examples of the dictation passages from Preparing.

Blessigns,
Carrie

Thanks, everyone! I will check out those threads in more detail. I am thinking of just going for the Preparing guide. My concern is that next year when we do Preparing, my oldest will be past those dictation levels already. Oh, well, you can't have it all!