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Hi! I have an idea of what I'd like to do this coming year for my son who is 10 turning 11 in November. I wanted to make sure it makes sense and will work for him before I order. We did Preparing Hearts for His Glory last year however he struggled with writing, especially cursive. He learned cursive in the past in a different curriculum but did not learn it well. He does not enjoy writing at all. He is a very good reader however and reads on level easily. He also has requested to learn about later american history including WWI and WWII. So, my thought was to take a step back this year and do Bigger Hearts for His Glory with the older extensions and 4/5 book pack. We made it about 1/3 of the way through the rod and staff 4 LA last year so I thought I would continue with that throughout this year. Does this make sense? This guide seems to cover the history he would like to learn, at least near the end maybe. He will have a chance to re-learn cursive, and we can work on figuring out spelling/dictation (this was not in our previous curriculum, we just used spellwell which I didn't really care for). Then I figured we would re-do Preparing the following the year.

Does this sound like a good plan? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Bigger doesn't really cover WW1 and WW2. Since the guide was written for 7-9yo and much of the material takes maturity to understand, Carrie did not include that in Bigger.

Ok, now I see that the wars aren't included. Could I add in some extra reading books about them maybe? Or maybe I should stick with Preparing and add the cursive then let him choose some WWI or WWII books in his DITHOR?

You could definitely do that with Bigger, and add in the extensions if you need to. We used it last year for 4th grade and it was perfect! It really helped my son's writing and we didn't even add in the extensions, it was very hearty for him. He also reads above his level. Another option is to pull your own resources for the wars and let him make his own WW books, and then when he's had his fill, move on to CTC. My 11 yo is starting preparing and he still is learning cursive. I won't make him write everything that's listed for him to do in cursive yet, because it's just too much, yet it's the guide he needs to be in. I'm just saying, don't let the writing hold you back! It will come in time. You may also want to look into Winter Promise, as their history covers those wars, and see if there are some books there that you could add in that are appropriate for his age. Their american history does span upper elementary and middle school. I've used their curriculum and loved them as well. But my heart is here with HOD!
Good luck!