, using Beyond has always brought a big smile and excitement. As I am planning for next year, however, I'm really wondering if Preparing would be a better fit than Bigger, since my ds has indicated that he would like to study world history for a change. It seems we've been studying American history forever, since we've been reading living books to our ds for years. My ds can pretty much rattle off fact after fact about American history and famous Americans, so I know he's taken in what we've read. I looked at the placement chart and he pretty much places squarely into Preparing. Last year, I know the writing in Bigger would have been a bit much for him, but he's grown leaps and bounds this year, both academically and emotionally, and writing is no longer a hurdle. I know I've always read that Bigger is a preparation for Preparing, but since we've been doing the LA from Bigger anyhow, I wondered if that would be less of an issue. To give a bit more information, my ds did very well with R&S English 2 this year, has copied and illustrated all of each poem, has learned cursive, is successful with dictation, does an excellent and very detailed job with narration and easily reads books at a 5th/6th grade level. He hasn't done creative writing (except on his own, for fun) or written narration, so I can't comment on that. More than likely, he'd do fine with the content portion of written narration and creative writing, but have a few spelling errors in it.Here's what I have been mulling over and would like to know if I'm crazy to even contemplate it. I have considered doing Preparing with my ds during the day, for homeschooling, and then having my dh read Bigger's history and science books, as well as the history extension packet books, to our ds at night. My dh and ds love reading history and science living books, as well as good literature, and my dh is always looking for new books to read to our ds, since they spend 30-60 minutes a night reading together (and have done so since my ds was a toddler). I love the books listed in Bigger and wouldn't want my ds to miss them, so I thought combining them with nighttime reading would allow my ds to get the great books of Bigger, but in a relaxed manner. (They've actually already read some of Eggleston, as well as Bud and Me, last year, and absolutely loved the stories. Truth be told, my dh was going to read Bud and Me to our ds, but my ds liked it so much, he read it to my dh, then excitedly narrated it in such detail to his Grandmother that she borrowed the book to read it herself!
)So, I am wondering if some of you experienced HOD ladies would be kind enough to tell me if this is feasible or if I am setting my ds up for frustration by jumping a guide. I must admit that in the past I've been guilty of pushing my ds too hard when he had the ability to do something, but not yet the maturity. An embarrassing example of this is having him do three separate math programs -in full- at one time. (It must have been the former math teacher in me not wanting to let any good thing go!
Thank God for a sweet dh that gently reminded me our ds was only 8 and would be just fine if I dropped a program. ) When I narrowed it down to one main program with another as a fun "brain-teaser type" supplement, all the struggle went away and he soared. So, I'd love to hear any thoughts you have. (FYI - We'll be going out of town for Easter, so I won't be able to respond to any posts until early next week.) Thank you!
, but I understand wanting to challenge your ds. Some of the things that I'm thinking would be difficult to jump into in Preparing would be the boxes that are written to be independent, the independent history and science. Those two boxes are similar to what the dc have been doing in Bigger so it makes it easy for them to take over those boxes and do them independently. You might need to guide your ds through these boxes for a few weeks until he understands the format and what is expected of him in order to have him be independent with them. Two other areas come to mind, the vocabulary and the timeline. Those are two things again that the dc have been doing in Bigger that will make that task easy for them in Preparing. Those aren't meant to be independent in Preparing, but it might be slower going for you at first as your ds learns these activities. It sounds to me that you could move onto Preparing, but you might want to start it at a slower pace to give your ds time to get used to the activities. 