New and struggling with placement!

[BlessedAgain]

This is my first post, and our family is planning on using HOD in the fall.
I have read and reread the placement charts and posts on placements, but I am still torn on where to place my 7 year old daughter.
I have 7 children, and we just started homeschooling in Jan 2012. My oldest son will be a junior at our local high school. My next son will be in 7th grade, and he wants to continue using the curriculum we are currently using. That leaves my youngest five.
My two youngest will start Kindergarten so I am plan on putting them in Little Hands.
I plan on using Bigger for my 10 year old daughter. She will be a 5th grader, but she has weak reading, vocab and spelling skills. I am not sure if I will add extensions or not. Thoughts?
Next, I have an almost 8 year old boy (home 1 year - adopted from China). He is very bright and was speaking English fluently within 4 months of being home. He knows the alphabet and sounds, numbers to 100, can do basic addition, and is beginning to read and spell simple words such as not, hot, rat, cat, dad. I plan on placing him in Beyond.
Finally, I have my 7 year old daughter mentioned above. She loves to read and write, and she is a great student. I was going to place her in Bigger with my 10 yr old daughter, but if Beyond is a good placement for my son - I could put her there, too. I would appreciate any advice.
Thank you in advance!!!!

[Kims]

I would not put the 7yo in Bigger. I would combine the 7 and 8yo in Beyond. Beyond is great for those ages. Plus there are wonderful skills they need to learn.

[my3sons]

This is my first post, and our family is planning on using HOD in the fall.
I have read and reread the placement charts and posts on placements, but I am still torn on where to place my 7 year old daughter.
I have 7 children, and we just started homeschooling in Jan 2012. My oldest son will be a junior at our local high school. My next son will be in 7th grade, and he wants to continue using the curriculum we are currently using. That leaves my youngest five.
My two youngest will start Kindergarten so I am plan on putting them in Little Hands.
I plan on using Bigger for my 10 year old daughter. She will be a 5th grader, but she has weak reading, vocab and spelling skills. I am not sure if I will add extensions or not. Thoughts?
Next, I have an almost 8 year old boy (home 1 year - adopted from China). He is very bright and was speaking English fluently within 4 months of being home. He knows the alphabet and sounds, numbers to 100, can do basic addition, and is beginning to read and spell simple words such as not, hot, rat, cat, dad. I plan on placing him in Beyond.
Finally, I have my 7 year old daughter mentioned above. She loves to read and write, and she is a great student. I was going to place her in Bigger with my 10 yr old daughter, but if Beyond is a good placement for my son - I could put her there, too. I would appreciate any advice.
Thank you in advance!!!!

Welcome to the HOD Board, BlessedAgain! I am so glad you and your family are using HOD - it has been a wonderful way for our family to homeschool for the past 10 years, and I think it will be for yours as well. It sounds like you have done your homework and checked out the placement chart. Bigger Hearts sounds like a good fit for your dd, and it will give you a chance to really come alongside her and partner with her in those LA/math skills. I love Bigger Hearts for this. It is such a help to me as a teacher, and it always is my 'prepare to launch' year - a bigger teaching year that is oh so worth it because then in PHFHG on up we reap the rewards of that good solid foundation we built together in Bigger Hearts. The bulk of your teaching time will be there, and it will be such a great year of growth.

Your 8 yo ds sounds well placed in Beyond Little Hearts. Beyond is full of inspirational stories, and it is a guide that helps dc fully embrace homeschooling because it is such a joy to do. Each day has such a nice balance of hands-on work, fun activities, neat discussions, amazing living books to enjoy together, and all this is done in a very manageable amount of time, so dc are left looking forward to tomorrow's school day.

For your 2 little ones, I'm assuming you've checked the placement chart, and they must place in "Little Hands to Heaven?" I was not sure of their ages. For your 7 yo, you have several options. I am guessing, like the last poster, that she would place well in "Beyond Little Hearts," but I would love for you to share more about her reading, writing, grammar, and math to be sure. The neat thing is you can have her do Beyond for her 'core' program, and have her do any part of Bigger Hearts for her LA/math, if she needs more of a challenge in any particular area. If you get the chance to check out the placement chart with her in mind, and then share about her in these areas, I'd love to help you fine-tune her placement.

You will find this board to be full of encouraging, Christian ladies. It is one of my favorite 'hang-outs.' I think you will fit right in, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you here!

In Christ,
Julie

[BlessedAgain]

Thank you both for the responses! I really appreciate them.

my3sons...Here is a little bit more about my 7 year old daughter. She reads independently (books similar to those in the Emerging Reader list) and is very excited to start cursive. She has even taught herself some this year! She can copy sentences and has already learned basic grammar in this year's curriculum. She has not had a lot of writing instruction. She enjoys math. She has almost completed her 1st grade math curriculum.

Thanks again for your thoughts. We can't wait to start HOD!

[my3sons]

Thanks for sharing more about your 7 yo dd! That really does help. The Emerging Reader's Set schedule and questions are included in the appendices of both Beyond and Bigger, so either way she'd be set there. It sounds like your dd would be ready for the grammar in Bigger Hearts, as well as the cursive writing instruction. So, it really comes down to just a few things.

First, the amount and level of skills taught within writing is a definite consideration when choosing between Beyond and Bigger. Carrie had this to say in regard to writing in a previous thread...

As far as choosing between "Beyond.." and "Bigger..." goes, the amount of writing varies quite a bit between Beyond and Bigger. Bigger requires more writing in the areas of a once a week history notebooking assignment, a once a week science experiment sheet and a once a week science notebooking entry, along with once a week copywork of a Bible verse, 1-3 vocabulary cards each week, cursive handwriting practice daily, and daily grammar instruction with written practice. It also provides a choice of spelling or dictation passages. If your little one sounds like that would be fine for her, she belongs in Bigger. If not, then Beyond would be best. Beyond has much less writing doing copywork daily from the poetry, using a gentle once a week introduction to grammar, and writing daily for very short spelling lessons.

Second, the length of school day will be increased by about an hour when doing Bigger Hearts than when doing Beyond. So, dd's attention span is a consideration. Along with this line of thought goes the level of reading material you will be reading to your dc in history and in science. Bigger Hearts has higher level reading in these subject areas, using books with smaller fonts, fewer pictures, and longer chapters.

Third, if it seems like either Beyond or Bigger Hearts would work for dd this year, you may want to choose based on which sibling dd would work better alongside. How your 5th grader who is doing Bigger Hearts with extensions may feel about this is something to weigh as well.

Finally, looking even further down the road, the writing increases even more from Bigger Hearts to PHFHG, as does the reading level of books and the amount of independence. In PHFHG, dc read a portion of their history themselves, as well as all of their science. It is important dc can do this when they reach PHFHG, as this is a necessary skill to have intact at this point. So, if that seems an impossibility for dd looking down the road, Beyond would be the better fit.

So, I think you have two great options here, based on your thoughts about the above considerations. Option 1: Combine 7 yo dd with sibling in Beyond Little Hearts, and have her do R & S English 2, cursive, and math (if that is necessary) from Bigger Hearts along with doing Beyond as her core guide. Option 2: Combine 7 yo dd with 10 yo dd in Bigger Hearts, letting her grow into the writing skills of it.

HTH, but what are your thoughts now?
In Christ,
Julie

[BlessedAgain]

I am still trying to decide where to place her!!

I think she would fit perfectly fine in Bigger and excel, but you made a great point about how my older daughter would feel. My older daughter takes longer to grasp concepts so that could potentially cause some tension. She gets along great with both her sister and brother. Her 8 year old brother would probably love being in the same "grade" as her. It would probably boost his self-esteem. Like I mentioned earlier, he is very bright!!! He just needs to catch-up from his time China.

I am leaning towards placing her in Beyond and continuing with her current 2nd grade math and language arts curriculum or using that part of Bigger. I will continue praying about her placement!!!

I am already so thankful for the forum. I read it daily!

My3sons, I really appreciate your advice!

[my3sons]

I am so glad to be of any help, and I love to hear moms are praying for the Lord's guidance! Keep asking questions and praying until you are set. We love to help here!

In Christ,
Julie