New: Placement Advice Please

[lovinghomeschool]

The more I look at this curriculum the more impressed I am by it being what I have been looking for and the type of education I want for my children! The thoughtfulness, Christ centeredness, and book choices are wonderful.

We have always home schooled and my children are 10 (older end of 4th), 8 (younger end of 3rd), 6 (1st), and toddler.

I have seen the guides in person and that has helped as I have looked through the placement chart and week at a glance samples. I keep looking at the samples and trying to envision us doing the actual work. I also have read a number of posts that recommend not doing back to back guides so I have been trying to take that into consideration.

Here are my children's placements on the placement chart:

First grader:
Reading ~ Beyond, Writing ~ Beyond, Grammar ~ Beyond, and Math ~ Beyond.
She started first grade phonics and reading last March and seems to place solidly in Beyond. She is the easy one.

8 yrs. 5 mo.:
Reading ~ Bigger / end of Emerging readers.
Writing ~ Bigger/Preparing (very ready for dictation and has done a lot of copy work. He started Cheerful Cursive last March).
Grammar ~ Preparing (he finished R&S 2 last year for 2nd grade and has started R&S 3)
Math ~ Preparing
*When I look at a week at a glance the work for Bigger is less than I have been having him do. The work in the first week of Preparing is more than I have been having him do.

10 yrs.:
Reading ~ CTC (much higher, but has not any formal literature study. He loves to read.)
Writing ~ Preparing (has done some dictation and a lot of copy work and some writing in R&S)
Grammar ~ Preparing / CTC (has completed R&S English 2 and 3 and has started R&S English 4)
Math ~ CTC
*I have honestly looked at the first week at a glance in CTC and think he isn't ready for the work load although his reading would be fine. His writing level would be questionable. He writes beautiful small cursive, but most of his actual writing has been with Rod and Staff English 3.

My daughter seems easy. Beyond looks like a perfect fit for her.

I think I would honestly struggle to do 3 guides with a toddler in the mix; especially if any were back to back.

Should I put my boys, ages 8 & 10, together in Preparing? Ideas for them?

Thank you for your time.

[countrymom]

I would definitely put your 10 yr old in Preparing based on what you have shared. If you didn't have another child in Beyond, I might suggest putting your 8 1/2 in bigger with extensions, placing in math and English where he is at. However, Bigger is a big teaching load and to combine that with Beyond and Preparing might be a bit much. It really sounds like your 8 yr old can probably do ok in Preparing. You might do the first week or two at 1/2 speed just to get into the swing of things. Look at the written narration information in the appendix. You will probably end up having your 8 yr old dictate to you to be copied and your older writing his own. Those are the type of tweaks that you can do to make it work for both children. You can place each child at whatever level of English and math they are at because those are independent of the core guide.

[Molly]

One suggestion you may not have considered is starting CTC with your oldest, Preparing with your younger son, but doing both at half speed for awhile and work your way up.

[lovinghomeschool]

I would definitely put your 10 yr old in Preparing based on what you have shared. If you didn't have another child in Beyond, I might suggest putting your 8 1/2 in bigger with extensions, placing in math and English where he is at. However, Bigger is a big teaching load and to combine that with Beyond and Preparing might be a bit much. It really sounds like your 8 yr old can probably do ok in Preparing. You might do the first week or two at 1/2 speed just to get into the swing of things. Look at the written narration information in the appendix. You will probably end up having your 8 yr old dictate to you to be copied and your older writing his own. Those are the type of tweaks that you can do to make it work for both children. You can place each child at whatever level of English and math they are at because those are independent of the core guide.

As I looked at the placement chart your suggestion of Bigger for my 8.5 year old stood out to me too.

I saw it as:

10 yr old - Preparing

8.5 year old - Bigger

6.75 year old - Beyond

I don't know though if I could pull that off.

Should I wait 6 mo. to start my 6.75 year old and use Bigger & Preparing? The 8.5 has been copying his own one sentence summary narrations with Writing With Ease. It sounds like we could continue with that plan for Preparing. My two concerns for my 8.5 year old for Preparing are the facts that he is still highly desirous of as much play as possible & shown only a little interest in reading. He much rather look at the pictures than read. We have read literature / living books aloud to him since he was little, but he rather be doing.

I think I am unsure of what will work for now & as we go through the guides. I love the idea of putting the boys together for simplicity, but I don't know if it will work best. The 10 year old has had 4 years of curriculum homeschooling ( he turned 6 as he started K since he is at the older end of the grade) and my 8.5 has had 3.5 years of curriculum since I started with him at his 5th Birthday. The 6.75 has had 1.75 years since she started K work as she turned 5.

Does combining or separate ultimately work better with HOD?

[farmfamily]

Another option may be to place both of the boys in Bigger, but for your 4th grader use the extensions in full, R&S 4, dictation from Preparing, DITHOR 4/5, math at his level, and possibly even the independent science from Preparing or Igniting Your Writing to beef it up still more... If you could beef it up enough for your oldest and keep them together this year you could re-evaluate at the end of the year and possibly skip Preparing with him then, moving him straight into CTC, which I believe is more independent, so back-to-back wouldn't be such a challenge. Or, if combining works well for you, I think you could keep them together for the long haul, just using extensions and beefing up in other areas as necessary for your older son.

I have a 4th grader in Bigger right now (admittedly a young 4th grader), but she is doing some extensions, R&S 4, dictation from Preparing, & DITHOR 4/5. She is advanced in language arts according to the standardized tests she has taken, and I believe "fits" better in Preparing, but I don't regret having her in Bigger. I find it really nice to have my two older ones together, and currently I plan to keep them together. The beef-ups that I am doing have all been very easy to sub in. She just reads the extensions with no follow-ups, but the books have been great, and it is hard to stop her from excitedly interrupting our other history readings to tell us something related that she learned in the extensions!

I have a similar situation to you in that my next child is right on their heels. He'll be starting Beyond this winter. I don't think I would want to try three guides so close together, though I know others like to do it that way.

It really comes down to whether you think your 8 year old could actually handle Preparing now. If he can, then putting them both in Preparing is the best option. But, I think they are supposed to do history readings independently, which may be too challenging for him? If he can't do all of it, I think you are better off putting them in Bigger and beefing up for the oldest. Just a thought anyway...

As for whether combining or separate works better with HOD - I think if their skill levels are two or more guides apart, separate is best. But if they place in back-to-back guides combining in the lower guide is usually a great option, though some families prefer to separate even in that case! Helpful, huh?!

[jer2911mom]

Another option might be to do Beyond 3-4 days a week, Bigger 5 days a week, and CTC half-speed. That would help you ease into using HOD. Your dd has time to spread out Beyond and Bigger so she doesn't hit Preparing until 4th grade. Your ds8.5 could do Bigger this year and Preparing next year, and be right on track for a guide a year. Your oldest could do CTC half-speed until he is ready for the workload. Even if your boys end up in back-to-back guides in two years, they will at least be in the independent guides, so that should help with your workload. With this plan you would continue doing LA and math daily at their levels.

HTH,
Kathy

[lovinghomeschool]

Another option might be to do Beyond 3-4 days a week, Bigger 5 days a week, and CTC half-speed. That would help you ease into using HOD. Your dd has time to spread out Beyond and Bigger so she doesn't hit Preparing until 4th grade. Your ds8.5 could do Bigger this year and Preparing next year, and be right on track for a guide a year. Your oldest could do CTC half-speed until he is ready for the workload. Even if your boys end up in back-to-back guides in two years, they will at least be in the independent guides, so that should help with your workload. With this plan you would continue doing LA and math daily at their levels.

HTH,
Kathy

This does help. I had not thought of using Beyond at half speed by doing less days per week. She could continue her phonics program and by doing less days of Beyond it would stretch space between her and my 3rd grader. You are right, she does have the time. If he reached Preparing for 4th and she was doing the second half of Beyond for 2nd grade it would put space between them and let me ease in instead of starting with too much at once. It would also give her extra time for the 3 Rs that take a lot of time in 1st and 2nd grade.

I liked another mom's idea too of starting HOD by staggering guides over more than one week starting with the oldest. The more I read the board the more I am finding older posts of how much this program really includes!

[MomtoJGJE]

If your oldest is a really good reader, since he's older, you could have him reading the history portion in Preparing as well. That would free you up a bit more. You could probably get a good bit of Bigger done while he's reading the history and doing the other Independent work in Preparing.

[lovinghomeschool]

If your oldest is a really good reader, since he's older, you could have him reading the history portion in Preparing as well. That would free you up a bit more. You could probably get a good bit of Bigger done while he's reading the history and doing the other Independent work in Preparing.

He is a really good reader and says he learns more when he reads to himself. So this would be an option.

[lovinghomeschool]

Thank you for all of your input and help in thinking this through ladies!

Reading Carrie's and Julie's comments on all of the post-it threads at the top of this board helped too. Thank you ladies!

I have decided to go with Preparing for my 10 year old w/ DITHOR 4/5, Bigger for my 8.5 year old, and Beyond at half speed for my 6.5 year old while I continue her phonics and math daily.

Thank you so much. I am looking forward to our journey with HOD! I am also looking forward to the structure for our content subjects with skill building! Praise God!