placement help, of course...

[momofj3]

My youngest son will be 6 in August but is very advanced. He is finishing up first semester 2nd grade math, did first grade LA this year, and reads on a 3rd grade level. I originally was steered toward LHFHG but I am wondering if I should just start him at Beyond??? Even in Beyond, I think he would be bored with many of the books in the Emerging Readers Set…

My older two, son will 10.5 and 5th grade and daughter will be 9 and 4th grade. While my son is an average student, my daughter is very smart and was super bored with school this year because it was too easy. I definitely want to combine them. I was originally leaning toward Preparing but am now wondering if Hearts for Him would be better… That being said, our writing this year was lacking in a major way and I am very interested in the writing that is taught through HOD. That is why I was leaning to Preparing because, if I understand correctly, the writing can still be taught here but the student is expected to know it in Hearts. Is that correct?

Anyway, PLEASE help! My homeschool fair is next week and want to purchase everything there! Thanks in advance for any and all of your wisdom!

[Gwenny]

I'm not sure about the olders, it would be good to look at the placement chart and give a little more info on them and where they fit. But, from what you said, that you'd like to combine them, I would also lean to Preparing. It's easy to place the younger in what is the best fit and up anything that might be needed for the older. Others can explain that much better than I. I'm sure they will chime in to help.

Your little guy sounds like Beyond would be perfect for him. If he is beyond the emerging readers then you can just have him continue reading more advanced books, and there is a huge supplemental title list, or even move into the DITHR level 2 books. The emerging readers aren't really a part of the guide. Every child is so different in their reading ability at this age. Some in Beyond are still doing phonics, some are emerging readers, some are possibly in DITHR. I wouldn't do the actual guide of DITHR with a 6 year old. I would wait for Bigger for that. (personally) I would just have him read lots of books on his level.

You will LOVE HOD!!!

[MelInKansas]

Even though Emerging Readers is in Beyond and many people do it with Beyond, you can really do any level of reading that the child is ready for. If he is reading on a 3rd grade level then I think the recommendation would be to do Drawn Into the Heart of Reading with him, though given his age you may want to do it orally instead of having him fill out the workbook pages himself and show you. Look at the packages of books and reading levels on those and find a place where he will fit. He will start doing analysis of the books he is reading, discussion of setting, characters, and things like this in the 2/3 level of DITHOR. Now, if you want to start off kind of easy and with something shorter (because DITHOR by the time you have the child read the pages to you and do the activity in the book can take a little time) then you could get the latter end of the ER books and start in the middle of it and this would probably be a nice, gentle intro. It isn't difficult to keep track of where you are in that if it's different from which unit of the main guide you are in, I just use a bookmark in my guide and my child has one in her book. There are supplemental titles in the ER books and you could do the harder ones of those also if you wish. I just say this with the mind of making it fun, a little challenging, but not too much all at once for you or for him.

Otherwise, you could see how your child fits with the History level, science, grammar, spelling, etc in Beyond. I think really one of the major concerns with a younger child like that is the attention span and ability to complete that much work in one day. You can always do it 1/2 speed if just the amount is too much but the level is right. Just do the L side of the page spread one day and the R side the next, if you want to do math every day you certainly can.

I would also place this younger one in math wherever he fits, take the placement test on the Singapore website. Now if he places in 2B or below then there are hands-on activities in the guides that enhance the learning for those levels. 3A and up they use the workbook and textbook and do Singapore basically as written. Beyond has the hands-on activities for 1A/1B and a schedule in the back for 2A/2B.

For your older ones I would probably lean toward Preparing if writing is an issue. Preparing has them doing Science writing work, written narrations every week with a nice build-up in skills to help them get started in that, DITHOR has writing in it, Draw and Write Through History (for part of the Independent History), Science notebooking pages, poetry writing practice, etc. But definitely check the placement chart and place them where the youngest one (or lowest one) fits. Then if there's one who may not be challenged enough or may want more information on the topics get the extension books for that one to read on their own (and I think there may be activities going along with the extensions).

[StephanieU]

What drew me to HOD was that I could customize the language arts and math while still using age-appropriate material for the rest. I was looking for a unit-study/living book option, and HOD definitely fit the bill. We are loving it! My daughter turned 6 in December, and she is now doing 2nd grade math (Horizons) and finishing up 1st grade phonics (Horizons), the grammar in Beyond, copying verses, and in the Emerging Readers while finishing LHFHG. I love that we can customize these things with HOD so she isn't bored in any of these areas. As for picking between Beyond and LHFHG, the one thing I would ask is if he is ready for copywork. Can he copy sentences without much help? If so, then I think Beyond will be fine. If he isn't ready for that, then doing LHFHG for history might be appropriate. Also, is he okay with listening to stories (5-10 minutes at a time) that don't have pictures? Those were the two areas that made me decide to use LHFHG this year instead of Beyond. My daughter would have survived Beyond, but I think LHFHG was perfect for the history, storytime, and devotional for her.

For the older two, I would definitely check the placement chart for the 9yo especially. Based on what you said she might be ready for CtC, but it really depends on the kind of education you used before. HOD uses many Charlotte Mason principals and methods, and these can be very different from traditional education with textbooks and workbooks. Also, the first week of each guide is available as a free PDF, and often that can help you see how HOD works. Often people are surprised by how easy HOD looks but by how rich is really is. I know I was when I started looking!

[momofj3]

As far as the two older kids go, I need help deciding what to do with their placement for R&S. As I mentioned, our LA was lacking this year in writing. We did Lifepac and they did fine with it but it just wasn't meaty enough. I am concerned with placing them correctly. Should I go ahead and put them into their respective grades or knock them down a level??

[StephanieU]

This may help you decide where to place them:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15044&p=106398&hili ... ce#p106398
The goal in HOD is for them to complete Level 6 by 8th grade and then Level 8 by the end of high school. CtC and RtR only schedule Rod and Staff half speed. Rev2Rev and MtMM have options for half speed and full speed depending on where they are (5 or 6). For Preparing, Levels 3 and 4 are scheduled, and in CtC, it is Levels 4 and 5. But, it is easy to adapt if you need to start lower.