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I just typed a message on here saying that my 11 yo is still in Bigger and not ready to move up. I went to the placement chart again just to make sure. And I say no still because of writing and spelling mainly. Then I looked at the first week. The content would definitely be a better fit for him--he is very intelligent and quick in many things. Let him do everything out loud instead of writing and he soars. He always understands everything and I think catches on to things and understands some things better than my 13 yo in RTR. He definitely thinks in the abstract more than she does. He is excellent at drawing and loves to do it. The history projects he would love and he "gets" how to do things and make them and follows instructions very well--except when he wants to do it his way because "his way is much better"--and it usually is. Even though he will struggle through reading a book, he ALWAYS understands what he read and usually has to analyze everything when I want him to just go on reading!
Should I move him up and just continue on with practicing writing and the spelling in the new guide? Those are definitely the things that hold him back. We are doing English 2 and it is easy for him--except when he has to write the sentences or whatever-that takes him a long time because of forming the letters. If he knows he doesn't have to write it, he has excellent sentences, when he knows he has to write them, he sits and thinks of the simplest, shortest sentence he can make.
The things that are independent or semi in Preparing are written to the student, so I wonder if that would be easier for him to get than having him do some things in Bigger independent that aren't written that way.

So, thanks for listening if you got this far. Thoughts?

I'd move him up to Preparing personally, and do R&S3 mostly oral. We did oral pretty much except when it had to be written. Maybe use the FB science and history sheets so the bland pages don't look quite so overwhelming? Schedule the subjects with writting with other subjects between them, so he gets a break.

I also would move him up. I found Preparing to be a great year when my oldest did it. That was the first year we did HOD. I was probably WAY harder on her than I should have been with lots of frustration from both of us. I didn't realize that Preparing was the year I was supposed to help her become independent. I have since learned my lesson though and it is much smoother this second year around. With my oldest, I do remember that at the beginning of the year, her reading wasn't all there yet also. She struggled with sounding things out still. By the middle of the year, she was being asked to read some longer history and science sections. It was a growth! I am amazed at how much she grew that year. My son is doing it this year. I am doing WAY more hand holding with him and know that eventually he will take off with his independence.

Even though your son has trouble with writing, I would set a timer for him and have him write for that amount of time. I did find that the writing had increased in Preparing quite a bit from Bigger in some ways but my kids seem to grow into it too. Maybe that will happen with your son.

Okay! It's so funny how we can get stuck in a thinking and not look outside the box. I think he will love it. Another thing I thought of as I looked at the guides again, I pretty much skip all of the activities with him (not the drawing and painting stuff) because they are pretty below him. He does those things on a higher level.

I would move him up to Preparing and just keep gradually working on the writing. If you think the difficulty with writing is a long term struggle he may have then you could start him on typing. I would go ahead and let him do the activities, even if they seem easy because for my son with challenges with writing those were the breaks in the day. He looked forward to those to give his hand a rest and have some fun in the middle of the challenges.

What's funny is that he does much better with cursive than print. Yesterday, doing his spelling words, he wrote some of them in cursive on the marker board instead of print. It is much neater that way.
I definitely will do any activities in Preparing, but most of the ones in Bigger were way beneath him-he would rather go do his own stuff that is always creative, etc. I definitely alternate his writing things, usually with a big break after a big writing assignment.
I'm so glad this has come up for me to think about again.

My son who has dysgraphia due to his hand tremors and CP does much better with cursive than with print. I think it is because he doesn't have to lift his hand. That helps the tremors obviously, but it also seems to help his motor planning.