6th grade placement question

[jetzmama]

We used HOD when my youngest was in 1st and loved it. I've always wanted to return to HOD, but the Lord had other plans. ds is now in 6th (very early in the school year birthday) and we again are free to pursue HOD. We are coming out of Classical Conversations, both Foundations and Essentials. If I just count backwards to get him in the '6th' grade guide (Resurrection to Reformation), I find that he's already done Astronomy (same book), Monks & Mystics, a good bit of History Revealed, and is ready for R&S Grammar 6. He is not an IEW kid (we've tried & tried!) but does much better with a Lost Tools of Writing approach. He's already read several of the Living Books and narrated them back to me. That said, there is still much in the guide that would be new.

I'm ok with him being out of practice on the written narrations for Revival to Revolution because he'll be able to start small and build once he gets the hang of it. Once he has a schedule, he is very independent in following it to accomplish the day's goals. And, he'll have an overseas friend doing this same level which might encourage them to go deeper in the emails they exchange (and possibly have a friend to do some projects and experiments with when the friend's family is on furlough). All of this makes this level seem a better fit, but I can't help looking at the final HOD year being his junior year. So then is he simply free to pursue college credit from home his senior year? We certainly don't want to 'skip' a grade and shoo our youngest out of the nest early! But because of his early birthday and on task independent ways, don't want to put him a level below where he belongs, either.

One more detail, we spend a significant amount of time on spelling. During spelling lessons, words are nearly always spelled correctly, but this continues to be a heady challenge when he is hand-writing a paper, list, or sentence during times which are not for spelling lessons. Improvement has been great, but we have far to go! Don't know if this would factor into an opinion about which program might be a better fit.

Thanks!

[Gwenny]

There are a couple of things that will help in deciding. How old is he, when is his birthday? Have you checked the placement chart on the Heart of Dakota website? If so, where would he place on that chart? That is where we can find the best placement.

I wouldn't worry about the books that he has already read, like Monks and Mystics, because repeating a book can be a good thing, we never remember everything from a first reading and HOD works with the books in a different way than most. There is more to it than just reading.
He could repeat the Astronomy as well, but everyone here is good at helping with finding a substitute for that particular book during the guide if that would be better. There are other science books throughout the year as well.

I'm so glad you get to come back to HOD! We love it so much.

[jetzmama]

Thank you! His birthday is 11/1, So he is only 15-30 days from the cut off for 7th grade in most places. I agree about repeating books, but think I'm looking more at the, "Oh! He's never done X!" and feeling like we need some exposure. Specifically, he is very interested in gardening and raising chickens for profit right now and is researching diligently, recording his findings, penciling in plans, and saving money. This makes me think that either Botany or some type of Biology study might be better for now. He's also very interested in family history (because he wants to find out more about family connections to the Civil War and some Native American tribes) and has been researching and recording on that front, too. Again, this seems to lean more to biology (examining family traits, genes) in the science realm. But he is also interested in how things work, building a chicken coop, and lots of physics type of experiments and questions. So a physical world study would meet him where he is, too, and he could go on researching chickens, etc. on his own.

The program we are coming from really does not have much of a history focus, other than memorizing some basic facts and timeline which are filled out more richly later if one continues with the program. Other than some independent reading to 'beef up' the history memorization, we've really spent far too little time on history. So I guess doing the middle ages again is fine, I just would really prefer to expand the US memory work he's just completed while that info is still fresh in his mind, and while he is fascinated with Indians, the Civil War, and the like. But then, I understand the benefit of starting a bit under level to build confidence and such, too (though this kid has no lack of that!).

I have checked the placement guide and it seems that either one would be a good fit. Since we're not coming from this method, the narrations and lit study will be a bit new, but they are not completely foreign to him, either. The lit study will help answer his million questions, or at least better teach him how to think about the texts, so that will be a great fit for him. We'll have to start slow with the written narrations and build up with whichever guide we use. He's accustomed to oral narrations, just not written.

Thanks again for your help. Still trying to work this all out!!

[LynnH]

You said he hasn't done written narrations, but is he used to doing quite a bit of writing throughout the day? If he is and you think he places well in Rev to Rev then you could put him in that guide and just work on building up the length of written narrations. There is a huge jump from MTMM to the first highschool guide, so that is something to take into considerations. It is a jump as far as amount of reading, writing and the length of the day. One thought I had is that you could slow either Rev to Rev or MTMM down to more like half speed and fill in the extra time with all the things he is into researching right now. That would delay when you get to the high school guides. If you do Rev to Rev and MTMM full speed and he is able to do everything as written, meaning the independent boxes are done independently then he should be fine jumping up to the high school guide as an 8th grader, but you might need to slow things down then if he hits a wall as far as work load.

[Gwenny]

It seems to me that he is good at studying things he is interested in on his own. If you keep him in RtR, where it won't be quite as difficult as he learns new skills, it will take him less time and give him more time for doing some of the other things he is interested in. It would be better than slowing down and trying to modify. The guide really increase in difficulty and length and would be difficult to do the high school guides before 9th grade.

Maybe he could read the Botany guide from Apologia on his own.

How old is he? I'm not familiar with typical ages for what grades.

[jetzmama]

We've decided on RtR so he can both have time to pursue his other interests and not hit a wall down the line. So thankful already for the wisdom you ladies have shared! The program we've left is so intense that we literally did school all day long (partially because he typically spent 2+ hours a day on Language Arts). I don't want to recreate the very thing we are leaving. The goals are rest, a renewed love of learning, and joy in seeing how God's story is woven through everything. RtR will allow him that slower pace.

I do still have one question. Since it has only been one school year since we did Apologia Astronomy, I'd like to choose the Science program assigned to CtC. I have studied birds/Flying Creatures with him, but none of the other topics in the CtC science package. So here's the question: Is it possible to get a .pdf of the science lessons for a level different than the level purchased? Obviously I want to respect copyrights, just trying to figure out if there is a way to 'sub out' a program for someone coming in who doesn't quite fit into a level. In subsequent years, we'll be following the guides exactly, just hoping there is way to work out the science without reinventing the wheel.

Thanks again!

[rumkimom]

You would have to get the CTC guide to do that.

I did Astronomy (Apologia) with my daughter 2 years ago also but am having her repeat it in R2R this year. They will do it differently than we did and it was her favorite science study so far. We did not do the notebooking things with it last time, so that will be new for her.

[Gwenny]

You would need to buy the guide for CtC. Many times people are subbing out the science from a different guide because of situations like yours and they just purchase the other guide. There is so much to the science portion. You could just have him read the books but that would be missing a lot. It's worth it to buy the guide and not reinvent the wheel. Especially since you are wanting things to go smoothly and rest, for both of you, having the plan done for you is worth it.

I think you'll be happy with RTR. We are getting started with it in a couple of weeks and I'm excited. It looks great.

[LynnH]

Here is another option for you as far as the science. My son had also just done the Astronomy book when we did RTR so what I did was take Option 2-God's Design: Our Weather and Water and substituted it in for the Astronomy book. The Astronomy book is scheduled for 2 or 3 weeks longer than the God's Design book so those extra weeks I actually bought a volcano kit and he did a small study on Volcano's. The God's Design book is scheduled in the Appendix of the RTR guide. You could have him study something else those few weeks. Then we did all the other Option 1 books as scheduled in the guide.

[Gwenny]

That sounds like a good idea also!

[Jennymommy]

Hi I'm thinking that purchasing the CTC guide and science is a great idea given the interests he has. Also, since he is not an IEW guy, you may want to do the CTC LA as well, using all of English 5 so as to be on target for scheduled grammar in upcoming guides. Just a thought

[jetzmama]

Great ideas! Thanks! Sounds like it is worth it to find the CtC guide somewhere for the science portion. We lapbooked through Astronomy and had some supplemental reading (Usborne, bio's, experiments, etc. ), so though he would benefit from repeating and going deeper, I don't want him to completely miss out on an area he's never studied. The CtC science really is perfect for filling in those 'gaps' we've missed.

Thanks for the suggestion on IEW, too. We had previously planned to do a writing program that sets him up as a newspaper reporter with the idea that he'll gain experience with a variety of writing genres in a fun way and he's really excited about that. But, it looks like Jill Dixon's book does the same thing, but with literature rather than the newspaper concept. Since it is only scheduled 2x/wk, he may be able to fill in with the 'fun' book once a week. Will check them both out more thoroughly to be sure it is not 'too much'. Thanks for the tips!