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We are having a "different year."
Son #2, 7 years old and in grade 2, has been doing Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. It is going wonderfully, just as it did two years ago for son #1.
Son #1 I have been "stalling," in the HOD ladder. He did Beyond for grade 2, Bigger for grade 3, and this year we are really enjoying a semi-self-arranged "program" influenced by HOD, but blessed by God!

We are using the extention books suggested in Bigger for History, as well as other library books. Our homeschool co-op is leading Land Animals of the 6th day, for science, and we are pretty much doing everything that would be in the Bigger boxes, but he is directing it [choosing a character trait that goes with the reading and we use the Bigger questions to lead him. Yes, this means he is doing Proverbs for a second time, but I have studied Proverbs at least three times now and am still learning things.]

We are having our second WONDERFUL year! ♥ ♥

The reasons I *stalled* his was so that my two boys could use the same program - Preparing - next year for grades 3 & 5, as I bringt my oldest daughter in for 1st grade, begin pre-school-y stuff with my 4 y.o. and enjoy our new baby [due in May!]

Now I am looking at Preparing... has anyone used Preparing for a 5th grader? how about for a third grader?
Our language arts, spelling and math will be individually geared. We use Rod and Staff for LA, Abeka spelling for son #1 and HOD spelling for son #2, and MUS for both boys.

I do believe son #2 can handle skipping Bigger. He did most of the history reading with us, all of the storytime, and all of the science with us the year before. He misses the science notebooking we did!!

I can't believe it has been 2010 for 13 days and I am already in the planning mode!!

I can't believe that I just noticed that CTC has Land Animals of the 6th day!!!!! AGH. We are doing the whole book this year! Oh well, we will figure that out when we get there.

Hi Stacy!

I'm so glad that your year is going well! We are absolutely loving our year with Preparing. I am sure that you and your boys will have a wonderful year with it!

Kathleen

Stacy,
I am using Preparing with a 5th grade girl and a 3rd grade girl this year. We are in Unit 19 and have really enjoyed our first HOD year! Both made comments basically saying just that the other day! My 5th grader is pretty much breezing thru the work, so I have added some of the extension readings for her (not all). My 3rd grader enjoys the program, but finds some days just too much for her and struggles with some of the writing and sometimes the reading. I, in fact, am putting her in Bigger next year and still deciding whether to do the same with my oldest, or move her to CTC. It is definitely doable, especially to keep the gang together.
Brenda

Thanks, Ladies.

Brenda, your descriptions of your girls pretty much describe where I imagine mine to be. I already decided I could add extention reading to my older son's if need be [or we can do Fallacy Detectives, etc., for "more."]

Do you mind sharing more specifically the areas you see your 3rd grader tiring with? Do you use Rod and Staff for language, and if so, are they each doing their own program? My younger son has two modes when I give him an assignment. Jumping in heartily and doing well, or whining and lamenting [and I now know to ignore him] and then doing well. But he DOES tire with writing and reading in a way my older [language arts brained son] did not.

I am busily praying about it, but at least in my Mommy-mind, I am going to want them in the same program next year with a 1st grader, pre-reader and new baby in the mix.

I'm using Preparing with my 5th grader. This is our first year with HOD so we did not have the advantage of having done Bigger Hearts first. He uses all the books... reading both the Deluxe Package and the Extension Package books for himself. I am adding a few read alouds but other than that, we do it as it is written. He uses Rod & Staff for both English and Spelling (plus the dictation passages in the HOD guide) and uses MathUSee for math. He is also studying Koine Greek. We are having a great year. I am very, very happy with HOD and with Preparing. I think a 3rd grader would enjoy the books (my 2nd grader loves to listen in and understands everything) but you would need to adjust the assignments unless you have a child who is already comfortable with short written narrations and frequent copywork. I think a 3rd grader could read the Deluxe Package books. My 2nd grader really loves the science books in Preparing but he is just listening to them and doing short oral narrations of the readings. My 5th grader reads those to himself but I also read them outloud to my 2nd grader. The content of Preparing has been very enjoyable for my 2nd grader.

Stacy,
I will try to answer more specifically for you. My 3rd grader uses R&S - 98% orally. Sometimes she uses a dry erase board to write things if they are too complicated to answer out loud, or if it is spelling related or using apostrophes, for example, so I can see that she knows what things are supposed to look like. My 5th grader uses BJU English - she likes it, I do not (I don't feel it's thorough enough). She dislikes R&S (I do not), so we are going to try Growing with Grammar next year as a compromise. If we don't like that, I will probably go back to R&S. For math they both use Horizons, I am not a Singapore fan, although my 3rd grader liked it and used it for second grade. Sometimes for Independent History there is reading and in Independent Science as well, plus we use Drawn Into the Heart of Reading, so my 3rd grader feels overloaded with all that. For a compromise, my 5th grader reads the Independent History or Science (not both) out loud. I feel like there is too much writing for the 3rd grader at times, but she doesn't usually complain. If she does, I allow her to skip one assignment, but she usually buckles down and ends up doing it anyways - I think she doesn't want to miss out! I have offered to write for her at times, but she never accepts my offer (she doesn't like my handwriting!) We do use the dictation, as that is a new skill for us this year and we all like it. I don't use a formal spelling program, as they are both pretty natural spellers. We also enjoy the once a week written narrations and poetry writings. They both love the independent work as well and I will continue with that trend next year in Bigger. There are no major hurdles for my 3rd grader this year, but I just personally like Preparing for more 4th grade level work. Sorry for being so long, hope that helps. I would be happy to add anything further if needed.
Brenda

Wow - thank you for taking the time to describe what is working for your families.
I am getting more comfortable at modifying things to stretch my children without breaking them... but love to hear how others make it work.
Both boys love to read, it is just that the younger one tires.
I may have more questions for you as we get closer!
Thank you for your help!

momof2n2,

I just wanted to pop-in to say, "It's great to see you"! The ladies have done a wonderful job of pinpointing possible areas to watch for fatigue with your younger student as you make plans to head into Preparing Hearts next year.

If it's your heart's desire to combine, then you will definitely be more motivated to make that work (knowing you may need to do some tweaking). Another thing to remember is that if you really want to combine your kiddos for the long haul, then you could slow down Preparing Hearts as need be to allow your younger one a bit of time to mature (and also to keep the load more manageable each day for a younger learner).

Anyway, just some food for thought.

Blessings,
Carrie

Hi Stacy! Good to "see" you, and I'm so glad you are having a wonderful year! Congrats on expecting - hope your pregnancy is going well. For next year, I do think both of your dc could do PHFHG, and you can easily have your oldest do the extension package. We did PHFHG for my oldest ds's third grade year, and he thrived. I do think it helped him to do Bigger Hearts before PHFHG though, but in light of your goal to combine, I think it makes sense to do it now within PHFHG, and just know you'll need to give the younger ds some grace with his writing until he grows into it. Doing R & S English primarily orally will help cut down his writing, and will he be doing cursive this year then? If so, I'll throw out kuddos for "Cheerful Cursive", as this was a super easy way to teach cursive and the only year my oldest did with cursive (he's now in CTC and still has nice cursive - not perfect - but nice enough for me ). If your ds #2 is doing HOD spelling List #1, then he can just do HOD Spelling List #2 next year. If he has done Spelling List #2 already though, I'd just start him in Level 2 of dictation for his spelling and definitely not add in another spelling program at that point, as it is not necessary, and would only serve to add more writing to his day.

O.k. - you confessed you are in the planning mode - so I'll throw out you doing LHFHG half-speed with your 4 and 6 yo. Since you like to combine, and these 2 little pumpkins could be combined, why not start it that way from the get-go? Little babe on the way would be tougher to combine with 4 yo since the age gap is wider, so you may want to just start LHFHG half-speed with the 2 of them and do LHTH on the side with the 2 of them for fun. Just an idea! Hey, you said you were in the planning mode, right?

Anyway, I think you'll love PHFHG! Great fun ahead of you, Stacy! Prayed for you and the baby on the way.
In Christ,
Julie

brenm37 wrote: My 3rd grader enjoys the program, but finds some days just too much for her and struggles with some of the writing and sometimes the reading. I, in fact, am putting her in Bigger next year Brenda

Hi Brenda! Wow! We are doing the same thing here! We LOVE Preparing, but ds -3rd grader - just cannot keep up with the suggested schedule. We dropped the extra writing in almost everything. He does writing - in print - still learning cursive - only in 1 day per week written narration , History Projects, Timeline, selected science notebook. He loves dictation. I think that Bigger will be a wonderful fit for him for next year.

Staci, don't let that scare you away from Preparing. You had asked what Brenda though was too much for her 3rd grader so I went ahead and shared my story. It is definitely doable and I would wholeheartedly choose Preparing again with my kiddos 3rd, 6th & 7th grade! Each child has learned & matured academically - a lot! My 6th & 7th grader are also doing Preparing with extensions - plus extras. It has been a huge success! Just know you may need to tweak it just a bit for your 3rd grader. For us it has worked out beautifully!

Thanks, again, ladies!!

Julie - I had not thought of combining the girls. I bet my littlest would love to do school. She asks ALL the time. I've never been one for "doing preschool," but really just grabbing what comes up in live, etc. But of all my kids she would be the one most willing. I will add that consideration to my prayers! Thank you.

We already do much of the R&S orally, but still do some written every day.
We do cursive from Kindergarten, so that won't be a new piece!
My younger son doesn't seem to balk at writing at this point. I will have to be careful not too over-tax him. I hope he keeps his eagerness to write. He has beautiful cursive! And he isn't even my "artist." My "artist," now has taught himself chicken scratch...
My younger son tires most with reading.

Thanks for sharing everyone!