What should I do for my 8 year old?

[Marsha]

I have a daughter in Preparing and it is going good for her.
He just moves way too slow for the program.

Should I move my 5 year old(6 in March) up and put them both in Beyond,
or keep her in Little Hearts and put him in Bigger alone?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[water2wine]

Tough call. I would really fight for two programs. It seems like your six year old and 8 year old should be able to fit in one program. I would revisit the placement chart and take a fresh and honest look at it and go from there. I know there are people that do three and I would, maybe will if I have to. I just think two is more manageable and there is a lot of flexibility in HOD. Usually two years apart seem to combine well. HTH! Hang in there you can get this one fixed.

[Carrie]

Marsha,

I'm just wondering if you've had a chance to think through this anymore? water2wine gave you great advice, which I agree with wholeheartedly.

How does your almost 6 year old come out on the placement chart? Would she be able to successfully do Beyond from the looks of things?

Blessings,
Carrie

[Marsha]

Yes,
I think my 6 year old will do great in it.
I went ahead and ordered Beyond. I also added Time4learning for my 8 year old.
I think placing him in Beyond will definitely help him.

Thank you

[Carrie]

Marsha,

That sounds good. It should be fun to have a pair of kiddos in Preparing and a pair of kiddos in Beyond. That way you can have one child on either side of you during your lessons! It's wonderful to see those 5 year olds turn 6, as it often opens up more combination possibilities with other kiddos in the family.

On a sidenote, you'll want to make sure that your 8 year old is getting what he needs as far as language arts and math goes. He'll most likely need a step up from what's in the Beyond guide.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Marsha]

I am placing him in 2A for Singapore and was debating the LA.
I will do Primary Language Lessons and then begin the scheduled R&S English next year or
go ahead and begin the R&S English.
Do I need to add writing? Any suggestions?

Thank you

[Carrie]

Marsha,

I'd lean toward placing him in Rod and Staff English 2, just because it is such a good solid introduction to grammar (and does get into some writing at the end of Rod and Staff). We used it last year with our then 8 year old and found it to be a perfect fit. The Primary Language Lessons by Serl is not my favorite resource. It feels spotty in its coverage and jumps from concept to concept. We did use Intermediate Language Lessons with my oldest son for 2 years and liked that better (but not as much as Rod and Staff).

By doing the copywork from the poetry in Beyond, your son will have his handwriting covered. However, you'll still need spelling coverage. If he's beyond List 2 of spelling words in the Appendix of Beyond, you could use the first level of dictation passages in Preparing Hearts instead. The first level of passages in Preparing Hearts are a reprint from Bigger Hearts. That is what comes next after the List 2 words.

Last, you'll need reading coverage. Depending on how well your 8 year old reads, you'll need either the Emerging Reader's Set or DITHR, or your own reading coverage somehow.

Your math sounds good.

Blessings,
Carrie

[dale1088]

Okay, so not to hijack your thread...

Carrie, My 8 year old was pulled from ps and is a good speller and reader. i placed her in Bigger and some of it was too easy for her so we are racing through as a review. R&S 2 so far as been a breeze, but a nice review and we are hitting pronouns now and will slow a bit. But she has aced all the spelling units. Is it now that i would pick up and use the dictation passages? They just seem so easy that when i tried them at first she was like "seriously?" so I dropped it and just did traditional spelling lists like she's used to. But I am reading so much about dictation I need to give it a try. It's just a very different thing than we have ever done in ps. Should I just start at the first one and move on through them? I just don't know where to begin.

Thanks!

[Kathleen]

Amy -

You could move ahead in the dictation passages to a little harder part. In dictation, you're wanting them to write everything correctly and "see" it that way. So it's a good thing to not have to correct anything. But, they were easy in the beginning. I maybe should have skipped ahead with my 8 yo, but I don't think I'm hurting anything by being where we're at. He has rarely mispelled a word, usually he forgets to punctuate the sentences. So there's more to dictation than just spelling, and I'm hoping that it's teaching my ds to write carefully rather than thoughtlessly.

Now, this is my 1st time with dictation, so I'm still in the newbie boat with you. Just thought I'd share my thoughts so far.
Kathleen

[Carrie]

Amy,

Since you're quite a ways through Bigger already, I'd start dictation about halfway to 3/4 of the way through the passages provided in the Appendix of Bigger Hearts. You can certainly continue on with the spelling you're already using if you prefer, however I would definitely agree that dictation has more long-term application to actual writing. As Kathleen mentioned, it is helping kiddos write carefully and remember correct punctuation, capitalization, usage, and spelling. Even more than that it is helping kiddos hold an image in their mind and then reproduce it on paper.

When students are correctly placed within dictation, they will be moving through the passages steadily, rarely having to repeat passages. Kiddos who are natural spellers will automatically do better than those who aren't, but the beauty of dictation is that it works for both types of spellers.

Dictation is also a slow burn, so at first it appears easy, but there is more to it than meets the eye. The benefits show up over time, so if you're going to give it a try it's good to commit to at least a year of use to see the results.

Blessings,
Carrie

[my3sons]

Dictation was super easy for my ds at first, but it gets harder and harder. I've found it is often the punctuation he makes mistakes with - or with usage. He will often mix up "their" and "there", or "are" and "our". I love that it is teaching him to differentiate when to use words as well as teaching him excellent spelling. For the first time in 2 years, he missed something in his dictation passage 3 days in a row last week. He sheepishly recognized it and has endeavored to do better now, but as I was reading this thread, I had the thought that it is nice if they are not having to redo a lot of dictation passages. I'd say redoing 1 or 2 a week would be more than difficult enough, or it gets depressing. Just because they are passing dictation, that doesn't mean they're not improving each time. Anyway, I've just grown to really love dictation, so I had to share - as a former spelling lists queen - it's been a slow changeover for me, but one I fully believe in now since I've seen the amazing growth in my ds's spelling and writing.

In Christ,
Julie

[dale1088]

Okay, good to know! Actually Carrie, we are only on unit 7 because I just started in January and we had a week of vacation in there too. So we're still covering all the material right on schedule, it was just the spelling was so easy that we did 2 or 3 lists at a time. But, i will get cracking on dictation. i have read on some other CM sites too and truly believe in the value of it, I think I just "missed" it the first time around as a newbie. Another benefit I see is getting her writing more. She has been complaining more and more about writing out assignments and this is simply NOT acceptable. We have some real heart training to do around here!

That's the cool thing about this board too (well, one of the many) is that one can pick up on a conversation and learn so much. So many wonderful women to help us along. Love it! If I hadn't been reading threads I would have moved on to creating my own spelling and not been a happy camper!

[moedertje]

Could someone clarify for me if the dictation passages from Bigger come back in Preparing? We will be in Bigger in the fall and we will be on the 2nd spelling list. We are doing Beyond with the 1st list now and we are finishing phonics.

[my3sons]

Could someone clarify for me if the dictation passages from Bigger come back in Preparing? We will be in Bigger in the fall and we will be on the 2nd spelling list. We are doing Beyond with the 1st list now and we are finishing phonics.

Good morning! There are 3 levels of dictation in PHFHG. The first list is duplicated from Bigger Hearts, but the other 2 are new and get increasingly more difficult, so you should be set for awhile! (Dictation will continue to be provided in the Appendix of the new guides as well.)

In Christ,
Julie