Placement for a soon to be 10 yr old
Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2012 6:38 am
I would like some input and help placing my soon to be 10 yr old. I do not want it to be too easy, or too difficult and overwhelming. He fits all the catagories for PHFHG except one-cursive writing. We never really covered cursive because I wanted him to excel in his printing first, which now he prints beautifully. He can recognize most of the cursive letters except for the ones that do not resemble the printed letters. He fits most of the CTC except the cursive of course, he has had no written narration just oral, and really no creative writing as of yet. We aslo have not done long diction passages, just short ones. Grammer, he already does basic diagramming, recognizes for the most part, the basic parts of speech with an occasional reminders along with sentence mechanics and applying grammer rules with occasional reminders. Everything else he matches on the CTC. We will be using our own Math.
My little guy is a wiggly worm, very active and has to be reminded to focus. He is a right brainer like his parents. He does get frustrated and overwhelmed if too much information is thrown at him too fast and shuts down. If the subject is something that is interesting to him.....he soars, if it is boring to him, or he can't make sense of it, he shuts down and feels unintelligent and struggles. Often times he will understand more complicated subject matter or ideas that takes higher cognitive and reasoning abilities but at the same time he will sometimes have trouble grasping simple (in my opinion) subject matters or ideas. Needless to say that drives me batty. lol Yet he always scores in the upper 90 percentiles in his yearly testing.
He is reading at and above his grade level, although he can read above his grade level sometimes his comprehension is not at the same level as his reading skills. He loves to be read to, he loves good stories and books. I have him read aloud books to me as well, but he is not confident in reading quietly by himself. He narrates very well and can grasp complexe ideas, thoughts and storylines.....when it interests him, otherwise he zones out.
We have always used a Charlotte Mason approach for the most part. My real concern is about the comprehension of some of the books, getting the right level and fit for him. My experience in the past with different Charlotte Mason style curriculum is that the books for reading, or for read alouds are IMHO too difficult. Pilgrims Progress for second grade? Really? Sorry my kid is not a genius, and this would only make him feel defeated, and frustrated. I do want to appropriately challenge him, but not kill his desire to learn or make him feel inferior in his intellect.
I have been homeschooling my kids for 16 years (we are on our second set of kids now, lol) and over the years I have only found a handful of curriculum subjects that we really like and work well. I am hoping this curriculum is the one! Thank you for your input.
My little guy is a wiggly worm, very active and has to be reminded to focus. He is a right brainer like his parents. He does get frustrated and overwhelmed if too much information is thrown at him too fast and shuts down. If the subject is something that is interesting to him.....he soars, if it is boring to him, or he can't make sense of it, he shuts down and feels unintelligent and struggles. Often times he will understand more complicated subject matter or ideas that takes higher cognitive and reasoning abilities but at the same time he will sometimes have trouble grasping simple (in my opinion) subject matters or ideas. Needless to say that drives me batty. lol Yet he always scores in the upper 90 percentiles in his yearly testing.
He is reading at and above his grade level, although he can read above his grade level sometimes his comprehension is not at the same level as his reading skills. He loves to be read to, he loves good stories and books. I have him read aloud books to me as well, but he is not confident in reading quietly by himself. He narrates very well and can grasp complexe ideas, thoughts and storylines.....when it interests him, otherwise he zones out.
We have always used a Charlotte Mason approach for the most part. My real concern is about the comprehension of some of the books, getting the right level and fit for him. My experience in the past with different Charlotte Mason style curriculum is that the books for reading, or for read alouds are IMHO too difficult. Pilgrims Progress for second grade? Really? Sorry my kid is not a genius, and this would only make him feel defeated, and frustrated. I do want to appropriately challenge him, but not kill his desire to learn or make him feel inferior in his intellect.
I have been homeschooling my kids for 16 years (we are on our second set of kids now, lol) and over the years I have only found a handful of curriculum subjects that we really like and work well. I am hoping this curriculum is the one! Thank you for your input.
I think he is well placed in PHFHG from what you've shared. I don't think PHFHG would be too easy or too overwhelming - I think it will be just right! 
It will give him excellent guidance in written narrations, creative writing, and dictation. Your wiggly worm will love the hands-on history projects, science experiments, and notebooking in PHFHG. From what you've described, I also think he will really enjoy the depth and creativity encouraged in the Storytime follow-ups, the Biblical discussions, and the research. Because ds enjoys being read to and is not as keen on reading silently on his own, PHFHG will be a good fit in this regard as well. You read a portion of the history, and he reads a portion of the history. You read the Storytime History Read-Alouds. He reads his science. In CTC, you read the Storytime books, and he takes over more of his core history readings, so this will be a super way to transition him into this maturity of learning.