Bigger Hearts-advanced 2nd grader & slower 5th grade

[playschool]

Do you think that using this with these two children together would work? My younger dd (2nd grade next year) is an avid reader and far above her grade level in reading. She does not yet know cursive but is a good printer. My ds (5th grader next year) is on the average to being a bit slower in the language arts area. He is currently using Rod and Staff English 3 in the 4th grade. We're almost done of that book now. Planning to use Rod and Staff 4 in 5th grade for him. I was planning on using Rod and Staff English 2 with my dd next year for 2nd grade. What do you think?

[Larissa]

I have a very advanced 2nd grader on my hand. He's advanced in all areas - both math and language arts. I know without doubt that he would be able to go through the Bigger guide without any difficulty. He already possesses narration skills that are outstanding. The only reason I am not bumping him up to Bigger is because I love Beyond so much that I couldn't bear to skip it ... and he's not quite ready for the amount of writing that is required in Bigger(due to laziness, not to inability). I am definitely not ready to put him into cursive yet. Other than that, he could easily do Bigger. So, it sounds to me that maybe your daughter would do fine with Bigger. There are also some wonderful extensions that you can add to Bigger if you start thinking that your son might need more. So, it sounds like a win-win situation for you. I would think that Bigger would be a great fit for your son, since you will be taking him through the English 4 - and can tailor math to his level as well. I would say the hardest question to answer is how to place your daughter. As I said before, my son could handle the Bigger material - however, in my experience with my older advanced son ... he eventually leveled out and I had to really slow down as to not frustrate him. You may find areas in Bigger that you feel the need to water down a little for your daughter. If you were to put her in Beyond, you wouldn't have to water it down at all.
Those are just some things to think about. I like to keep my children right in the middle age range for the guides - however - I have heard of many who take their children through the guides on the young end and have great success with it. Many have also said that at some point or another they feel the need to slow their child on the younger end of the age range down to half speed in which guide they may be using. That is always an option as well.
I hope that I haven't confused the situation even more for you.

[playschool]

Probably the reason she is advanced is because she is an older 1st grader this year. Because of her Sept. b-day and because I kept all of my other children back one year, I decided to do the same with her not knowing that she would do so well. So she will be turning 8 in the beginning of 2nd grade. Hope that makes sense. My son, I kept back due to the possibility of learning delays (He has spina bifida, so learning disabilities can go with the territory). He actually has a March b-day and really due to his age, should be going in 6th grade next fall, but because I kept him back years ago, he is finishing up fourth and entering 5th grade instead. ( I am fine with that, because all of his friends are going in 5th grade as well.) He scored as being average on his standardized testing for 4th grade in April. (We have no confirmed evidence of a learning disability as of yet.) I really wanted to keep them together, due to finances and the time issue. Thanks!

[my3sons]

I do think this could work, but have you gotten a chance to peek at the placement chart? If you could and share a little about each of them, we could know better if it would be a good fit overall. Here's a link to it, and if you get a chance to share a little about your ds too (especially with the first page of the placement chart in mind), that would be so helpful too. We will all certainly chime in and chat through this with you then.
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

In Christ,
Julie