New here - placement questions

[Parias1126]

Im thinking of switching things up next year (or maybe even sooner) to make school more fun for my children. Things just seem so bland as of now. I've been looking at HOD for a few days now. My first question would be where to place my 8 and 9 (will be 10 the start of the new school year) year olds. Right now we are using SOTW Ancients and finishing it up. For Science, we are using Apologia Botony which started out great, but as we got to the end, it just became too much for the both of them to retain. I would love to move onto American History next year. I'm looking for a curriculum with great literature my children will enjoy and more hands on then what we are currently doing. My biggest thing for Science is I dnt want to be worrying about what I need to gather for the following week. This is when I start to get lazy and science becomes a bother. This was the biggest positive with Apologia this year. I was able to purchase the kit that went along with it.

My other question would be what to do with my 5 year old. I have been working with him using Singapore K and HWOT this year. I just started Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading with him last week which he is loving it so far. We generally only do what he wants to do. I dont require much from him since he wouldn't start K until August.

Can all my children be combined in some way or would I need 2 programs? I don't want my older children to be short changed, and I don't want my 5 year old to be lost. I would love suggestions.

[MomtoJGJE]

I would not suggest combining your kids... They just dont' seem to be anywhere near the same abilities and you'd have twice as much work having everyone on the same level. Have you looked at the placement chart for each of them individually? http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php That is a big help to see where they'd best be placed, and we could help you more to know where each child stands on the placement chart

[Tidbits of Learning]

I would check the placement chart as the pp mentioned. Just from reading your post, I would think you could place your 5 yr old in LHFHG (using your own phonics and handwriting) and your 8 and 9 yr old in Bigger (American History) with extensions if needed for your almost 10 yr old. You would use math, language arts, and reading at their individual levels. Again, you would need to look at the placement chart first to see if they place in those levels or not. Preparing is World History and CTC is Ancient History and begins the history cycle.

[my3sons]

Welcome to the board, Parias1126! If you want school to be fun and still an academic challenge for dc, you will love HOD just like we do! There is nothing bland about HOD - I'm so glad you have come to the board. The ladies are right, checking out the placement chart is a good way to begin placing your dc. I agree that I'd not place the 5 with the 8 and 9 yo dc - someone will be shortchanged or stretched too far. But, I definitely think you can place your 8 and almost 10 yo together, and it will not be hard to teach the 5 yo's guide along with this. tidbitsoflearning gave a good placement for your dc based on what you've shared so far. I would have said the same thing, but I agree that looking at the placement chart (especially the first page) will be key. If your dc place solidly in PHFHG, I'd be apt to do that instead, as though history is important, placement is more important. HOD is full of amazing living books, meaningful and fun hands-on tie-ins, and connections galore. I don't plan ahead to do any of the science in HOD with my dc, and it goes great! The science is a favorite part of HOD for me. I have in the past fallen down in doing science, before using HOD, often times because the experiments were too involved, used things I didn't have on hand, or just took waaaaay too long. Not so with HOD! I have not missed any experiments in the HOD guides through the years. They are planned so well with things I have on hand, shorter time increments, scientific method being taught, and key ideas to help me out. My dc love HOD's science - they are good at it. For the 5 yo, HOD uses Singapore math as well, so that will work great. He can keep using OPGTTR for phonics, as any phonics program works with HOD - same with handwriting. So, if you can check out the placement chart and share your findings, we'll all chime in with more help! We are all looking forward to getting to know you.

In Christ,
Julie

[Parias1126]

Thank you for all the responses. I checked out the placement guide. I really want to avoid splitting up my 8 and 9 year old because that is too much for me. I know me and it just won't get done. I know someone said that putting them in the same level makes more work for me. How so?

My 8 yr old has had grammar instruction and understands parts of speech. He started a formal writing curriculum at the start of 2nd grade, but he has not yet started to write in cursive. He is reading independently, but still doesn't have the confidence for chapter books and still requires just a bit of help every once in while because he is lazy when it comes to sounding words out. He can absolutely do it when he puts forth the effort.

My 9 yr old has also had formal grammar instruction and is diagramming sentences with nouns, verbs, direct objects, and adjectives. She has started a formal writing curriculum and is writing beautifully. She is able to write a formal outline, create a topic sentence from it, detail sentences, and ending sentences with strong verbs and adjectives. She is on her 2nd year of cursive and finally getting it, but doesn't generally practice it in her daily writing. She is reading independently.

They are both in the same place in math. They both just finished up CLE 2nd grade and we are waiting on 3rd grade in the mail.

[MomtoJGJE]

I was meaning it would be a TON of work to combine the olders and the younger More trouble than it's worth.

The writing questions are more on how much writing can they do than about formal writing processes. To me it sounds like Bigger would be a good fit, but keep them on their level of grammar. Especially since you've never done HOD before... Bigger is a good guide to teach all the skills needed to succeed in Preparing and higher guides.

[my3sons]

... it sounds like Bigger would be a good fit, but keep them on their level of grammar. Especially since you've never done HOD before... Bigger is a good guide to teach all the skills needed to succeed in Preparing and higher guides.

I think this advice is right on target! We have found "Bigger Hearts" to be such a foundational year for teaching dc the skills necessary to succeed in so many areas. I like to think of Bigger Hearts as my year to really focus on that child or dc, and make sure he/they are learning the skills they need to, to do well in years to come. I think you will all really enjoy the American history in BHFHG. The Eggleston books continue to be all-time favorites of our dc. So many skills are taught in such a good way - oral narration skills, notebooking skills, genres and parts of the story, poetic devices, Godly character quality studies with personal application, scientific method lab forms, vocabulary work using living books/contextual clues/dictionary/alphabetizing, short but deeper devotions, geography quick-finds and globe activities, etc. I can say that my oldest ds still uses these skills to do well with the upper guides, only on a deeper basis. We partnered together in BHFHG, and I've been reaping the benefits of that solid teaching time we had together ever since with both my older sons. For your 5 yo, I would guess LHFHG would be a good placement. What do you think? There are sooooo many moms doing BHFHG and LHFHG together and loving it. It is fun and very doable! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie