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Hi there,

I am a first year Homeschooler and HOD user. This is my second post on the boards, my first was about placement. I ended up placing my first grader in Beyond and it seems to be a great fit. My third grader I debated over Bigger vs Preparing, I even got sick to my stomach over it because I was stressing so much! I went with Beyond and although the history and science are pretty good for her the spelling, dictation, and read aloud are just way too behind for her. I don't want my daughter who loves to learn and is quite bright ( she knows the meaning of and how to use the word perplexed) to become bored and not enjoy this year. Can anyone offer any advice? Just a side note, the public school she attended last year was looking to place her in gifted and talented this year, so I know I'm not just imagining her intelligence.

Thank you,
Alicia

The dictation gets harder each year, you might need a higher level manual for dictation. if you do dictation then you aren't doing spelling. There are several read aloud listed in the manual for each genre and some are more advanced. Perhaps yoy could try another one? Also you could add the extension package.

Alicia,

Can you clarify whether you placed your daughter in Beyond or Bigger? You stated that she placed between Bigger and Preparing, but she is in Beyond.
If she is indeed in Bigger, you could perhaps jump to the middle of the dictation passages and see how she does there, maybe that will be more challenging for her. She does not need to do spelling and dictation at the same time either (don't know if you are doing both or just noticed that she was beyond the spelling lists and started on dictation). The dictation becomes the way to train dc in spelling correctly in context.
Success and HTH

Agreeing with the others. Do dictation at her level (enough she learns, but not so hard she gets discouraged). Pick any book in the specific genre for read alouds. Carrie gives suggestions that she knows are good quality books, but any will work.

I'm sorry I didn't mean to be confusing, I probably shouldn't have written it so late last night! . My younger daughter is in Beyond. My older daughter, the third grader, and the one I am talking about is in Bigger. Thanks for the advice so far!

Also I skipped the spelling since they are all words she already mastered and went right to dictation but so far that appears too easy as well.

Hi Alicia,

We are using Bigger for our third grader this year too. My son has found the dictation easy so far as well which is encouraging to him. If you bump your daughter up higher on the dictation list and she's still able to do it effortlessly, you could use the dictation in the next guide up.

I'm curious as to what you mean with the read alouds being too easy?

Also, the extension package offers some great independent reading if you feel your daughter is ready and able to do more in addition to her reading program.

What Unit are you on? We've just completed #1!

Our 3rd grade daughters seem VERY similar and have same background and i had a similar post not too long ago! we are newbies to hs and HOD. i need to have my girl challenged too!

search my posts- i don't have many of them...and haven't taken the time to learn how to post a link yet

but one of my posts is called" what if dictation is way too easy?"

one of the replies to my posts mentions looking up the next dictation list on google books......well- this is what we are doing and it has been very good. I just found a list I knew would challenge her and we are moving forward with this.

as for the read aloud time - i took some other posters advice and did NOT let her read it on her own- even though she begged me (cause she thought it would be easy) and I was concerned she would be bored....i read during or right after lunch while everyone is at the table and it's turned out to be really great..my daughter is the one reminding me to read when i forget..some great life lessons...there is something about me reading to her and spending that time with her .

The storytime books are meant to be read aloud by you to teach listening skills, narration, and learn about genres. You can choose any book suggested or any book that fits the genre for that matter. Is she doing DITHR? That is were you can have her reading books on her own at her level.

Alicia,

Welcome to HOD! I'm so glad that you are getting to use our guides. Correct placement can really be tough when you're just starting our in HOD, so it is possible that your daughter should be in Preparing Hearts instead of in Bigger Hearts.

In order for us to advise you a bit better, it would be so helpful to know what unit you are currently on in Bigger Hearts. I'm also wondering if your daughter is easily doing all 3 vocab. cards each week, all of the science notebooking and lab sheets very easily, plus the notebooking for the history easily too. There are so many skills wound within Bigger Hearts that aren't always readily apparent in the opening weeks, so I'm just trying to get a fuller picture of how she's handling the amount of writing and the level of all assignments in Bigger.

Next, I'm wanting to make sure that she is doing Drawn into the Heart of Reading as that will definitely be a needed part of a very academic student's day. As far as the read-alouds go, I'm confused as to how these could possibly be beneath her? The follow-up skills come from the nine different genres and cover questions from Bloom's taxonomy, along with application of the story elements, and Godly character traits. Narration is wound within there too, so there are many upper level skills tied with the read-alouds. The read-alouds are chapter books meant to be read-aloud by you to your little honey.

As far as the dictation passages go, I'm wanting to be sure that you are having your daughter study the passage first, then taking the passage away, and dictating the passage with no repeating of the dictation. Kiddos are to write the passage from a single dictation. She should then say the passage back to you, write it, and check the passage herself. Dictation incorporates so many more skills than just spelling. It teaches listening skills, picturing entire passages in the mind, and proofreading skills, along with spelling. In my 22 years as a teacher, both in the classroom and at home, it's been my experience that good spellers are often naturals at it, as they naturally picture the words and can see what looks right in their own mind. So, working to challenge a natural speller can become an extreme, and often unnecessary, search. My own older sons were natural spellers, one of them only missed one passage all year within the studied dictation passages in Bigger Hearts. Yet, he still took much from the exercise of doing the dictation, and we saw gains in written work in many areas during that year. He also began learning to be a proofreader of his own work. It is a fine line as to whether a child needs to be challenged in every area all year. There are times when an area of natural ability should just be an area of ease.

If you deeply desire to have harder passages, you could choose them from your child's literature, which is the way CM did it. Just choose several sentences on one page of the book your child is reading for DTIHR, have your child study the sentences, and then follow the same process mentioned above.

If you feel that your daughter can easily do everything being asked of her in Bigger Hearts in the opening weeks, than it could be a strong indicator that she belongs in Preparing. When making this judgment be sure that she is truly doing everything in Bigger Hearts with ease. If you need to change to Preparing, just return all your unused books, and we'll gladly exchange them for what you need for Preparing. I'm so glad you posted, as finding the right fit is really important in the long haul!

Blessings,
Carrie