Carrie or Julie, Please Help with Placement 1 more time ;-)

[mothermayi?]

It is finally time to place my order for our 4 kiddos and I am STILL stumped on placement for one of my daughters. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, she grew in ability and desire for academics so here I am again .

A little about her:

She will be 6 yr. 4 mo. when she begins HOD for first grade. DD is an emerging reader but I want to make sure she doesn't have gaps in phonics so I am taking her through Explode the Code workbooks. When we begin first grade, she will be in book 5. Currently, she is flying through book 3 and about to begin book 4. She composes original sentences in her personal journal. Most words are spelled correctly but there are some that she spells phonetically. She uses correct punctuation including periods, questions marks, and exclamation marks most of the time. DD can write about ten to twelve letters in cursive but hasn't learned to connect the letters yet. She can copy a paragraph joyfully without tears or frustration and her handwriting is very neatly printed on kindergarten and first grade ruled paper. As for math, she began Singapore Essential Math Book B and she is flying through it, often saying it is too easy. I added Mathematics Made Meaningful w/Cuisenaire Rods and she is doing very well with it. She has learned inequalities, solving for X, and writing equations using variables. She understands the concepts of addition, subtraction, and beginning multiplication. DD loves story time and is very good with narration and comprehension. We often have to remind her lights out because she literally sleeps with books in the bed with her and will read far past bedtime. She hasn't had history or grammar instruction yet.

I know I've presented a LOT of information but I want to give you an idea of what kind of learner my daughter is. We haven't pushed her at all. Honestly, I don't know how she knows some of what she does because they are things I haven't covered with her. Perhaps through observation of her siblings + natural academic inclination + xyz...Anyway, I really need your help with placement. I want dd to still have fun learning and I want to cherish the child in her. Academically, she seems ahead of typical kindergarten standards. Yet, I don't want her to miss out on fun, kid-friendly activities for first grade. Which guide(s) would you recommend? I don't mind using two guides, using the left side of one and the right side of the other. I just want her to learn and have fun doing it. I also don't want something that is much too easy and will leave her feeling bored and wondering why Mommy is insulting her with "baby work".

Please help! Please don't think there is a rush on academics and that we are pushing her. We've tried the "Let the easy material serve as review" for kindergarten and that isn't what she needs or wants. Going over material that is too easy for another year will not be good for her spirit. She is literally asking to learn more and to stop doing things that are much too easy. She doesn't want another year of review just because she is young. She wants to learn and engage but have fun doing it. I want to appropriately challenge her while cherishing the little girl inside. I don't want to lose the playfulness of the early years.

ETA: I have since found samples of the history books in Beyond and it is a little heavy for her bc she hasn't had history before. Are the books broken down into small sections or is it one chapter at a time?
Thank you so much for reading this essay . I look forward to hearing from you!!

[MelInKansas]

I'm not Carrie or Julie, but I thought I would chime in with what I would do with such a precious, precocious little girl.

I would do Beyond, add Cheerful Cursive (usually done with Bigger but just do 1 page per day), Emerging Readers (maybe even into DITHR 2/3 if she is a very strong reader already), and maybe R&S 2 (also usually done with Bigger but just do 1 lesson per day, or one every other day). Dictation would also probably be more appropriate than the spelling lists, and that is in the back of the Bigger guide (but also Preparing, maybe even others if you would have any of them). Storytime between Beyond and Bigger is very similar, though if you bought the Bigger guide to supplement you could use the narration practice in Bigger if that seemed to fit her better. Just the tips and the amount of help you give them changes between Beyond and Bigger. Math - have her take the Singapore Placement test on their website and place her where she fits. If it is 1A/1B you can do the activities written in Beyond with the workbooks, if it is 2A/2B the activities to go with that are in the Bigger guide also.

The history in Beyond is so interesting and not at all "childish." My 9 YO and I both enjoy it as much if not more than my 7 YO. Of course Bible Memory is great at any age, the poetry study will be interesting for her, the activities and science are fun and interesting too. Also if there were a sign of her being overwhelmed or the work just being too much and taking the joy out of learning for her, you could easily put away R&S 2 and/or Cheerful Cursive until later.

Just my humble opinion, Bigger is a lot of work and probably too much for a 6 year old (even almost 7). If you did Beyond and added Cheerful Cursive and R&S 2 to it that would take the 1.5 hours of work up to maybe close to 2 hours total. That seems like plenty for her age. (of course it may take longer than that when you first start until you get into a good routine with it)

If you love ETC and your DD is doing well keep going with it. I don't think it is a necessary supplement to Emerging Readers but if it works for you by all means stick with it.

[Nealewill]

I think Melissa did a great job recommending how to structure your year next year. I just wanted to add that I have a 6 yo dd who is very advanced for her age - finished reading the ERs and read them quick and she is reading the level 2/3 books now (or anything she gets her hands on for that matter) and she loves Beyond. Beyond is very hands on that is why I love it. My son who is a year and half older than her is also doing Beyond and he loves it too.

Since your DD is so advanced, one thing you might do is see how school goes but not necessarily beef up too many things. The only reason I say this is because there may come a time when she have trouble progressing because her brain literally doesn't have the connections it needs to start thinking more abstractly. Everything can be learned with much effort but sometimes it is much easier to learn and it easily stays in their head when they are a little bit older. Grammar and math are those things IMHO. So for us, even when something seems easy, we still cover it thoroughly because eventually it may not be. For example, my dd who is in 4th grade is finishing 6th grade math now. And we are struggling with what to do with her next year because she would go into pre-algebra. Well, flat out she just isn't ready for that type of thinking yet. Maybe in a year or two she will be but not yet. So we are looking at having her do some more challenging books for next year just to challenge her on 5th and 6th grade math instead of advancing.

For us - what we have done is we pretty much follow the HOD Plans for Preparing for my oldst to a T and then I let her learn anything else she desires. So she takes piano lessons, she is learning sign language, she is reading about the history of math (by Tiner and doing some things in that book), and she is reading several of the next years lit books on her own now (I am teaching a lit class at co-op and using DITHOR. I ordered in several boy and girl books so she is reading the books she doesn't plan to use for school next year). And she does these things on her own. My kids all love nature, we go out side a lot and collect stuff and draw stuff and just enjoy learning. Every night my kids read for about an hour before bed and they just pick interesting books from the library that cover all kinds of non-fiction stuff along with some fictional selections. My youngest likes puzzles so she is completing the mind bender books on her own. My son got a circuit set for Christmas and he worked through it upwards and backwards. He is even doing things with dad that involves electricity. My younger 2 are always playing math games together. ALL these things I mentioned aren't school! The stuff in the HOD teacher manual - that is school. And it is fun and they do love it. But that is all I feel like I need to complete. This is so freeing to me too because I love the basis and foundation that HOD sets. But it isn't overwhelming, the skills they learn are needed and solid. And it frees up time for my kids to learn things they want to pursue. And these are just my kids passions and they are all initiated by my kids. So for your dd who is loving learning, I would do Beyond but maybe she will have some passions she wants to do as well. That is where I would find other things she might like to do and let her learn those things. Other things my kids have loved learning are origami, cooking (yes all 3 of my kids cook - they even cook their own lunch and will use the stove with supervision - not the oven because their arms aren't long enough), games, yo-yo tricks, lego building contests, fashion design, and all kinds of other stuff.

I know I didn't really answer your question so I am sorry but these are just some thoughts I had that I hope might help you with some of your thoughts as you think about next year for your dd.

[8arrows]

I am still recommending Beyond as well. My 7 and 9 year olds have loved the spines this year. They are not babyish at all. I also agree with all of Melissa's recommendations on what to add. Beyond is a great year. She will have fun and be challenged without losing her love of learning! Adding an experiment kit is easy to do if she loves science. Enjoy having an easy one to teach. It is a precious blessing.

[mothermayi?]

Thank you, Ladies! I would like to place my order this week so I really appreciate your feedback. Oddly, she has been my difficult child to place in comparison to her siblings. I suppose I am just not familiar with teaching someone so little with a big mind . She may slow down as the pp explained connections in the brain and the child's inability to think abstractly. So I want to savor this moment and feed her curiousity while maintaining her youth. That is what I love about HOD. She will cover age appropriate topics.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I love the add-on suggestions as well as the idea to start the guide and add things slowly as needed, taking it at her pace.

Thanks!

[MelInKansas]

Keep in mind if you do order the Bigger guide for math activities or dictation they will give you the discount for the Bigger Economy Package if you mention it when you order that the following year (minus the guide which you would already have). They realize people often need just a guide for some adding on and then want the rest of the books the following year to do the heart of the guide.

HOD has great customer service!

And I love the others' advice. You don't need to push her, let her pursue her own interests, that sounds like a great approach to take. R&S 2 as someone mentioned may be "too much" for her as young as she is, you could certainly look at it and see, or try to take it slowly. What another person had done was use the day 5 grammar lessons in Beyond but do them more often than once a week because their child was ready for more grammar learning (the fact that you say she is writing sentences and using punctuation makes me think she probably already gets a lot of what is in the Beyond grammar lessons because it covers sentences, nouns, proper nouns, punctuation, things like that). You could use those Day 5 grammar lessons and go through a few and see how that goes. R&S 2 is obviously more rigorous and thorough, though my DD did find it easy as a 2nd grader, but it really gave her a good foundation in basic grammar concepts.

May God give you wisdom!

[mothermayi?]

MelinKansas,

Great advice . Something else I failed to mention is my dd loves the Rhymes in Motion from my dd3's LHTH. She loves the playfulness of that guide. I'm not sure if this makes a difference in anything but I want to maintain that same playful nature .

[MelInKansas]

The "Rhyme in Motion" transitions into poetry study in Beyond and the poems you study there are really fun too. The activities with the poems are fun and many people say their child memorizes the poems. We have never made memorization of them a focus so generally my kids don't memorize them. But they do really enjoy them, usually there is a connection with the history for that week.

There is lots of fun and hands-on with Beyond. Science activities, games that go along with the history, crafts. We love it so much!

[mothermayi?]

The "Rhyme in Motion" transitions into poetry study in Beyond and the poems you study there are really fun too. The activities with the poems are fun and many people say their child memorizes the poems. We have never made memorization of them a focus so generally my kids don't memorize them. But they do really enjoy them, usually there is a connection with the history for that week.

There is lots of fun and hands-on with Beyond. Science activities, games that go along with the history, crafts. We love it so much!

LIKE!!!!

[MomtoJGJE]

We did the LA in the Beyond guide daily (just kept a tab on where we were with that) because my first grader was ready for more. She's now working through R&S2 and having no trouble at all. We are doing it all orally right now... she CAN write it, but writing that much takes a lot of time for her. I have her write some of it once a week just for practice and to have something in her LA notebook She's also working through SM 2A with blazing speed (we do math at their own pace).

With all that said, Beyond is a perfect fit for her! She LOVES the stories (unless a sister is distracting her by doing something else she views as fun, she is just 7 ) and loves all the work. She really loves the first day where she guesses the title of the poem. She hasn't gotten it right yet, but she's getting better at figuring out what it could be.

[Molly]

MothermayI, just in answer to your ETA question. The passages of history are broken up. Honestly I would think the readings are generally between 5 and 10 minutes, more often just the ten minutes. And you can split it up a little each day and ask a few questions to see that she is understanding it. I feel it is perfect for my boy, although he is on the older age range, his actual comprehension abilities are at a 7 yr old level, but without HOD I do not believe he would even be there.

[my3sons]

You have gotten such solid advice here already! We are doing Beyond now with our just (as in this month) turned 7 yo, and it is not babyish for him at all. In fact, the history spines are considered to be about a third grade reading level (which is common for spines to have higher reading levels, as the parent is doing the reading at this age instead of the student). My ds is on the last few books of the Emerging Reader's Set and writes very neatly with no difficulties. He is also doing his 1B math well and loving the hands-on math activities. The hands-on science experiments have been fun too, and he loves to read the poetry himself with a microphone and an audience (our family ). I think you already have a super plan in place here and have done such a good job of considering your dd's placement carefully. Now you just get to enjoy the upcoming year!

In Christ,
Julie