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I am almost ready to place my order for Bigger after reading for days on here. I am excited to have a plan finally and not piece things together so much. We have 2 daughters-almost 9 and 7 1/2 so I think Bigger will be a good place to have them both working together. I will use DITHOR level 2 for both since they seem to be on about the same level of reading however our 9 yo is starting to really take off into longer books and enjoy them finally but I don't want to rush her.
My question is regarding English. We have been using BJU English 2 this year for both. Our 9 yr old is about 2 months from finishing it and the 7 1/2 yo is about 1/3 through. They both like BJU, mostly because it has color and there is not much writing on the worksheet pages (mostly underline, fill in the circle kind of answers). The writing chapters we work on together and are not too demanding but I have been known to help with the actual writing down of ideas but it is decreasing. Some sensory issues make handwriting a struggle for the 9 yo. I have BJU 3 already and they both want to continue with it (mostly because it has color-I know not a good reason)so I am wondering if we should stick with it or change to R&S. I can see where where R&S seems more solid with review but if they actually like something I don't want to change (yet again) and discourage them.
I love the looks of HOD and how everything is planned out. I cannot wait to place my order and get started after we finish this year's work. I have made too many changes and just now feel like we are making progress by actually finishing levels. I am so tired of changing curriculum so part of me wants to stay put with BJU but another part of me wants to do what seems like it will result in better retention. My concern is that they will not like R&S especially since they actually like BJU. Any opinions would be much appreciated
Also I wanted to comment on what a wonderful group of people are here!

Gina

Hi Gina! How exciting you are going to get to do Bigger - it will be a great year! I do really feel like the retention is excellent with R & S, so the real question is how you think the retention is with BJU? If you feel like your dd's are retaining what they are learning and they enjoy it, then I would say you may as well continue with it. If you are concerned they may not be retaining what they've learned very well, then making the switch to R & S would be a good idea. R & S is not in color, and there is a fair amount of writing if you do it exactly as it says - I think a lot of us on the HOD board do a good portion of it orally and on marker boards though. It is a very solid grammar program and also very God-honoring, which is another thing I love about it. But, if your girls like BJU and things are going well, and you think they will be sad not to continue with it - I'd say stick with it.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks Julie,
I decided to order R&S 2 to try. We will probably do most of it orally on dry erase board as you suggested (big selling point for our girls). They still want to continue with BJU but I told them we will try R&S but if they really do not like it we can go back to BJU. I think our oldest is retaining reasonably well but our 7 yo is not even remembering nouns yet. I think R&S will be a better choice and they are pretty adaptable. We are all excited to get started with Bigger and I placed my order this weekend. They love read alouds and we don't always get them in, so the schedule will be wonderful:-)

Gina

Sounds like a good plan, Gina! Now, you just have to wait for your "box day". You shouldn't have to wait long, HOD ships quickly! I'm excited for you and your girls to dig into Bigger Hearts.
In Christ,
Julie

Thanks again Julie, the mailman does not like our box days since he has to make the drive up our muddy,pothole-ridden driveway. He insanely honks the horn like the mailman in "Funny Farm". He is a sweeet man though since he will actually bring boxes to our door. My plan is to start in the fall. We school year round so hopefully sooner, but we do alot of traveling through the summer until late Sept and I don't want to break the flow of Bigger once we start. Waiting is so hard, so I doubt we will wait until Octoter. Hopefully there are points at which it is easy to take about 12 days off then start new books/topics. Our dd's like living books so I think this will be our best year yet, with more to come with HOD:-)

Gina

gestep wrote:...the mailman does not like our box days since he has to make the drive up our muddy,pothole-ridden driveway. He insanely honks the horn like the mailman in "Funny Farm". He is a sweeet man though since he will actually bring boxes to our door.

Gina - are we "neighbors"?!? Ok, not close neighbors since we know EVERYONE that drives by since our road only goes through in dry weather.

You're going to love Bigger next year! We are thoroughly enjoying it this year. I'm another mom who does quite a bit of our R&S English orally. And then I let my son do the written part on a small markerboard. He loves it! It's way more fun to write on a markerboard, ya know. And we got a nifty pack of whiteboard markers with erasers on the end and there are 6 colors I think. They were at our "rural" Wal-Mart...so I'm sure you could find them.

Have a fun box day! You'll just have to keep your shoes on to make the dash for the honking truck.
Kathleen