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I have 3 children. A son who is turning 10 in June and has Dysgraphia, daughter who just turned 8 and a 7 month old. I am wanting to switch to HOD, but I am having trouble deciding on which level. We are finishing up our 2nd yr of homeschooling and thus far I have done the same curriculum with both kids (My Fathers World). I was wanting to keep them together again b/c doing two separate guides seems overwhelming to me. But will do what is best for my kiddos. My son, struggles with reading, writing and copy work. I am currently doing a supplemental curriculum with him that is supposed to help/fix the problems with dysgraphia. So hopefully the areas of reading, writing, etc will get easier for him. (We have about 6 months left before he finishes this program) My daughter reads well and typically does well in all subjects. I would say she is on level for an 8 yr old 2nd grader. I would like to start Preparing, but unsure b/c of reading/writing for my son but afraid Bigger would be too young for him.

Help!

Have you checked the placement chart to see where each of your children place individually? Even if you are planning to combine, it is still good to know where they place in the guides skillwise. Based on what you have shared so far, I would not start any higher than Bigger for combining. You can easily add extensions for your older if needed. My son has really enjoyed the extension books this year. If you let us know where things stand once you check the placement chart, I am sure more ladies will be willing to pop in to advise. There are also a couple threads currently going that discuss the amount of writing in Bigger vs. Preparing that might be helpful for you as you ponder the best course to take.

I am doing Bigger with my able 8year old and Preparing with my 12year old with ASD and some learning delays. There is quite a bit of writing in Preparing such as re writing a poem or 3-5 sentence narration. Of course you could help out by reading material to him and writing his answers down and we considered doing this.The main reasoning behind my placing my big guy in Preparing was that he would be starting to do the independent work and that was an important step for him to do. Secondly I wanted to set him up for success and do the guide as-is . Every box needs to be done. Party because of his ASD and partly because I know that he is typical of kids with learning delays and avoidance is a common coping strategy .We are about to finish up Preparing and he is making excellent progress. We added in some extension activities .
HTH

As far as the placement chart, my son is definitely not reading on his own. My daughter can read on her own but not sure if she's ready for DiTHoR as I don't know what all is involved with it :-/. I started cursive this year with both kids. I had to put it on the side with my son until we finish this supplemental/remedial program. My daughter is finishing up cursive and is starting to use it in other work a bit here and there. I'm thinking both of them would be better in Bigger as far as grammar goes. I have taken more of a Charlotte Mason approach to grammar in that we haven't talked mechanics, just lots of demonstrating proper language usage, etc.
Looking at the chart, both of them fit nicely into Bigger, but I guess I'm just nervous for some reason of the suggested age range (for my son). If I start him lower now, will he always be stuck lower and end up "missing out" on some things later in his school career? Maybe I am misunderstanding the extension packs as well. I am under the impression that the extension packs are just more difficult readers. If this is so, the extension pack wouldn't be an option for my son as this is one of his big struggles.
He is not an independent worker. I can't turn him loose with assignments. I would love for him to get to that point, but he is not there yet. I would like for him to be challenged but, can't push him too hard or it will back fire and he will shut down.

Bigger sounds perfect for your son. My son is 10, will turn 11 in June, as we are about 1/3 of the way through Bigger. When we first started he was working on the Emerging Readers and could barely write a sentence without thinking he was going to die. There is no way he could do Preparing. In HOD, the age range on the guide is just that, an age range. It is key to put them where they really place skill-wise, not age. That is one of the beauties of HOD also--it meets are children where they are to let them progress in skills and be ready for more and more. When we started, he did about 1/3 of the writing that is "assigned" in Bigger. Now, he is doing probably about 2/3 of it. For example, vocabulary is assigned once a week. Slow and steady, as he works on things he improves. Some days his writing still takes him forever and it's big and the letters are all different sizes and sometimes they look wonderful. Thankfully, he loves the drawing and does really well with cursive. I know that without HOD I wouldn't have done the drawing with him and probably wouldn't have started cursive. It wouldn't occur to me.
He's had time to work on reading and we finished the ER, the supplemental titles and just started on the first book from the DITHR 2/3 pack. We will start DITHR when he gets into Preparing. I know he will be ready to really do Preparing and what they ask as far as independent activities, etc.

The guides are very meaty and you don't have to worry about that he'll be behind. There are many using the middle school guides and beefing them up for high school. No worries there!

You are right, the extension books are for independent readers to beef up the material. It is not for struggling readers. You could read them out loud to them if you'd like and not worry about follow-ups. In an ideal world I would read them to my son, but I just don't have the time.

One thing you could do is split storytime...get the girl set for dd and the boy or history set for ds. You could even let him choose from the two sets and extension which books he would like. This could be the area that he has some input, while the daily boxes are non-negotiable. And then just plug away at the plans and watch him grow

The beauty of home schooling is working with our children wherever they are at rather than having to put them into a grade that they are not ready for or that is too easy for them.

When placed correctly in their curriculums they can learn. Then it is not too repetitive by being something they already know, or too frustrating for them when they aren't ready for it.

I have seen moms on the board using Rev2Rev and MTMM for high school.

I would place him where he is at. If it becomes easier later, and he is ready to move quickly, than it might change at that point; if not he will be able to do the work, and that is most important.

What program are you currently doing with MFW? How much of the writing is he doing in it? How much of the reading with book basket? I am very familiar with MFW, our old curriculum, and it might help to know what he is doing with it to have an idea of what he can do with HOD.

If he places in Bigger solidly I wouldn't push him higher as you learn and adjust to a new style of learning & teaching. HOD is much different than MFW, and it is an adjustment to go between the two.

Blessings,

Your comment about worrying about your son missing out and always being behind reminded me of a very encouraging post Carrie (the author) made on a thread once when a Mom asked about it being OK if her child did not complete all the guides. I copied her post below since I am having trouble posting a link to the entire thread from my Ipad. I pray you find it encouraging as well.


Carrie's original post:

This is a great question, because it is one that so many families will face! I just wanted to share my perspective on this important topic, as I will have experienced this very thing with my own oldest son. I find it interesting that my oldest will not have finished all of our guides. In fact, he is ahead of my writing and misses out on many of the wonderful things we have planned within our guides. Yet, he has benefitted greatly from any of the areas he has been able to use from our guides.

In looking at my next son, who is on the verge of high school right now (and will be a 9th grader this fall), I can honestly say that he has had a richer homeschool path being able to use all of the HOD guides as written. Yet, if he were only going to miss one or even several of the guides and still be able to use HOD, I think I would still say that his education was richer overall than my oldest son's has been without HOD.

This leads me to advise that it is more important to place your students where they are at skill-wise in order for them to truly be successful in HOD, rather than pondering how to fit in all of the guides. If that means leaving off some of the end guides in the HOD line-up, then it does. Their education will still be very rich, and much more balanced, then most of us probably had in our high school education. Plus, the Biblical aspect of the guides will also hopefully lead to a deeper spiritual communion with our Lord and lead to a deeper understanding of His Word (and that is benefit that cannot be measured)! This benefit will deepen from using as many of the guides as possible on your homeschool journey, but also comes from our Lord Himself (meaning there is no set amount of guides that must be completed to this end, because it is our Lord who ultimately equips us)!

This is why, from my perspective, the ending path for each family through HOD may differ. That is actually a good thing, because it means that we are truly looking at kiddos as individuals and charting their course based on their skills, needs, aspirations, and future plans. It also allows us to look at the whole child as part of the family unit and ponder the special circumstances under which he/she is functioning as part of placement. I love that!

So, while it may bother us in our head not to complete all the guides, it may be the better path for the child not to complete all the guides (which we will ultimately know and accept in our heart).

Blessings,
Carrie

Many people have encouraged you too consider Bigger and I do agree with them all. I also love the post that bethelmommy gave in regards to Carrie's encouraging post about placing children where they place. HOD is meaty that even if your son does miss out on a guide or two, he will still have learned a ton! And HOD doesn't only teach kids "stuff" but it teaches them how to learn. How priceless. That is probably my of the main reasons that I stay with them. I want my kids to learn how to learn!

As for you son finding Bigger babyish, my 10 year old will actually beg to listen to some of the things I have read my son this year! I do not think your son will find this babyish at all. There is some writing and some drawing. I understand this will be challenging for your son but it would also help step him into the writing and drawing involved in Preparing next year. And since your son can't read very well, to increase his level, I would personally read the extension pack to him, out loud and alone if possible. This will make him feel like he is doing more work than his younger sister and make it seem like it is more mature work too. Even though my kids aren't in the age range for the extensions, I did get them for Bigger and Preparing. My oldest read several of the extensions from Bigger over the summer last year and she absolutely loved them! There were even a few I picked out and substituted them for story time. Ben and Me is wonderful. We enjoyed the Bud and Me on CD (my kids listen to books on CD a lot). I substituted the Buffalo Knife for one of the story time books. I am also reading By The Great Horn Spoon as a story time book right now. My son LOVES this book. They used the term cut-purse to name a thief. And my goodness, he uses or creates any opportunity he can to use that word in a sentence Honestly, every story book that I have picked my kids have loved. I used several from the boy storytime pack as well - Indian in the Cupboard (everyone at my house loved it), Seabiscuit (again - everyone loved it), and then for non fiction I picked Dragons of the Deep - this a book is listed in a higher DITHOR book pack. But my son LOVES dinosaurs so I wanted to slip this in now since I thought he would enjoy it. I truthfully think that doing the extensions with your son will increase his school day, make it very interesting, and help him even more to feel separate from his sister.

Thank you to everyone who has posted! I could feel my stress level lower as I read all the great advice and encouragement! I am definitely feeling more comfortable and confident now with Bigger.

To answer LovingJesus' question, we are using Exploring Countries & Cultures. He uses the book basket time as just time with books (he loves to "look" at books). Then he reads later in the day when my hubby gets home. As far as writing, we do lots of things orally. I don't have him do the copy work (Weekly Bible verse). I am having them create their own "Book of animals". We read about a different animal each day, I ask them what they found interesting about that animal and then I write their "interesting fact" on the board and they copy it and draw an illustration. That is about the extent of his writing. This remedial/supplemental program I am doing with him is supposed to open his "blocked learning gates". So I am hoping by the time we finish in the next few months that writing & copying will be much easier for him. I have already seen marked improvement in his reading but we still have a ways to go.