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We are new to HOD and I am trying to place my 13 year old son. His reading is not super strong but he is not a struggling reader either. Also we have no previous exposure to dictation or narration. I am an extremely busy mom with a baby on the way in 6 weeks and also have a 3 year old and a 6 year old who i will be teaching to read and starting LHFHG. We also live on a ranch with horses and chickens and have a lot of responsibilities besides school. I am thinking the science may be too easy for him. We have already done some of the apologia elementary sciences but not land animals. So I am wondering with my family dynamics and my sons ability if starting him with CTC would be too easy. I originally wanted to start him with Revival to Revolution but am wondering if that would be way to hard.
Thanks,
Raylene

A big welcome to HOD!

My son is 13-years-old (will be 14 in Aug), and we are also new to HOD. I decided to go with CtC with the extension package; after getting help from these lovely ladies here, looking over the charts, the programs, and what came with each package. My son is a very strong reader, but has not done much written narration. We also wanted to start with ancient history.

We were new to HOD last year and used CTC w/ extensions for our then 13yo. It was a perfect fit!! We are in RTR this year and have Rev2Rev ready for next year already! HOD is so user-friendly, but if you are new to it, then CTC won't be too easy.

Have you checked the placement chart on the main site to see where your son fits skill-wise?

Yes, I did the chart and he seems to place in the Res to Revival but am leery about starting him there because of his reading level. I also would not get the extension pack if I did CTC. I think that the reading level for that would be perfect with him without it. Hoping he wont be overwhelmed with all the work. I am new to Charlotte mason method too but hear its very gentle.

Raylene,

Welcome to the HOD Board! We're glad to have you here. The ladies are doing a wonderful job of talking through placement options for your son. In order to make sure we get him placed correctly, I'm wondering if you'd be willing to share a couple more things about him?

It would help so much if we knew a few titles of some books he's read recently on his own. Another helpful thing would be to know how much formal grammar instruction he's had up to this point? An additional area I'm wondering about is how he does with written work. Has he had much in the way of a formal writing program of some kind yet, and how does he feel about writing in general? Does it take him quite some time to do, or is it no problem?

Last, I'm wondering if he's read his own history and science in the past and how he does in reading and following lengthy written directions? Is he an independent worker?

If you get a chance to pop back and answer these questions, we can all advise you so much better in fine-tuning his placement.

Blessings,
Carrie

My son has read books such as diary of an early american boy, which he loved, some of the Janet and Geoff Benge books on Christian Heroes. This seems to be a perfect reading level for him. He is currently reading the Scout series which we get from Vision Forum. He seems to thrive off of reading anything that relates back to God.(He is very spiritually minded and loves books that talk about God or spiritual issues). He is completely independent on all of his school work although we go over his math together so independence is defiantly not an issue. He is currently doing Switched On Schoolhouse history and science. To me that is pretty textbooky even though it is on the computer. He seems to do fine with that although he is doing 5th grade. He doesn't enjoy the science as it is just a bunch of names and facts. One of the reasons we are doing SOS this year is that I have had a very difficult pregnancy and am due in about 5 weeks. Most of my babies are very hard and my 3 year old is VERY high maintenance. This is my only fear with doing HOD.I will definitely be doing HOD with my 7 year old son this next year and teaching him to read which has been a hard and slow process so i finally just quit. He did IEW level A last year with a small co-op and is working with a lady this year who uses a lot of IEW techniques. He seems to enjoy creative writing on a topic way more than instructed writing. He has had one year of Shurley grammar in 3rd grade and is currently doing easy grammar. I think he is very week in his grammar and he has never diagrammed sentences. He did Rod and Staff in 4th grade (level 3) and completed the whole book. He hated it because I made him write EVERY SINGLE thing out. I saw the fruit from it though and would be very willing to do Rod and Staff again but just orally. He is not crafty at all nor is he an attention to detail person--very sloppy work.I think it will be good to challenge him more in this area so he can maybe develop these skills and be proud of what he has created. He has also not done cursive writing but can have him work through a book this summer. I was going to hook up with his best friend to do HOD together and on those days maybe do some of the crafts together. I read to him the week lesson plans of CTC and he seemed to like all of it and not be bothered with all the activities. He did think it was a lot though. I told him it was only 4 days instead of 5 so that made him happy. He is not a reluctant student by any means and will do anything I put in front of him--he's a great kid. When I did the placement chart he tested more in the guide after CTC. He hasnt done ancients since 2nd grade--story of the world. He is definitely an auditory learner and LOVES Diane Waring's CDs. I was thinking of doing level 4/5 for drawn into the heart of reading. I hope this helps I am totally at a loss as where to put him.
Thanks so much for your help,
Raylene

Raylene,

Thanks so much for taking the time to share a bit more about your son. It is so helpful to know more about a few key areas as we seek to advise you placement-wise for him.

From what you've shared, I would agree that placing him in CTC would be the best fit in pretty much every area. I would lean toward placing him in English 5, as CTC does only the first half of English 5 (with the second half in RTR). You are right to plan to do much of it orally or on a whiteboard, with just a portion assigned to be done on paper each day. I do think it will be good for him to do Write the Best as scheduled in CTC for writing.

If you haven't had much in the way of formal literature instruction, I would lean toward using Level 4/5 of DITHR for one year. After that I would bump him up to Level 6/7/8 the following year (even if you haven't completed all of Level 4/5). Just make sure that when you switch to Level 6/7/8, you do the genres you did not get to in Level 4/5 first. In that way, he'll receive a balanced reading experience.

As far as the science goes, I would lean toward doing it as written in CTC, however you may wish to add something like the Biology 101 DVD for him to watch on the 5th day of each week, just to raise the content level a bit (since your son will be on the older age range of the guide).

You'll need the Extension Pack for your son in CTC, but not the Basic Package. This is because of your son's age, and also because will be doing another HOD program with a read-aloud already. In that way, you won't need to do multiple read-alouds each day.

I think you have a good plan coming together!

As far as your 7 year old goes, I'm not sure if you are leaning toward Little Hearts or Beyond for him right now. However, you could consider The Reading Lesson with CD for helping him learn to read. It is a good incremental approach and can be done cuddled on the couch in just short sessions each day. The CD is hugely helpful and entertaining.

We'd be glad to help with placement for your 7 year old too, if needed.

On a sidenote, I'm so sorry for your difficult pregnancies. I have had those too with every pregnancy I've had... bedrest and long hospital stays with babies finally coming early around 34-35 weeks (which was always a blessing for me to get that far). I pray for your babe to be here in God's perfect timing.

Blessings,
Carrie

Wow! Thank you so much Carrie. What a blessing that was. So I need to order the extension pack instead of the basic? Are the books harder to read? I don't want to make it any harder than it has to be. But I do love the idea of not doing all those read alouds--I never even thought of that. Also, with all of his history books to read AND DITHOR is that going to be tons of reading for him? I will definitely schedule DITHOR on a 15 day instead of the shorter times but am not sure how fast you go through the history books. Also, do you think I need to go through a cursive book with him? He doesn't know how to write in cursive and I noticed that a lot of their copy work and stuff is to be written in cursive. If so, which one do you recommend we work on this summer>

As far as my 7 year old son goes, i was planning on placing him n LHFHG just because he is not reading yet and he is somewhat wiggly. Also the only math we have done so far is saxon K but he still doesn't even know all of his numbers. I really liked what I saw for The Reading Lesson and definitely will use that with the CD. I will also try Singapore math although I am not familiar with it and hope he will enjoy it. He is a visual learner but LOVES kinestetic stuff. He draws pictures of birds about 2 hours every day--not kidding. He LOVES drawing.

Thanks again for all your help I am so excited to get started.

raylene wrote:Wow! Thank you so much Carrie. What a blessing that was. So I need to order the extension pack instead of the basic? Are the books harder to read? I don't want to make it any harder than it has to be. But I do love the idea of not doing all those read alouds--I never even thought of that. Also, with all of his history books to read AND DITHOR is that going to be tons of reading for him? I will definitely schedule DITHOR on a 15 day instead of the shorter times but am not sure how fast you go through the history books. Also, do you think I need to go through a cursive book with him? He doesn't know how to write in cursive and I noticed that a lot of their copy work and stuff is to be written in cursive. If so, which one do you recommend we work on this summer>

As far as my 7 year old son goes, i was planning on placing him n LHFHG just because he is not reading yet and he is somewhat wiggly. Also the only math we have done so far is saxon K but he still doesn't even know all of his numbers. I really liked what I saw for The Reading Lesson and definitely will use that with the CD. I will also try Singapore math although I am not familiar with it and hope he will enjoy it. He is a visual learner but LOVES kinestetic stuff. He draws pictures of birds about 2 hours every day--not kidding. He LOVES drawing.

Thanks again for all your help I am so excited to get started.

Carrie will surely respond when she gets a chance here too, but I will try to help in the meantime. These are the extension package books, and they would be somewhat harder to read, but would probably fit your ds's age well. There are also several audio resources included in the extension package (Ben Hur, and The Cat of Bubastes), so that adds nice variety.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11317

The readings are broken up, with DITHOR only being scheduled 3 of the 4 days of plans each week. The extensions can be read another time of day too, i.e. I know some dc read them during a quiet time in their rooms or before bedtime. The follow-ups for the extensions can be done as needed. Perhaps you would want to begin without him doing the follow-ups to the extensions, so he could focus on getting into a good routine with the daily plans of CTC. I do think he should do a year of cursive, and "Cheerful Cursive" was great for our dc! I highly recommend it. It is easy to work into the day, does not have much writing on each page, and has clear enough directions dc can eventually do it pretty independently. We only did one year of cursive with "Cheerful Cursive", and our dc write quite neatly in cursive still. I think your 7 yo would LOVE LHFHG, The Reading Lesson, and the Singapore math! That all sounds like a great placement for him. HTH! We love using HOD in our home, I bet you will too!

In Christ,
Julie

Julie,
You all are so amazing. I have never in all my years of homeschooling had such support and individual concern and help with my endeavors. You answered all of my questions especially the cursive. I am trying to get him to work on reading a book in about 15 days and a little more challenging book to see how he responds to that. I am going to have him read The Bronze Bow which I think will challenge him a bit and maybe be similar to what the extension books will be like. I do like your idea about reading before bed or at a different time and am very glad to know that DITHOR is not every day. I appreciate your input. I LOVE this company and this message board. Also, thanks for the input on my 7 year old with math and stuff. I am definitely going to do that.
Be blessed,
Raylene

I'm so glad to help, Raylene! You have a super plan in place - now you just get to enjoy it!

In Christ,
Julie