Would love some input about next year for K and 3rd grade
Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 11:51 pm
Hi! I've been reading all the posts here for the last few weeks and love how all of you are so willing to offer input. So I thought I'd pose my questions here. I have a 7y.o. son (8 in just a couple weeks) who is finishing up 2nd grade, a 5 y.o. son who will be in kindergarten next year, a 3 year old daughter and a 10 month old son (who just started walking and is now into everything, making our homeschooling a little more difficult!!) We have homeschooled from the beginning, mostly using KONOS unit studies. We love KONOS and I am very pleased with the kids' understanding and retention of the wide variety of science and social studies topics we've focused on. However, for one year, I'd like to have things a little more planned out for me and I just have the itch to try something new. Also, we live in the Midwest, and there is a chance that we will be driving to Washington D.C. and the surrounding area in summer of 2009 and if it does happen, I want the kids to benefit from it as fully as possible by having a basic understanding of United States history. I could do this using KONOS, and no matter which curriculum I choose, I know that we will incorporate some of the activities (the kids have already made me promise that we won't stop using KONOS completely). However, like I said earlier, I want something a tad more structured and I like the idea of having "spine" books rather than having to depend completely on library books. I definitely want to include more literature such as the books by Alice Dagliesh and the d'Aulaire books, but at least this way, if I don't get the chance to get to the library or time is limited, I can just pull out the spine book and the kids will also know what to expect. (I think this would benefit my almost 8 year old as well. Sometimes I think my somewhat eclectic style of teaching doesn't match up as well as it needs to with his need for predictability and order. I think using HOD would help a lot with meeting that need.)
I've been poring over the samples and so on trying to decide what to do. While I've looked at several programs and others look very enticing as well, what consistently pulls me back to HOD is how well it incorporates Bible truths rather than making it another subject that could be pulled out very easily. Also, it just seems so balanced in terms of variety of learning styles, etc.
I'm so confused about what to do though. If I look at the placement chart, my 5 year old places well in Little Hearts, though possibly in Beyond. He's just starting to read simple books with 3 letter words and basic sight words. He can write all his uppercase letters and about 2/3 of the lowercase letters. He's about 2/3 of the way through Earlybird 2A and will likely work on 2B through the summer. He much prefers picture books, though, to longer readings without pictures though I've just started doing some longer readings with him recently in preparation for next year and he's enjoying them more than he has in the past.
My almost 8 year old (3rd grade next year) has been reading chapter books for a couple years. He's currently reading James and the Giant Peach, loves the Boxcar children books, etc. He has a very good grasp of the mechanics of writing, has always been naturally good at spelling, etc. I'd say he's probably about a year above grade level in his writing skills. He's finishing up Singapore Math 2B so will begin 3A in fall. He just completed Cheerful Cursive this week and has very nice cursive handwriting. (He requested to start learning cursive last year in first grade, but we started off at a very gentle pace and then just picked it up again last fall.) I knew HOD would probably be a good fit for us because we already were using several resources that Carrie has chosen, so we must think alike in some areas! When I look at the placement chart, he definitely places in Bigger and possibly even in Preparing, though I'd lean towards Bigger so as not to rush things. (Funny how when he was younger I wanted to challenge him as much as possible! Now, though, I see the benefit of holding back a bit to allow him plenty of time to pursue his own interests, etc. He's one who comes up with so many neat ideas for learning on his own, wants to write about things he experiences, etc.
So my dilemma is this. I just simply can't fathom teaching two separate programs for my 5 and 8 year old in fall because we're used to learning as a family. This year has been wonderful because my 5 year old was old enough to really get involved in our schoolday and both boys were interested in the books we were reading, and even my 3 year old has been involved in a lot of the experiments, acting-out of stories, etc. Yes, sometimes it's difficult because the boys will compete to answer questions and so on, but it's wonderful being able to talk about we're learning, make connections to things we read, do tons of hands-on projects together, etc. and I just don't see us being able to do that if ds5 is learning completely different things than ds8. While I work with each child independently on math and language arts, we love learning about history, science, art, etc. all together. Sometimes I use books that are geared more specifically to one of the children and the other chooses not to listen, but usually we're learning together. (Honestly, even when I work with my 5 y.o. on something on his own that is "fun", my older ds always wants to participate even if it is for learning a skill that is way too easy for him, be it a game, dramatization, etc.) Initially I thought I'd do LHFHG (and I even went ahead and bought it) and BHFHG becuase I read posts on this board about moms who are doing it very successfully by having one child work independently while working with the other child, etc. But then, the more I got to thinking about it, I realized that it will likely be a three ring circus if I'm doing that for all of our schooling! That's what I do for math and reading, but I truly can't picture doing it for everything. My 8 yo doing his own writing or math as I read to his brother about Columbus and have him scooting across the floor acting out the course he took? Um, my 8 y.o. would be right in there wanting to do it too (even though we'd be in another room, he just would not be able to concentrate and would have to come see what we're doing. I know him too well!) Also, then my 5 y.o. would not be getting the American history background that I'd like him to have in the event that we do go to D.C. He picks up on science/social studies concepts quickly and has a mind like a steel trap, so I know he'd really benefit from the knowledge about our country.
I see that Beyond is for ages 6-8, so I'm now thinking that perhaps I should just combine the two of them in that. This is where I'd like some input. 5 y.o. ds will be 6 in December, so he's not too far off from that, and older ds will be 8 for the whole school year, but 3rd grade and an advanced 3rd grader at that. I'm concerned that the program will not be deep enough for him. The Bible and history will be fine (and I plan on supplementing the history with more literature books if we have time and hopefully some lapbooking too. I'd also like to squeeze in a mini-unit on the elections this fall and a bit of U.S. gov't too). I would definitely use DITHOR, and this year we've just spent about 5 minutes a day on a book called Daily Paragraph Editing that has helped a ton with grammar, mechanics, and usage, so I think we'll continue to use that next year. He already knows cursive, so I'd probably just have him use the poem copying as his cursive practice. I guess it's mostly the science that I feel would be lacking for him. I love the notebooking concept in BHFHG and I feel bad he wouldn't be doing that when I know he'd benefit from it this year. Has anyone beefed up the science with something like Noeo Science or some other sort of curriculum? Do you think it's necessary?
For my 5 yo ds, the math in Beyond will be perfect since he'll be starting Singapore 1A in fall or soon after. The language arts may even work for him since he's very anxious to improve his reading over the summer. However, I'm a bit concerned about how he's going to do with the history readings. When readings get too long and he's not interested, he tends to get up and go do something else, which so far I haven't had a problem with since he wasn't even school age yet. I'm thinking that if I add additional history picture books from the library, he'd do just fine though.
Boy, I'm so sorry this is so long! These are all the thoughts that have been rambling around in my mind for the past couple weeks and I just can't decide what to do. Has anyone gone from learning as a family to having separate programs and had success with it (the boys strongly dislike the idea but I'm trying to keep an open mind about it), or has anyone combined kids into a program even though there was a
rather wide variation in their abilities? Thanks so much if you've listened to all my ramblings and have any advice for me!
I've been poring over the samples and so on trying to decide what to do. While I've looked at several programs and others look very enticing as well, what consistently pulls me back to HOD is how well it incorporates Bible truths rather than making it another subject that could be pulled out very easily. Also, it just seems so balanced in terms of variety of learning styles, etc.
I'm so confused about what to do though. If I look at the placement chart, my 5 year old places well in Little Hearts, though possibly in Beyond. He's just starting to read simple books with 3 letter words and basic sight words. He can write all his uppercase letters and about 2/3 of the lowercase letters. He's about 2/3 of the way through Earlybird 2A and will likely work on 2B through the summer. He much prefers picture books, though, to longer readings without pictures though I've just started doing some longer readings with him recently in preparation for next year and he's enjoying them more than he has in the past.
My almost 8 year old (3rd grade next year) has been reading chapter books for a couple years. He's currently reading James and the Giant Peach, loves the Boxcar children books, etc. He has a very good grasp of the mechanics of writing, has always been naturally good at spelling, etc. I'd say he's probably about a year above grade level in his writing skills. He's finishing up Singapore Math 2B so will begin 3A in fall. He just completed Cheerful Cursive this week and has very nice cursive handwriting. (He requested to start learning cursive last year in first grade, but we started off at a very gentle pace and then just picked it up again last fall.) I knew HOD would probably be a good fit for us because we already were using several resources that Carrie has chosen, so we must think alike in some areas! When I look at the placement chart, he definitely places in Bigger and possibly even in Preparing, though I'd lean towards Bigger so as not to rush things. (Funny how when he was younger I wanted to challenge him as much as possible! Now, though, I see the benefit of holding back a bit to allow him plenty of time to pursue his own interests, etc. He's one who comes up with so many neat ideas for learning on his own, wants to write about things he experiences, etc.
So my dilemma is this. I just simply can't fathom teaching two separate programs for my 5 and 8 year old in fall because we're used to learning as a family. This year has been wonderful because my 5 year old was old enough to really get involved in our schoolday and both boys were interested in the books we were reading, and even my 3 year old has been involved in a lot of the experiments, acting-out of stories, etc. Yes, sometimes it's difficult because the boys will compete to answer questions and so on, but it's wonderful being able to talk about we're learning, make connections to things we read, do tons of hands-on projects together, etc. and I just don't see us being able to do that if ds5 is learning completely different things than ds8. While I work with each child independently on math and language arts, we love learning about history, science, art, etc. all together. Sometimes I use books that are geared more specifically to one of the children and the other chooses not to listen, but usually we're learning together. (Honestly, even when I work with my 5 y.o. on something on his own that is "fun", my older ds always wants to participate even if it is for learning a skill that is way too easy for him, be it a game, dramatization, etc.) Initially I thought I'd do LHFHG (and I even went ahead and bought it) and BHFHG becuase I read posts on this board about moms who are doing it very successfully by having one child work independently while working with the other child, etc. But then, the more I got to thinking about it, I realized that it will likely be a three ring circus if I'm doing that for all of our schooling! That's what I do for math and reading, but I truly can't picture doing it for everything. My 8 yo doing his own writing or math as I read to his brother about Columbus and have him scooting across the floor acting out the course he took? Um, my 8 y.o. would be right in there wanting to do it too (even though we'd be in another room, he just would not be able to concentrate and would have to come see what we're doing. I know him too well!) Also, then my 5 y.o. would not be getting the American history background that I'd like him to have in the event that we do go to D.C. He picks up on science/social studies concepts quickly and has a mind like a steel trap, so I know he'd really benefit from the knowledge about our country.
I see that Beyond is for ages 6-8, so I'm now thinking that perhaps I should just combine the two of them in that. This is where I'd like some input. 5 y.o. ds will be 6 in December, so he's not too far off from that, and older ds will be 8 for the whole school year, but 3rd grade and an advanced 3rd grader at that. I'm concerned that the program will not be deep enough for him. The Bible and history will be fine (and I plan on supplementing the history with more literature books if we have time and hopefully some lapbooking too. I'd also like to squeeze in a mini-unit on the elections this fall and a bit of U.S. gov't too). I would definitely use DITHOR, and this year we've just spent about 5 minutes a day on a book called Daily Paragraph Editing that has helped a ton with grammar, mechanics, and usage, so I think we'll continue to use that next year. He already knows cursive, so I'd probably just have him use the poem copying as his cursive practice. I guess it's mostly the science that I feel would be lacking for him. I love the notebooking concept in BHFHG and I feel bad he wouldn't be doing that when I know he'd benefit from it this year. Has anyone beefed up the science with something like Noeo Science or some other sort of curriculum? Do you think it's necessary?
For my 5 yo ds, the math in Beyond will be perfect since he'll be starting Singapore 1A in fall or soon after. The language arts may even work for him since he's very anxious to improve his reading over the summer. However, I'm a bit concerned about how he's going to do with the history readings. When readings get too long and he's not interested, he tends to get up and go do something else, which so far I haven't had a problem with since he wasn't even school age yet. I'm thinking that if I add additional history picture books from the library, he'd do just fine though.
Boy, I'm so sorry this is so long! These are all the thoughts that have been rambling around in my mind for the past couple weeks and I just can't decide what to do. Has anyone gone from learning as a family to having separate programs and had success with it (the boys strongly dislike the idea but I'm trying to keep an open mind about it), or has anyone combined kids into a program even though there was a
rather wide variation in their abilities? Thanks so much if you've listened to all my ramblings and have any advice for me!
You could always allow them to join each other on the readings if they want to, but not require it. That way they could feel as if they're still doing school and learning together, but also have the freedom to pursue something else if it seems too hard (5 yo) or too easy (8 yo). These are just my thoughts. I'm sure others who have done this already will be here soon to offer great suggestions! 
