I am currently homeschooling a 5th grade dd and 2nd grade ds. We prefer a 'living books' approach to history and have used many different things over the years--several SL cores, one year of MFW (Adventures), and currently, Truthquest. I have enjoyed things about all of these but none of them have been a perfect fit. We are enjoying TQ this year, but it is very unstructured and eventually I want to move back into something with a bit more structure to it.
Anyway I've been planning to use DITHOR next year with both of them, and in researching this, have become intrigued by the other programs. They look really, really good! I'm just not sure I could make one of them work for us. I should mention that it is really, really important for me to combine them. That's the main reason we dropped SL Core 3 this year, because my ds was totally lost.
So here are my thoughts:
- CTC -- I love the looks of this and it would probably work for my dd, since she'll be a 6th grade, but it will most likely be too much for my 3rd grader. One option I am considering is to continue our American History cycle next year with TQ, then move into CTC the next year with 7th/4th graders.
- Preparing-- this looks good too, but we have fairly recently done Cores 1 & 2 and they use many of the same books, including Aesop for Children and Child's History of the World, so it may be kind of redundant.
- Bigger -- this is probably the most likely choice, since my ds will be the perfect age for it. One concern I have is that it won't be 'enough' for the 6th grader. Also, we spent waaay too much time earlier this year on Columbus, explorers, Vikings, etc. so my children may mutiny if they have to cover them yet again!

So what do you think? Which of these options would work the best? Is Bigger really enough for a 6th grader? Both dc will be doing science classes next year at coop using the God's Design books, so I'm not really worried about the science being light since it will mainly be a supplement.
TIA!