Older child doing Preparing--add Writing?

This is where new posts begin. All questions or discussions about any of Heart of Dakota's curriculums start here. If you wish to share a one-time post about your family's experience with our curriculum, you may post under the specific curriculum title (found beneath this "Main Board" heading).
Post Reply
holdinon
Posts: 228
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 7:37 pm

Older child doing Preparing--add Writing?

Post by holdinon » Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:35 pm

I need some input on writing for my dd11.

Most of you will probably need background, so I'll give that, but will try to keep it as brief as possible. :wink:

I had her combined with her brother (11 months younger) when we first started HOD, three years ago. We began with Beyond and it was a fantastic fit for both of them. We moved on to Bigger and it was still a great fit.....for a while. DD was still thriving while ds sort of nose-dived. Thinking it was just a phase (since all had been going so smoothly for a year and a half), we just stuck with it trudging through very slowly. Since we have many kiddos on varying levels, I just couldn't see having the time to split the two and add in another guide. My oldest was much farther ahead, so it would not have worked to move dd11 up with her. Long story, short, I feel like I did dd11 a dis-service by not making a change much earlier. But that is water under the bridge now, and here we are :oops: .

As it turned out, we realized ds has dyslexia, and though he thrived in school his first several years, once he hit about age 9, it became tough. Most of my "extra" time was (is) spent on him. As a result, dd11 was just sort of "stuck". Finally, after another several months of prayer and many conversations with dh, I realized we just didn't have a choice, and that we HAD to do something different, as it was putting dd further and further behind (and she would have been perfectly capable of progressing forward). Finally, I decided to split them up. God has provided supernatural "extra" time in our day. (I say this because I really had NO time to spare, yet He has allowed us to be able to add more time to our school day as far as "Mom-time", yet our total hours of school per day really hasn't changed that much--we are done slightly later, but not nearly to the proportion that it should have been----I know because I wrote it on paper 1000 times before biting the bullet and making the leap :wink: . (Ok, now I'm adding details, so this isn't going to be as short as I was shooting for :roll: ).

Anyway. Emma started Preparing. She is doing her correct level in math, and she's doing R&S 4. During the last part of Bigger, we added extensions (and the follow up assignments) for her (she didn't need them at the beginning, but due to doing Bigger for almost 2 years, they became necessary). We are doing the extensions and follow ups for Preparing also. She is using level 4/5 for Dithor. She is technically about to go into 6th grade. I think we are ok on those things, but I am a little concerned about the writing. She's doing well enough with the extension written narrations, and doing well with everything in Preparing so far. She is definitely not what I would call a strong writer, but I think that is more from not having to do it before--- she has come a very long way in just a few months. Should I just let this be enough, or should I add in Write With the Best? And, if I do add in Write With the Best, what would we use for CtC next year? Also, her spelling leaves a lot to be desired. But I am not as concerned about this part, as I am seeing much improvement in this area since we have been doing dictation more consistently (while she was still joined with ds, we had only been doing it as we moved to a new day of Bigger---which was only about once every 3-4 days).

I'm also wondering about Ignite Your Writing. I'm thinking she'd need to first level???? If we did this series through Preparing, would WWTB still be ok to do with CtC? Or do they cover much of the same thing? We did WWTB with my older dd, so I am familiar with it, but have not seen Ignite Your Writing, so I don't know how much cross-over (if any) there is. And how long do the lessons take?

Well, this got longer than anticipated, and my thoughts were more jumbled than I realized when I began typing. But the main questions are: Should I add a writing program to Preparing for an 11 yo, going into 6th grade, who is intelligent, and capable, but quite "behind" due to lack of consistency over the last year and a half? Is there anything else (besides extensions) that you would add? Also, I would like to stay as close as possible to doing future guides as written, as I have seen with my older how it all fits together. So with anything I need to add, I'd prefer to do something entirely different, rather than use the next guide's plans. (Other than Grammar and Math, as we are on a different schedule with that anyway).

Thanks for any insights you can give.
2013-2014 year:
Geography, CtC, Preparing, Bigger, Beyond, and Little Hearts (and surviving!)

(Completed LHTH, LHFHG, BLHFHG, BHFHG, Preparing, CtC, RtR, and RevtRev)

netpea
Posts: 714
Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:39 pm
Location: Michigan
Contact:

Re: Older child doing Preparing--add Writing?

Post by netpea » Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:36 pm

I think I would wait and just do Preparing with extensions. CTC has WWTB scheduled in.
Lee Ann
DD3 - LHTH
DD10 - no longer schooled at home
DS12 - no longer schooled at home

Have used LHTH, LHFHG, BLHFHG, and BHFHG
http://netpea.blogspot.com

Molly
Posts: 288
Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:12 am
Location: South Island, New Zealand

Re: Older child doing Preparing--add Writing?

Post by Molly » Mon Jun 04, 2012 9:08 pm

Not quite sure when your DD turned 11, but my end of April 11 yr old daughter is doing Preparing with Extensions. I'm leaving it at that. She is doing IEW through a co-op, but I'm not pushing that because I don't really feel it is necessary now that I have found HOD and can see the eggs all lined up in the basket in terms of learning. She is quite advanced and really should have started in CTC but I was trying to do the combining thing. I am however still planning at this stage to skip CTC with her and just put her into RtR when she finishes Preparing.
Michelle, Mum homeschooling four beauties in NZ
DD1 (13): Rev2Rev, DITHR
DD2 (11): CTC, DITHR
DS1 (8): BHFHG
DS2 (4): LHTH

Post Reply