Question about placement for DS-8

[tsteele1231]

Hi,
I have used LHFHG with my DS for ages 5-6, BLHFHG for ages 6-7, and BHFHG for ages 7-8. He has a late April birthday so is on the young end of the age range. This past year I ended up having to modify a lot of the assignments for him because he would get overwhelmed by the amount of writing and some of the activities. He did great with the math for all programs. I would say he is reading right on grade level - not advanced but not far behind either. Having looked at the lessons for PHFHG, I feel like I would be modifying a lot again. I don't want to repeat what we just finished but I'm not sure he is ready to move on because it looks like quite a big jump from BHFHG to PHFHG.
My DD will be starting BLHFHG this fall. I thought about just doing that with both of them but supplement some more advanced stuff for my DS.
I don't want him to get bored by not doing challenging enough activities, but on the other hand I don't want him to get frustrated by assignments that are too difficult.
Has anyone been in a similiar situation and have advice?
Thank you,
Tricia

[MelInKansas]

I think you are wise in realizing right now that you might need to wait to start Preparing Hearts. I'm in a kind of similar situation, writing is definitely our weak point and what is always the hardest for my DD. I think she will grow into it, but we are looking at not finishing Bigger Hearts until she is almost 9. I slowed it WAY down, for various reasons, and I'm glad I did.

Is he doing DITHR? That is also writing intensive. I know this might be more work for you, but I think you've got a good idea to maybe do history/storytime together with the younger one, add the extension books for Beyond to make it more interesting and challenging for him, and I am wondering if you can add in some of the assignments he wasn't really able to do well this year in Bigger Hearts, have him do them himself, or grow into doing them himself during this next school year. Since Beyond and Bigger both do American History maybe you can take the concepts from the Beyond readings and have him do a notebook this year? Just an idea.

ETA: also if you count up the guides, you have a year of flex between K and 8th grade. Meaning, it's okay if you don't do one guide a year, you would still be able to finish them all. There are only 8 guides for 9 years of schooling. And plenty to do in those 8 guides, so it's not like it will even feel like you are stretching it out.

[TrueGRIT]

Hi! Yes, I am in a similar situation with my ds, just turned 9. Your son actually sounds a bit more advanced than mine.

Here is a link to my post, and good replies by Julie (my3sons).
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13476&p=96431&hilit ... rts#p96431

Don't know if this will help, but maybe you will get something out of it!
I am sure others will chime in as well.

[MomtoJGJE]

The other thought is to do it half speed, or even less for a while.

I would not hesitate to put my child back in a guide we did before if I had to modify that guide when they were in it the first time. I did that with my oldest. According to the placement chart she fit in Beyond at 6. But as the year went on I was cutting things out of our days and doing less and less things simply because it was too hard for her. So the next year I went through it again. So much time had passed that even though she knew it was the same books, she did not realize we had read those sections before. She got SO much more out of it. But I didn't know about slowing down to half speed at that time.

But as far as slowing down if you thought he'd remember going back and not do well with that, you could do half speed four days per week. So it would take you 2.5 weeks to get through one unit.

Another way to slow down and give your child time to grow into it is to just set an amount of time each day that you want to devote to school. For an 8 year old I personally think two hours is plenty of work. Do whatever amount of boxes you can get done in your set amount of time.

[tsteele1231]

Thank you for your ideas. I am spending a lot of time praying about what I should do with him. When I mentioned to him about possibly going back to a guide we have done before he was not too happy. I think I could change it up and add more to where he wouldn't even know it was the same stuff.
I'm still deciding whether to do that or do Preparing at a slow pace.

I have not started DITHOR with him yet. I bought it last year thinking we would do it, but after looking through it decided to save it for later. I may get it back out to see about trying it this fall.

Thanks again,
Tricia

[my3sons]

In general, it's usually not great to repeat a guide. However, if the child didn't do the majority of the guide's activities, skills, follow-ups, discussions, projects, experiments, etc. - then it really isn't redoing a guide. It's doing the guide fully for the first time! So, I'd look at each box of plans in BHFHG, and assess how much of each ds truly did consistently throughout the year. If he did a large percentage of all of what is assigned in BHFHG, I'd do half-speed PHFHG. If he didn't do very much, I'd repeat it, and I'd explain that to ds - that he didn't really do all of it and needs to finish - I'd also explain he is on the very young end of the guide, so he'd be doing what most dc his age are doing anyway. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie