Thiking this through (ie. Planning)

[Mbrand]

So, I was gifted a copy of Little Hearts and thus launched into this HOD world.

I have always been curious about HOD, but never jumped in until receiving this set and I'm not quite sure where to place my children.

My plan is to use Little Hearts this summer as just a fun academic-y time filler to keep us all used to doing school and having a schedule.

But, next fall seems open to suggestion.

I have a slow-learner 9 year old boy. He would be going into 4th grade per his age, but is academically about mid 2nd grade. On the placement chart he would fit Bigger by age, is an emerging reader, will finish learning cursive formation this spring, abhors writing but probably ready to start simple dictation.

Next, the precocious 6 year kindergartener nipping at her brother's academic heels. She would place in either Little Hearts or Beyond by age, is an emerging reader, will finish cursive formation this spring, definitely ready for simple dication, loves to write storybooks. She's going to start the Emerging Reader set in a month, but will likely start reading The Early Readers Bible next week.

There's also a 4 year old, but she's busy being 4 for the moment and loving on her baby dolls.

So, the 9 year old in Bigger and the 6 year old in Beyond in the fall was the plan.

But, by reading through some posts it seems that doing Bigger and Preparing is overwhelming and not recommended to do in the same year because both are so teacher-intensive. If we did Beyond and Bigger this year we would be doing Bigger and Preparing the next year.

So, should I change my plans this year to accommodate the next year?

Do you think my placement is accurate for Beyond and Bigger?

[countrymom]

I have been pondering your situation and have attempted to answer twice now. I am going through the guides with one child who took off from the beginning and one who has always been slower. My child who took off has always done well, but we were at the lower end of the guide and I actually slowed him down as we advanced through the guides. I agree your 6-yr-old seems placed in Beyond and your 9 yr old is probably best placed in Bigger, only I would advise starting at 1/2 speed to get him into the swing of things and gain some confidence. Then you could eventually go full speed. That leaves the younger one. I think you have a couple of options.
1) start her in Beyond at 1/2 speed. You can still do math and language arts everyday, but that would make your workload easier and like I said, she is at the younger end of the guide and it will be to her advantage to start slow if she begins in Beyond
2) place her in LHFHG doing math where she places and adding the emerging readers and the beginning spelling list. You could even do the day 5 language arts box from Beyond if you wanted. Then next year in Beyond you could move into DITHOR as she is ready, keep going with spelling then dictation, and move her into Rod and Staff 3 as well.
Both plans would work for her and both plans would help your workload. I need to run again, but hopefully that gives you something to think about.

[Rice]

I don't have anything to add, except to say that I agree with countrymom's suggestions. Running multiple guides when they're still in the pre-independent guides is a challenge. I think both of countrymom's suggestions will help deal with that, while providing your kids with at-level challenge.
Blessings,

[StephanieU]

How about finishing LHFHG in the fall with the younger one while your start Bigger with the older. Then in January, start Beyond with the younger. That is actually the schedule my middle two are on. My thought is that although I will have to run Bigger and Preparing together, the oldest one will be going well and note needing much help from me while the younger can spend some time going half speed if necessary.

[Nealewill]

I agree with Stephanie U. I would probably just start the 6 yo in Little Hearts and then place the 9yo in Bigger. If you feel like the 6yo is advanced, then I would just place both kids in Beyond and not do Bigger with the older child. I would just make sure to do math, reading and grammar at that child's level. Then in the next year you could decide whether or not to include the extensions for the older child. But in general, I would probably do Little Hearts and Bigger if it were me. It would create a nice space between the kids and then make it so that they don't become competitive with each other. As you can see from my signature, I have 3 kids and my younger 2 are together. For me, these two do great together. But they are only 20 months apart in age. My oldest and my middle are actually 18 months apart but my son is much closer in ability to my youngest than his older sister. So he could never be fully combine with his older sister. It would be terrible fit. But him and his younger sister do very well together.

[Mbrand]

Thanks for that advice ladies.

I think the 6 year old, turns 7 in October, would be bored spending an entire year with Little Hearts. She needs to be mentally challenged or she finds some way to challenge herself and gets into mischief.

I put together a tentative schedule for next year and I feel overwhelmed just looking at it. The 4 year old goes to preschool monday thru wednesday in the afternoons. The older 2 attend PE and music monday thru thursday in the afternoon, but of course not at the same time. Grrr.

So, we need to be done with academics by 1130. Friday is wide open, though. I'm not sure we can be done with 2 separate guides in 2 1/2 to 3 hours and do them well (with a preschooler in the mix too).

I'm leaning towards putting them both in Beyond. They are both emerging readers, learning cursive formation now, mastered print formation. I was already planning to do English 2 with them both next year. We use All About Spelling, Rod and Staff math, and Memoria Press for reading instruction / literature, so the right side of the page will be mostly skipped.

For those of you ladies further along, would a child at the low end of the age range face struggles later on?

These two are paired up for several subjects this year. It makes my life easier for sure, but there are times that the older one feels encroached/threatened by the younger. I think this is just the reality of his learning struggles, but I don't want to exacerbate it. Hopefully their independent studies of math and language arts will minimize this.

[StephanieU]

Honestly, I wouldn't combine them for Rod and Staff English, if that is what you meant by English 2. I started my oldest in our for second grade, age now I wish I had waited. Although she is surviving English 4 this year, I see now there is no benefit in her being a year ahead in grammar. We are getting to things I learned in 7th grade honors English! I think it would be a lot more enjoyable and less of a struggle if we had waited. So now I plan on waiting until 3rd grade/Bigger to start Rod and Staff English.

[MomtoJGJE]

I am running CTC, Preparing, LHFHG, and have a preschooler. Last year I was running RtR, Preparing, Bigger, and LHFHG (we've gone slow with my fourth... she has only begun reading).

It is completely possible to be done with Bigger and LHFHG or Beyond by 11:30 every day. I'm a no nonsense, no rabbit trails, no breaks until you are done type person. We have to be done with school and chores by 10:30 because that's when my DH gets home from work and whatever isn't done by then doesn't get done. We might occasionally have an experiment or a slight bit of reading something left, but nothing major.

The first thing I would like to say is that each of your older two can be "in charge" of the preschooler during the other one's school time.

My suggestion is to run your younger with LHFHG until she completes it. You can do math at her level and the ERs.

For your older, I would also suggest doing Bigger half speed for a while to get the hang of it. Since he would be on the older end of the age range, you could work him toward more independence. Mine who was in Bigger last year was older, and after we got the hang of it, she was doing almost everything other than history and the occasional thing I had to teach with math (she just gets math, we are just now reaching things she doesn't inherently know in SM 4B). And some days she was even doing history. But even if he doesn't like reading too terribly much, or can't read the books for history or science, he can still do the notebooking and experiments and all with little input from you. As a result she is now almost completely independent in Preparing. I teach English and math, but that's about it, unless she just doesn't understand something.

So, the way we work it when I have more than one teacher guide... I take my older one who is more independent and teach anything and read any instructions for things they can do without me. Then they work on that in a different room (table, their room, living room, whatever) and while they are doing that work I do school with the younger one. I can almost always finish LHFHG while a Bigger child is working on independent work. The younger ones, while I have both working, which isn't very long, has things they can do by themselves. Coloring pages, building something, lacing boards, a movie or favorite tv show they rarely get to watch, wiping lightswitches and doorknobs or spots off the floor. It doesn't take a 4 year old long to learn to not interrupt while Mom is reading because the readings don't take long.

Good luck! We've loved HOD!

[MelInKansas]

I personally like the idea of doing Beyond with both IF you think personality wise they would be able to enjoy working together through things like orally narrating, answering questions, Bible verse recitations, and activities. I think you would find that much more managable and still be able to give each what they need.

One thing for you to keep in mind is that each guide has a lot of "meat" to it, where even though a younger child can follow the material, there's a lot for an older child to enjoy. But there is quite a difference between the listening level in LHFHG and Beyond. And in Beyond you can choose the read-alouds so you could bump those up a level (use some of the lists from Bigger rather than Beyond, as those are higher reading level, longer books - there are 3 different sets of read-alouds in Bigger so you could then choose a different set when you get to Bigger). You could add in cursive writing for them, have them do some of their copywork in cursive if you like, you could add in grammar, and of course math and reading is done individually each at their level. Now, I do agree with the other poster that working "ahead" in grammar isn't of much benefit. It gets hard quickly and seems like a bad idea to push a 6YO into it too early. Maybe if you think your 9YO could do it you could add that in only with him. The simple grammar in Beyond is very very light. Spelling/dictation is done at their level. Though I believe the dictation passages are NOT in the Beyond guide, only in the Bigger guide (and up). So you'd either want to get something else for spelling or buy the Bigger guide to have the dictation - and math activities if your older one will use the Singapore Math.

I hope this is making sense.

[Nealewill]

My girls have both been on the youngest end of the age range and have always been fine. My son is on the oldest end of the age range and it has been a good fit for him. My youngest and son are placed together and it is perfect for us. It sounds like your two school age kids work well together already and I would keep with it. They will both love beyond (I think). My kids adored it the year we did it. I will admit, the science may seem light for your 9 year old. But honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. Science ramps up a ton the following year. Plus, you can add in the extensions once you get to Bigger and I think that would be a great track for that child personally. And you don't "need" to do extensions necessarily once your child gets into the higher guide. I would only do them if your child can read by themselves. My son was doing some of the extensions here and there but reading isn't his strong suit so we have since stopped doing them. He is perfectly placed without them.

[Mbrand]

So, the consensus seems to be split. Half say put them together in Beyond. Half say put the older in Bigger and the younger in either Little Hearts or Beyond.

Looking through everything the internet offers on Beyond, it seems to cover Early American history pretty well. Sadly were doing in-depth early American history this year. Everyone says, choose a guide based on age and ability, not the history covered. With that piece of info, I'm leaning towards keeping her in Little Hearts, but bumping her math and reading. Also, based on all your feedback, she will get a reprieve from Rod and Staff English 2. Whattya think?

I'm just not sure I can do several years of the same history topic...how do you ladies handle teaching the same topic year after year?