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I'm currently planning next year with Bigger. My DD will be in 4th, so I'm planning on adding the extension books...possibly as read alouds so my 2nd grader can listen too. Looking ahead, Exploring Planet Earth and Pedro's Journal are used in later levels. How do you approach this? Should I just leave them out next year or skip/replace them later on?

I noticed this too. I would replace them- or skip them in the extension area- because they are part of the main section where they appear later on. Though I do believe Carrie offered a science alternative for those who had already covered Exploring Planet Earth, and I would/will be opting for that option as my dd who read Exploring planet earth on her own, said it was dry and boring.

Brenda

If you want to use Exploring Planet Earth now, there is an alternate choice to use when you are in RTR. Unless you feel your daughter really needs the science extension, I think I would wait and use it when you get to RTR. If you choose to use it now though you'll just use God's Design: Our Weather and Water when you get to RTR. As far as Pedro's Journal, I guess that depends on how you plan to use Preparing when you get there. If you are planning on doing the extensions with your dd in Preparing then she might just do those instead of the independent history so then she wouldn't be using Pedro again. I love the way the independent history box is laid out in Preparing though so I would want my dc to be able to use it as written. So if it were me, I would probably hold off on Pedro's journal until doing Preparing.

"Pedro's Journal" is scheduled in the BHFHG Extensions, as well as in the Self-Study Deluxe package for the Newly Independent Reader" in PHFHG. If a student is doing the extensions in BHFHG, he will probably be doing the extensions in PHFHG, so that is not an overlap unless a student does both the PHFHG Self-Study Deluxe... and the Extensions. Some moms do have their older dc do both though, as the activities in the Independent History Box coordinate with the Self-Study Deluxe books, and they are so neat they are hard to resist! "Pedro's Journal" is scheduled from Unit 26, Day 4 through Unit 29, Day 2 of PHFHG's Independent History box. It is scheduled in Units 1 and 2 of Bigger Hearts Extensions plans. If you did choose to use it in both places, there would be almost 2 years in between the readings of it, and I know my ds has read it at least 4 times just for fun, so I guess I think it would be fine to use it twice, as the the follow-up skills learned along with it will be different and spaced out. Or, since it's the first extension book in Bigger Hearts, you could just skip it, giving your oldest time to get used to doing the daily plans of Bigger Hearts first, since this takes more time and teaching anyway.

As far as "Exploring Planet Earth", that title is used one time per week in Units 1-22; 32-34 in Bigger Hearts extension schedule. It has a rotation of follow-up skills that are more general in nature. "Exploring Planet Earth" is used in Option #1 of the daily plans of RTR from Unit 30, Day 3 through Unit 35. The daily science box plans are written specifically to correlate with this. Option #2 uses "Our Weather and Water" in place of "Exploring Planet Earth", and schedules that out in the RTR Appendix. So, several good options are available. If a student does "Exploring Planet Earth" within the Bigger Heart's extension, then the student could just do Option #2 with RTR. Or, since 3 years will have passed between doing BHFHG and RTR, the student could read it again within RTR otherwise, as the plans will be totally different with it anyway, and it is a good living book written in an engaging manner.

I just thought providing you with some details might better aid you in your decision here. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie