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Hi all!
I have 8yo and 11yo girls I am trying to place and I would appreciate some insight. They would probably place in Preparing, but we haven't done any American History yet and I don't want to miss out on Bigger if we can squeak it in. We will be starting immediately (we school pretty much year round so they are still considered 3rd & 5th grade right now, but they will technically be 4th (9yo) & 6th (12yo) graders in the fall. )We've done a little of MFW ECC this year and I was all set on SL Core 3 for American History, but I keep getting drawn back to HOD. I went to the Midwest Convention to see SL in person and stopped briefly at the HOD booth on the way. I didn't stay long though and just grabbed a catalog. Now I'm kicking myself for not looking at both Bigger and Preparing closer. A lot of what we have done this year has been over my 8yo's head and she doesn't really like to be read to a bunch (but will read to herself), so I'm thinking SL may be a bit much for her. The 11yo could read or be read to all day long.

I already have Teaching Textbooks for their math and we can finish PLL and ILL for LA (also still have Writing Strands & Spelling Power). I'm not sure about the HOD science either, I was thinking Apologia Zoology 1 for the older Dd, but can I do HOD for just the Bible, History, reading, and activities? It probably won't have that cohesiveness and balance that you all sing praises about if I mess with it this much. I am still open to doing the HOD science though.

But, for placement sake, here's the info:

8yo
Has learned cursive letters, just needs lots of practice
Reads independently
Struggled w/ Singapore
Not strong on basic parts of speech, mechanics, etc. Has done some dictation & narration.

11yo
Read at an 8th grade level a couple of years ago, but hasn't read many of the HOD titles
Can write creatively
Also struggled w/ Singapore
Can do dictation & narration

I think putting them in Bigger is more my desire to give the younger daughter a chance to love learning again, but I have a lot of younger children including a kindergartner (who I hope will listen & do activities with us) so I need easy with substance if that makes sense.

I am sorry if this post is jumbled and there are random thoughts everywhere, but I don't have the time right now to make it eloquent and organized. Any advice, tips, links to relevant posts, or BTDT encouragement will be appreciated! Thank you so much!

I think it will work if you need American. I did this with my dd at the same age for the same reason. Here is a thread that may be helpful for beefing up Bigger. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=640&hilit=poor+richard Anyway doing Bigger worked out perfectly for us. She was in 6th grade then and my others were 4th but one of the younger children is reading delayed and then read at the first grade level. So if you need American like we did it will work very well.

Thank you so much for your reply and the link! I will most likely choose Bigger and beef up for my oldest. I am guessing this is not a popular option since there was little response to this thread, but hopefully it will work out. Thank you again for your help!

Sorry to just be getting back to you - a bunch of us were at the GA book fair and just got back, so that may be why there weren't as many responses. Water2wine did an awesome job of helping you already too - so others may just be agreeing with that and not posting more because of it. Only you can know how much emphasis to place on the history cycle, but HOD's general thought on that is making sure dc have the LA, etc. skills they need at the right level rather than the history time period that's next usually results in a better fit overall for placement. LA skills are woven in history, science, etc. in a CM way, so placement is important. American history (within the context of world history) will be written in the next guide after RTR, so it's coming back around then anyway.

However, I completely respect that each family has different goals, so if history cycle is an important goal of yours, then yes, Bigger Hearts would work for your dc just fine, and we found it to be an excellent program. You could use the extensions to beef up science/history for your 11 turning 12 yo. Water2wine's link will be helpful for beefing up as well. I'd encourage you to do the science, as it's very living and links well to the history. Here's a past thread on Bigger's science that may be beneficial to read as you ponder:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5797&p=42536#p42536

If history cycle is not a primary goal of yours, I'd say PHFHG (which is a wonderful one year sweep of history) would fit well for both of your dc and require less tweaking. HTH! Whatever you choose, HOD has a line of outstanding guides - you're sure to enjoy it.

In Christ,
Julie

Hello. I am so glad I read this thread. We are also planning to use Bigger with our 12 year old. She is excited about it and I plan to boost it with the extension pack and an alternating of written, illustrated narrations and Writing Trails in American History. She can listen or read This Country of Ours. I happen to own it and I think the free audio is available at Libriovox. I think. I am fine with the science as it leaves us time for nature study. For language arts, we use Queen Homeschool's books so we are fine there. What will be interesting is that I am using it with her 6 year old sister who will turn 7 Nov. 1. Completely different basics but same history, science and Bible, modified. We have college students as well so she is used to listening to literature that is deep during our family read aloud time at night. Anyone else combined such a range before that is wiling to give suggestions? We plan to start in June so I will keep everyone posted. Just a side note, I let my 12yodd teach part of my 6yodd's lessons. She reads her Bible story, reviews our VP history cards, reads their poetry book out loud and helps with our family memory work. She also quizzes her on math facts occasionally. I am close by listening but it is soo helpful and she is learning to teach lovingly and with encouragement for her baby sister! Win-win!
Oh, I am working on my 18 yodd,when she is home from school, to teach a little to my 12 yodd so she will have experience with teaching at home and being loving and encouraging to baby sister. My 21 yods already works with littles, when he is home from school, of his own accord. He teaches them piano and recorder. 18 yodd just piped in she wants to teach them to draw and sketch and to use different art media!! Homeschooling is wonderful!!!
In His Care,
Sharyn

angelam,

The ladies have done a great job of talking through options with you, so I'll just pop-in to mention that your plan to combine both within Bigger Hearts sounds like a good one. We find it easier to beef up a program for an older child than to water one down for a younger child. With that in mind, you may wish to consider adding a few parts of either Preparing Hearts or CTC to raise the level a bit for your 11-12 year old in the basics. From Preparing or CTC, you could add the higher level of Rod and Staff English, the higher level dication passages, the science from one of those guides if desired (just for your older child, as your younger would do the science within Bigger), DITHR Level 4/5 or 6/7/8 (depending on how much literature study your older child has had), and additional creative writing (either through the poetry creative writing lessons within Preparing Hearts or by adding Igniting Your Writing once weekly instead). Then, you would have a tweaked program that would meet your older child's needs as well as your youngers.

Blessings,
Carrie