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Hi All,

I thought I had it all figured out I have a 6 year old DD (1st), and 8 year old DD (3rd) and a 3.4 year old DD. My plan after much consideration was to start the 1st grader in Beyond and go at 1/2 speed, the 3rd grader in Bigger at full speed, and the little one in LHTH. Seemed GREAT in theory, then I got the the part of actually trying to schedule everything and fit it into our lives! Allow me to paint a brief picture.... Our little bitty DD is a smart cookie, knows all her letter sounds and WANTS to do school. I am definitely going to have to schedule her into the mix! That leaves the other 2. The 1st grader is bright, no real struggles, academic or otherwise. The 3rd grader is extremely bright, but also severely ADHD/ODD (oppositional defiance disorder), which makes the day to day with her a bit of a challenge She also has some pretty big fish to fry in the math department (we had to pretty much start over with Math-U-See in the middle of last year, which is working great but there is some catching up to do there.) I know that academically she could more than handle Bigger, so that is not the issue. The real issue for me is the reality of 3 programs at once. I know there are those who make it work, but looking at everything we have going on, I am feeling quite overwhelmed at the thought of it. So which program(s) should we do?? The oldest fits into the age range for Beyond, but I am still so drawn to Bigger for her because it looks like it would be a perfect fit and would really start to build some independence in her that I know she is ready for. My other issue is that if she does Beyond this year, she would not be able to finish the whole cycle before High School. I know my little box checking self needs to get over that and live in the now, but I will admit is bugs me. I could do Bigger with both of them, but I hate to drag the younger one up if she really isn't quite there. Sticking to my original plan would really be best as far as fitting their abilities, but I am thinking that combining would be easier to handle with less moving parts. Which do you think is more important?? What would you do? I also need to add that we do our own thing for Language Arts and Math, so the right side of the manual isn't really the issue.

Thanks in advance!!

Coleen

Coleen,

The first thought that popped into my head was that maybe using Bigger for the oldest and combining the 4 and 6 yo in LHFHG would be a good fit. This would help your scheduling quite a bit, and I'm thinking it would fit your educational needs well, too. If it were me, I'd want to get through LHFHG and Beyond in 3 years with the younger 2 so that they're 7 and 9 when you do Bigger. (Fitting withing the age range gets much more important at this point. ) So, you could go half speed to start the guide this year, do 4 days a week, go full speed with LHFHG and then slow down with Beyond... You could try it several ways, just do something to slow it down so that you get a little extra time. You probably would still want the Beyond manual so that you could use it for math (unless you're using your own program), emerging readers (if you're done with phonics), spelling list, and weekly grammar lessons. You could use the 1st grade options - Reason for Handwriting A book and the Thinking Skills book with LHFHG.

Kathleen

Hey Kathleen,

Thanks for the suggestion! I had thought about that too but the little one won't be 4 until next March so I think that may be a bit of a stretch If only she was a little bit older.....

Ooops! I read that wrong. I was thinking you said 3 3/4...

I sent you a pm with a couple more ideas.

My 6 and 8 year old did Beyond last year. We had a great year. I think with what you posted Beyond would be a good fit for them both and easier for you. I wouldn't worry so much about the cycle. Life can always throw us curves that would mess up our perfect cycle anyway!

If you went with Beyond for the older two, you would still use the appropriate math, spelling or dictation, etc for your oldest. Since dictation isn't scheduled in Beyond, you could have her use the Bible verse for each unit, or passages from books she is reading. If she's ready, you could also use DITHOR for her, too, using a book off the storytime list as her independent reading book. (For instance, choose A lion to Guard Us as your read aloud with both, and then have her read King of the Wind for DITHOR--both adventure titles, but making her work more on her level and more independent. Both these books are on the reading lists on the Beyond page. Alternately, you could get the HOD booklist and choose off that for her.) Maybe even pick up R&S 2 for her (scheduling these on your own is not difficult), and use the 3rd book in Bigger (schedule yourself), and then the 4th in Preparing (scheduled in guide, I believe). All these would foster some independence in her as well. I wouldn't worry about her not finishing the guides before high school, as Carrie is building extensions into them so that early high schoolers can use them with their younger siblings. ETA: Whoops, just re-read you do your own thing for right side, so ignore this for you, but I'll leave it in case it may help someone else in the same boat.

HTH,
Jen