Bigger Extension Package? Drawn into the Heart of Reading?

[LovingJesus]

Hi! We are new to HOD and thanks to the great placement advice I received on another thread I am looking at ordering Bigger for my 8 year old son/Summer Birthday 2nd grade.

It mentions on the web-site the possibility of using the extension package as read-aloud books for younger students.

My main question is content. Since they were picked for 4th/5th grade students how is the content for age 8?

Is the extension package appropriate for age 8? Would they be OK for some silent reading (his favorite home schooling is reading to himself)? Or are they better to wait on with his young age?

A second question I have is how does Drawn into the Heart of Reading tie into the program? We haven't done any literature study like it up to this point, and it looks wonderful.

Is it too much to do both the extension and Drawn into the Heart of Reading? Are you using both for Bigger? My ds8 reads about 1 - 2 hours a day silently by choice, if that weighs at all into these decisions. I also love to read aloud to my 4 children (ages 8,6,4,2).

Thank you!

[tnahid]

My 8 year old does Bigger with no extensions plus DITHOR and it is completely enough reading for him. He is a great reader, and loves to read on his own. We go to the library once a week and he gets books there too, of his choice (with my okay ). My 10 year old does the extensions and it is a LOT for him! He likes to read, but it's almost too much for even him. So, I would personally not do the extensions for your 8 year old. Those are mainly for 10-11 year olds who are doing Bigger along with their younger siblings. And doing the Bigger storytime, history and science there is plenty of read aloud time for you to get in with your son! Trust me!

Just my thoughts!

[LovingJesus]

My 8 year old does Bigger with no extensions plus DITHOR and it is completely enough reading for him. He is a great reader, and loves to read on his own. We go to the library once a week and he gets books there too, of his choice (with my okay ). My 10 year old does the extensions and it is a LOT for him! He likes to read, but it's almost too much for even him. So, I would personally not do the extensions for your 8 year old. Those are mainly for 10-11 year olds who are doing Bigger along with their younger siblings. And doing the Bigger storytime, history and science there is plenty of read aloud time for you to get in with your son! Trust me!

Just my thoughts!

Thank you! This information is very helpful in figuring out exactly what to order from the web-site for his age level. Thank you!

[John'smom]

I have a 9 year old and a 7 year old using Bigger this year and they both have summer b-days as well. My 9 year old doesn't technically need the extension package, but I got it anyway. We use them as a read aloud. When we did Beyond my dc would always beg to read more, so I thought the extension would help with that. Well, it hasn't. They still beg to read more. Not a bad problem to have. We love all the books that we've read so far with the ext. pack. No help. Am I? I guess I'd say they aren't necessary, but boy are they good books.

[pjdobro]

We used some of the extension books as read alouds for the storytime in Bigger. Ben and Me is in the classic storytime set, The Great Horn Spoon is in the boy interest storytime set, and we chose to read Guns for General Washington as our adventure book. It was a little more difficult to use as a read aloud, but we really enjoyed it. So those extension books are great to read aloud whether as extras or as part of the storytime box. They could also be used as DITHOR choices for the proper genre if your dc is reading at the right level for them. My dd read Toliver's Secret for DITHOR. I read it too, and it's great!

DITHOR is a great program! Each genre studies a different story element like character, setting, cause and effect, etc. It also studies godly character traits and has our dc looking for those character traits or the absence thereof in the characters of their books. So not only do your dc learn about standard components of literature, they learn to read with discernment weighing what they read against the Word of God. It really gets the dc thinking more deeply about what they read. At the end of each genre, there is a project to do which is fun and cements the character traits and literary element studied. My dc love it! I didn't have everything ready to go at the beginning of this year and they kept begging me to start. It's only scheduled 3 days a week this year for us in Preparing, but my dc wanted to do it 5 days a week even though it means some extra work for them. So we're doing it 5 days a week instead of 3 at their request. Whoever heard of dc asking for more school work? You know they love it when they ask for more!

[LovingJesus]

Oh this is wonderful. I feel like I am getting a better and better feel for the program. I was just looking at the Story time box on line on the TM for Bigger, and it is starting to make sense. The lay-out of the TM by the way is so easy to read & follow!

My children love books. So with answers both directions I will have to keep thinking, but ALL of your information is very helpful in deciding.

[LovingJesus]

I have a 9 year old and a 7 year old using Bigger this year and they both have summer b-days as well. My 9 year old doesn't technically need the extension package, but I got it anyway. We use them as a read aloud. When we did Beyond my dc would always beg to read more, so I thought the extension would help with that. Well, it hasn't. They still beg to read more. Not a bad problem to have. We love all the books that we've read so far with the ext. pack. No help. Am I? I guess I'd say they aren't necessary, but boy are they good books.

My kids always beg for me to read more too. No, it isn't a bad problem to have... as long as I have enough books for them on hand or go to the library enough. It is good to hear that they are good books and are working with children one year older than my two oldest. Time to think some more...

[tjneary99]

Well, we are only a few units in, but here goes..my son is 8(summer birthday also), but is in third grade. He does not love to sit and read a lot but does enjoy some reading...unlike my almost ten year old daughter who would read all day if you allowed her. My son is currently doing Bigger with the extensions. We are doing Benjamin West and his Cat Grimalkin (technically under Beyond's list I think) for storytime/read aloud..and my son loves this book for the biography genre(which is what you begin with). He read Meet Christopher Columbus week one as his DITHOR assignment and Pedro's Journal for extension. We are now doing Pocahontas and the Strangers for extension reading and Alexander Hamilton for DITHOR in 2 weeks. The biography genre is 3 weeks, but I split ours--one, one week session and one two week session based on the books I had received from shipment. My son is doing very well with DITHOR(I taught previously and did many graphic organizers like the ones she uses so I love them and my kids are used to them). I also love the biblical focus in DITHOR--Wonderful! So, we do one read aloud and two books each day that they read on their own--just 1-2 chapters per day. I later ask them about what they read and the next day we do a DITHOR page for one of them. We do not alwasy do every DITHOR page--do what works for you..we do about 3-4 per week but not daily. I did not read the book and DITHOR was fine for us. If your child loves to read, then I would think it would work well. DITHOR has a lot of writing to it--it can be small pieces of info or paragraphs/sentences depending. My son is fine with it, but he is a grade level higher. If your son isn't ready, you could always write what he tells you. For notebooking, you can keep it simple or elaborate as your child needs. Also, you can read the extension books as read alouds too if you like instead of having them read it alone..they nicely correspond with the history too. I began doing that with Pedro's Journal but then decided they were fine on their own. Now my daughter is an avid reader and she does extensions and then reads a full book from the library or HOD's booklist. I try to keep her extra reading in the same time period. She is fine with the work and happier than ever. Oh and my son also reads one book per week for the co-op's reading class..this is purely fun reading which he enjoys.

Overall, we love Bigger. We enjoy the science--it is clear, not overwhelming, and easy to do the labs which my kids enjoy. We also love the art. My kids enjoy drawing and I use an extra book or two with drawing of the periods we are doing to use in their sketchbooks...I have them write with the pictures as well. Sometimes they color or draw while I am reading the history which work well for my kind of learners. We love the hymns and Bible...the first hymn nicely coordinates with my son's piano recital too--the same song. We enjoy the poetry, the rotating box, the history, the books, the grammar....we just love it all. I hope you do too. We do our own math and cursive, because we had been doing it already.

[beverett]

This may or may not be helpful but if I had the money and was able then I would order the extensions to have on hand... but I would start Bigger as written with out any extra at first to get a feel for it. Then if your son still wants to read extra then I say go ahead! If you find that he has plenty to do already then I would save the books for weekend or even summer reading? Oh and if it says on the website that the extensions could be used for younger children as read-alouds then I really think that would be because Carrie felt the content was good for the recommended ages to read alone, but that the content was more appropriate for younger ones to read alongside with parents? I am only guessing though based on what I have learned form using HOD. You are in for a treat!! We LOVED our year with Bigger and I am sure you will also!

I forgot you asked about DITHOR. It is a wonderful program and it ties in very well with Bigger. It is scheduled into the guide for Language arts. Your son would read some aloud to you and some independent. There is a discussion about the reading and a workbook that goes along. We love it and I highly recommend it! It teaches dc about none different genres and covers many wonderful Godly character traits!