I need help figuring out what levels to put everyone in. I have six children, but baby (17 mos) isn't quite ready for HOD yet. That leaves me with 3.75, newly 6, 8.5, newly 11, and 13.75. They are about 2.5 years apart, and that makes it hard to group them together. I also want to be able to continue with HOD, so I don't want to rush someone into a level if it would be better for them in a year or so.
For my 13.75dd I'm thinking about doing DITHOR, plus finishing off things for her to start highschool. She reads at grade level, but has difficulty with comprehension and she has not had formal literature study. She loves to read. I wish there was a HOD level for her. Other than DITHOR, I’m not sure what to do for her.
My 11dd is a strong reader. She reads at a tenth grade level and can devour a 150 page book in two hours. Drawing and reading are her favorite things to do. She already writes cursive and can work great independently.
My 8.5ds is a strong reader. His current love is history and he is devouring Landmark books. He reads at a sixth grade level and loves to have a bunch of books going at a time. He’s ready to start cursive and spelling, and he does well with copywork.
My 6ds knows his letter sounds and can read short vowel words. He can write all of his letters, but still needs some practice. His favorite thing to do right now is copy words and pictures out of books and give them as gifts.
My 3.75dd is ready to start learning her letters and letter sounds. She is not quite ready to learn to write, but is doing good with tracing and mazes.
My children are so scattered out in abilities, that I’m not sure what to do with them. The main thing I want it to have everyone get the right program at the right age to get the most out of it. We school year round also, so we can spread things out if we need to. Any ideas?
Melinda
Help me decide what levels to use
Re: Help me decide what levels to use
Hello!
My advice ( not an expert by any means) would be to put your 6 year old in LHFHG. I'd just let your almost 4 year old tag along with him and during his phonics time, she could do letter instruction. If she wants to join in she can, if not, she doesn't have to. I'd focus on the older ones right now and let her pick up what she can instead of worrying about a prek program for her right now. Or you could have your 13 year old teach her from LHTH as it doesn't even take a 1/2 hour most days. It could give them some bonding time and free you up for other subjects.
Just a thought.
As for the older guides, I am sure some of the other ladies more familiar with it can pitch in and help out as I am woefully inexperienced in those areas.
Hope you find the placement you need. Speaking of placement...have you checked the placement chart?
Have a great day!
My advice ( not an expert by any means) would be to put your 6 year old in LHFHG. I'd just let your almost 4 year old tag along with him and during his phonics time, she could do letter instruction. If she wants to join in she can, if not, she doesn't have to. I'd focus on the older ones right now and let her pick up what she can instead of worrying about a prek program for her right now. Or you could have your 13 year old teach her from LHTH as it doesn't even take a 1/2 hour most days. It could give them some bonding time and free you up for other subjects.

As for the older guides, I am sure some of the other ladies more familiar with it can pitch in and help out as I am woefully inexperienced in those areas.
Hope you find the placement you need. Speaking of placement...have you checked the placement chart?
Have a great day!
Jessi
~~~~~~~~~
Wife to Brad for 10 years
Emma- 7 Beyond, DITHOR,
Logan- 4.5 LHTH, R & S workbooks
www.ourmodernmemories.blogspot.com - personal blog
www.modernmemoryfilms.com - our wedding videography site
~~~~~~~~~
Wife to Brad for 10 years
Emma- 7 Beyond, DITHOR,
Logan- 4.5 LHTH, R & S workbooks
www.ourmodernmemories.blogspot.com - personal blog
www.modernmemoryfilms.com - our wedding videography site
Re: Help me decide what levels to use
Melinda,
I wanted to welcome you to the board! We're glad you're here!
It looks like Jessi and I were typing at the same time!
It sounds like you have a busy household. I really appreciated the information you shared about your kiddos as it helps with placement.
First off, I'd eventually love to know where you think each one places on our placement chart (all combining aside), remembering that the first page of the placement chart is the most important in correct placement. Here's the link to the chart:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
I'm also wondering if you are looking at beginning now or later in the year instead? That will definitely make a difference on our recommendations. If you get a chance to pop-in and give a little more information on what your older kiddos have had in the way of English/grammar instruction, how they do with spelling/copywork, and what you're thinking about doing with the math that would really help too.
From what you've shared so far, I'm thinking the almost 4 year old belongs in LHTH. It sounds like the just turned 6 year old would fit well within LHFHG. Your 8.5, 11, and 14 year olds are the ones who I need more information on to place correctly.
Blessings,
Carrie
I wanted to welcome you to the board! We're glad you're here!


It sounds like you have a busy household. I really appreciated the information you shared about your kiddos as it helps with placement.
First off, I'd eventually love to know where you think each one places on our placement chart (all combining aside), remembering that the first page of the placement chart is the most important in correct placement. Here's the link to the chart:

I'm also wondering if you are looking at beginning now or later in the year instead? That will definitely make a difference on our recommendations. If you get a chance to pop-in and give a little more information on what your older kiddos have had in the way of English/grammar instruction, how they do with spelling/copywork, and what you're thinking about doing with the math that would really help too.

From what you've shared so far, I'm thinking the almost 4 year old belongs in LHTH. It sounds like the just turned 6 year old would fit well within LHFHG. Your 8.5, 11, and 14 year olds are the ones who I need more information on to place correctly.
Blessings,
Carrie
-
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:24 pm
Re: Help me decide what levels to use
Thank you both for your help. Our home is super busy. In addition to homeschooling, we live on 32 acres which keep us going. Things keeping us busy right now: we are expanding the garden and orchard, we're adding berry bushes, we're getting ready to build our own home by hand, this years chicks should be here anytime, we're deciding when to get cows since the drought has prices low, I have tons of sewing to do, and I just discovered I have an almost highschooler. Where did she come from? Last time I looked, she was six. Things are always hopping around here.
That's part of the reason I'm looking at HOD. Things are just so crazy around here that I need a more open and go curriculum. For years, I've planned, combined, beefed up, slowed down, and did whatever we wanted, now I have less time, more children schooling, and I need to start thinking on highschool for Miriam.
I agree that LHTH is a good fit for 3.75dd and LHFHG would work great with 6ds. Not just a good fit, but perfect for them. Exactly what they need. They are so far apart in reading and writing abilities, I don't see any way to combine then. And they need to do "school" or they are going to drive me batty. They don't want to play, they want to do "school".
Just going by the placement chart, here's where I would place everyone else. Bigger for 8.5 son. Joshua reads very well for his age. We have about 50 Landmark books and he's working his way through them on his own. He loves history. His handwriting is good, and he is ready to learn cursive. He has had no formal grammar instruction, but does understand capitalization and ending sentence punctuation. He loves to write stories. I have the children freewrite for twenty minutes a couple of times a week and he usually writes for at least 45 minutes. He also likes to take storylines and write them with his own twist.
11dd would do good in Preparing and DITHOR. Rebekah reads at a tenth grade level and devours books. She is working through Junior Analytical Grammar and has covered nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adjectives. She knows capitalization and end of sentence punctuation. Creative writing is easy for her and we have volumes of her stories. Due to her reading so much, her writing is very good for her age. She uses very descriptive language and her word choice is very good. She spells ok, but we are doing Sequential Spelling anyway.
13.75dd is my different one. I think she could do DITHOR, but I would have to start with the middle level. Miriam loves to read and reads at grade level. She has done Junior Analytical Grammar and will be doing Analytical Grammar, starting in three weeks (as soon as her online writing class is over). It takes lots of repetition for Miriam to remember things. Miriam knows capitalization, ending sentence punctuation, commas, and quotation marks. She can write wonderful stories (as far as the storyline goes), but cannot get things organized and a good final copy without lots of help and hand holding. She is doing an online writing class right now and I am impressed with her progress. She has a hard time with spelling, but Sequential Spelling seems to be helping. Miriam shines in her desire to be a servant and will give you the jumper off her back.
This goes for all of my children:
We have done no formal history or science studies. We have followed the families interests and they have lead us everywhere. Our family loves books and we read all the time. The children usually spend two hours a day reading their Bible and then whatever they are interested in. Today Joshua was reading Landmark history books (he has nine going right now) and one of Chuck Blacks knight books. Rebekah was reading the chicken catalog, Children Just Like Me, the Frugal Gourmet's Immigrant Ancestor cookbook, and a Landmark book. Miriam was reading Kidnapped, Robert Frost poems, Around the World in Eighty Days, and a Thornton Burgess book. Hannah and Caleb were "reading" Mr Putter and Tabby and Little Gem books. We listen to Mystery of History at lunch and once a week we watch Linwood Thompson from the Teaching Company. The children love Linwood Thompson.
For science, we study real life. The children are interested in electronics and the oldest three have their amateur radio operators license. We garden and raise animals, start our own transplants from seeds, grow worms for the chickens to eat, and compost. We have a telescope that stays set up outside most of the time. Today the littles, Caleb 6 and Hannah 3.75, were using the inside microscope to look at Abraham Lincoln on pennies. Usually, they have our Brock Magiscope outside looking at things. Our bird feeders were busy today and we watched from the window and looked up the visitors. Rebekah sketched some birds and Miriam made up a poem about them. We (the children and I) just recently butchered some chickens and studied their insides. In some of the hens, we found egg yolks.
The children can memorize anything and have committed great amounts of scripture, poetry, literature, and trivia to memory.
Sorry to get carried away. I hope you can advise me where the children might be placed for best results. I want them to be able to go through the whole program. I don't want to put someone in a program this year, just so I can combine, and then have them be too young for the next level. I would rather teach as many different levels as needed to get things to fit right.
Blessings,
Melinda
That's part of the reason I'm looking at HOD. Things are just so crazy around here that I need a more open and go curriculum. For years, I've planned, combined, beefed up, slowed down, and did whatever we wanted, now I have less time, more children schooling, and I need to start thinking on highschool for Miriam.
I agree that LHTH is a good fit for 3.75dd and LHFHG would work great with 6ds. Not just a good fit, but perfect for them. Exactly what they need. They are so far apart in reading and writing abilities, I don't see any way to combine then. And they need to do "school" or they are going to drive me batty. They don't want to play, they want to do "school".
Just going by the placement chart, here's where I would place everyone else. Bigger for 8.5 son. Joshua reads very well for his age. We have about 50 Landmark books and he's working his way through them on his own. He loves history. His handwriting is good, and he is ready to learn cursive. He has had no formal grammar instruction, but does understand capitalization and ending sentence punctuation. He loves to write stories. I have the children freewrite for twenty minutes a couple of times a week and he usually writes for at least 45 minutes. He also likes to take storylines and write them with his own twist.
11dd would do good in Preparing and DITHOR. Rebekah reads at a tenth grade level and devours books. She is working through Junior Analytical Grammar and has covered nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adjectives. She knows capitalization and end of sentence punctuation. Creative writing is easy for her and we have volumes of her stories. Due to her reading so much, her writing is very good for her age. She uses very descriptive language and her word choice is very good. She spells ok, but we are doing Sequential Spelling anyway.
13.75dd is my different one. I think she could do DITHOR, but I would have to start with the middle level. Miriam loves to read and reads at grade level. She has done Junior Analytical Grammar and will be doing Analytical Grammar, starting in three weeks (as soon as her online writing class is over). It takes lots of repetition for Miriam to remember things. Miriam knows capitalization, ending sentence punctuation, commas, and quotation marks. She can write wonderful stories (as far as the storyline goes), but cannot get things organized and a good final copy without lots of help and hand holding. She is doing an online writing class right now and I am impressed with her progress. She has a hard time with spelling, but Sequential Spelling seems to be helping. Miriam shines in her desire to be a servant and will give you the jumper off her back.
This goes for all of my children:
We have done no formal history or science studies. We have followed the families interests and they have lead us everywhere. Our family loves books and we read all the time. The children usually spend two hours a day reading their Bible and then whatever they are interested in. Today Joshua was reading Landmark history books (he has nine going right now) and one of Chuck Blacks knight books. Rebekah was reading the chicken catalog, Children Just Like Me, the Frugal Gourmet's Immigrant Ancestor cookbook, and a Landmark book. Miriam was reading Kidnapped, Robert Frost poems, Around the World in Eighty Days, and a Thornton Burgess book. Hannah and Caleb were "reading" Mr Putter and Tabby and Little Gem books. We listen to Mystery of History at lunch and once a week we watch Linwood Thompson from the Teaching Company. The children love Linwood Thompson.
For science, we study real life. The children are interested in electronics and the oldest three have their amateur radio operators license. We garden and raise animals, start our own transplants from seeds, grow worms for the chickens to eat, and compost. We have a telescope that stays set up outside most of the time. Today the littles, Caleb 6 and Hannah 3.75, were using the inside microscope to look at Abraham Lincoln on pennies. Usually, they have our Brock Magiscope outside looking at things. Our bird feeders were busy today and we watched from the window and looked up the visitors. Rebekah sketched some birds and Miriam made up a poem about them. We (the children and I) just recently butchered some chickens and studied their insides. In some of the hens, we found egg yolks.
The children can memorize anything and have committed great amounts of scripture, poetry, literature, and trivia to memory.
Sorry to get carried away. I hope you can advise me where the children might be placed for best results. I want them to be able to go through the whole program. I don't want to put someone in a program this year, just so I can combine, and then have them be too young for the next level. I would rather teach as many different levels as needed to get things to fit right.
Blessings,
Melinda
Re: Help me decide what levels to use
I loved hearing about your dc, Melinda!
I think I would very much enjoy being a fly on the wall in your home - what wonderful and exciting things are going on there!
My name is Julie, and I want to welcome you to the HOD board. We love to kick around ideas here together, so please just know these are just my ideas - I have prayed about you and your family - but ultimately God will lead you to the right answers for your family.
I agree that the 3 yo fits well in LHTH and the just 6 yo fits well in LHFHG. I think you could spread out LHTH over 1 1/2 to 2 years for your 3 yo. We did this and enjoyed it. We did do the "Letter Activity" and "Fingerplay" each day, just to better commit those letters and sounds to memory. LHTH takes 20-30 minutes a day, and I do believe Miriam could teach some of the boxes in LHTH to your 3 yo if that is something Miriam would do well with and enjoy. My oldest sis has her dd teach LHTH to her youngers. She just has her check of the boxes she taught, and then my sis teaches the rest of the boxes - trying to finish about 3 pages of LHTH plans each week or so. LHFHG takes about 45 minutes a day.
Now for your olders. When would you be starting? (Sorry if you said this and I missed it.) I have 2 thoughts right now...
Option 1: The new Ancients guide Creation to Christ (CTC) will be coming out in August. It is for ages 9-11, with extensions for 12-13 yo's. I think you could do this with your 11 yo and Miriam. In this scenario, your 8.5 yo would do Bigger Hearts. I think he could do Bigger half-speed, doing the left side of the plans one day, and the right side of the plans the next day. You could begin this way, and if you wanted, move to full-speed once he became more independent with it. So - you'd be doing CTC with the olders probably with the extensions and choosing appropriate Grammar and Math levels for each of them, Bigger half-speed with 8.5 yo, and LHFHG with 6 yo, and LHTH half-speed with 3 yo. I think this would be manageable.
Option 2. If you want to start now, or still just as another good option for starting later: Your 11 yo and Miriam could do Preparing with the extensions. Your 8.5 yo could do EITHER Bigger Hearts half-speed, OR I think with his solid reading, writing, and copywork skills, he may be able to do Preparing (not the extensions though). You'd have to add Cheerful Cursive (or a cursive handwriting program of your choice for him), and R & S English 2 done half-speed as well (or a grammar for him of your own choice), and an appropriate level of Singapore Math for him (or again, a math of your choice). You would need to expect less from him than the other older 2 of course (i.e when it says "write in cursive" he could print, he could do the easiest level of dictation, he could do 1-2 vocabulary cards instead of 3-5), etc., but I think he could probably do it. It sounds like he'd love the creative writing paralleling the poetry in PHFHG. I started PHFHG with my 8.5 yo, and he is having a great year with it.
With either of the above options, you could do Drawn into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR) 3 days a week with your 3 oldest. This would be a nice thing to do all together. You would get the DITHOR Student Workbooks - probably 4/5 and 6/7/8. You can copy these for your family's use if you want to economize.
O.k. - so you've got to have other thoughts and questions here yet - please share them! These are just a few ideas to get you going. Hope something here helped!
In Christ,
Julie


I agree that the 3 yo fits well in LHTH and the just 6 yo fits well in LHFHG. I think you could spread out LHTH over 1 1/2 to 2 years for your 3 yo. We did this and enjoyed it. We did do the "Letter Activity" and "Fingerplay" each day, just to better commit those letters and sounds to memory. LHTH takes 20-30 minutes a day, and I do believe Miriam could teach some of the boxes in LHTH to your 3 yo if that is something Miriam would do well with and enjoy. My oldest sis has her dd teach LHTH to her youngers. She just has her check of the boxes she taught, and then my sis teaches the rest of the boxes - trying to finish about 3 pages of LHTH plans each week or so. LHFHG takes about 45 minutes a day.
Now for your olders. When would you be starting? (Sorry if you said this and I missed it.) I have 2 thoughts right now...
Option 1: The new Ancients guide Creation to Christ (CTC) will be coming out in August. It is for ages 9-11, with extensions for 12-13 yo's. I think you could do this with your 11 yo and Miriam. In this scenario, your 8.5 yo would do Bigger Hearts. I think he could do Bigger half-speed, doing the left side of the plans one day, and the right side of the plans the next day. You could begin this way, and if you wanted, move to full-speed once he became more independent with it. So - you'd be doing CTC with the olders probably with the extensions and choosing appropriate Grammar and Math levels for each of them, Bigger half-speed with 8.5 yo, and LHFHG with 6 yo, and LHTH half-speed with 3 yo. I think this would be manageable.
Option 2. If you want to start now, or still just as another good option for starting later: Your 11 yo and Miriam could do Preparing with the extensions. Your 8.5 yo could do EITHER Bigger Hearts half-speed, OR I think with his solid reading, writing, and copywork skills, he may be able to do Preparing (not the extensions though). You'd have to add Cheerful Cursive (or a cursive handwriting program of your choice for him), and R & S English 2 done half-speed as well (or a grammar for him of your own choice), and an appropriate level of Singapore Math for him (or again, a math of your choice). You would need to expect less from him than the other older 2 of course (i.e when it says "write in cursive" he could print, he could do the easiest level of dictation, he could do 1-2 vocabulary cards instead of 3-5), etc., but I think he could probably do it. It sounds like he'd love the creative writing paralleling the poetry in PHFHG. I started PHFHG with my 8.5 yo, and he is having a great year with it.
With either of the above options, you could do Drawn into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR) 3 days a week with your 3 oldest. This would be a nice thing to do all together. You would get the DITHOR Student Workbooks - probably 4/5 and 6/7/8. You can copy these for your family's use if you want to economize.
O.k. - so you've got to have other thoughts and questions here yet - please share them! These are just a few ideas to get you going. Hope something here helped!
In Christ,
Julie

Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie
Re: Help me decide what levels to use
Melinda,
I just wanted to pop back in and agree with the two scenarios suggested by my3sons. They are exactly the scenarios I was tossing around in my own mind!
I also wanted to mention that it will be really helpful for you to make the transition to HOD in stages. I'd start with the little ones,since they are begging for school. I'd begin with LHTH and get that going first for a week or two. Your 6 year old could be your helper while you get your almost 4 year old in the routine of doing LHTH. My3sons gave you great suggestions of how to do LHTH at half-speed, which is a good goal.
Next, I'd add LHFHG and get that child going in the routine of school. If the 6 year old is ready for full-speed LHFHG then do that. If it seems like a bit much at first, do LHFHG at half-speed doing the left side of the plans one day and the right the next. You can jump up to full-speed when your child seems ready.
Last, I'd add Preapring Hearts for your 3 older kiddos. I would do all of Preparing Hearts (except for the language arts and math) with the 3 of them. It will provide a wonderful overview of world history. I would add the Extension Pack for your 11 and 13 year olds as scheduled in the Appendix. I would have your 8.5 read the Deluxe Package, even though it will be on the light side for him. The books in the Deluxe Package are interesting and also include the Draw and Write book (which is great for sketching practice).
For language arts for your 8.5 year old, I would add Rod and Staff English 2 and Cheerful Cursive from Bigger Hearts. You can easily just do a lesson a day in English and a page a day in cursive, so there's no need for the Bigger Hearts guide. You can also use the dictation passages in the back of Preparing for spelling and use DITHR for all 3 older kiddos. Your 2 oldest could keep working with Analytical Grammar and Sequential Spelling. I'm assuming you also have your math in place, otherwise you can use Singapore.
It sounds like your oldest daughter is using an online writing course and so most likely has that area covered. If not, you could use Igniting Your Writing with her (which we carry on our website).
There are suggestions at this link for additional reading to beef up Preparing Hearts in the areas of history and science for an older student:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1458
I'd love to hear what you're thinking if you get a chance.
Blessings,
Carrie
I just wanted to pop back in and agree with the two scenarios suggested by my3sons. They are exactly the scenarios I was tossing around in my own mind!

I also wanted to mention that it will be really helpful for you to make the transition to HOD in stages. I'd start with the little ones,since they are begging for school. I'd begin with LHTH and get that going first for a week or two. Your 6 year old could be your helper while you get your almost 4 year old in the routine of doing LHTH. My3sons gave you great suggestions of how to do LHTH at half-speed, which is a good goal.

Next, I'd add LHFHG and get that child going in the routine of school. If the 6 year old is ready for full-speed LHFHG then do that. If it seems like a bit much at first, do LHFHG at half-speed doing the left side of the plans one day and the right the next. You can jump up to full-speed when your child seems ready.
Last, I'd add Preapring Hearts for your 3 older kiddos. I would do all of Preparing Hearts (except for the language arts and math) with the 3 of them. It will provide a wonderful overview of world history. I would add the Extension Pack for your 11 and 13 year olds as scheduled in the Appendix. I would have your 8.5 read the Deluxe Package, even though it will be on the light side for him. The books in the Deluxe Package are interesting and also include the Draw and Write book (which is great for sketching practice).

For language arts for your 8.5 year old, I would add Rod and Staff English 2 and Cheerful Cursive from Bigger Hearts. You can easily just do a lesson a day in English and a page a day in cursive, so there's no need for the Bigger Hearts guide. You can also use the dictation passages in the back of Preparing for spelling and use DITHR for all 3 older kiddos. Your 2 oldest could keep working with Analytical Grammar and Sequential Spelling. I'm assuming you also have your math in place, otherwise you can use Singapore.
It sounds like your oldest daughter is using an online writing course and so most likely has that area covered. If not, you could use Igniting Your Writing with her (which we carry on our website).
There are suggestions at this link for additional reading to beef up Preparing Hearts in the areas of history and science for an older student:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1458
I'd love to hear what you're thinking if you get a chance.

Blessings,
Carrie