Placement Help Needed

[mommybelle]

Hi everyone,

I need some placement advice for my 9 yo daughter. She just turned 9 yo in October. She is currently placed in Beyond, and we are completing Unit 20 this week. I honestly feel like I have completely failed her over her younger elementary school years, so I am seeking advice to place her appropriately and to move forward with confidence.

She has struggled greatly with reading since we started this homeschooling journey in Kindergarten. She did not really take off with reading until the past 6 months. She shows signs of dyslexia though I never have had her tested. So her great strides in reading over the past 6 months has been huge!

I'll give you a little background on her skill level as I look through the placement chart.

1. She is working through the emerging readers with me right now. We are currently reading the Christian Liberty Nature Reader. Though she now (finally) LOVES reading quietly to herself, she very much dislikes reading aloud to me. She does very well with the reader, but constantly reads "the" and "a" interchangeably. She also will mix up words such as "along" and "among" where just one letter is different. The types of books that she reads independently now are the Beverly Cleary Ramona books, American Girl books and Magic Treehouse books. She can devour these books on her own in 2-3 days.

2. As for writing, I would definitely say she has mastered the formation of letters. She copies one stanza of the Beyond poem a day in about 10 minutes. She can write faster, but tends to be sloppy with her work when she does so. We are currently working through Spelling List 1 (Unit 20). I feel like she is very far behind in spelling since she is technically a 3rd grader. Though she doesn't miss too many when we go through the spelling lessons, she constantly makes simple spelling mistakes when she writes things on her own time. As an example, though "two" has not been a spelling word yet, I constantly will throw that one in the mix for her because I see her constantly spell this one wrong. But she still spells "two" as "tow." And she also constantly reverses certain numbers and letters (such as 2 and J).

3. As for language arts, we are working through the activities in the Beyond guide. So far this year, nothing has been new to her besides the definitions for commons nouns and proper nouns. Again, I feel she should be farther ahead in language arts.

4. And for math, I have intended to buy the Bigger guide and Singapore 2A and 2B, but life circumstances put this on the back burner, so I know she is also not where she needs to be with math.

So I need some advice as to where to place her. Should I continue to plug along with Beyond until we finish? Or should I continue to plug along with Beyond until January and then start her in Bigger at that time? We are in another transitional period of life as we just sold our house, and we are living with family until we can find another house. So life is a bit hectic, but I also don't want her to continue to fall behind educationally because of me. I am not proud of the past 2 years of her educational life.

Thanks in advance for your advice! I also have another 5 yo and almost 2 yo in the mix. I am also going through LHTH with the 5 yo because I don't think I can manage to step up her school with her until I get this first child on a good schedule.

[rumkimom]

I totally understand how you feel. My son does not sound that much different than your daughter. He is 9 and will be 10 in Jan (so 4th grade, but doing 1st-3rd grade work depending on the subject). He is currently in unit 8 of Bigger....and also using the ERs (we just started the Nature reader also). He struggles with reading (finally figured it out at age and math. Math wise he is in the middle of first grade yet and for some reason just can't seem to memorize the math facts....he does fine as long as he uses his math cubes (from Math-U-See)...we repeated the same math level 3 times!! He is behind his peers, but I keep having to remind myself that it is OK....we are doing the work right at his level and that is what he needs.

If your daughter is doing well where she is at, just keep her there as skills will build as she moves up. Some kids just learn slower than others. My 3 younger children are all at the upper age limits for their guides, but it is where they are academically. I try very hard not to compare them with where other younger kids are academically. If we try to place them above where they are, they will get frustrated as will we.

[MelInKansas]

Yes, I would keep her where she is, as it seems to fit. With most of what you described, 3R's wise and elsewhere, Beyond seems to work. Now, since she is older, she may be ready for more in terms of History and she may be able to handle more in her school day. If that's the case, add on to the history or science where you can. I know Beyond doesn't have extensions but maybe in the back there's a list of additional books you can use for the topics? Check those out, or use your library and look for more books that either you can read to her, or she can read on her own, if you can find them. Ask the librarians to help you with this. Of course you may want to screen/preview these materials, HOD's suggestions are always great, but you never know in the library!

[Carrie]

mommybelle,

The ladies are doing a great job of helping you talk through your options. I just wanted to pop-in and clarify a few things to help us gain an even clearer picture of your daughter's skills. You did a good job of sharing about many areas already!

How does your daughter do attention-span wise in listening to the readings in Beyond? How does she feel about writing/copying? Does she enjoy it or dislike it? Does she make multiple mistakes within her writing even when she is copying? Could she handle copying several sentences or more several times a day? If so, would they be riddled with errors? How does the length of her school day seem to suit her? Is she an eager learner? Has she completed Singapore 1B?

I also want to encourage you that it is exciting that your daughter is taking off as a reader. You will see her spelling skills and writing skills coming along in the next year or so, as often those skills lag behind reading progress. You are wise in re-evaluating her placement now that she has grown as a reader and due to her age. This is why we want to take the time to make sure to really consider what is best for your daughter. I believe that the added questions I've asked above will help us find that fit.

Blessings,
Carrie

[mommybelle]

Ladies,

Thank you so much for your insight! I came here feeling discouraged with our homeschooling progress, but I knew that I would only find encouragement on this board! I am so blessed and thankful for HOD!

Carrie - Here are the answers to your questions.

Her attention span and understanding to the readings is amazing, and this has always been her strength. And, honestly, a big struggle for me because based on her own reading level, she has always placed in younger guides, but attention span wise, she has always placed higher. She does enjoy the readings in Beyond, and she LOVES Beyond. Her favorite part of the day is history and storytime. The 5th day each week with the Bible Study and reading directly from the Bible does challenge her a bit to understand the selection and to also think on a deeper level. But, honestly, if I had the time, she would let me read to her for hours!

Writing and copying is her least favorite part of school. Part of me wonders if it is because I have pushed her too much to always have quality work (over quantity). I tend to be quite the perfectionist myself, so if she wrote something and it wasn't her best, I would make her write it over. Here is an example of the copywork she did this past week writing the months of the year. She did copy these from the index cards, but she did not make one mistake, and she was finished probably in 5 minutes, maybe 10 minutes. She is usually very good about copying the poems correctly, but if she is tired or in a hurry, she may make 1-3 mistakes per stanza (either with the spelling of a word, punctuation or capitalization). With this activity she had a good attitude, and she didn't even need to correct sloppy work.

20151107_215814.jpg (4.56 KiB) Viewed 2885 times

Here is an example of something she wrote up on her own for "fun." I wanted to provide this as an example of her spelling mistakes. I did not ask her to write this. She just got a wild idea to write out rules for the house.

20151107_215845.jpg (4.69 KiB) Viewed 2885 times

Her last storytime copywork while reading Ginger Pye read as follows: "The tramp wasn't the unsavory character. He didn't have a yellow hat, he only had a black one." She had no problem copying this, her handwriting looked beautiful, and she made no mistakes while copying these sentences.

So to summarize her writing/copywork skills, she could definitely handle copying 2-3 sentences (or more) per day, but writing/copywork is definitely her least favorite thing to do. I wonder if I should back off a bit on wanting her work to be her "best" every time. The copywork of the months of the year pictured above was definitely her best while the write up she did on her own was not her best, but still pretty good (handwriting wise, not spelling wise) for a 9 yo (I think).

As for the length of the school day, it seems appropriate. She is my very creative child, so she tends to drag the "fun" activities out. I tend to save those for last. I wonder if she could pick up the pace a bit, but I wonder myself how I will manage around the Kindergartener and the busy 2 yo. We generally do most of the history and storytime boxes while the 2 yo is napping. And in the morning, she will complete copywork, spelling and math (when we had the workbook). Also, she will entertain the 2 yo while I school the Kindergartener. She is an eager learner when it doesn't require too much work on her part (if that makes sense). Honestly, she is a bit lazy. So I guess I am basically saying that if I read to her or even she is reading to herself, she would probably work on school for hours because she enjoys that aspect of school. She just doesn't ENJOY the activities that require her to respond. But the narrations that she completes with me are always very detailed, and she has no problem reiterating what she has learned.

In regards to math, she has completed Singapore 1A and 1B using the activities in the BLHFHG guide. So she is ready for 2A.

I have considered ordering the extensions for Bigger to have when we start Bigger because though I don't know if she is ready to read these herself, I think she would enjoy me reading them to her at bedtime. She LOVES snuggling up to a good book!

Hopefully that background info helps! I really have felt called to homeschool all along, but I have struggled greatly with this particular child because of her reading struggles and her very creative personality which sends her mind off on tangents quite a bit.

Thank you all so much for all of your help!

[Carrie]

mommybelle,

Thanks so much for taking time to pop back and answer my questions! It really helps to gain an even fuller picture of your daughter's skill level in various areas. I think from what you've shared, I see two possible options. Keeping in mind the fact that she is 9 and also keeping in mind her current skill level, I do think that she could begin Bigger Hearts now. I think it would stretch her in a good way. She may have to ease into some of the copy work length-wise, and you would have to be prepared to help her with the vocabulary cards and the notebooking assignments quite a bit, but that is true for most kiddos beginning Bigger Hearts. You could go half-speed for a little while to ease her into the guide, but then I do think it would be a good idea to pop up to full speed within a month or two if at all possible.

This would allow you to get her started on her English, get her going on the math she needs, and address her growth in reading. She would do List 2 in spelling, just beginning with the first set of words as directed in the plans. She would not need the extensions, so I would start without those as her day will be full enough without them.

The second option I see, if you do not desire to begin Bigger Hearts now, is to add English 2 (doing a lesson a day) and Singapore 2A/2B to Beyond. You will also be adding DITHR to Beyond coming up as your daughter finishes the Emerging Reader set. This would be a back-up option if you feel that Bigger would be too big of a jump.

Typically, we do not recommend skipping forward in a guide, but with the gains that your daughter has made in reading and writing, and in looking at the placement chart with fresh eyes based on her age, I would say that your situation is an exception and your daughter could do Bigger Hearts if you feel it is best.

Feel free to pop back and share your thoughts!

Blessings,
Carrie