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Hi,
I am planning for next year with a 1st and 2nd grader that I think will both place well in Beyond due to age and subject matter. However, they are fluent independent readers, and from the info on the placement chart I believe the writing component of Beyond will not be advanced enough to challenge them. They both have had lots of practice with copywork/oral narration and have a strong grasp on basic sentence structure/capitalization/punctuation. They also frequently write unprompted on their own, i.e. notes to me and to each other, signs around the house, letters to friends, etc. I would like to have a plan for continuing to develop their writing and keep them challenged in that area. Should I also get the guide from Bigger and use the language arts from that?

Normally I would just do tweaking on my own and come up with activities, but I'm not going to have the time for that next year--I need something laid out for me and ready to go. Would the Bigger idea work well, or does anyone have a suggestion for a writing curriculum that I could use to supplement with for their year in Beyond?

Thanks for any help-- For what it's worth I did try to search the boards for info on this topic and was not successful in finding anything.

I'm doing R&S 2 with beyond, maybe that would work for your kids. You don't even need a separate guide for it, just do 2 pages a day. (We don't write out everything, it doesn't seem necessary outside of a classroom.)

The Bigger guide has the 2nd spelling list and the first level of dictation (along with spellling list #2 from Beyond) in the appendix, if you need a higher level of spelling. If R&S 2 isn't enough, I've heard of some people making a science notebook for the year, doing a simple picture and 1-2 sentences about one (or both) of the science experiments/activities. You could also make a simple experiment form for them if you wanted more info on the page for them. HTH

Thanks for the tips, ladies! I haven't looked at R&S yet, but I will check it out (as well as the Bigger guide). I also like the idea of adding more writing in the form of science notebooking.

I would definitely stick with Beyond for both of them and just up the writing as you feel is needed. We had such an enjoyable year with Beyond! My sons really enjoyed the history and storytime portions, the Bible and poems. It was great. I did R&S 2 with my son and he has done very well. If you add DITHOR for your oldest this year, that will be more writing for him too. Also, a handwriting program. Blessings!

I agree - DITHOR, R & S English 2, and "A Reason for HW A" or something comparable would certainly up the writing quite a bit in a very manageable way if you want to do so for your 2nd grader. For your first grader, Beyond does have daily copywork of the poetry, as well as 3 sentences for spelling words, and 1 or more sentences for grammar each week. Dc can also copy their Bible verse each week, so that's probably more than enough for the first grader, but if you're wanting to challenge her more she could also do the suggested beefing up. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you again! I've gotten the chance to look at those resources now and adding R&S 2 plus DITHOR looks like a solid plan. I've been doing some reading up on the general flow of LA in HoD and feel like I am slowly getting a grip on the big picture. I appreciate all the input!