Can I use Bigger with a 4th grader?
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:26 pm
I am new to the boards and I am sure some of you might recognize me from homeschoolreview or WTM boards. I've never looked at any of Heart of Dakota's books because at first glance they were to young for my children. But after all of the posts recently on homeschoolreview it got me curious.
My dd will be in fourth grade next year. We are using SOTW 1 and 2 this year which she has loved and also Apologia Elementary. Although we love what we are using, I see that HOD incorporates a lot of what I feel we are missing out on. Poetry memorization, copywork, dictation, general geography topics, read alouds, covering the different genres, etc. I want to do all of these things but they never seem to get done because they are not in a schedule. I also love the gentle feel that the books have and the format really draws me in. I have looked at things like Sonlight or WP and format drives me crazy.
I tend to be a relaxed hser and use SOTW and Apologia as read alouds. We don't do the notebooking, mapping, etc., just some of the projects. My dd loves to be read to and loves hands on projects.
With that background, do you think Bigger would work for us next year for fourth? We really haven't covered American (accept what she did in ps for 2nd) and I was originally thinking of combing SOTW 3 and 4 with something else for American. Now I'm wondering if I should do Bigger instead because Preparing will start over with World History again. My other thought was that maybe the author would use SOTW for her following four years.
As far as language arts abilities my dd is reading really well but just now picking up chapter books. So many words on a page scared her previously so she would just read the harder picture books. She struggles with writing and spelling. She is doing Abeka Language Arts 3 this year and is doing well with it.
Thanks,
Erica
My dd will be in fourth grade next year. We are using SOTW 1 and 2 this year which she has loved and also Apologia Elementary. Although we love what we are using, I see that HOD incorporates a lot of what I feel we are missing out on. Poetry memorization, copywork, dictation, general geography topics, read alouds, covering the different genres, etc. I want to do all of these things but they never seem to get done because they are not in a schedule. I also love the gentle feel that the books have and the format really draws me in. I have looked at things like Sonlight or WP and format drives me crazy.
I tend to be a relaxed hser and use SOTW and Apologia as read alouds. We don't do the notebooking, mapping, etc., just some of the projects. My dd loves to be read to and loves hands on projects.
With that background, do you think Bigger would work for us next year for fourth? We really haven't covered American (accept what she did in ps for 2nd) and I was originally thinking of combing SOTW 3 and 4 with something else for American. Now I'm wondering if I should do Bigger instead because Preparing will start over with World History again. My other thought was that maybe the author would use SOTW for her following four years.
As far as language arts abilities my dd is reading really well but just now picking up chapter books. So many words on a page scared her previously so she would just read the harder picture books. She struggles with writing and spelling. She is doing Abeka Language Arts 3 this year and is doing well with it.
Thanks,
Erica
I'm going to guess that you could use Bigger with a 4th grader and use the extension pack, grade level english and grade level math. You could use Drawn and just choose the books that matched your dd's reading level. You'd probably want to start with the level 2/3.
I was kinda rooting for Mystery of History myself! 
She is reading just at or a little below grade level, though, so I am actually using Rod and Staff English 2, and stopped using the extension pack because the books were beyond her ability to read them on her own, and she's getting plenty of history with the read-alouds. If your child has already been doing A Beka 3 , she'll probably do well with Rod & Staff English 3 since she'll probably have covered what's in R&S 2 by the time she's finished the A Beka. Somebody posted this website that has samples of R&S, so that could help you decide which level would fit her best.