Laura O. wrote:Thank you so much for your welcome
And thanks for all the links, I haven't made it through all of them yet!
I printed out went of the Placement chart. There were several that I wasn't sure which section they exactly fit in
But, I think that this is how they all fit in:
DD10---Creation to Christ
DS8---- Bigger Hearts for His Glory
DS5---- Little Hearts for His Glory
I didn't want it to be too hard for any of them, so I was kind of going with the lower side for each of them. Does this seem reasonable?
Also, I remembered another thing I was wondering about
While my oldest *loves* to read, my 8 year old is not very into reading at all, though of course he can read. Has anyone had trouble with "non-readers" having a hard time with HOD?
Thanks again for your help
I'm glad you were able to check out the placement chart. It is so helpful!
It is quite common for dc coming into HOD to place in a guide where they are in the upper age range. I think this works out well, as it allows them to grow into the guide and lays a strong foundation in many skill areas that may be newer to them. HOD is a very balanced curriculum and teaches skills incrementally from year to year, so it makes good sense to come into a guide at the point where a child needs instruction for a set of skills.
In Bigger Hearts, you will be doing the reading for all subject areas, except for reading instruction. He will either read the Emerging Reader's Set or Drawn into the Heart of Reading Level 2/3 for his reading instruction. Here is a link to each of those, so you can see which would fit him the best...
http://www.heartofdakota.com/emerging-reader.php
http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional.php
Bigger Hearts has a fair share of writing that dc grow into. It takes a bit for dc to strengthen these skills. Beyond Little Hearts has less writing than Bigger Hearts, and Beyond would also be a fine placement for your 8 yo. Here is a rundown of the writing in Bigger Hearts...
Bigger Hearts:
Copywork of the poem (1 per week)
a Cursive program (daily)
R & S grammar (we wrote about 1/3 of it, doing the other portion orally, or on markerboard; daily; about 1/2 a page skipping lines)
Dictation OR spelling words (daily)
DITHOR Student Book (Level 2/3, approximately 2-3 workbook pages a week)
Science Notebooking (1 per week; approximately 2-4 sentences)
History Notebooking (1 per week; approximately 2-4 sentences)
Science Lab report (1 paper, 1 per week, not much writing - maybe 3-5 sentences with picture)
1-3 vocab. cards for history (1 time a week)
Bible Memory Verse copied (1 time a week)
For your 10 yo, CTC has quite meaty readings. Here is a link to what I think is one of the harder history resources dc read independently from in CTC - you may want to have your oldest try reading it...
http://www.nothingnewpress.com/guerber/ancient26-27.pdf
CTC is also quite independent. All of the "I" boxes in the daily plans are meant to be done totally independently by the student. I think it makes a big difference how well dc read directions and whether they have learned the skills to be able to work well independently. You may want to double-check if your 10 yo can do the "I" boxes independently. It is also helpful for dc to have experience with CM skills of oral narration and written narration when doing CTC as well. I'm hoping these few things will help you further with placement decisions.
I am just wanting to be very sure about placement for each of your dc, as teaching multiple guides is not hard to do as long as dc can do what they are asked to do in a guide. If a mom has to take back skills that are labeled "I" because a child is not ready to do them independently, the mom's teaching time naturally goes up, as does the time it takes to complete a day's worth of school for the child. I just want to be doubly sure about placement advice here, as days go so well when dc are able to do what is asked of them, and moms just are teaching the parts they are meant to be teaching.
One thing you could possibly do is have your 8 and 10 yo do "Bigger Hearts..." together, but have your 10 yo do the extensions. I only throw this out there as it would work with their age levels, and it is kind of nice to begin with 2 HOD programs if you are new to HOD. However, you are an experienced homeschooling mom, and you have been used to teaching multiple programs, and HOD is (IMHO) one of the easiest curriculums to teach using multiple guides. Sooooo, you will most certainly know best here. HTH!
In Christ,
Julie
DS is much more easily distracted and and needs to be "kept on track", if that makes sense