Placement questions - what would you do?
Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 6:58 am
Hello! My name is Amy and I am the mother of 5 dc, ranging in age from almost 4 to almost 9. We live in northeastern Ohio. Our 3 eldest are adopted blessings and our two younger were bio surprises. I have been homeschooling all along, but have just found HOD and am now in a quandry (but it's a very good kind of quandry! 
)
Over the past few years, we used Sonlight and then MFW. I was literally all prepared (I have everything!) to do MFW Creation to the Greeks and then Rome to the Reformation with our eldest (DD8, almost 9) when I found HOD. We school year-round and were going to begin the MFW in September, as she is currently finishing up MFW ECC. She has always been very stong academically and I just don't know what to do.
Our second child, DS6, almost 7, is just getting ready for 2nd grade. He is strong academically, but I wanted him to have a little more practice in reading for fluency before really doing second grade. I was actually planning to dawdle our way through a bunch of 2nd grade material (combination of Sonlight, writing, Rod and Staff, etc) until his little brothers (they are 5 1/2 - actually 1 month apart) caught up with him. They are in MFW K and then would go through MFW first grade, and then join him for 2nd grade. That was the plan until I found HOD!
I also have an almost 4 yo dd who has been doing Sonlight and MFW preschool. She is raring to go, but needs more time with fine motor skills before she can tackle kindergarten-type work.
I was pleased with MFW academically, but I have felt that something was...lacking. We seem to be missing that spiritual connection that we long for. I find myself loading books onto dd8's desk, giving her a quick run-through of directions, asking her if she understands, and then leaving her while I tackle the challenges of the other 4 children. That's not the way we want it to be! She does fine with her work, but we don't really talk about it or make the connections between Scriptures and what she is learning. From what I've read, HOD helps parents make the connections with their children. Academics are very important to us, but they are not the MOST important thing. That distinction of course goes to helping our children develop an amazingly deep and abiding love for the Lord. All the rest falls away in light of that.
So, what would you do, if you were in my shoes? What placement/program would you use for each child? I would love to have a lighter workload and do fewer programs, but that isn't my primary concern. I'm already doing four different levels, so I could continue on that path, if necessary. I already own many of the books HOD uses, so I would mainly need to buy the teacher's guides and a few books here and there which is definately do-able financially. We are a book loving family and may need to build more shelves to make room, however! I have thought of combining our two eldest using extension materials, but wanted the opinions of more experienced HOD users.
Thank you in advance for your help and insight. Have a blessed day!
Amy
) Over the past few years, we used Sonlight and then MFW. I was literally all prepared (I have everything!) to do MFW Creation to the Greeks and then Rome to the Reformation with our eldest (DD8, almost 9) when I found HOD. We school year-round and were going to begin the MFW in September, as she is currently finishing up MFW ECC. She has always been very stong academically and I just don't know what to do.
Our second child, DS6, almost 7, is just getting ready for 2nd grade. He is strong academically, but I wanted him to have a little more practice in reading for fluency before really doing second grade. I was actually planning to dawdle our way through a bunch of 2nd grade material (combination of Sonlight, writing, Rod and Staff, etc) until his little brothers (they are 5 1/2 - actually 1 month apart) caught up with him. They are in MFW K and then would go through MFW first grade, and then join him for 2nd grade. That was the plan until I found HOD!
I also have an almost 4 yo dd who has been doing Sonlight and MFW preschool. She is raring to go, but needs more time with fine motor skills before she can tackle kindergarten-type work.
I was pleased with MFW academically, but I have felt that something was...lacking. We seem to be missing that spiritual connection that we long for. I find myself loading books onto dd8's desk, giving her a quick run-through of directions, asking her if she understands, and then leaving her while I tackle the challenges of the other 4 children. That's not the way we want it to be! She does fine with her work, but we don't really talk about it or make the connections between Scriptures and what she is learning. From what I've read, HOD helps parents make the connections with their children. Academics are very important to us, but they are not the MOST important thing. That distinction of course goes to helping our children develop an amazingly deep and abiding love for the Lord. All the rest falls away in light of that.
So, what would you do, if you were in my shoes? What placement/program would you use for each child? I would love to have a lighter workload and do fewer programs, but that isn't my primary concern. I'm already doing four different levels, so I could continue on that path, if necessary. I already own many of the books HOD uses, so I would mainly need to buy the teacher's guides and a few books here and there which is definately do-able financially. We are a book loving family and may need to build more shelves to make room, however! I have thought of combining our two eldest using extension materials, but wanted the opinions of more experienced HOD users.
Thank you in advance for your help and insight. Have a blessed day!
Amy
So, I have my daughter "practice" reading the Emerging Reader assignment for the day while I'm working with another child. Then when she reads for me, she's already had time to look at the pictures and we can cruise along. 
I don't know how big the age gap is with them and the 4 yo, but maybe you could combine all of them in LHFHG? Garret tagged along in LHFHG with Allison when we began. She was 5 and he was 3. He realy did well while we did that half-speed. He didn't do any of the fine motor skill work, but joined us for the rest. After about 9 months of this, it worked best for our family to split them, but maybe in your case that would be a group you could keep together. You'd probably want to take it half-speed for a while if you did this. Here's a past thread where moms shared how they used different guides half-speed. This was our LHFHG schedule that year.