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Howdy all!
I was wondering how you decide where to start in dictation? I have one child who will be in 6th grade, has been through R&S spelling through 5th. In that he had to write out a couple sentences that I said to him, but he never saw the sentences before hand, like you would do with HOD dictation. I can only remember once or twice in the past year or 2 of doing that the he got some part of the sentence wrong. He also has done some "informal" dictation, like writing down a shopping list for me and stuff like that~ which of course is just writing words and no punctuation. He'll be starting RTR (Res to Ref). He has almost like a photographic memory~ not a literal one, but does have an incredible memory, esp. of anything that he reads. So with being able to look at the passages first, it will be pretty easy for him. Should I just start level 5 or maybe jump in halfway through level 4 and see how it goes? I've looked at the bold face print words and he does know most of those. He has also been through R&S English up to almost grade 5, we just have a few lessons left in the grade 5 book, so he does pretty well as far as grammar things when he writes.

I have another child who will be doing Preparing, but I will just start with the first level in the Preparing book, level 2 I think it is, as he has had no dictation at all and isn't like his brother at all in the memory area! So he is an easy one to place.

Also I was reading in the RTR TM about the Common Place Books. Sometimes it says "Common Place Books" other times it is just "Common Place Book" Do you just use one book and put every thing in that one, or do you get separate ones for Copywork, Bible Study, Bible Devotional, and Poetry?

Also what size note cards work best, (like for use with RTR storytime and such) 3X5 or 4X6?
Thank you so much!
Michelle

Hi Shellbell! We did RTR last year, and we had such a great year - I'm glad you will get to do it! For dictation, it's as much about the punctuation as it is about the spelling, so since your ds is new to it, I'd probably start midway in Level 4, just to see how he does. My ds is good at writing too, but it was surprising to me how he would still forget little things now and then, such as indenting for a paragraph, a comma, or just spell something incorrectly because he was rushing. Dictation is hands-down the best thing I've ever used to help dc with spelling, and because the dictation in HOD is taken from the same program that builds upon itself incrementally from Level 2 through Level 8, the progress dc make over time is substantial. If you start midway in Level 4, and your ds is acing it no trouble for a week or 2, then I'd move him up to Level 5. There is only one "Common Place Book" in RTR. It was neat to see those pages being filled with such worthy and memorable words. We used the biggest index cards possible for the RTR Storytime, as they lasted the whole year then. It was neat to look back on what he'd written down, and an easy way to get in some valuable follow-up skills to the reading. I bet your other ds will enjoy PHFHG so much too - we have fond memories of many wonderful books from PHFHG, and the discussions really brought up such good things. You have much to look forward to in both RTR and PHFHG! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Dear Julie,
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and explain. I so appreciate it! Thank you for your encouragement too. My son is really looking forward to RTR as we have never studied that time period and he just told me yesterday that he has always wanted to. He is really excited. Originally I was hoping to combine him and his brother and we tried doing that with Bigger, with extensions for him, but it just wasn't working. He is way, way ahead of his brother skill wise, even though they are just 2 years apart. I know the Lord did lead me to combine for the time we did, because it brought out so many character issues that I needed to know about and take care of. Like my older learning to work with someone who doesn't get things as fast as he does and learning to have patience when someone takes longer to do something. So it has been good, but now that I know about these issues I can work on them in other ways and we can put him at his level, where I know he will thrive. I was a little worried about doing three programs, (I have another who will be in LHFHG), esp. since the one in LHFHG will be learning to read, so I know his year will need some intense (I don't mean that negatively, just mean that it takes more time than other years) teacher time and I have toddler. But my olders are really good at independent work, in fact too good, that was one reason I switch to HOD as I felt I just didn't have the time to really do things with them like I wanted. I was just instructing what they needed to know and grading papers, but wanted more relational stuff going on. The Lord is so good and I know it will all come together just as He desires. All though I admit I am looking forward to seeing your fall schedule~ since we will have some similar programs going. I've been looking at your spring one a lot and it has helped.
Blessings!
Michelle