New with Placement Questions

[jansenbp]

Hi!

I'm so new to homeschooling that we haven't even started yet! Actually, after much prayer, my husband and I have decided to homeschool our two boys next year. I'm very excited to have found HOD. It seems like it will be a great fit for our family! After going through the placement charts, I'm a little torn about which program(s) to choose. I have an 8-year-old who is currently in second grade and will turn 9 in October. I also have a 5-year-old who is in kindergarten and will turn 6 in May. My older son is probably a little above grade level in reading and about on grade level with most other subjects. He occasionally struggles with math, but we haven't hit too many roadblocks there yet. My 5-year-old is reading extremely well--it's just something he took to right away and really enjoys. If I'm going to teach them separately, I would probably choose Little Hearts for His Glory for my younger son and Bigger Hearts for His Glory for my older son. Of course, I would love to teach them together (in which case I would maybe need to choose Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory). I'm so torn! I know my older son is too old for Little Hearts for His Glory, and I don't want my younger son to miss out on it, but I don' t know how time consuming it would be too teach two different curriculums. I'm also concerned about possibly starting them either behind or ahead of their ideal placement.

I would love to know what others have done. Sorry for the long post--I just need some advice from someone who has been down this road before me. Thank you so much!

Pamela

[netpea]

have you checked the placement chart to see where they would fall there?

[jansenbp]

Yes--if I go strictly by the placement chart, my younger son is ready for Beyond Little Hearts (with the emerging readers, I think) and my older son falls in between Bigger Hearts and Preparing Hearts (with DITHOR). Maybe I should just stick with that and teach the two different levels. I just hate to miss out on Little Hearts, but if he is going to be past it, it probably doesn't make much sense to do it.

I would probably stick with Bigger Hearts for my older son since this is new to all of us. I've been browsing through some of the other posts, and it seems like teaching two different levels isn't too difficult. Would you agree? Thanks!

[jansenbp]

I just had one more thought. Maybe I could do Little Hearts with both boys over the summer. I know I wouldn't have time to fit everything in, but it might be kind of fun for us. The boys would both get the benefit of the content (especially bringing the Lord more into the center of our home), and it would help us all "get our feet wet" before getting down to business in the fall. Is that a crazy idea? I'm so excited about doing this and about making these positive changes in our home. TIA!!

Pamela

[my3sons]

I just had one more thought. Maybe I could do Little Hearts with both boys over the summer. I know I wouldn't have time to fit everything in, but it might be kind of fun for us. The boys would both get the benefit of the content (especially bringing the Lord more into the center of our home), and it would help us all "get our feet wet" before getting down to business in the fall. Is that a crazy idea? I'm so excited about doing this and about making these positive changes in our home. TIA!!

Pamela

Hi Pamela - welcome to the HOD boards! After reading both of your posts, I think combining might be hard because your older ds already places in Bigger Hearts or even in PHFHG - Beyond would be pretty young for him. Also, Bigger Hearts would be pretty old for your younger ds. I've taught 2 HOD programs for 3 years now, and it's not hard to do. Right now we're doing BLHFHG and PHFHG, and we're usually done in 4 to 4 1/2 hours. When we started, it took us about 3-4 weeks to really settle into the routine, and each day the time we finished became earlier and earlier, until now we are done around noon. I have personally enjoyed having a year between teaching a program again - in other words, I'm not teaching the same program 2 years in a row. I think you may enjoy doing LHFHG with your youngest, and Bigger Hearts with your oldest. Then, the next year, it would be Beyond Little Hearts with your youngest, and PHFHG with your oldest. The following year, it would be Bigger Hearts for your youngest and Creation to Christ with your oldest, etc.. Each year you would begin a different program, which is kind of a nice rotation if it happens to work.

It would be great to begin 1 of the HOD programs before the other, just to begin one at a time. For that reason, I think you are on to something with the LHFHG idea you shared - plus it would just be fun and low key for your 2 dc. Starting both of them in LHFHG this summer would let you and your dc get into 1 of the 2 programs you'd be using next year. Then, when you end summer and begin your "official" school year, you'd already be used to teaching one of the programs and your youngest ds would already be used to doing it. Your older ds could then begin Bigger Hearts, maybe half-speed for a few weeks - doing the left side of the plans one day and the right side of the plans the next day. This would ease both you and your ds into Bigger Hearts and make for a super-easy transition. Your younger ds could also at the start of the school year, start the Emerging Reader's Set. You can get the Beyond Little Hearts manual for the Emerging Reader's Set schedule and comprehension questions in the Appendix. (You'd be using the Beyond manual the next year anyway.) Also, if you wanted to start Spelling List 1 in Beyond you could, and then the next year, you could just do Spelling List 2 in Beyond (there are 2 different lists, 1 is easier than 2). We started the Emerging Reader's Set when we were partially into LHFHG too, just because my ds was ready for it. It was easy-peasy to do.

Also, I think doing Bigger Hearts really helps dc prepare to do PHFHG so well! Just had to throw that out there as it made this year super easy for my ds to do PHFHG since he did Bigger Hearts last year!

LHFHG takes about 1 1/2 hours a day to do, and Bigger Hearts takes about 3 to 3 1/2 hours a day to do. While your Bigger Hearts ds is busy doing independent things, you can be working with your LHFHG child, so they should overlay one another nicely and allow you to be done in around 3 1/2 to 4 hours after you get into the swing of things.

These are just a few ideas I'm kicking around - if you pray about this and think you'd really like to combine, let us know - and we'll talk through that option too. We love to chat about placement and get everyone their perfect fit. It will be great to get other opinions here - I don't combine, but other wonderful ladies do and thoroughly enjoy that too, so their input is great to weigh too!

In Christ,
Julie

[netpea]

I think Julie has given you some very good advice. If you do Little Hearts over the summer, it will be short and fun for both kids and then you can add Bigger in the fall. It really is a good overview of history. My husband and I are both impressed with the History for Little Pilgrims book.

[Kathleen]

I'm popping in here to say hi and welcome you, too, Pamela!

I also think Julie's advice for your situation is great. (Now obviously we don't live in your house, and you know best, but from what you've shared her plan sounds great to me!) We brought our oldest back home from school last year. This is our 1st year with HOD for him. When I initially looked at the placement chart, I really thought he placed right between Bigger and Preparing. I decided to go with Bigger, and it has been a perfect fit for us. The program has been a lot meatier than I imagined it would be. I'm thinking that you'll be very pleased with it for your 3rd grader, as I certainly have.

You're going to have so much fun! What I am truly enjoying this year is having the Lord front-and-center in our school day, and the great, personal discussions that have come from what we're learning in school. This is exactly what I want school to "look like" in our house. I pray that you'll find the same thing as you dive in! These growing-up days are going to fly by, and what a privilege to be able to use my time to impact their little hearts for eternity! HOD has been a big blessing to me - and our family - in accomplishing this in our every day life!

Kathleen

[jansenbp]

Thank you so much for the great advice, Julie! That sounds like a good plan to me. I'm so excited I can hardly wait.

It's nice to meet all of you and, I must say, so refreshing to be greeted with such friendliness. I'm really looking forward to being a part of this message board. Thanks again, and God bless!

Pamela

[pollo_la]

You've already gotton some great advice! I really like Julie's idea of starting in the summer to easy your way in. Anyway, I just wanted to say welcome!!

[my3sons]

That's great, Pamela! I"m excited for you to start too! Please do share with us - we love hearing about HOD in each other's homes.

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Pamela,

The ladies are doing such a good job of talking through placement options with you! I know I'm chiming in late to the thread here, and I sincerely apologize for that as I'm just catching up on the board now. However, I did have one other possible option that you could consider as well.

If your 5 year old will be 6 this coming May is close to starting the Emerging Reader's set, can listen to a short chapter book style reading read-aloud (with few to no pictures), is ready for beginning spelling lessons, and is ready to copy a line of poetry or at least a phrase each day, then you could consider starting both in Beyond Little Hearts now just to ease into HOD.

Then, if it is going well, you could just keep on going with both in that program next year (adding in the right side of Bigger Hearts for your older child to do along with the left side of Beyond). This would give you a chance of seeing how combining might go. If Beyond seemed way too easy for your oldest (just the left side and the storytime box that he'd be doing along with your younger one), then you could easily switch him to doing all of Bigger in the fall.

Just a thought to have a chance to try out combining and know for sure how it goes, while still allowing your little one to move forward in the program he places into now. However, if your little one isn't able to do the skills yet that I listed above, a trial run of LHFHG would be best.

Blessings,
Carrie