Bigger or Preparing for 3rd

[3beezmama]

My 8-year-old son is finishing up 2nd grade in public school. He is advanced, if not gifted, in reading (4th grade level) and math (upper 3rd grade level). However, his writing is not great. Neither is his grammar. This year, it seems that grammar matters little and all the focus is on comprehension and "thinking".
He does great on spelling tests, usually acing them, but is not a great speller in general. He has a photographic memory and quickly memorizes lists of spelling words, but is quite bad at spelling on his own. He is a bit flighty and bores easily. He is ready to learn cursive and I have just begun teaching him basic formation here at home, as they don't begin teaching it until some time into 3rd grade at his school.
I want to challenge him- he is bored at school and winds up being reprimanded for daydreaming, disturbing class, etc.- but I don't want to stretch him too thin. So, I guess I'm not sure if I should go with Preparing or Bigger.

His brother, who is almost 6 is perfectly suited for Beyond Little Hearts. I am definite on that. He is not advanced, but right on target for his age. I would like to be able to eventually teach them together--maybe bumping up little brother a bit as he listens to big brother's lessons.
Thoughts, prayers, and opinions appreciated.

[raceNzanesmom]

Bigger was an excellent 3rd grade year, for us. If you want them together (at whatever point) you would place your youngest and add extensions (if needed) for your older.

[3beezmama]

Thanks. I am leaning toward Bigger, but I just don't want him to be bored. I guess if I need to keep him moving forward, we can find ways to do that.
I really am so in love with this curriculum. I cannot wait to place my order for the upcoming school year!

[agstefko]

I would go for Bigger. My ds who is 9 just started last week and the amount of writing is definitely pushing him to his limits already. So if your dc isn't fond of writing I would definitely not go above Bigger. There are a lot of great things to learn in that guide and you can always add in some of the extensions if you wanted to.

[Nealewill]

After reading your initial post - I think you will probably find that Bigger is a better fit for your son. There is some writing in Bigger but there is a significantly greater amount of writing in Preparing. I know my oldest dd got very comfortable with writing things down last year. I wouldn't say she her spelling or grammar was great at all. But I have found that last year was year that opened her up to be comfortable writing many things down. I like to say that writing was her main and strongest 3rd grade accomplishment . She needed that to be ready for Preparing.

So in reading your review, I think your son will feel much more comfortable with Bigger and will definitely be challenged. There is a lot of writing in Bigger. Also, you can increase the reading level of drawn into the heart of reading to meet up with your son abilities. In addition, if you read through the grammar book for Rod & Staff, then you could determine if he was ready for Rod & Staff 3 instead of 2. You would still keep math at his level and then do spelling at his level. Since he is coming from public school and he has probably had substantial spelling exposer, he would probably be ready for studied dictation. I must say, I am LOVING the studied dictation. I find that because my kids read SO much already they are just picking up the spelling easily. And by studying the words in the studied dictation, they are noticing grammar and actually spelling words they are using in the writing as well. It has been wonderful.

I honestly think your son will be feeling comfortably challenged with Bigger and will really enjoy the material he is learning too.

[Mumkins]

YOu described my oldest son to a T when he was that age. He went through Bigger not too bad. But I found at the end of Bigger, as I re-read the placement charts, he placed perfectly in Bigger and was not ready for Preparing. We went ahead with Preparing as we'd done Bigger. However, he struggled greatly with the writing. If I had to do it again, I would have half paced Bigger and/or Preparing. We had to half pace CTC.

I would recommend Bigger and add in the extensions if you find he gets bored, since he's ahead in reading.