heartofdakota.com

Could use some help...praying the Lord will confirm what I am to do.

I have two children, one going into 7th (12), and the other 9th (14).

My problem is neither of them have been super independent especially in writing and have never done any of the Drawn into the Heart of Reading books.

Spelling has been a problem with them in the past thus keeping them from freely writing without frustration. My 9th grader is much better with spelling as I have made it a focus the past two years. His reading has improved but as far as formal literary study very little. We will be finishing up our school year with Beyond the Book Report by the writer's of analytical grammar. Lord willing I'll have a better window into where he is at. This poor boy, I could take to the store and tell him to pick out a pair of sneakers that he likes and he simply lazily looks around. I have to almost force him to make decisions. He hates making decisions and imagine giving this child a topic..he has no idea where to begin. Writing 5 sentences is like pulling teeth.

My 6th grader has an opinion as any girl would, but when interested in something will write. However, she still struggles with spelling, again slowing her down.

It's crazy! You pray and try to help your kids and wonder did I make the right decisions? You focus on one or two focused area to finally realize they have another major gap and that is writing!

Would appreciate any suggestions.

Currently using:
Analytical grammar (semester 1, took a bit longer)...heavy focus on labeling parts of speech and diagramming
Beyond the Book Report (Semester 2 - the summer)...will begin this month and finish up through the summer
Sequential Spelling 2 ...both kids
All American History
Apologia Swimming Creatures of the fifth day
Word Build
Lit....for the first part of the year they have chosen various books to read with no expectations. That's where Beyond the Book Report comes in
Typing...online program
Math 9th grader...monarch, Alpha & Omega
Math 6th grader...Teaching Textbook 5 and TT 6 through the summer

Personally I probably can't help you a lot with specific placement but was going to point you to the placement chart on HOD's website for you to look at first. You know your children best and the learning they have already been doing (I also am not familiar with all the programs you have been using already) so you could try to place them based on the chart. I will tell you that grammar, math, and reading are areas that are not as tightly tied to the guide you will choose, they are easier to adapt to your child's level than some of the others. Independence is strongly taught in the guides starting at about age 9, so you would have to work into that probably with your children and that may cause you to want to start one guide lower than their placement to make this easier. Come back and share where you think each of them falls and we can try to help you from there.

http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php (there is a link here for the World Geography guide for High School as well, and they are currently developing a 10th grade level World History guide).

I guess I assumed in this post you are asking about the guide for the whole curriculum but maybe you are just talking about Drawn Into the Heart of Reading?

I'm thinking my daughter would do best in CTC and my son RTR. I'm uncertain as to how my son would do with the Drawn into the Heart of Reading with the RTR suggested guide. My son needs high school credits so unsure that any of this would be a good match for him in regards to the history and science. You would think after 20 plus years of homeschooling I would have a better idea of what to do! I suppose this is a very good thing seeing that causes me to rely upon the direction of the Lord!

Thisis a great set of posts on how to beef up the guides for high school:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6571

Yes since the High School guides are still being written, there are many people who take the other guides and add things in for High School credits.

We all need to depend on the Lord, we are definitely not in a good place if we think we've got it all together!