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Hi! I am strongly considering HOD. We are Charlotte Mason-based homeschooling family with 3 children. Our eldest son will be 10 in a few weeks, our daughter turned 8 in January and our youngest is 6, will be 7 in September.

I usually pair up my two eldest as they tend to be very similar in their abilities in most things. My son is ahead in math, mind you.

My little guy is doing his own math and language arts and listens in on our family read alouds and has a good ability to retain living books and engage in a wide variety of nature studies and activities, many of which are on his older siblings' level. What I find though is that he does get lost so often and I feel very bad about that. This is why I'm considering HOD as well.. to give him his own 'program' to do with myself and the other children helping.

My struggle is... I don't know where to place my children. I've looked at the charts and I'm pretty sure my youngest fits best in Beyond, though it will be challenging for him as he's still learning to read and print. The Little guide seems a bit simple for him, to be honest. But I'm open to hear what others thing.

My older two are a challenge. I don't know if I should place them in Bigger or Preparing. I'm hoping some of you experienced Moms can help out. I really would like to pair them together as I am confident they will do well in the same program. My challenge is where to place them. The content of both programs looks fantastic and I would likely buy the extension pack for either level, as my son is keen to read challenging books.

I guess my main concerns are the amount of writing and copywork and the spelling and language arts in the higher level. I'm also concerned about a guide being too simple for my kiddos as they thrive on challenge. They are not writing fluently in cursive, if that matters. My daughter, though younger, is stronger in her ability to print and express herself in writing (ie: science notebooking, maping, etc.) This is what makes me want to lean to Preparing, but I'm also a bit unsure. My daughter is still an emerging reader where my son is quite advanced in reading, but as I said, reluctant to do a lot of writing.

Can any one give me some clarity?

Thank you so much.

Cassandra

There is definitely more writing in Preparing than there is in Bigger. However, it isn't overwhelming. Here is the volume of writing for each program:

Bigger
* Learning cursive, daily practice.
* One history notebooking activity - usually copy something from a text book or draw a map
* One science notebooking activity - copy one or two verses from the Bible and then copy something out of the text.
(for both the history and science notebooking activities, the writing increases a bit as the year goes on but it is incremental and not overwhelming in any way)
* You are given 3 definitions to look up the dictionary where you copy the definition and write a sentence
* Copy the bible verse each week
* There are 2 science experiments each week but you write up a lab sheet only for one of them.
* If you did the extensions for the older child - there is a weekly written narration with the extensions

Preparing
* (if you want your kids to learn cursive, you should probably include the cursive from Bigger)
* Once a week history notebooking page (sometimes 2 times a week)
* Written narration for history that is 3-5 sentences long
* You are given 5 definitions (but you can only assign 3 out of the 5 if you prefer) to look up the dictionary where you copy the definition and write a sentence
* Weekly science notebooking page
* Weekly science questions where you write down the answers to 5 questions each week
* Weekly science experiment where you write it down on the log sheet
* Copy the Bible verse each week
* One creative writing activity (usually only a few sentences long) based on the poetry

One other thing that Preparing has that Bigger does not is the kids do a weekly hands on History project. It is spread over 3 days but they are very cool Bigger does have weekly art activities, but they are completed only during 1 day and aren't quite as involved. But my son has still enjoyed them

There is definitely more writing in Preparing than in Bigger. But I didn't find it too be to overwhelming. It is a lot of copywork and I felt it to be a great fit for my oldest who didn't really like to come up with things to write on her own. She also wasn't an avid writer. But she did fine and was a pro by the end. As for the 8 year old, I don't think she would place in Preparing. One of the wonderful things about HOD is that kids become very independent. With Preparing, she would need to be able to read half of the history to herself and all of the science to herself. I have heard some parents say that they have read the text to their child anyway but then regret starting on this path as their children move up in level. It pigeon holes you into doing it for every subsequent guide since the volume of reading and writing increase. So I would highly recommend not placing your 8 year old in Preparing with the intensions of modifying the guide for her. If you modify now, you will need to modify all the way through and takes a lot away from the additional skills of independence that HOD is trying to teach.

I am just curious but are you completely against separating them all? I always thought that I would want to keep my kids combine but I have found that it is actually very nice to keep them all separate. Since your oldest is a great reader, he can easily read all of the history to himself, all of the science to himself and possibly do the story time alone as well. To cut down on your teaching time, I would only do one story time for your younger 2 kids. And since your middle child is fairly good at notebooking, you would be able to have her work alone at times.

I came to HOD last year and started out by combining my younger 2 who are very similar in level in Beyond and my oldest in Preparing. What I found was that I really preferred keeping them all separate. As kids move up in level, they are learning to do their science experiments alone and they are learning to create the history projects alone. I love having them separate because it forces them to figure things out .... alone I am not saying that they can't ask for help but I have found that my son will rely on his younger sister to figure things out for him (or at least he did when they completed Beyond together). For me, after that year, I knew I had to separate them So I bumped my youngest down to Little Hearts, modified it a bit to be more similar to Beyond. I included spelling, she is recopying poems from Beyond and completing the grammar and cursive from Bigger. Next school year she will move to Bigger and I will only change up the grammar. For me, it has actually been much easier to run 3 levels then you would think.

What are you thoughts on the volume of writing in each guide?

It seems to me that the two oldest would do well in Bigger, with extensions for your son. There is already quite a bit of writing in Bigger and then much more in Preparing. Looking at the placement chart, the first several items are the most important for choosing a placement. Since your daughter is still an emerging reader and your son is not much of a writer yet, I think Bigger would be a good start.

I would put your younger guy in Little Hearts and keep working on his reading and printing.

Are you planning on starting soon or next fall? That could possibly affect placement.

Tell us your thoughts about this. I'm sure more people will comment as well.

Welcome to HOD! I know you will love it. It has been so wonderful for our family! I had always combined with our older children so the last several years with HOD it's been a change. I love having them placed in their own guides according to their level. It makes so much sense and they all love it.

Thanks ladies!!! I am so grateful for your responses.

Nealewill - thank you for taking time to type all that out. It is so helpful for me. You know, since I posted this, I talked to my children and found out that they are actually quite open to splitting up. They were actually excited about the idea of having their 'own' work to do... pretty cool. So against some people's warning, I think I may actually attempt to do 3 different programs next year... one for each child. As you mentioned, splitting them up might end up being a blessing. It will be expensive the first year... but not so bad after that as we reuse materials and just add a few books here and there.

I think the level of writing will be ok... but now after much thinking and some comments from other Moms, I might do my little guy (age 6) in Little Hearts, my daughter (8) in Beyond, and my son (10) in Preparing.

... MAN these choices are hard!!

I think you will be so blessed in this plan We started out with our older two combined, but it really became clear that older ds was being held back, unchallenged, while younger ds (who adores older brother) was not getting his own education We split them up, and wow, it has been so good. All three boys are now thriving in their own guides, and I am so blessed to see them each do things their own way

One thing that may help you as you start out with three guides is to stagger start each guide. If you focus on your oldest first and get him going with his guide, then a few days/weeks later you can focus on your daughter and get her going with her guide. When you are ready to start with your youngest, you will have an idea of how much is needed from you with your olders and when they can work independently enough for you to focus on LHFHG with your son. This will help keep you from feeling overwhelmed as you start a new program with your children.

Thank you so much, ladies.

My plan is to start the kids with my youngest on Little Hearts, my middle child on Beyond and my eldest on Preparing... not sure how to stagger, as I'm sure they'd be put off by not all having the same 'treatment'... ha...

My hope is to start them this Spring, putting in some other nature studies and such. There is still May/June, which I would love to get them used to the idea of the guides, but likely not accomplishing a whole day every day. Maybe a slower pace? I don't know if that sounds crazy? I'm hoping that in Sept, we could start full tilt.

We homeschool all year round, but I allow the kids to greatly reduce their work in the months of July/Aug when the weather is nicest here and the neighbours are all noticeably off school ...

We do still do a lot of Nature Studies, math, and language arts, however...

THANKS !!!

Starting at a slower pace is a very good idea. We will start Bigger in just over a week, and my goal is to complete 1 day of the guide in two physical days. We did this to start Beyond as well. We do this throughout May and June and then will slowly ramp up to full speed in July.

I also homeschool year around ..... somewhat I usually have the kids do something school related 2 hours per day 3 days per week. It is usually math, reading (just reading very interesting books), a little bit of writing (like dictation or spelling). We usually stop school the June 1st. And then we start back up August 1st. This year though, we are going to Pennsylvania the 2nd week in August so we will start back up 2 weeks before we leave and just do half days.

For me, when I first came to HOD, I just started my kids off half speed until they were able to go full speed. With Beyond, I didn't have any trouble jumping right to it right away. My kids were eager and it was great. My oldest needed a little bit more hand holding and so she went half speed for longer. I did not realize the blessing of having kids start their guides at different times. And last year I pushed them all to finish their guide that year so they could start the next guide next year. And this year, I decided to split my younger 2 kids up. So now I had everyone start school again in August in their new guides. Uhm......it would have been so much nicer to have them all on different schedules. Sooooo, my oldest has shown that she is going to need a little bit more time before R2R. She is actually finishing CTC just fine without any trouble. But there is more reading in R2R than there is in CTC and so I think having her be just a little older, closer to the middle of the age range, would help her. So I am having her go half speed for 2 months, giving her 4 weeks of CTC that she will complete next school year. I plan to have her do R2R at half speed for a month or so also. Basically, by the time they reach CTC, they do a lot alone. So I will let her set the pace. But I am not going to drag her through and will enjoy that she won't be on an August start date. For my son and youngest dd, I have really pushed to get a unit done each week in their guides. It has been tough some weeks but we get it done Next year, my middle child moves to Preparing and my youngest will move into Bigger. I have decided with my youngest to only have her complete 4 days of the plans each week rather than 5. This will help her to then not be on the same start date as my other two.

My advice would to let them naturally fall into their level and just go at their speed. You can definitely start one child (usually the oldest because they can do a lot independently once you get them moving) and then wait 2 weeks before starting next. Or you could just go half speed for everyone and keep them each at half speed until they are ready to go faster. That is more my method. I go half speed until they or I am ready to do more. For me, this works! Plus, it does seem like kids may go through a phase where they need to slow down. Embrace it. There may times when they are motoring through. That is good too. For me, I am just really excited about the fact that from here on out my kids won't all be starting a new guide at the same time. That is priceless! Every year in each guide, it nice to have a few weeks where you can have time to just hold their hand for each box. I like to make sure they fully understand what they are to do. And I like to make sure they are comfortable before I set them free.

I do think you are going to be shocked at how easy it is run multiple levels of HOD. I know I was. And making this decision was probably the best one of my life! I love that each of my kids learns skills and it is at their own speed. And I love that it is actually possible for me to teach them all something different. And my kids love it too because everything is fun, interesting and right at their level.