heartofdakota.com

This is our First year doing Heart of Dakota and Looking for Placement suggestion. I am hoping to combine my two eldest children and make adjustments to the more vital curriculum elements like math, language and grammar. I have a 6 almost 7 year old who is roughly in the 2nd grade. She is finished with phonics but not reading strong yet. She would rather be off doing science experiments then working on any schoolwork. She is highly distractable but quick witted and an amazing auditory learner. I also have an 8 year old who is extremely bright. She taught herself to read at 3 1/2 and is on about a 4th grade level expect for reading/spelling where she excels. She reads anything she can get her hands on though she isnt fond of forced reading if its dull. We are coming from a Charlotte Mason Approach to learning that I pulled together myself from here and there. Im thinking of doing Beyond and making adjustments for my older daughter or possibly doing Bigger and making adjustments for both. Does anyone have any suggestions on what they would do. I would prefer to keep them together as I also have a 4, 2, and 4 month old and want to do some preschool stuff with the middle two. Thank You.

Hi and welcome to HOD! I think Beyond sounds perfect for your younger daughter and may work well for your older daughter too. With HOD, you want to make sure your child is not placed above their skill level, because the skills build in each guide. So if you have to skip things or change things to make them easier, it'll just get worse in the next guide. It's much easier with HOD to beef up a guide for an older student. So, with that in mind, you may want to take a look at the placement chart and see where your daughters fit. Let us know what you find with that--I'm sure others will have advice too!

http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php