heartofdakota.com

Hello, I have a question about Bigger. I have a 7 year old daughter and we've been doing Bigger for about 2 weeks. The workload seems like A LOT this year. We've done Heart of Dakota for Kindergarten and 1st grade and we have both loved it. We are still loving it this year, but the amount of work! Wow!

Is this normal? Is there a jump in 2nd grade? I'm pretty heavily coaching her at this point. Should she be able to be doing more of these things independently? She's an excellent reader and I would say that Language Arts is her strong area. For instance, the Amelia Earhart biography. She can read it but if we are to finish it in the days allotted, it's A LOT of pages each day. After a page or two she starts sliding into bad habits. (Like skipping words or filling in words if a sentence doesn't make sense to her.) Or with science or the vocabulary. The book asks for her to create a sentence. I'm HEAVILY coaching with that. We basically decide on a sentence together and then I help dictate/ spell it out for her.

I don't necessarily think its too hard for her. It's definitely a challenge for her though. I don't think she needs to backtrack and do "Beyond". She's already been through that book and she had no trouble at all with it and truly breezed through the last couple of months last spring.

I guess I should also mention that I am going through "Little Hearts" with my 5 year old son. I also have a 3 year old and a 9 mo. old. Definitely part of the "challenge" is that she gets distracted with all the noise going on. A lot of times she asking for it to be quiet. She wants it to be quiet ALL the time. Which just isn't realistic. I need her to be with me so that I can be helping/ coaching her. But with me comes the other children. We do try to do a lot of the work when the babies are sleeping. But they don't take naps for 4 - 5 hours everyday.

I guess I'm just wondering, in other peoples experience, does the workload seem intense at 1st and then everyone gets used to it? Or is this the easiest it's going to be and the workload will keep increasing as the year progresses?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

Julia

Hi Julia,
During week 2 of Bigger we were also feeling like it was too much! But I took a deep breath and made the following adjustments. Maybe they will help you or give you ideas.

2 weeks of only one page of the Guide per day - now in unit 4 we are starting to complete 2 pages of the guide.

English - we do all the work on the white board, or circle the answers in the book,I never assign all the writing assignments. Sometimes I write and he corrects me based on the rules we have learned.
Science - I allow him to type the Bible verse (because he likes to be on the computer) and then complete the rest of the assignment.
Hymn - we sing it for family worship in the morning -
DITHOR - Amelia is such a good book! But the chapters were also too long for my 7 year old. So we took turns reading the assigned pages in order to finish on schedule. For the next genre I am choosing books with shorter chapters so that he may complete it on his own.
Vocabulary - we choose only 1 word.
Memory verse - on the days it has to be written I allow him to type it if it is more than one verse.
Don't give up! Just slow down a little and your dd will find her groove and thrive!
Dorla

I'm doing Bigger with a 9 and 7 year old...and I do think it is a lot for my 7 year old. But I must say it is "stretching" her in the places I know she needs it...so we carry on. I think the suggestion to do one page a day for awhile would be a great idea. I also have my 7 year old only do one vocabulary word. She struggles with the "guess" on the science part and usually ends in tears....so we talk through a lot of that. (She's the poster child for a workbook type curriculum!) For the day she "writes" out the bible verse. Right now, I have typed it up on a notecard with missing "key" words. She completely knows the verse and by Wednesday can always say it to me, but if I can unload some of the writing for her...it's better. So she "fills" in the blanks right now for the bible verse and I hope to have more and more blanks as the year goes on. That's just what we're doing right now and she seems to be able to hang on.

Thanks for the ideas. I feel better knowing that other 7 year olds are finding that it's a lot too. I have been toying with taking it down to 1 page/ day. I'll have to think more heavily on that one. And I hadn't really thought about doing some of the writing for her, but that makes sense, at least in the short run.

I would love to hear about any more ideas etc.

Julia

We just started Bigger a few days ago and are finding that it is definitely more demanding - not too much, but definitely a jump from Beyond. We are really enjoying it, though. I find I need to be even better about getting started early and not taking too many breaks.
Laura

My 7 year old is doing the following...

Poetry - copying one line per day.
Bible - copying one line per day (instead of doing the entire verse in one sitting).
Science - Dictates to me his guess. Traces the Bible verse (I write it very lightly for him in pencil).
English - White board, oral work, and creates at least one or two sentences on his own.
Spelling - I've actually added in more writing of his words.
History - I write out his timeline info as he cannot write that small.
Vocabulary - We discuss all three words but he only writes down the information for one word.

We are not doing DITHOR with him yet. I'm using Abeka phonics workbook 2 & their readers for him. So I suppose you could say he is doing that worksheet instead of the written stuff in DITHOR.

The ladies are giving you good advice. Here's a past thread about Bigger (dealing with boys), but I also think many of the suggestions would apply to 7 year old girls or boys doing Bigger as well: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2957

Blessings,
Carrie

I would probably slow it down for her doing a unit in about 2 weeks rather than one. I would also likely focus on the basics daily while doing the right side of the plans very slowly. It may not seems as overwhelming that way (for her...or for you).

I have an almost 6 year old that was doing beyond. We decided to step him back a level and do Little Hearts instead. From what you are describing, I am so glad we did. My oldest son is using Bigger and I knew there was NO WAY little dude would be ready for Bigger at almost 7. No way. I am sure some kids are...but my kid definitely wouldn't have been.

Best of luck to you in whatever you choose to do.