Bigger for 2nd grade ... then what to do for middle school?

[erin.kate]

I'm looking ahead down the road ... we have not used HOD yet and I am trying to look at this from many angles ... I know that I have to be flexible to changes with our family each year , but if your child places best in Bigger for 2nd grade (we ordered Beyond but I am not at peace with it being the right fit for my daughter, so I'm curious about the plan from Bigger on up), then what do you do for the following years since theoretically she'd be in Revival to Revolution in 6th grade, Modern Times in 7th, then what for 8th before the high school sequence?

Maybe I'm misreading. Or just plain confused. Thank you for helping!

[8arrows]

I combine my three middle children, so the youngest of these will be in the same situation. I am not concerned. The geography guide that Carrie will be writing can be used for 8th or 9th grade. Also, you have several years until you get there; there could be unforseen circumstance which would necessitate slowing down a guide. Two of my middle three children (since they are combined) will never hit the "perfect" sequence of HOD, but it is the perfect sequence that God has chosen for our family. HOD is very flexible. It is definately not a one-size-fits-everyone-the-same curriculum. I would put your child where they best place and continue down the delightful path. Carrie and Julie can help with any hiccups that may or may not occur down the road. The best program for right now is the program that fits the best, not the perfect program for the perfect sequence.

[Larissa]

I was in the same boat as you, I think, when I was trying to figure out what to do with my son for 2nd grade. I had not yet used HOD and I was trying to decide between Bigger and Beyond. My son always has been a super advanced reader. (he started reading at 3yo) He was advanced across the board, really. I ended up going with the Beyond guide for him. Since he was already an independent reader, I gave him more challenging books to read that were suggested along with the DITHOR curriculum. Beyond was a fantastic year for us! I ended up doing Dictation with him during that year as well since the spelling lists were not challenging enough for him.

My 2nd son is also very advanced, he will be doing 2nd grade this fall. I will be doing the more advanced reading books with him as suggested by the DITHOR curriculum. I will also be doing dication passages instead of spelling lists. He will be doing Singapore Math 2a and 2b. I am also going to add English 2 Rod and Staff with him.

The only reason I am telling you this is because there are ways to beef up the Beyond curriculum if you feel as though it's just not enough. The History spine is fantastic in Beyond and while it is still American History it's different than Bigger. I don't know if this helps or not, but it's another option if you would prefer to stretch out HOD.

[erin.kate]

Also, you have several years until you get there; there could be unforseen circumstance which would necessitate slowing down a guide.

Is it possible to do Bigger over two years? If so, what would that look like? Gracie fits square with Bigger, but I can see it will stretch her, which I like. That said, I'm not sure she'd be ready for Preparing the following year ... maybe, maybe not.

How do you slow down a HOD guide over two years?

Thank you!

[erin.kate]

The only reason I am telling you this is because there are ways to beef up the Beyond curriculum if you feel as though it's just not enough. The History spine is fantastic in Beyond and while it is still American History it's different than Bigger. I don't know if this helps or not, but it's another option if you would prefer to stretch out HOD.

Thanks, Larissa. I thought I'd follow a similar path as you and I ordered Beyond, but after reading the entire guide and thinking it through and praying over it, my dh and I felt that I would need to beef it up too much ... too much supplementing, which for me, would take away from the simplicity inherent to HOD. Next year will be a full year for us ... our adopted son from Ethiopia will be newly home and he is 5ish. He won't speak English but will be of compulsory age for Kinder in my state, so I'll have him and my other middle child in K, along with an almost 3yo. I need my 2nd grader to be in a program that suits her best and that will not require a lot of extra planning for me.

I am curious about slowing down Bigger, which might be a better option for us. I'm really intrigued by HOD, but I just can't seem to find that sweet spot for us. Someone else said that we can't really worry about the long-term sequence since life happens, which is true, but I feel a duty to my children and to my dh to have a plan in mind, and the plan I see right now has a missing piece. I don't want to get to a point, say 7th or 8th grade, and say, oops, shoulda woulda coulda, now what? I also hope to stick with one curriculum to avoid the gaps that will likely ensue from hopping around.

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I'm really grateful.

[mamayi]

It is pretty easy to slow down Bigger. We've taken it half pace this whole school year.
I do Math and LA daily but the other things I split up and take two weeks to do one Unit.
I usually do History, Bible and the "rotating" box one day and then Science, Hymn study and Storytime the next. We also do DITHOR with reading the book one day and doing the DITHOR guide the next.
I think there is a thread on the board with more details on how to take Bigger half speed but I don't know how to link it in here!
Maybe one of the other ladies knows how to do that.

HTH

[erin.kate]

Thank you, mamayi. This gives me something to think about. I guess I need to think about what our days will actually look like going half speed for two years. I don't want to keep my dd back, either, and if we then sped up to full speed I guess we'd be off a bit when we started a new guide mid year ... lots of reporting and start/end dates in my state so I have to keep that in mind, too.

So much to consider. I think we're are staying with the curriculum we've used from the start, but HOD really piques my interest, but I'm not sure how it will work for our family.

So grateful! Have a restful Sunday tomorrow. Blessings!

[holyhart]

Hi Erin, I use BIgger half-speed currently with my dd7. It has been a perfect fit for her! Full speed would have been a bit overwhelming for her with all the writting I think. Plus, it allows us to have more time for some of the other fun stuff. Last year before deciding to take Bigger at half-speed, I was wondering what I would do with the missing year AND what I would do for high school since Carrie wasn't planning on writting through hs yet (YEAH!!! So glad the Lord laid it on her heart to do so!!!), and had been looking at various things that we could do (even though it was so far away!). At that time it hadn't even occured to me to do a guide spread over 2 years. I am so glad that Julie suggested it!!! I think it is the PERFECT fit!!! Next year she might be ready for doing the second half of BIgger full speed and then we would just move into the next guide mid year.

Here is a link that Carrie and Julie both share there 1/2 speed Bigger schedules. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8086&p=64116&hilit= ... eed#p64116

I know that Carrie and Julie are both pretty busy right now and not on the board all that much lately, but if you need help figuring out a schedule, they are great at helping...so are many of the other ladies on this board. If you need another sample schedule, I could show you mine as well, but I think both Carrie and Julie's are wonderful and a great place to start!

HTH!

[erin.kate]

Hi Erin, I use BIgger half-speed currently with my dd7. It has been a perfect fit for her! Full speed would have been a bit overwhelming for her with all the writting I think. Plus, it allows us to have more time for some of the other fun stuff. Last year before deciding to take Bigger at half-speed, I was wondering what I would do with the missing year AND what I would do for high school since Carrie wasn't planning on writting through hs yet (YEAH!!! So glad the Lord laid it on her heart to do so!!!), and had been looking at various things that we could do (even though it was so far away!). At that time it hadn't even occured to me to do a guide spread over 2 years. I am so glad that Julie suggested it!!! I think it is the PERFECT fit!!! Next year she might be ready for doing the second half of BIgger full speed and then we would just move into the next guide mid year.

Here is a link that Carrie and Julie both share there 1/2 speed Bigger schedules. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8086&p=64116&hilit= ... eed#p64116

I know that Carrie and Julie are both pretty busy right now and not on the board all that much lately, but if you need help figuring out a schedule, they are great at helping...so are many of the other ladies on this board. If you need another sample schedule, I could show you mine as well, but I think both Carrie and Julie's are wonderful and a great place to start!

HTH!

WOW. So helpful. SO helpful. Just when I thought I had next year all figured out in my mind, I don't. Maybe.

Quick question. I understand Julie's posted 1/2 speed schedule, and I think it looks perfect for my daughter. With Carrie's, do you know what she means by Schedule 1 and Schedule 2? Is that just the one day broken over 2 days? Gracious, I'm sorry if it's obvious.

We would start in August with Bigger and my daughter turns 8 at Thanksgiving, so late in the year. Since she's on the younger side of Bigger, and I didn't not feel that Beyond was just right for her after we received it, it feels like this just might be IT.

[holyhart]

Quick question. I understand Julie's posted 1/2 speed schedule, and I think it looks perfect for my daughter. With Carrie's, do you know what she means by Schedule 1 and Schedule 2? Is that just the one day broken over 2 days? Gracious, I'm sorry if it's obvious.

Yes, I'm pretty certain that her schedule 1 and schedule 2 means the one day spread over 2 days. I call mine day 1 and day 2 (and we also have "everyday" subjects. We keep our books seperated into 3 boxes. My dd grabs 2 of them everyday accordingly to bring to the table or livingroom.).

I think you will love doing Bigger half-speed. It has been such a perfect fit for us this year! Not to mention that HOD is such a blessing in our family!

[erin.kate]

I think you will love doing Bigger half-speed. It has been such a perfect fit for us this year! Not to mention that HOD is such a blessing in our family!

Since you are doing Bigger for two years, how did you choose the Storytime books? I kept the set of nine that I ordered with Beyond ... I wonder if I could use those for the first year with Bigger and a set of nine from the Bigger Deluxe choices for the second year of Bigger. Does that make any sense? It's getting late.

[holyhart]

Since you are doing Bigger for two years, how did you choose the Storytime books? I kept the set of nine that I ordered with Beyond ... I wonder if I could use those for the first year with Bigger and a set of nine from the Bigger Deluxe choices for the second year of Bigger. Does that make any sense? It's getting late.

You abslutely could do that! I guess it would partly depend on if you will do story time daily or split that to every other day. We do the story time daily. Since the questions in the guide pertain to a certain genre, just to keep things easy for me, I do two books from the same genre during the time that the guide covers that genre. So for Biography, we read Ben and Me and then I let Evelyn pick out a biography from the ones we had (she choose Daniel Boone...he and Davy Crockett and ANYthinf Little House related tends to be quite popular around here ). And since I had a hard time choosing any one pack of the book choices Carrie put together as they ALL looked so good, we are mostly choosing our 2nd book from one of her other book packages. (am I saying this right? Not much sleep with sick kiddos last night. Daddy is at the doctor's right now with our 2 year old, pretty certain she has an ear infection )

So to make it brief, instead of doing all nine of the genres and then repeating the nine genres, I am doing the same genre back to back so I can continue to do the questions in the guide pertaining to that genre. We only do the questions every other day, I ask for narration on our "off" day.

[erin.kate]

Since you are doing Bigger for two years, how did you choose the Storytime books? I kept the set of nine that I ordered with Beyond ... I wonder if I could use those for the first year with Bigger and a set of nine from the Bigger Deluxe choices for the second year of Bigger. Does that make any sense? It's getting late.

So to make it brief, instead of doing all nine of the genres and then repeating the nine genres, I am doing the same genre back to back so I can continue to do the questions in the guide pertaining to that genre. We only do the questions every other day, I ask for narration on our "off" day.

I think I understand ... but I have an ear infection and strep, as does my 5yo and 2yo, and I'm guessing my 7yo is next. Ugh.

So, you are doing Bigger for two years. In one year you are doing two selections from each of the nine genres for storytime. Then, what do you do for the second year of Bigger? Am I totally confused.

[3sweeties]

Hi erin.kate!

Not trying to confuse you further, but I did Bigger half-speed with DS for his 2nd grade year last year. Instead of doing certain boxes every other day, we did a 4 day week with Bigger and did "Freaky Fridays" on Friday. I did all the "extras" we didn't have time for during the week -- Art, Classical Music, educational games, Nature Study, etc. on Fridays. We ended up not finishing Bigger until about the end of Oct. of his 3rd grade year(this year) and then started up Preparing. It was a PERFECT pace for him! Of course, I had to get over not starting "Day 1" of each unit on Mondays, but my DS actually enjoyed the variety of doing different things on different days. We did do Math and independent reading every day, including Fridays.

We are doing Preparing now (which is 4 days) half-speed (this year we have had a co-op one day a week) and will do it for most of his 4th grade year next year, but if we finish it up a little bit early, then I will just move him into CTC.

HTH a little and didn't make things more confusing for you!!! Good luck finding the best fit for your DD!!!

*ETA: Maybe you could do Bigger only 4 days a week with certain boxes on certain days (History, Storytime, Rotating Box on M/W; Sci, Poetry, etc. T/TH...or whatever combos you choose). I think that would spread it out more and take it into 2 years rather than 1.5. I will probably do something like this with my second DS, b/c looking back, I pushed my first DS a little hard in Bigger and could have taken it even slower.

[holyhart]

I think I understand ... but I have an ear infection and strep, as does my 5yo and 2yo, and I'm guessing my 7yo is next. Ugh.

So, you are doing Bigger for two years. In one year you are doing two selections from each of the nine genres for storytime. Then, what do you do for the second year of Bigger? Am I totally confused.

Sorry you are all sick. It's been a week like that here too. My 2yr old did have an ear infection and now I'm wondering about the baby. Ugh...another doctor trip! That will make the 5th one in less than a week.

But, yes, I did confuse you. Sorry. I'll try again.

I am doing Bigger over 2 years and will complete the nine genres by the end of the 2 years. Since I do half of the scheduled Bigger day on "day 1" and the other half on "day 2" , the "story time" box falls into one of those days. I read every day though (as well as doing the hymns. emerging readers and math daily as well). Since I read every day, we would finish the book before the guide finishes the genre. So since I want the questions to be relevant to what we are reading, I do two books in the time it takes us to finish the number of days allotted to that genre. Did I explain that better this time? I am a bit sleep deprived as I mentioned so I'm not positive.

Now if we move up to full speed next fall, then I will drop back to one book per genre as directed in the guide.

I hope that helps to clarify!