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I posted a while back that I was trying to decide whether to take Bigger at full or half speed with my 7 year old. Since she was doing well with it at full speed, the consensus ended up being to keep her there. Well, because of illness and other things happening (also, we do a 4-day week), we ended up just getting to Unit 4 right before Thanksgiving. During our week long break, dh and I discussed school, I showed him the catalogue, and we decided that C might not be ready for Preparing at 8. So we decided to go half speed, 4 days per week, just to stretch things out, not because she couldn't handle the workload. We have been doing that for almost 2 weeks now. How it's looking is that we are doing all subjects daily except we do the history reading, history activity, hymn, and story time reading one day, and then science with activity, bible study, poetry, and storytime reading/activity the next. My thinking was that this would let us finish the emerging readers, and then next year we would finish up Bigger using probably Singapore 3A/3B, DITHOR, and R&S 3, giving her some time to grow into everything before moving into Preparing. Because we're doing almost everything every day, it only shortens our day by about 20-30 minutes, but it will stretch Bigger out over 2 full school years.

Well, I am second guessing that decision. Mind you we're only not quite 2 weeks into doing it this way, but C looked at me this morning and said "Why are we still on this unit? We've been doing it forever? Shouldn't we have done the timeline by now? Why am I not doing science every day?" So... Not sure what to do. I certainly don't mind keeping this speed. And even if we do go back to full speed, it will still just be 4 days/week, the baby will still be coming in April so we'll stop there for the school year, and it will still stretch starting Preparing out until Jan '12, instead of Sept '12 if we do it half speed. I'm just thinking I need to go back to full speed with her. I was just trying to avoid doing too much too early, you know? But here we are... So do you ladies think she'd benefit keeping it "half speed" so that she would get to Preparing, and consequently the later books, when she's a little older? Or do you think it's okay to move ahead with her? I know that Carrie always says that one guide sets up the next so well, and I fully believe that. I'm honestly not at all concerned with the workload. I'm just really wanting to make sure that she fully benefits from everything HOD has to offer.

Well, here's my 2 cents .....

I think that if she is doing fine with Bigger at full speed, then keep doing that. I think she will be totally ready for Preparing after doing Bigger as written. The gains she will make from Bigger will show later on down the road and she will be ready for Preparing much more so than what she looks like right now. Does that make sense?? You are only on unit 4 of Bigger so you've got a long way to go to build her up for Preparing.

Hope I am not being too bossy, and hope this makes sense... I am tired tonight!

No, you weren't being bossy at all. I'm just not quite sure what would be best for me to do. I think that we might go back to full speed after all. With the big long break we'll take for the baby (probably a week of April and then May, June, and July) that will put her at finishing Bigger in December of next school year (we're about to start Unit 6). This way she'll be 8 yrs and 3 months old when we start Preparing and then she'd be about 9 yrs, 3 months when we start CTC. That still sounds WAY too young to me, but I guess I can always slow down later if I need to.

Has anyone else started Preparing with her dc at the WAY young end of the guide? Or CTC? Maybe that would help me know if it would work. Again, it's not really the workload or amount of writing at this point that I'm concerned with. She has handled the writing in Bigger wonderfully. I started out doing some of the writing for her (yes, I know, we're only finishing up unit 5 so not too far into it), but we're already starting to transition her into doing more of it for herself in very gentle ways (expecting her to copy a little more of the poem, write a little more on her notebooking pages, do 2 vocab cards instead of 1, etc). We'll start cursive in January since she's finally doing wonderfully with her print. So, I'm really mainly just concerned with the level of thinking and the subjects presented in the next guides. I want to make sure she gets as much as she can out of them since they're such full, wondeful guides. I think I'm going to read through the sample of Preparing again to kind of help myself see where we're headed.

I agree that if full speed is working, then I would go ahead and let her go full speed especially if she is asking for more. The other option though if you are doing a little of the writing for her is continue at half speed until she is doing all of the work herself. Either way though, I agree with the pp, if she does great with Bigger, she'll do fine in Preparing. The programs are written such that they prepare the dc for the next program. She will still be in the age range for the guide so I think it will be fine. You can always slow down to 1/2 speed with Preparing if you need to as well. That's the beauty of this, you can do full speed for a while then half speed if/when it is necessary. You may find after your long break that you need to start back at 1/2 speed to get back into things. I'm reminded of the verse that says don't borrow troubles from tomorrow because today has enough troubles of its own. I say, just enjoy today and go at the pace that works for both of you now. HOD has made the guides such that when you follow them using the ages and skills levels suggested, they work really well. So HOD has got you covered!

Just wanted to comment on when you asked if a child could go through a guide when they are on the younger end of the spectrum....For a girl, I think that is TOTALLY doable. In my experience, girls just tend to mature academically a little faster than boys especially in handwriting. As for boys, I have found that they may do best when on the older end of the age range for guides, and that that is totally normal. Our daughter can excel being on the younger end, whereas our boys need to be on the older end of the given age range....Hope this makes sense.

Just my experience with HOD... Happy planning!!

My middle daughter did Preparing at 8 years old. She was able to manage the workload fine, but it was a full day for her. She is doing CTC this year as a 9 year old. We started out half speed and once we got comfortable with that (and it only took about 2 hours), I bumped her up to full speed. It takes her the 4 to 4 and 1/2 hours now, but that is the suggested time frame. She will finish CTC next year (she will be 10 by then) and we will start the next guide.

You can always slow down Preparing when you get there, if it proves to be too much. I love the flexibility HOD offers in that way with the guides. If your dd is doing fine with full speed Bigger and wants to do it, keep going!
Brenda

You ladies convinced me! I'm going back to full speed. I think she needs it. That will put us finishing up through Unit 7 before Christmas, so that's about perfect. Thanks for helping me "talk" through this yet again. Sometimes it is just so hard to know what to do!

Mommamo,
We did Bigger last year at full-speed (half-speed when life was crazy) and then moved into Preparing when my dd was almost 9. We did half-pace for about 3 months before we picked up the pace to full-speed. It was a wonderful way to gently move a younger-for-the-guide child into Preparing. No regrets here. Now, she's 9.5, doing full-speed Preparing without difficulty. I would say that the jump from Bigger to Preparing was significant although we absolutely LOVE the content Because Preparing is a fuller program, I'd say it is easier to move at half-pace than Bigger. It's easier to draw out History Research, for example, in Preparing over a 2 day period.
I find myself slowing down each week in Preparing because I don't want it to end...the history selections are THAT good!
Amy
dd9.5 Preparing
dd6 LHfHG

I also think if she is wanting to do the whole thing and you are able than do it. It sounds like she wants more. if you should come to a place when it needs to be slowed down thee is always the flexibility for that. When your baby comes, that will change the dynamics as well.
For me right now, we are estactic to be getting 3 days of school in. we did 2 full days and 2 half days. Just the way it has been going with illnesses, my pregnancy and some extra appts, and activities. Just going at a pace so we don't stress out.
things will change when i have my baby end of March so i am keeping that in mind. we normally would have taken off all of December but a few days week won't hurt the kids and me and will help us not to be as behind once the baby gets here and changes our routine.
Just plug away and do what you can each day whether it be full or half-day. that is my 2 cents. :

JEnn D.

Mommamo,

I think it sounds like you have a good plan to go full-speed right now. Your little honey seems ready to handle the workload, and if you're able to fit it into your schedule right now before the baby comes, I think you'll be thankful you did later. It is always easy to slow down if needed, but if your child is ready to go full-speed and you can carve out the time then I'd do it!

Blessings,
Carrie

My oldest ds has always been on the very youngest age of HOD's guides and has thrived. I agree that going full-speed with your dd is a good idea, and you can always go half-speed for a spell later if that seems to fit well.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks Carrie and Julie. I really don't get what my hang-up has been with this. Honestly, I think I'm creating problems where there aren't any. Can I blame it on pregnancy hormones?

We went back to doing it full speed for the end of this week and finished up Unit 5 and honestly I think it was a relief for C. I'm just not going to borrow trouble anymore. We ended up starting Bigger much later than I had originally thought we would because of life happening, and that very well could happen before we start Preparing too. And then if it doesn't, well, I do trust that the guides do prepare the dc for the next guide so well. I've seen that going from LHFHG to Beyond and now to Bigger. So I'm not sure why I think Preparing would be any different. If we keep at this speed it just means that we'll finish the guides up with her in 8th grade, and that will be fine. I would like to give her fine motor skills a little time, but since we'll (likely) be taking an extra long summer break with the baby coming in April, then I think that will give her some time.

Thanks again for helping me and being so patient with me!! I really appreciate all of you on here. Thanks for helping me to work through it! I know we're going to have a fabulous week this week going back to doing Bigger as written. Really, it's so much easier than trying to tweak it, anyway (although I must say that HOD is very easy to make work for your individual situation, it's just nice not to have to tweak it if you don't really have to).