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I have an almost 10 yo ds and just turned 12 yo dd that I want to place. We are just finishing up reading CHOW this year with a different program I put together. We are finishing WH this summer, so I'd like to start Am. History this fall.

My oldest could be placed in Res to Ref or RevtoRev, so since we are wanting to do Am. Hist., I'm thinking of placing her in RevtoRev (although she will have already done Expl. Ed. Curriculum with an older sibling). She has done two years of IEW with our co-op, so I think writing will be fine for her. She is 1/2 way through Rod and Staff 5, so we will finish that and start on 6. She has just been reading the Norwood series, so I think reading level, she could do either.

My 9 1/2 yo son has been doing school with her. They will continue doing Math together, but she has really started moving ahead in her reading level, and he hasn't done a formal writing course yet. They did do Beyond two years ago and he did fine with that, so I've been looking at Bigger, or Preparing. He will be finishing Rod and Staff 3 this summer and co-read "Door in the Wall" with his sister last year. I feel Bigger won't be challenging enough for him, but it is Am. History. Can we take the Hist. readers from Bigger and do those instead of CHOW for Preparing? Or should I just do Bigger, or try to combine him with his sister again?

Youngest 6yo dd will do LHFHG this fall.

I don't think you could just use the history books from Bigger with Preparing. The left side if the he is so tied to the history that it wouldn't make sense without the history books. One option might be too make Bigger more like Preparing. She should be able to do much of not all of the science independently for example. You could add in the extensions for Bigger history. And then continue math and language arts on level.

Can you tell me what Bigger does for Writing? I have the Preparing guide and can see what they do once a week in there. I feel my ds needs some writing now that he'll be 10.

Bigger doesn't have writing instruction like Preparing has for poetry. But, since he is in the extension age range, it would be time to start written narrations. These are basically the same as oral narrations (except they are of course written and not spoken). Depending on how many written narrations you require, that might be enough writing. Also, remember that Rod and Staff English includes writing instruction as well. And there is some writing in the notebooking and vocabulary activities in both Bigger and Preparing.

Hello! Here are a few links that may help...
Progression of Writing Through the Guides:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8731&p=64455

Amount of writing in BHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1516&p=11829

Amount of writing in Bigger vs. PHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3602


In Christ,
Julie

Thank you so much for all of your responses. I really appreciated all of those links to the conversations about the Writing programs too. I think it sounds like doing Bigger and letting him do as much independently as he can might be a good option. He does write at least 4-5 sentences a day right now with R&S Level 3. I was just hoping for more of a formal writing program for him, but perhaps waiting another year to start that is okay. Has anyone used Write with the Best Vol. 1 twice with the same child? That's the only other thing I can think of is if I had both 10yo and 12yo do that writing program together, but then 10yo would come across it again in CTC; but I'm thinking perhaps his writing would be just that much more improved when he gets there? Any thoughts on that? I was thinking about even suggesting it to my co-op because Writing is one of the main subjects taught there, but I don't want to suggest it if it doesn't make sense for my 10yo.