What if your younger child places higher than the older sib?

[mothermayi?]

How do you handle a younger child placing higher than his or her older sibling? The easy answer is to place the younger kiddo in the guide in which s/he places but I can't help wonder how this would make an older sibling feel. Has anyone had this issue before? How did you handle it? TIA

[lmercon]

My dc are significantly spaced that I don't have that problem, but my oldest is severely dyslexic and his little sister is rapidly catching up to him in that area. I feel your pain a bit in that. Is there any way that you could combine them into one program? You could supplement or do the extensions (if provided for the guide you will use) to add more meat for your more advanced student. I would think that would be better handled by your older dc.
Just a thought,
Laura

[Nealewill]

I guess I wonder what is the age difference and is there a major reason one places higher than the other? I somewhat have this issue because my youngest is gifted. At 6 she places in bigger. I know it isn't the correct age range but it is where she would place. In addition, sometimes kids can grow into a skill if given the opportunity. Is there a large age gap between the two kids? If not, I would probably just place them in the one guide that the older child placed.

[StephanieU]

Are they both placing into guides appropriate for their age? Remember that the material is also picked to be age-appropriate. So, normally it is best to not put a child into an older guide even if they place their. Instead, you would want to do the math, dictation/spelling, grammar, and literature at their level. Then use the more age-appropriate history.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I too would like to know the ages and guides that they place in respectively. If it is b/c your older child has learning issues or b/c your younger child is more on the gifted side of things, then I would not combine them at all. I have both a gifted student and an academically challenged student. My gifted student needs to be able to move at a faster pace or finish early and go about her own things that interest her. She has taught herself so many things this way. My challenged student really does not need to feel the stress and pressure to keep up with a sibling or have the out of letting said sibling take over the learning. What I mean is that my challenged student would let his siblings answer all the questions or give narrations and ride their coat tails which would not be beneficial to him or them.
My oldest 3 are stair steps and our solution was to keep the challenged student available to me all the time by keeping him in his own guide at his own pace. My youngest baby was a "surprise" baby. He is gifted and reminds me so much of my oldest who is gifted. My challenged student has dysgraphia and dyslexia so my gifted student is probably on par with him in reading and writing already...almost there with math. It would crush his spirit if his baby brother were to be combined with him in school and he would feel those old feelings that most academically challenged students feel at some point that they aren't good at anything, that they aren't smart, and that they will never get it.
I want to write more, but I need to know the ages and guides. Gifted is just as challenging sometimes as a struggling learner in other ways than academics. It is just as hard to find a good fit for a gifted child as a struggling child.

[lmercon]

Tidbits gave some great advice. IF you do consider combining them, there are things you can do to make it work better. My dyslexic ds must be read to, so both students could listen to the material. When answering questions or giving oral narrations, just take turns. Written work can be done separately. Labs and projects could be done together. Those things tend to be more enjoyable and might be fun to do as a pair. If skills subjects are more competitive, you could have the kids in different areas of the house or room. They would work with you one-on-one. I think either way, you are probably going to have issues with your challenged child accepting the fact that the younger sibling is catching up or ahead. Then you just have to help that child realize that this is God's plan for his/her life - that all people have areas of strength and weakness - and our responsibility is just to do the very best for the glory of God. It's so hard.

[8arrows]

I have three combined in MTMM. For us, the greatest discrepancy was in math. For math, I chose to use 2 different publishers as the younger child was quickly outpacing the sibling just ahead in age. When it comes to the guides, it is less of an issue for us. I use the same guide. I just picked one I thought would be a good fit for both. Their older sister also uses it beefed-up for high school. Since I read written narratives and do their oral narratives separately, it just isn't a big deal for us with the guides. I would just place them where both will be comfortable. You can always assign extra reading to anyone who needs a little extra challenge.