The kids have now managed to get 4 characters to 4th level. As I have gotten them from beginning to now, I have held their feet to the fire more and more as to rules as they have gained more familiarity with game play and role playing.
Now, we begin the first adventure for them after having finished their previous game and are having to level up by conventional measures. This is new to them and they will face tougher games from here on out. However, they will get more satisfaction I think.
I have decided not to do a homebrew game this time, but run a published module instead. This one from Dragonsfoot called "The Corrupt Crypt of Ilmater". It just so happens that this module is easily added in to my world without much, if any, editing.
There are some others from DragonsFoot I will be using in the future as well with some minor editing to fit them in to my world. Mostly changing of some names and locations and adding story leads to fit into the realm I have already developed.