placement advice...

[truthwalker]

Hello, I am going to be starting HOD with my children after much praying and researching. This is our 6th year homeschooling. I have 7 children ages 14, 13, 10, 8, 5, 2, and I'm due with #7 the end of February.

I have looked at the placement charts and decided where I would put them all individually.
5yo...Little Hearts
8yo (almost)...Beyond
10yo (just turned)...Preparing

After discussing together me and dh have decided to go ahead and do Little Hearts with my 5yo because he is really needing some one on one atttention from me. I will use all of HOD choices for him.

I thought I would do Bigger with the 8 and 10 yo, adding the extension for 10yo.
These two are doing CLE Math and we will stick with that, as they are doing well with it and I love the program. 10yo just started Easy Grammar and 8yo is going through R&S Reading and Phonics for remediation.

Right now I'm just focusing on these children but if all goes well then I would consider a package for older two (13 and 14) I would have no idea of where to place them. It looks like Rev to Rev.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

God Bless!

[my3sons]

Welcome to the HOD Board, truthwalker! I'm glad you got a chance to check out the placement chart, and that you shared those results here as that is very helpful. I think your 5 yo sounds placed well in LHFHG, and that will be a great fit! Because your 8 yo placed best in Beyond, I'd be inclined to combine that child with your 5 yo in LHFHG, and add the LA/math from Beyond. This would have you focusing on your 5 yo individually for LA and math, but combining the 2 of them for the rest of the guide. It is much easier to beef up than to tweak down, and Bigger Hearts is a meaty program. If your 8 yo best places in Beyond, I'd not try to have him do Bigger Hearts. Usually the amount of writing in Bigger Hearts is too much for a child who places best in Beyond. Here is a link that may help with this...
Amount of writing in BHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005

If the writing in Bigger Hearts is too much for the 8 yo I think it will result in much tweaking and frustration for the 8 yo child, and it may slow down the 10 yo who placed best in PHFHG. By putting your 10 yo in PHFHG, you'd be letting that child be very successful with the independence planned in PHFHG. This would free up time to focus on the 5 yo, and the 8 yo, in the areas each of them are most needing you. If you end up placing your oldest dc in RevtoRev, I can vouch for the excellence of that program for those ages, and the level of independence planned for those ages is right on target for their age. I am currently doing RevtoRev, PHFHG, and LHFHG myself, and I love our days. I find them very manageable because everyone can truly do their guides - I have no tweaking at all. I realize that you have more dc in the mix, and a little blessing on the way as well, and I know that makes life busier, but I can say whole-heartedly that when dc are placed in guides that they can do that require no tweaking, using multiple guides is far easier. I know you'd asked for placement advice, so those are just a few thoughts I had, but you will know best here!

In Christ,
Julie

[truthwalker]

Thank you very much for your advice! I understand what you are saying and I will take that into consideration. I just ordered LHFHG for my 5yo so I can get a good feel if I want to use it for my 8yo also.
I can't purchase the other packages till January so this gives me some time. If I see that 8yo will fit better in LHFHG then I can just get Preparing for my 10yo.