I'm leaning towards Preparing

[sted]

This board has been so helpful to me but I have another question

Okay, to summarize briefly, Oldest will do CTC, decided. Next daughter (10 next fall) I want to group her with my 7 year old. Now this year, they have done Beyond together. Logically, I would do Bigger with them both next year. However, they have done all the spelling and dictation from Bigger as well as science from Bigger. My 9 year old is halfway through R&S 3. She has some learning issues which make her very distractable and needs alot of hand holding to get things done

I had at first grouped her with my oldest who is only 18months older than her but academically they are much further apart. My 7 year old is quite bright and motivate so grouping her with my youngest for history and science has been a blessing. So I really want to keep them together.

My question is this, I have already been doing Bigger this year with my oldest so my thought was to perhaps try Preparing with the younger two, going at half-pace. Quite truthfully I've decided I don't have enough energy to do both History and Science each day so I like alternating them. My middle child has made great progress with writing and reading this year although math is a bit of a struggle. Does anyone see anything wrong with trying Preparing at Half-pace? I would of course not expect as much from my youngest with it but she will only be a grade twoer. She would have her own math, language arts etc. My middle will be technically in Grade 5 so I'm worried about going too slow by staying in Bigger. Whatever the grade 2er gets in History and Science is a bonus but she picks up a lot. Since I'd be doing it for two years, I could then look at adding the Independent History for my oldest on year 2 to help her work on independence. Also, doing Preparing will prevent me the mom from repeating a history program 2 years in a row. Do you think this is workable?

Thanks for reading,
Shannon

[sharonb]

My children are younger than yours, so I don't have any firsthand experience doing what you are proposing. But here's my opinion- you know your children best. You also know yourself as a teacher. I don't think I would want to repeat a guide so soon either! In my opinion, it's fine to take a guide and make it work for your needs. Adding extensions for your oldest is a great idea. It sounds like your rising 2nd grader is very bright and will do fine, just adjust assignments as necessary. One of my many longterm scenarios involves something similar- if I keep my oldest 3 together, we could take two years to do Bigger, and then start Preparing when they are 2nd, 4th, and 5th. We are also doing LHFHG right now though, and I might just let my oldest do guides by herself and keep the 2nd two together separately; I don't know! But anyway, do what you feel is best, and don't be afraid to do things differently from normal. That's why we homeschool, so we can do what's best for our children (individually and as a group).

[sted]

Thanks Sharon for the speedy reply!

Now I'm looking at the Storytime Read alouds and seeing how I can condense them in order to do only one Read-aloud with all my kids. I'm leaning towards the Preparing Books because my oldest hasn't done that program. Does anyone think that's workable?

Shannon