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I always think people shouldn't overthink thier homeschool, yet I'm doing just that! haha! Looking at this year, and onto the future, I would like to continue to combine as many as possible. So if I put Abby and Joshua into Preparing for next year (extentions for Abby-6th, no extentions for Joshua, 4th), put James and Toby in LHFHG (James 2nd with 2nd grade science, and Toby K), then when Abby is in hs I would need to beef up HOD since she wouldn't be done with the history cycle for 9th and 10th, I'm wondering about Levi and Emma. Levi will be 4 this fall and Emma 2. Do I wait to do LHFHG with them until Emma is 5 and Levi is 7 so they can stick together in a learning group? Or would I do better putting Abby in RtR, Joshua and James in Bigger and wait to put Toby in LHFHG until Levi is 5 and Toby is 6, keeping those two together, and wait to see on Emma and any future babies the Lord would bless us with? Bigger would be a challenge for James, he is very bright, but he struggles to compose sentences by himself, and Joshua would possibly need extentions on Bigger, he fits more into preparing. Toby wants to do school, and Levi is not intrested in it unless it has tractors involved! haha! How do larger families work in combining? We will be doing differant LA's, spelling and math for all of them.

It's not a bad idea to look a little ahead, and I can see how this would be very helpful to do, especially with a larger family! My head is spinning reading this though, so I can see how yours is too! Do you think you could list out the kiddos' ages, and where each of them individually place in the placement chart? Maybe just some basic info about each of their reading, writing, grammar, math? That would help me wrap my mind around this and give better advice. I'll check back and then we'll do some looking ahead and chat together!

In Christ,
Julie

Sure! James will be 7 in Aug. He fits into Beyond, he reads out of the 2nd grade Abeka books, is very smart, but he has muscular dystrophy so his hands are weak and although he can write, his writing needs some work and although he can spell better then his older brother, he has trouble writing out sentences. He does great with copywork. We have used Queens Homeschool for lang arts and Horizons math, I'd like to continue with those.
Joshua just turned 9 yesterday! He is not one for sitting still and struggles greatly with spelling. He does great in math and his reading has taken off, although he is still reading 3rd grade Abeka books (he read 2nd grade books through most of his 3rd grade year, and started the 3rd grade ones at the end of his 3rd grade year.) His reading comp is good. His writing would be better if he could spell. He can write paragraphs and mini reports on his own. He can do cursive (but occasionally needs a chart when he forgets a letter), and has doen copywork in cursive. He fits nicely into Preparing...minus spelling!
Abigail is 11 and LOVES to learn! LOVES to read! She fits into Resurrection to Reformation, could do the next one except she hasn't had much work with literary terms. She hasn't done sentence diagraming, but we will be doing Queen's lang arts again, so thats not a biggy.
Toby is 5 and all of 5...he knows several phonics and can read a few short words, starting to write letters, but he needs work plus he can't sit long!
Levi is 3 and can only sit through a very short story! haha!
Emma, 19 months old and sits on the books!

Let me see if I have this right. Your plan is putting the 11 and just turned 9 y/os together in Preparing, the 5 and 7 y/os in Little Hearts, and wondering what to do later on??

Honestly? I'd put the 11 y/o where she places, as she seems quite ahead of the 9 y/o; I'd put the 9 and 7 y/os together, probably in Beyond with grade level right side boxes (except storytime, of course). I'd let the 5 y/o listen in to storytime, do any hands on you think he's ready for, and focus on phonics, reading and handwriting. The following year you could put the now 5 y/o into Little Hearts with level right side. IF the younger is ready you could bring him in, if not, I wouldn't worry about it.

I wouldn't plan past that.

That's my thoughts.

There are many placement options within HOD, and not one hard fast set placement that is right when family dynamics are considered. I do think it is important to consider family dynamics - especially in larger families. Only you can know which combinations are going to work well, and the pp had a good option to consider.

Another option would be to have the 5 and 6 turning 7 yo do LHFHG. This would be a good option as it will give your almost 7 yo a solid balanced year in history, science, etc. befitting his age without requiring a lot of writing. I think this is an important consideration given he has difficulty writing due to his muscular dystrophy, especially looking down the line at the guides since the writing increases each year. You could have him do the Emerging Reader's Set from Beyond if you would like, as it is a wonderful reading set full of living books that progress nicely, and it has scheduled questions in the Appendix of Beyond. However, you can certainly use Abeka readers if you have those on hand and are enjoying them with him already.

Your 9 yo sounds well placed in PHFHG. Having had a poor speller myself, I will put in a plug for trying the HOD style of LA. Dictation, copywork, and R & S English grammar done CM style within HOD have steadily improved my ds's writing through the years until he now rarely makes spelling /grammar errors. It is easy to do and effective over time - so I'll just throw that out there.

Your 11 yo sounds well placed in RTR, but could do PHFHG with extensions if you would rather. RTR is a terrific guide I am certain she would love as long as she is truly ready for it. It is a meaty guide, so since she is new to HOD, you'll want to print out the first week of plans and really look over the "I" boxes to be sure dd is ready to take those on independently. Check out the "S" semi-independent boxes as well, to see if you can give her some direction and then she can finish that work out on her own successfully. Is she a strong reader? Strong writer? Able to work quite well through multi-step directions using the guide as a student planner? If you are answering yes to all of these, and you look over the week of RTR and she looks ready for it, I'd have her do RTR. I think this honestly would be easier. If you are thinking she may not really be ready, I'd have her do extensions of PHFHG with younger brother instead.
http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/rtr-we ... glance.pdf

If you do choose RTR for dd, we have found a midpoint meeting time to be very effective as an enjoyable way to work together. About 2/3 of the way through Wyatt's work, we meet together (me with coffee, him with tea ). I look over his work he's checked off in his guide, and I do the follow-up checks for each box (i.e. I ask him the questions, read the key ideas, have him give me his oral narration, have him read aloud his written narration and then we use checklist to edit together, look at his notebooking he's done, have him say his Bible verses for me, etc.). These follow-ups I mentioned are not all every day; they are rotated. I enjoy doing them and feel like this is such a "grown-up" way to approach homeschooling with this age of dc. He appreciates it and enjoys it too. I also do the grammar, math, writing, and any other "T" noted lessons in the plans at this time. It took us around 1 hour or so in RTR, and worked so well!!!!

Anyway, those are just some thoughts. What are you thinking? Keep chatting it through here, and we'll be glad to help until you have come to a peace with placement. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie