Oh no...did I order the wrong guide?

[jcmi]

I am excited to use HOD with my four children in the fall. I feel great about the placement of the oldest three, however, I am wondering if I made a mistake with my youngest. Based on the information below, what guide would you put her in?

She is 6.5 and chronologically should be starting 1st grade in the fall. She finished Singapore Math 1A/1B last year and breezed through it. She has a good grasp of fractions and multiplication just from listening in on her sibling's lessons, cooking with me, etc. She started cursive last year and is doing well with that. She reads indpendently (Little House series, Charlotte's Web, Boxcar Children, etc.) and quite well. She is great at memorization (she memorized James 1 last spring--the whole chapter!) She loves to write and to copy things out of books. She regularly beats everyone in the house at chess. She has done no formal school except Singapore math and handwriting. I've always been pretty laid back in the early years, so I don't want to push her...but I do want her to be challenged.

For some reason, I ordered Beyond for her. Now that I have it in hand and am looking it over, I wonder if I made a mistake. Should I have ordered Bigger?

I'm hoping to figure this out ASAP so I can order Bigger if I need to and re-do my plans.

What do you think?

Thanks!

Jen in MI----homeschooling my 4: dd 12, ds 12 (cerebral palsy and Asperger's Syndrome), ds 10, and dd 6.

[VAmomto4]

I can't comment about placement but...

Have you considered adding DITHOR?

[meandmycuties]

I think I would have ordered Beyond for her too.

[arstephia]

My daughter is the same age and same reading ability. We are doing Beyond. Just because they can read things, doesn't mean they have the maturity and understanding to fully comprehend what they read and the importance of events, people, etc. I have found that to be true with my other kids who were very avid readers. Beyond is great. Just choose the appropriate spelling list and reading level for DITHOR and you will have a great year.

[jcmi]

I guess I'm less concerned about her reading level and more concerned about the activities. For math, English, and handwriting she fits right into Bigger. And I am worried that the science and history activities in Beyond might be a little too easy for her. She has been tagging along with her siblings (12, 12, and 10) and has kept up pretty well in their history and science. For example, I compared the sample geography activities in the first week. Beyond has her learning where the continents are. She already knows all of the continents and oceans, can find about 75% of the countries in the world, and knows their capital cities as well.

I want to find the right fit for her. I don't want to push her or put her in a guide that will be too hard for her. However, I am also concerned that it fits her ability level and holds her attention.

I'm also thinking of her 12 year old brother with special needs (CP and Asperger's Syndrome.) Orignially I placed him in Preparing with my 10 year old son. However, the more I look at Preparing the more I think it's over his head. And the more I look at Bigger, the more I think that might be a better fit for him. Then I would have my dd 12 in Rev to Rev, my ds 10 in Preparing, my ds 12 and dd 6.5 in Bigger.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Jen

[basesloaded]

We will be doing Beyond next year with my youngest who will turn 7 in Oct that year, too. Another thing to consider when making your decision is looking at the future guides and where she will fall, or where you will want her to be. The guides build and get more and more advanced as you go. The work also gets a little more independent each year so you may want to think about that, too. Bigger may not seem like such a "jump" for 1st but you might find Preparing too much for her for 2nd. For me I find it much easier (and fun ) for things to be a little "easy" in 1st grade and then be right on target in say 3rd than be "too much" in those older grades where it is not near as easy to slow down. I pray you find "your right spot" ... I am confident you will!

[Larissa]

Based on the info you provided, I would have ordered Beyond as well. I've taken an advanced student through Beyond when he was 7 years old and it was one of the best years we've ever had. My son was advanced across the board - but I still don't regret taking him through Beyond at age 7.

This coming school year, I will be taking an even more advanced son through Beyond. He won't be 7 until December. My plan is to do Beyond as written (left side), add DITHOR, Rod and Staff English 2, Singapore 2A and 2B. Beyond is a fantastic curriculum - I enjoyed it the first time and can't wait to do it again this year. You can beef up Beyond as I described above and it should work out well for you. Adding the English does not require a different guide - you can just do a lesson a day. With my oldest son, I made the mistake of pushing him through his obvious advanced skills, and I burned him out. He completely lost his joy for learning. I don't want to make that mistake again. There is also a developmental factor that should be considered. At some point, it's possible that she may not be ready for the material - that may not be right now, but the possibility exists that if you push her ahead right now that she may not be ready for Preparing at 7.5. I lean toward beefing up Beyond in the areas that she may need it, and focusing on the pure enjoyment of the activities and lessons provided.

[krismoose]

I agree that for your dd Beyond would be still be fine, and you could also add some science or history notebooking if you wanted to increase the demands on her a bit. When you add in the info about your son, though, it may be worth considering going through Bigger's left side at a slower pace. You really don't want to end up too far too fast at age 7, but if you have 2 dc going through it together and it's a good fit for your ds...hmmm.. Would there be any issues with him being paired with his youngest sibling for school?

[jcmi]

Kristen--

No, actually ds (12) works way better with his youngest sister (6). He is closer developmentally to her than he is to his younger brother (10). The boys do not work well together , and I was already a bit worried about having them share the same guide. The more I look at Preparing, the more sure I am that it will be totally over his head.

At this point, these are my options:

dd (12) in Rev to Rev (this is a sure thing)
ds (10) in Preparing (this is a sure thing, too)
ds (12 with special needs) and dd (6.5) in Bigger---and since neither would be ready for Preparing next year, I could do something else and then come back to Preparing the following year

OR I could keep dd 6 in Beyond and not do HOD with ds 12...but I think he would be disappointed knowing that everyone else is doig it.

OR I could do four guides (leaving dd 6 in Beyond and putting ds 12 in Bigger.) At this point, though, I'm thinking that's my least favorite option....I was already worried about doing three guides! And I'd still have to do something else with ds 12 next year, because he won't be ready for Preparing yet.

Is that clear as mud??

Jen

[VAmomto4]

What about having ds12 do his own level math/english and combine with dd6 in Beyond w/ DITHOR for the rest?

I didn't want to weigh in on placement when I first posted since I am not an expert . But I have a dd7 who is quite precocious and Bigger in 2nd is going to be perfect. Just because they can do something doesn't mean they should, kwim? As far as the activities go, they may seem simple to you but she may surprise you and really enjoy them. Plus with all of those guides, simple gets done!

[netpea]

What about having ds12 do his own level math/english and combine with dd6 in Beyond w/ DITHOR for the rest?

This was my thought too. You could beef up Beyond for the 12yo if you wanted to go that route.

[Kathleen]

I think you're right with Beyond as well. I'll be using it with my 7 year old, and since we've already finished the Emerging Readers, we'll be using DITHOR for reading instruction. It sounds like that would fit well for your little gal, too.

When you're reading through the guide, I can see how the activities might seem simple. But, they're written to be easy to DO so that your child can do them on their own. The thinking that goes with them is not as simplistic. My kids have all LOVED HOD's activities!! While they may have been advanced academically, they really love the hands-on fun, too. My oldest especially was this way, and spurred on by the science experiments loves to come up with things to check out on his own. I've found that doing the same activities and experiments with different kids as we go through the guides is quite interesting, too. They're not "one-right-answer" things, and those higher level thinking questions/activities get the wheels turning differently for different kids. So, I would think that they'd be MORE inspiring to her. (Unless she's like me when I was little and loved to memorize anything, and could memorize BIG chunks of material and spit it out well...but didn't like thinking questions because I was afraid I'd answer WRONG. Which, in that case, the BEST thing you can do for her is something like Beyond where she'll get to enjoy being 6/7 and learn that she can think and answer questions and explore and LEARN without the fear of being "wrong"! Wish I would have learned that before college!!! )

Kathleen

[my3sons]

Nope - I don't think you ordered the wrong guide! I think there is no need to second guess yourself. I think that Beyond is a good placement for dd as well as all of these wise ladies who have already responded. I am also thinking ds can do Beyond. Here are the comments I think are key...

...She has done no formal school except Singapore math and handwriting. I've always been pretty laid back in the early years, so I don't want to push her...but I do want her to be challenged.

Beyond will have dd doing her own work and being responsible for follow-ups for each skill learned. This is much different than tagging along with older siblings, as the books and learning were geared more toward their abilities and they were more responsible for the material. Beyond will have her learning so well in all school subjects and being personally responsible for every single subject's body of knowledge - I think she is ready for it and will soar!

Likewise, these words make me think ds will do well with Beyond and LA/math on his own level...

And I'd still have to do something else with ds 12 next year, because he won't be ready for Preparing yet.

When dc finish one HOD guide, if they were accurately placed in it and truly did it all, they should be ready for the next guide. If you are already seeing ds will need to take a year off after Bigger Hearts before doing PHFHG, then I think Beyond will be a better placement now as well as for the future. By doing Beyond this year, you could have him do Bigger Hearts the following year, and PHFHG the next year, and so on. This would be such a nice progression, and it will have you only doing 3 guides instead of 4!

I would like to chat about LA/math though. It sounds like dd can do Spelling List 2 and one time a week grammar, plus Drawn into the Heart of Reading Level 2/3. She can use the 2A/2B math schedule in the Appendix of Bigger Hearts. She's probably set with that. But what about ds? What do you think he needs?

HTH - and I'd love to hear your thoughts about this! We do 3 HOD guides, and when dc are placed right, it's not hard to do. We enjoy our HOD days together so much - I think you will too.

In Christ,
Julie