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I am thinking a bit ahead, but wondering if it would be a good idea to do Preparing and then go back to Bigger.

I really think I would like to do the American History over view before jumping into CTC. We did American History w MFW in 2nd grade, but I don't think my dd remembers much. I would love to have more hooks, as Julie says, for my dd to hang her hat on when we get into the rest of the guides.

So would Bigger with extensions be a good fit for a dc who would be doing it by herself and would be considered 5th grade?

the usual over thinker, Type A, planner,
Edie

Are you doing Preparing now? Unless Preparing is not currently a good fit for her skill-wise, I wouldn't go backward for your next guide. American History comes around again as part of the history cycle in the two guides that will follow RTR. The most important part is that the child is placed correctly according to skills in the current guide, because skills build from one to the next. I am doing a very odd thing by going back to Bigger right now. My daughter started Preparing last February after spending a year and a half in public school, and finished 2 weeks ago. What I have done is to go back to the second half of Bigger which she never finished before because of life interrupting things, but this time with Extensions. I am also having to add more writing, along with the appropriate levels of math and grammar. My reasons are financial, rather than having anything to do with the order of history. I may regret it later when we get to CTC, but I am hoping I will remember to do things in a similar way as they are done in Preparing, and give her more independent work so that CTC won't be a shock. In my case, it's only half a year, so I think it will be ok.

I agree with previous poster....I don't thing doing Preparing and then Bigger would be a good thing. As she said, academically they build upon each other(especially in the areas of language arts, dictation, narration, poetry study, and of course guiding the child to work independently). If your child has a succesful year with Preparing then doing Bigger later would really be a step down.

What I have really learned is that proper placement in the guides really has very little to do with going by the history and science content. The proper placement is THE number one key to success with HOD.

A year ago I chose the wrong guide for my kids based on the history reading and content and it did not work out. I also wrongly based my guide choice on the ages listed for the guide. Carrie gives us the age range each guide is USUALLY appropriate for, but I have found that is not always a hard-and-fast rule. The parent really must assess the academic content of each guide and use that information SOLELY in determining which guide would be the best fit. At least that has been my HOD experience....HTH!!

Choosing joy,
Liz

I guess that does make more sense. The independent parts and building skills incrementally was part of what drew me to HOD. So it would be rather silly to go backwards with that. Thanks for the input ladies! I will just stick to the scheduled order.

Edie