For privacy sake I will refer to my friend as Mrs. N.
Mrs. N has two boys 7 and 10. Mrs. N is definitely wanting to order from HOD especially after she has watched my dd work through CTC this year. Mrs N is currently on a restricted activity level due to problems w/ her pregnancy and the doctors want to deliver her at 30 weeks..so please prayer there.
Now to the heart of the matter. To help her and allow her quiet time to rest, my pastor suggested to Mrs. N to allow me to do school with her boys for the remainding of their school year.
I have also worked with these boys since Jan. through the childrens missions class I have taught, therefore I feel like I have been able to gain some sense of what each child's abilities are.
The youngest stands on the threshold emerging reader. The oldest seems to be able to read comfortably at second grade level, possible third, pending on difficulty of book. The oldest does not yet read w/ fluency from one word to the next and seems to struggle when there is a word he is not familar with. Neither has yet to do cursive writing or had experince with dictation.
The oldest when encouraged can do some phonetic sounding out of words for spelling. The youngest depends on memory to get him by.
After looking over the catalog w/ Mrs N and trying to discern where her boys place, we are looking at Beyond or Bigger. Her desire is to be able to teach from one guide mostly for economy purposes. I feel that it would be wise to do just based on knowing that the first few months after baby is born will be hectic and tiring.
I thought Beyond at first would be good because of the childrens needs to strengthen listening, reading and writing skills. However, as I looked at it some more, I am thinking that would be too much of a step back and would not challenge the oldest.
I took a second look at Bigger. I am thinking that this may be a better choice because of the ability to add extenstions. Though at this time I don't think the oldest is ready for those extentsions.
Could they do Bigger, in this way:
order
Economy Pkg.
Science Add On
Deluxe Pkg - boy interst
Preparing to Build --both have had minimal experience with grammar
for the oldest DITHOR lvl 2/3 w/ Book Projects to Send Home and Book Pack Level 2 to save money for the youngest utilizing the list of emerging readers mom can hit the library.AS the oldest's skills improve order the extenstions maybe mid year, or could he do without for the first year and have a gentle introduction to this style of learning?
leaving the bible study optional
She already has a cursive program sitting in the wings, and a has a math program.
would this be a good plan for these two boys?
I would not do the extensions with the older, but would instead get the Emerging Readers for the younger. The older would not be ready for the extensions, as they have a higher reading level and are meant to be read independently. HTH!
If he finished out those books well, you could start DITHOR half-speed the last half of the year, and just pick the books that have the easier reading levels to use to finish out the year. HTH!