heartofdakota.com

Hi, I am currently homeschooling my 11 year old 5th grade daughter using eclectic materials. I am in the planning stages for 6th grade and love the look of HOD. However, my daughter has Dysgraphia which makes hand writing very difficult for her. We allow her to type certain things. Academically, she is very bright with only minor issue in math, primarily because she does not like math. I did look at the placement charts and do not see a clear fit for her. Would Preparing be a good place for her to start using the extensions? She will be on the upper end of the extensions ages. I am open to other suggestions as well.

Hi,
Welcome to HOD! I too have a ds11 who has dysgraphia and mild dyslexia. I battled over where to place him, but decided on Preparing. We will finish 5th grade and start 6th grade with Preparing. It has been a really great fit and his writing is actually getting so much better. His actual ability to take his thoughts to paper is improving. I chose not to do the extensions as I thought it might make our day too long. We did have to start out 1/2 speed b/c it was just so different than our prior schooling (k12 on the computer), but I feel confident that once we find our groove we will move up to full speed.
I think Preparing is a great guide to start with if your child struggles with writing. We also have used our own math and language arts at his level due to the dysgraphia and it works great with HOD.

I brought my ds home from ps for 5th grade and started him in Preparing. He has dysgraphia due to a hand tremor and possible Cerebral Palsy. He did the copywork, but typed many other things. For CTC when we moved to the notebooking pages he typed all his written narrations and many other things. He does still do some of the copywork, but some things he will dictate to me. If you look at the placement chart and don't consider the physical act of writing, but allow for typing where does she place? Is her reading comprehension strong? How is she at orally retelling you a story? Is her attention good and can she do some things independently if she is trained what is expected? These are the things I would look at. If you want to look at some examples of how I have modified things for him yet he still does the guide "as written" you can click on the link to my blog. We are in MTMM now so the years you want are 2010-2011 which is when we did CTC.

I was just about to say what LynnH said. I would also look at the placement chart and see where your dd lines up with everything except for handwriting. I think you could easily modify that to meet your dd where she is. If she is a strong reader and a strong writer with typing, you may be better placed at CTC. But if she struggles with getting thoughts out of her head and onto paper, reading independently for about 1.5 + hours a day, and staying on task, them Preparing would be a great level to begin with. Both levels are great. But I wouldn't just put her in Preparing because of her writing struggle. There are so many more things to look at with HOD other than just the act of writing. And I would encourage you to review the chart and see where she lines up in other areas as well.