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spend the next 4 - 5 months working through those challenges and THEN start our new guides OR start the new guides half speed and continue going half speed until our remedial work is done??? I'd love to circle the wagons and just focus on math, English and this program we are tackling. Then, when that is behind us start the guides (late fall perhaps?). However, I KNOW how four or five months can really move a kid forward and I wonder if we'd miss the proper placement in our upcoming guides (DS9 Preparing, DS8 Bigger).

We are investing some time in an intensive phonics program in order to remediate some reading and spelling challenges with my boys. I believe the effort will prove VERY fruitful for them and I am thankful for the opportunity to solidify their foundation. In essence, I am filling their English tool box with useful tools that I hope will make their future studies all the more profitable (and less frustrating ).

I think you could really go either way, but it seems reasonable to me to spend the summer really focussing on the spelling issues. That's probably what I'd do in your situation. Maybe you could start HOD in September half speed if your still working on the spelling issues, then try to get to full speed within a month or two?

I hope you figure out what will work just right for your children! We're looking forward to starting our new schoolyear soon. (Since I have baby #5 due in late Sept., we're going to start early so I can take a break when our little girl comes.)

I think summer would be a good time to focus solely on your remedial program, and then in the fall, I'd enjoy starting BHFHG and PHFHG with the dc. After about 3 months, dc seem ready to go back to a buffet of learning, where some of the subjects are easier because they are "their thing", and some of the subjects are a challenge. If you need to start the guides half-speed at that point, you surely could, but after a summer of a focus on the areas you'd like to remediate that are a challenge for the dc, I think it would be fun to come back to all subject areas for variety and for the balance of some things that come more easily to the dc and some that are harder. I also think your dc will have probably made some good progress at that point and be ready for more! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank-you ladies. I agree and my thinking is aligned with yours. I don't want to do a lot of school this summer because when the sun shines in Oregon we need to go outside and play. However, we did so little schooling over the school year (health challenges abounded) that we need to spend a couple of hours each day working on 3 R's this summer. I don't feel that is asking too much of my kids and is a very good use of their time. We don't have the blessing of a yard so my children don't have the same opportunities to be outside and freely exploring. Their time is more structured and Mom driven at this point.

The guides look so good and I am excited to get them started, ya know?!