heartofdakota.com

My family is going on vacation in a week or two and I'm staying home to "plan". I am needing to make an order. I wrote yesterday or 2 days ago. Could you PM me? My girls are 12 & 14 but are immature and could get caught up in academics. I can tell you more when you PM.
Thanks
Cyndi

In case she doesn't see this, try the office! I have always received prompt (same day) responses even when I have emailed!

carmikeaustin@msn.com

Phone: (605)-428-4068

HTH!

have you gone through the placement chart for each girl? you'll find it here: http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
Honestly, the placement chart is the best place to start. print out two copies, one for each child and then start circling where your child falls for each subject. I went all the way down the list to place my kids this year. Once you see where they fall on the chart it is much easier for us to give you advice on what might work for you. Being 2 years apart you may well be able to combine them but that would depend on how far apart they are academically or how close together. Let us know what you think?

Hi Cyndi!

I know that Julie has said that she gets pretty bogged down with her pm's sometimes. (And my guess is that this might be one of those times since she's busy editing the new guide that should be complete soon, and there are LOTS of moms like us placing our orders for the new year and are asking her and Carrie questions. ) I'm sure she'll reply when she gets a chance, but that might not be as soon as you're wanting.

If you want to share more here on the board, there are lots of moms who have been through most of the guides and are quite familiar with HOD that would be glad to talk through placement for your girls with you! Like netpea said, I'd start with the placement chart and think through it specifically for each girl individually. Once you (and we) know where they each place we can factor in whether you'd like to combine them or not.

We just got our box a couple weeks ago - and it's so much fun being ready to go for the year!!
Kathleen

Oops, I assumed the OP had already checked the placement guide.

The placement chart was spot-on for all of my children!

I did look at the placement chart completely and it didn't help since they are older such as 12 & 14 and some things they can't do or can do only partially. They are behind academically which I'm not to worried about but I do need to get up to par and I'm wondering if I can tweak this at all or maybe not.
This is why I was trying to get in contact with Julie or Carrie and I know they are very busy. I PM'ed Carrie because she replied to one of my messages but maybe I should PM Julie.
Thanks
Cyndi

Hi Cyndi,
me again...your new best friend. Lol!
I just wanted to say it might b helpful if u could mention some specifics of what they have done so people can get a better idea. I had a hard time too when I looked at the placement chart w my kiddos. maybe do some tests w them....read and have them narrate back. You mentioned they need to be guided on written narrations and you dont feel like they are ready for creative writing assignents yet, right? Dictation is scheduled in the back of the guides w several different levels, so I wouldnt worry too much about that. Do they work well independently? What have you been doing for math? How about reading levels? Maybe you could name some books they currently feel comforable w reading confidently. I know there are many moms with children who place similarly to yours on the board. Maybe they wil chime in to. Carrie usually has great ideas on how to taylor each guide to each child, so I am sure there is way to make it work.

In the meantime, dont be disheartened.
Its just quiet today.

OK, let me see if I can make a bit more sense. My 8yo dd for instance had circles in 3 columns, Bigger, Preparing and CTC. She has never done R&S grammar or cursive and does not enjoy writing unless its to write her own stories. Even though someone her age could do CTC, I am choosing to do Bigger (with the Extension program since she will be in 4th grade). We are doing R&S2, but doing two lessons a day orally to move her into R&S3 quicker. (She is not ready for R&S3 but R&S2 is a bit too easy.) She is doing math at her level, she is already halfway through Singapore 3B.

HOD is easily customized to meet your child at their needs. If your children fall into any given program on the chart, you can use that but put them in the grammar or math program that fits best. Tell us where your children fall in each subject and we can help you figure this out. There are many helpful women here.

Cindi,
I just wanted to say "Hello" and welcome to the HOD boards. I've read your posts here and just wanted to say thank you for sharing your heart. (((HUGS))) My kiddos are young (just turned 9 and 7), but before I came to HOD, what you wrote was my testimony. I was always busy planning and missing family things and to be honest, just so tired from planning, that I felt like I had little energy for teaching. With that being said, last year was our first year with HOD. Everyone in my family loves HOD, even dh. We have fun, we learn, and I have so much more time now. I just wanted to encourage to not give up on placement of get discouraged. HOD is worth the extra effort to place your dc correctly and I know the ladies will get back with you a.s.a.p. and whatever info you could give them will help in their helping you. I know my own dc are so much younger than yours, but here's my original thread asking for placement help. Maybe it will help you when you share about your own dc. Praying you find as much peace with HOD as I have.

My son is older, too (he'll be 13 in Sept), so maybe if I share how I chose a program for him, it will help you.

When I looked at the placement chart, I saw that his age worked for either RTR or Rev to Rev. I saw that he could definitely do the reading in Rev to Rev, but that he was more apt to be able to write 8-12 sentences than 10-14, so that would place him in RTR. I saw that he was somewhere between the two guides for grammar, so that could go either way. We use a different math program for him, so I ignored the math box. Looking at Bible, he firmly places in Rev to Rev, but all Bible is good Bible, so that can go either way as well. I saw that he was able to do the work in both guides for both science and history.

Now, looking at that, he could easily place in Rev to Rev, however, since he is in 8th grade, and since he has not covered Middle ages yet, I took the history cycle into account. I looked at the scope and sequence here: http://www.heartofdakota.com/scope.php and figured out that if he did RTR this year (8th), then his high school years would look like this:

9th Rev to Rev (covering the first half of American history and beefed up to include government. Here's the link where that was discussed: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9567 )

10th Modern using the guide coming out next year
11th Geography using the Geography guide
12th World history using the World history guide

Because he really could do the work in the guide above where he is placed, we will be using the extensions for each guide. There are also several threads on beefing up the guides for high school, which have mostly all been collected in this one thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6571 There are tons of links in there to give you ideas of how to beef up guides for older kiddos.

HOD really is a wonderful, God honoring curriculum, and I'm certain there is a way that it will fit your children's needs. HTH some!

Hi Cyndi! I just saw this. I have been editing like mad, have my sweet sister and her husband staying at our house, and they have quite a large family. I am not getting to my PM's right now but would be glad to help you here. I've been trying very hard to stay up on the board, as I have to choose what to try to do, and that helps many people all at once. I bet a bunch of moms have your very same situation or a similar one, and by chatting through it here, you can help others too. I would be GLAD to help you though! So, I have a few questions for you, if you could please answer in regard to each of your dc here...
*What are the titles of a few books each of your dc have just read, enjoyed, and understood well independently?
*Have they been reading their own history and science?
*How do they do with following step-by-step directions for projects and experiments independently from a manual?
*Have they had exposure to Charlotte Mason style language arts, like dictation, copywork, oral narrations, and written narrations?
*Have they had a formal literature study, including story elements (i.e. plot, setting, character, etc.), genre study, and higher level comprehension questions?
*What have they done for grammar? Any diagramming yet?
*What about their writing? How much are they used to (physically) writing each day, and have they had instruction in clear step-by-step writing (i.e. writing a concise paragraph, writing a friendly letter, etc.)? Have they had some creative writing?
*What are they doing for math?

If you get a chance to answer these things, I can help you place your dc with some pretty good accuracy. I'll check back!

In Christ,
Julie