Bigger question

[Kims]

I will be doing Bigger with my 9yo and 7yo this fall. My 7yo is not ready for any of the reading/writing but will listen in on the history and science anyway because anytime I am reading something they must listen.
My question is though for my 9yo who is not ready for all the writing in the Bigger guide but I don't really think he needs to go half speed either.
I guess my question is can I just ease him into it and leave some of it out or do some for him, then as the year progresses gradually have him do more and more? I am hoping he is up to where he needs to be by the end of the year so he can move right into Preparing.

Also at some point I will need to do a different level with my 7yo as he progresses and learns to read. I am wondering if I can just in two years when he is 9 repeat bigger with him as I am sure he may remember some but probably not enough to matter. That way my 9yo would (hopefully) be in CtC and be more independent.

[Nealewill]

You may be surprised by the volume of writing. I was very worried about how much writing my son would have to do this year with Bigger but I was very pleasantly surprised at how well he did. We are on break right now. But we did the first couple of weeks with Bigger and my son was able to do all of it. A couple of things I did do though, I looked through the guide to see how much writing was to be completed each day. With Vocab, I let my son only write one word. We looked up the other 2 together and didn't write them down. My plan is to do 1 word each week for the first few weeks. By week 10 he will be writing 2 words each week and by week 20 he will be writing all 3 words. Also, he is allowed to copy what I write. So if I write it first, he can copy it. Sometimes I write it, sometimes I don't. I have moved to keeping a pad of paper handy for him and writing down words he doesn't know how to spell on the pad. He can spell a lot more than he thinks he can So I am trying to transition him away from copying me word for word. As for grammar, we do a lot orally. My son is only writing out 1 exercise a day max from the R&S book. And he may or may not even write all of that. I am okay with that. If it is asking things like, which sentence is correct, he can tell me. If it is asking for fill in the blank stuff or a/b stuff, then he will write only one of those exercises out. As we get farther in the book, he will complete the writing assignments but by then he will be used to writing more. In addition, if the Bible versus is really long for the week, I do give him 2 days to write it out. And for DITHOR, I have seen that some moms will write that portion out for their kids in their workbooks. For us, my ds won't start DITHOR until after Christmas. We are really enjoying the storytime books and I just want to focus on his reading. He can read many of the Level 2 and Level 3 books right now. But I just am not ready to start him and want him to sharpen his skills by reading, reading, reading.

I am not sure if you are worried about the writing because it looks like it would be a lot or if you are worried because your son struggles with fine motor. But if it were me, I personally would slow down the pace if he can't complete the writing. It sounds like he is very smart and can definitely understand. However, a major skill being learned in Bigger is the ability to get the writing done. I have not completed Bigger yet. We started HOD last year and my oldest did Preparing while my younger 2 did Beyond. With Preparing, the volume of reading increased over the year as did some of the writing. My guess is that Bigger will also follow the same trend. As the year goes on, he will probably have even more writing to do toward the end than he did in the beginning. So my thoughts are that if he can't get through 1 day now with the writing, then by the end of the year, he may still not be able to get through 1 day of writing.

So I probably would take it slow. I also spread my day out significantly for my kids to be able to have breaks in there. The breaks are GREAT! That way my kids aren't doing too much writing at one time. I try and limit writing with my son to no more than 10-15 minute intervals. He does great with this. I also have found I really like to start at the top box on the left page and work my way over. My kids seem to like it too. So we start with the Reading about History, move to poetry then to the Bible/music. After that, I do the rotating box. This may have writing. So I break after this, usually till after lunch. Once a week the Reading About History will have writing but we just start off with it. It works well and we keep going with no break. Then for the afternoon, we do the right side. I usually do Cursive, spelling and reading (DITHOR book list). Break. Grammar, Storytime, Science and Math. This works well for us. If science had too much writing (or any at all LOL), then my son takes another break before math. But I give his had a rest and he feels good with that. In addition, if your son is struggling with writing, maybe you could wait a year on Cursive. But you may also be surprised and he may rise to the challenge. I know that you know your son best but I was amazed that my ds consistently completed the beginning days of Bigger within the 3 hour time frame and I have not helped him one bit with his writing.

[8arrows]

Have you already done Beyond? If neither one of the boys is ready for the writing in Bigger, would Beyond be a better fit?

[Kims]

Yes we did beyond this past year. To me there is a big jump in skills from beyond to bigger and I am not sure he is ready.
Not that he can't do it I think he can quickly grown into it he just hates to write and, oh what's the word, is not confident in his writing/spelling skills. He knows more than he thinks he does. He also doesn't want to try to spell because he might get it wrong same with writing.

I think the breaks are a great idea. I have wanted to just get it done and have school over with but this year will be different. He needs to really focus on those writing skills. His handwriting is great but he doesn't want to write outside of that. He just needs to break through that not wanting to even try.

I also did a stupid thing and sold my beyond so we can't use it even if I wanted to.

[MomtoJGJE]

If he was able to complete Beyond as written then he will be able to do Bigger as written. And there's not too much writing that he does that isn't copying.... so no need to worry about spelling for the vast majority of it.

[Nealewill]

Oh man - that is a bummer about selling Beyond. I think you will enjoy Bigger though. My younger 2 completed Beyond very easily at the end with no problems. And again, I was a little worried myself. But I was very pleasantly surprised. I had anticipated having to go a little slower at first (not forever, just at first) until my son could accomplish the writing he needed to complete that day and I was very surprised that he was able to do it with not problem. I am hoping you will find the same.

Yes, I think the breaks will help. And I would just continue to let him copy everything he wants. Or you could make him lists instead to help him transition into spelling some stuff on his own. Last year was the first year my oldest didn't feel the need to copy everything. I just got to the point I told her to sound it out and we would look at it when she was done. She also learned to look words up from the book she read (if the writing was coming from something she read) and I would make her a cheat sheet of words I knew she needed but couldn't spell for what she was writing (if it the writing was coming from something I read).

And I feel you on wanting to push through. Two years ago when my oldest hit an increase in workload volume we had to extend our day. But it actually is kind of nice. Everyone seems very happy with it. At this point, my oldest (she will be closer to 10 when she actually starts CTC) can last for about 2-2.5 hours of school straight. There are lots of hands on activities and reading so she isn't writing so much. And I still try to schedule her day so that she doesn't have too much writing at one time or else her inner monster will surface and we will all have to endure significant whining and complaining LOL. And with my younger 2, they can last for about 1 hour or 1.5 hours depending on what they are doing. If there is a lot of writing or hard concepts they are learning, they can't go more than 1 hour. But if it is a lot of fun and minimal writing, they could go forever LOL.

[MelInKansas]

I think if I were you I would start it 1/2 speed for the first couple of weeks (4 weeks total I guess) just to ease into it and to help him get adjusted. You are right, there's a big jump in the amount of writing required. I am working more with my 2nd on writing in Beyond because I realized this after transitioning once. My oldest also hates writing and did not like doing that much. But she could do it. Like Nealewill, we started writing out one dictionary definition only each week. I also start with writing stuff, to get it out of the way and when she's fresh and in a relatively good mood. Then we get to move on to more fun things. I would think through your day and try to balance so he is writing some, then doing other things, then coming back and writing some more. Also I did a lot of the writing for DITHOR at first, to ease that up a little. But I would not cut back or do any of it for him in the main part of the guide. If you do that, you might continue doing that along the way. I decided to slow down with my DD when she was struggling and really upset about it because I wanted her to be ready and capable and to feel that she was ready and capable.

I had a tag-along but then went back and did the guides again with my 2nd when she was old enough and ready for them. It worked out well. They all like to listen to the others' read-alouds and school but it has been great for my 2nd born to have her own guide and really thrive in that. Would you want to start your 7YO in his own thing anytime soon? Just curious.

[Kims]

I have decided to do LHFHG with my soon to be 7yo. That way I can just continue forward with the guides with him. He is not really ready for Beyond yet because he can't read. I do think he will work easily through Little Hearts though but that's ok. I really need to focus on his reading and writing skills. He is not ready for the spelling and writing in Beyond.

As for my 9yo I think he can totally do the work in Bigger I just need to figure out how to spread it out so he is not doing all the writing at once. I tend to want to do that and get that stuff out of the way.
I think you are right about slowing it down at first for a few weeks. Come Sept we will only have 4 days a week of school anyway as we have a bible study on Thursdays. So that helps it go a bit slower. I want to start in August (early August) so we can just get in the swing before bible study starts.

I am excited and a bit scared/overwhelmed at the thought of two guides though.

Thanks for talking me through this. I spoke with Julie on the phone yesterday and she walked me through a lot too it was very helpful.

[Nealewill]

That is very exciting!!! Next year I will have a child in Little and a child in Bigger. Before we ended our schooling for the year, my younger 2 finished Beyond so they started their new guides right at the end. It went great!

I will be praying for you that you have a wonderful year. I think you will find it surprisingly easy to accomplish two guides at one time. I sure was surprised last year at how easy it was to complete to guides. I am really looking forward to this coming year and I will be running 3 guides.