heartofdakota.com

I have been on and off with HOD for a few years and am now committed to sticking with it. If you read any of my other posts, I've been back and forth a few times. Without beating myself up too much, I am ready to move beyond just doing the basics.

We have had a couple of new babies, found out ds11 is dyslexic and now that my youngest is almost 3 it should be a little easier. My husband and I realized that school is our first priority and that it's my number one job right now. It may have seemed easy to be more loose with 2 kids but with 4 I really need to get organized. This board has been such a wonderful blessing. I've printed out a lot of great tips already. I've committed to going to bed and getting up at a decent hour, making a schedule and meal plan, keeping the toddler busy, giving chores, and keeping up with the curriculum. I'm also learning to give myself grace in order to take things slowly and not give up when things don't go as planned. God is working on me!

So here's my plan and questions. I am going to start LHFHG with my ds5. He's the easy one. I am looking forward to using HOD with him and dd2.5 (when the time comes) and going through all the guides as written.

I am planning on starting CTC with my older two - ds12 (13 in April) and ds11. I have always combined them and briefly tried separated them last year, but would like to keep them together. They both place pretty well in CTC. Is it o.k. to use CTC with a 7th grader? I know there are extensions but I keep thinking that he should be two guides ahead. I know it is about skill level, not age right? I'm also giving myself grace about not laying the foundation in the beginning but realize I am working on laying the foundation now for future guides. He is only lacking slightly in lit. and writing but I think he will do fine with CTC. His grammar is excellent.

My ds11, who is dyslexic, is on the lower end only because of his reading. His comprehension level is actually higher than his age or reading level. I know some of you have dyslexic kiddos also and I realize I will have to spend more time reading to him or have him listen to audio books. He has been working with a tutor for the last year on reading, spelling and math and has made great strides! He is almost at grade level for reading. So I know it was totally worth it to just focus on that stuff. He told me recently though that he "hates" school because he just does the "same things" and doesn't "learn anything." I think that feeling this way also causes him to act up during the day. I think that CTC would be a great challenge for him (in a good way) and would satisfy his intellectual curiosity.

So how does this sound? I have what I need for the first 9 weeks of LHFHG and CTC. I was going to start slow and wait on doing the extensions and probably DITHOR until we get into the groove. I guess I can always tweak at that point. I want to feel good about doing CTC with a 7th grader and possibly not being able to get to all the HOD guides with him. I know I should just focus on what we need now and now worry about the future, right?

Thanks so much for the encouragement here and for reading my long post!

Kristen

I think it's just fine! I was reading a couple threads this week about using RTR for 9th grade-how to beef it up for high school credit. That's where you'd look at being in a couple of years if you do CTC in 7th grade; so you're not alone! I know what you mean about worrying about if your placed in a high enough guide, though. I constantly have to remind myself that they're learning and getting what they need right now I really don't need to stress about it!