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I need help placing my 10 year old son, please. He places pretty much in Preparing except for reading. He just started reading in Jan. 2017 and it’s has been sloooow moving, but it is picking up. No matter what level we go with, I will have to do a lot of the reading because his brain gets tired. He loves school and wants to learn. I’m not sure is Bigger would be challenging enough to him, but am afraid Preparing may be pushing it. Thanks for any input!

What can he read? In Preparing, most of the books are on level with the last few Emerging Reader books. So if he is near the end of through those, he should be okay with Preparing. If he is at the very beginning of the ER books (or not even there), Bigger might be a better fit.

I don't find the skills too different in the two guides except for the added Independence and once a unit creative writing. You could always add in the extensions as extra read aloud books as well if you wanted to bread up Bigger a little bit.

Thank you Stephanie. By the time we start, I think he would be close to the end of the ERs.

If it were me, I would probably place him Preparing next year. Even though he is a late bloomer with reading, I found that the reading in Preparing really propelled my kids forward. You could use easier books for the DITHOR. In addition, in Preparing, some of the readings are longer but my kids LOVED those books and never minded the challenge. My son struggled (still does) with reading and I would just have him read half the book out loud to me and I would read half the book out loud (we would take turns reading paragraphs or pages). Once they get into CtC, I did the same thing for history. He and his sister read one story out loud to me and then sometimes I would read one of the stories with him. For Bible, he listens to it on his phone rather than reading it. The first science text could also be done by listening to it on CD. Even though I felt like Preparing, CtC, and RtR increased in reading level and volume a bit each year, I am continually surprised and amazed at my kids have increased with it. By RevtoRev and MtMM, my oldest was/is blowing through her reading and she also struggled to learn to read.

As for doing the extensions with Bigger, I would probably not go that route. The extension books get harder and hard each year. If you did complete those, you would need to read them to your child because they are a higher reading level. My son definitely falls into that in between category as to whether or not to do the extensions because he is in 6th grade and doing CtC this year, which is one of the extension grades, but because he is 11 he is still in the age range. As for extension, when he did Bigger he was 9 and 4th grade so we did read a few of the extension books. The following year in Preparing, we tried to include them as well but it was just too much. This year he isn't doing them at all. He places perfectly in CtC and the extensions would just be too much for him. So I guess all I'm saying is that if you have child who is struggling with reading, the extensions would just create more work for you. I would invest the time and work you will already be doing in Preparing rather than beefing up a lower level.

One of my children struggled with reading, and I felt she was not ready for the reading in Preparing. (She was also near the end of the ERs at that time). I plowed ahead since she had fully done all the earlier guides. She needed help with the history readings in the beginning (especially if they weren't Bible history, i.e. if she wasn't familiar with the material), but by the end of the guide she did everything as written and we haven't looked back. Her reading level improved dramatically that year. By the way, one of the first books they are supposed to read to themselves, The 5000 Year Old Puzzle, has quite a few difficult words (like "archaeologist" and "hieroglyphics") . However the book is wonderful. I elected to treat it as a read aloud. I did the same for my son who did not struggle as much with reading. The other independent study books do not have this problem. So I guess I am also voting for Preparing based on your description of your son.

Thank you very much ladies for talking me through this. I was leading towards Preparing and you helped push me over! That makes me feel better! Thank you again!