Which program?

[Kimberly]

Hi - I am trying to figure out what the best thing is for my large - and growing family. We have several, and I am trying to figure out what is best for the third grade/first grade/4yr old combination. I as thinking of using the Bigger for the 3rd grade, and Little hearts for the 1st and 4 yr old. I was wondering if this is the best combination or if there is the possibility of having them all in the same program as long as I do the grade appropriate phonics/math/grammar? If so, which would be the best. I do like having the third grader in the Bigger program because the history matches up with the history time period that the older kiddos will be doing. The other children I have are to old for the Hearts program and the others are too young. I have used the preschool program for the 3 yr. old this year, and enjoyed it. We are looking forward to the other programs, but just want to use the most simplified thing we can do. The baby is due at the end of July, and I will probably need the most simple thing that I can do. If anyone has advice on this - I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!!

[gratefulmama]

Kimberly,
Welcome to the HOD boards! I'm so glad you enjoyed LHTH this year! I am using it this year and love it.
For the best possible advise for your children, I'm thinking it would help if you checked out the placement chart if you haven't done that already. Each row is in order of importance. (age first, next reading then writing skills...) Here is the link:

http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

Then if you wouldn't mind sharing where those children place individually, I'm sure others will be along to give you some great ideas/advise. I look forward to hearing back from you! HTH
Blessings,
Victoria

[Carrie]

Kimberly,

As I'm posting I just noticed that gratefulmama and I were posting at the same time and asking the same thing! Thanks gratefulmama!

Welcome to the HOD Boards! We're glad to have you here. At HOD, we really work toward a customized placement for each family. So, in order to help you better, we need a bit more information.

First, it would be so helpful to know the ages of all of your kiddos, no matter whether they'll fit in an HOD program or not, just so we can glimpse what you'll have in teaching time and mothering responsibilities overall for the upcoming year. This will factor quite a bit into what the best placement options may be in the long haul.

Next, if you can give us some details about where your kiddos, who would be using HOD, fit on the first page only of the placement chart (all combining aside) that would be great. It's especially important for us to know about the areas of reading, writing, and listening to longer books without many pictures. Here's a link to the placement chart:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

Once we get those details, we can begin discussing possible options!

Blessings,
Carrie

[Kimberly]

Hi Carrie and gratefulmama - Thank you so much for your reply.
Let's see, ages - 13 - girl, 11 - boy,(but a 'grade ahead' for the age he is).
Then the ones I want to put in the hearts program -
ages 8 (fall) - boy,
5(finished kindergarten, reading short vowel words) - girl,
and 4(in the fall) - girl,
Then the young ones - twin boys age 23 mths, and one on the way due July - well, probably Aug. I am always late!
I think that I will be pretty busy in the mothering area in the fall
If I were placing them each separately I would put the 8 year old in either Bigger or Preparing. He is reading independently, but doesn't know cursive yet, he isn't able to do a lot of dictation because of the spelling skills, though they are getting better. He is ready for more grammar instruction, having had an intro to all the parts of speech. We used First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise. As far as Math, he is doing really well, and we are using Math-U-See. He seems to be right in between those 2 programs.

As far as the 5 yr. old girl, I think that I would put her in Little, though she is past short vowel words. I was planning on using Phonics Pathways. She knows how to form all of her letters, and can write her name in cursive. She has already begun in the Math-U-See program, and is doing very well with that also. She loves to listen to books, and can sit for many chapters of The Little House on the Prairie series. - As many as I have time to read at a time... She can copy a few sentences - so maybe she should be in Beyond? I think that she is ready for some grammar instruction. I was planning on doing some reading lessons with her this summer to get her at least to long vowel words.

As far as the 4 year old, she knows her letter sounds, has her numbers, and a few basics like that. She will flow along with the other ones, though of course doesn't have the attention span. She loves to 'do school'.

I am considering using TOG for the older 2, though I haven't made my final decision.

Thank you so much for any guidance. I really appreciate it. I really would like to keep the 8 year old challenged, but not overwhelmed, and the 5 year old is a very quick learner and loves it!

In Him -
Kimberly

[Mom2Monkeys]

Welcome to HOD! I don't have much time but wanted to ask if you considered placing your oldest two (13 and 11) in the newest guide- Hearts for Him Through Time: Creation to Christ? The target age range is 9-11 and extensions for 12-13. So your kids are right in that age range. There will be 3 more guides out after that one. There would be much more independence (I think) than what you would find with TOG as you mentioned you are considering. You need fewer books and you wouldn't have to plan which parts to omit and which to do as you do with TOG- meaning you'd have more time to teach and take care of the new baby! Your kids could just follow the plans themselves and you could jump in for the Teacher-Led part when you were able.

You'll get some great advice from others about the youngers soon! Wish I could help more!

[Kimberly]

Thanks so much - I will think on it. I wanted to move on in History with the olders for the 1850 to present time frame, which is why I was thinking about the TOG. We have done Creation to Christ time frames, and I think they might be more interested if some new material came their way. Though it would greatly help to have things a bit more streamlined...
I will have to continue praying about it and see what other advice comes in for the younger kiddos.

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Thank you so much for your thoughts. I had only glanced at the new program. Now I should really look at it a bit more in depth.
Kimberly

[Carrie]

Kimberly,

I was also going to ask if you had considered doing CTC with your older kiddos, but Tamara beat me to it! The reason I ask is because what you choose to do with your olders will definitely affect the advice we give you for your younger kiddos. I have many combinations and options running through my head right now but each is somewhat based on how time consuming your program for your older kiddos will be. I'd love to hear back from you if you get a chance to fill me in a bit more in which direction you're leaning with your olders.

I'd also love to know a bit more about your 8 year old. If you get a chance to let me know if he's reading chapter books yet, and possibly list a title or two of some books he's read recently, along with whether he's had dictation or how well he does in spelling, and a glimpse into how he does with written work (such as copying several sentences to a paragraph daily) that would really help me sort through the options better.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Kimberly]

Hi Carrie - Thanks for your reply!
I am leaning toward doing the TOG material for my 7th and 8th grade - they will be together, and somewhat independent. As I was looking through the Creation to Christ I realized that we have read a lot of the books - which will be great when the youngers get there because they don't remember those, but I think the older ones are just a bit past that - we will be doing 1850 to present and I am still looking through a couple of curriculums. I am glad to hear that you have many combos running through your head too. That is why I got on the message boards because I had too many combos, and I couldn't decide what to do.

The 8 yr. old is reading chapter books and eating them up!! I am so glad because I thought he was really going to hate reading. He is into the Boxcar series right now, and understanding all of them quite well. I used DITHOR this year with the oldest 3, and the older 2 were great in it, but because the 8 yr old is hampered by his spelling, we ended up narrating a bunch of it. He is able to copy very nicely - a paragraph is a good length for him, but he is hampered in his dictation again because of his spelling, and it really bothers him. We are working on it, but he is not a natural speller. As far as dictation, I have only had him do 2-3 sentences at a time so the frustration level doesn't rise too high. I have had him write some of his own stories using his spelling words, and he doesn't mind that as much. We always have a bunch to correct, but for some reason that doesn't bother him as badly. He is taking off in most areas, but spelling is a struggle for him.

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it. I have a great desire to find a standard for what I do for each grade. With a lot of kiddos, the more I can do to streamline things and still give them the individual helps they need, all the better...

Thank you again -
In Him Alone -
Kimberly

[my3sons]

HI Kimberly! Thanks for sharing about your dc and their individual needs - that really helps. I think Bigger Hearts is a good fit for your 8 yo. His reading skills are strong enough for it, and it would fit him nicely for dictation, spelling, and cursive. He can grow into the notebooking so that by the time he gets to PHFHG he can do that independently. An added bonus is you'd mentioned it would match the history time period you are doing with the olders.

For your younger dc, the 5 yo and the 4 yo, they are both doing so well with their skills in virtually every area that I think you could do Little Hearts with the two of them. You could start it half-speed, doing the left side of the plans one day, and the right the next - and then when you felt they were both ready, you could go full-speed ahead. We did this with our 4 1/2 yo when he started LHFHG, and it made it the perfect fit for him.

I'm sure other ladies will chime in, so you'll be able to choose what you think fits your goals the best. I think you'd love both Bigger Hearts and Little Hearts. They are 2 terrific programs, and they are super easy on "mom" because there is no prep, and they are streamlined to use your time well and keep it to a minimum.

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Kimberly,

Thanks so much for that additional insight! After mulling over your various options, I still keep coming back to your original thoughts on doing LHFHG and Bigger and finding that the best fit in my mind too. I agree with my3son's assessment of why these are your best fit.

While you could combine your 5 year old and the 8 year old in Beyond for the left side and add the right side of Bigger for your older child, it wouldn't help much in the overall plan as your 4 year old will still need LHFHG. So it does make more sense to combine the 5 and 4 year old in LHFHG and keep them as a pair as they go through the guides.

I did have several other scenarios running through my head on combining your 8 year old, but these were dependent on the further information you so graciously shared about him and about your older kiddos.

I'm thinking that your last 3 kiddos (new baby included in this thinking) could be a grouping as they go through the guides as well. We have run 3 HOD programs for several years now at our house and will be doing 4 this upcoming year (one of which is LHTH), so I know you could run 3 HOD programs one day in the future down the road without too much trouble.

I agree that you could begin both Bigger and LHFHG at half-speed, bumping up Bigger once your son hits his stride. You could keep your 4 and 5 year olds at half-speed in LHFHG all year if needed. You could also do a 4 day plan with both LFHGH and Bigger if desired, going 9 weeks into the next school year to finish.

I'd love to hear your thoughts if you get a chance.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Kimberly]

Thank you thank you thank you!!! I have been in such a quandary about what to do. Having the knowledge that I can put the last 3 together is a great help too. Thank you for the specialized help. I will go with this choice. I really appreciate your help. I know that my 8yr. old will enjoy this year. Before he went to bed tonight he was looking for another book he could gobble up. I look forward to this year and not having to make up all the plans for every child. That will really take a load off. I also didn't think about using one side of each guide. That is great flexibility. I also like the idea of half speed and the 4 day a week.

I was thinking about having a different school plan for next year, but I am not sure how to do that yet. I am finding that we need one day a week to catch up around the house and for me to get a few things done other than teaching. The larger our family has gotten, the more time I need to devote to teaching, and the more time I need to devote to cooking, cleaning... Whew - a bit overwhelming at times. Though I know there are many moms out there doing the same thing I am every day and more.

It is good to hear that you have been able to do 3 guides at once. That is very encouraging. Again, thanks for your input. I will take the advice from the pros...

In Him alone -
Kimberly

[my3sons]

I'm so glad you've come to a decision, Kimberly! I think your plan sounds like a good one. We're getting ready to add another HOD program to our schedule with the next year or so too - which will make 3 HOD programs we are using. We've been doing 2 HOD programs for 3 years already, and it's gone great! I know that we can do 3 and enjoy that as well. Looking forward to hearing about your year!

In Christ,
Julie

[Kimberly]

Thanks Julie - I'm looking forward to hearing about my year too. Thanks for all the help
In Him -
Kimberly