Combining kiddos?

[missionarymama]

Hello!
I have just started our homeschooling journey, and I am probably going to begin using HOD in the fall (2016). At that point, our family will be living in Papua New Guinea as church planting missionaries, so I am thinking of ordering now while we are still in the States (we leave on January 19).

So I am wondering how to teach my kids. I have a 9 year old boy, and then 3 girls (ages 7, 6 and 4). So in some ways I would like my 3 older ones to each have their own guide, but something that we really LOVE doing is reading aloud with all of us together (me and the kids). So I am thinking, if they each have their own guides, I will be reading aloud to my 9 year old, 7 yr old and 6 yr old separately, and that is a LOT of separate reading! What are your thoughts? Would it be better to just combine the older 2 (maybe my 9 year old do the extension?) And then combining the younger two? I would just love any thoughts! Thank you!

[StephanieU]

Have you looked at the placement chart to see where the older three place? It might help you see which ones would be bes to combine.

[sahervey]

If you want to put them each into their own guide, then choose one storytime package to read aloud. So, if you end up doing Beyond, Bigger, and Preparing, then choose to read the storytime titles from Bigger or something like that. Or, if you think you can swing it, put the older two in a guide together and the younger two in one together and tweak it to work.

[Jennymommy]

Hi I might lean toward Preparing for your ds, and Beyond for your 7&6 to dd's. I would expect a bit more of the older dd than the younger. There are several choices within Beyond as far as reading aloud and reading readiness, so you can address each girl at their own level. Several of the resources will be appreciated by your your youngest as well
I would also consider what your lifestyle may be...you are likely to have more opportunities to read aloud, and you may enjoy having several book packs on hand, as well as Carrie's DITHOR resources with their hands on activities...you never know when they will come in handy
For Preparing, I would definitely order the extension readers simply because they are so good. My sons enjoyed them immensely
Will you be there long? Perhaps you will be wanting to order Bigger, CTC and LHFHG? Then you will be prepared for two years. Also, LHFHG is a good guide for repetition...I used it for both K and 1st and it was a hit both years I just used the higher level science, workbooks and math the second time through.
And, don't forget that HOD will work with missionaries on payments HTH

[Nealewill]

I have found that HOD works great for kids that are close in ability. When you have several kids, HOD actually works much better when some can do their own guides. That is because HOD becomes very independent very quickly. For your kiddos, based on their ages only and without looking at the placement chart, I would probably lean on putting the oldest in Preparing next year and then putting the 6 & 7 year old in Beyond. If the youngest is ready for school, I would have that child complete Little Hands to Heaven. I agree with Sahervey, you could definitely just run one story time if you wanted too. If you did that, I would have all of the kids participate in the Beyond storytime. However, we have found the storytime books for Preparing to move fairly quickly (all except one but that book was absolutely fantastic) and this box didn't take much time at all. When I did Preparing, I spent about 1.5 hours a day teaching my child in that level, including the storytime box. I found with Beyond that I also spent about 1.5-2 hours a day teaching my child. Bigger is the heaviest level on mom. You are looking to spend about 2-2.5 hours a day teaching your child. But Preparing was such a joy for oldest when she did it. Once you get to CTC, you are look at 1-1.5 hours of teaching time a day.

And as for running a separate level for each, if your kids are going to be 2 guides apart, I think it works very well. But if they are completing back to back levels, it can work but it might not be worth it until the kids get older. For me, when I started HOD, I started with my oldest in Preparing and my younger two in Beyond. It was the best year. We had so much fun and my kids learned a ton! Then last year I decided I wanted all of my kids to be on their own and for all of my kids be able to do all of their own levels. Last year was great too. My oldest did CTC, my middle did Bigger and my youngest did Little Hearts. It was such a great year and all of my kids had a ton of fun. This year I decided to move forward with having all of my kids do their own thing again, however, this year I was completely overwhelmed! My oldest started RtR, my middle started Preparing, and my youngest started Bigger. Preparing and Bigger are the most teacher intensive levels and it would have been fine if I didn't also work. I work from home and work quite a bit. I am an accountant for a ministry which requires 10-30 hours per week and then I teach accounting classes. So my schedule fluctuates with how much I work. If I was only work 20 hours a week, then I could get everything done. But I had to work 30-40 hours some weeks, and at those points I was struggling. I prayed about it and decided to just combine my younger 2 together. My son is on the oldest end of the age range and my youngest is on the youngest end of the age range. My son is not a super stronger reader - he can read but he gets overwhelmed by longer chapter books and such - so he isn't doing the extensions. This year he is actually repeating the history, rotating box and poetry from Bigger because he completed Bigger last year and I wanted to combine him and his sister. Honestly, this is such a better balance! I am so glad I chose to combine those two kids. They are very similar in abilities. I will also say that me combining my oldest and middle child would not have been a good fit. My son is not nearly as advance as my girls are. So he does best at the middle age range or the oldest age range.

When you look at the placement chart, how do each of your kids place? How do they each read and write? Those two things right there are the most important things to consider when you decide to combine kids. It sounds like your oldest is a good reader since you mentioned having that child read the extension books. If he reads well and can write well, then I would absolutely have him do Preparing. If he struggles with reading or writing though and your 7 year old is a fairly good reader for her age , then I might consider putting those two together in Bigger. How about your 6 year old? Is that child picking up phonics quickly? Can she read already? Or does she struggle with reading and writing. If she struggles, then I might have her start HOD Little Hands to Heaven with the youngest. That way they can both go into Little Hearts at the same time. It may seem like LHTH is too easy for her and it probably will be. But as she gets older, it will increase in level quickly and it won't seem easy for long. You would always just do the math, spelling, phonics/reading at their level. They would really only share the science and history. And I know many times we all assume that girls are always good at reading and writing when they are younger but that isn't always the case. My oldest has mild dyslexia and she struggled SO much when she was younger. She struggled not only with reading but with math too (apparently that is very common for kids with dyslexia to struggle with math). But she loved to draw and copy stuff. When we started HOD, I placed in Preparing because she could read but figured the interesting books would propel her forward with having her read more and more. She did love those books and so she worked really hard because she wanted to. My son has auditory processing disorder so reading was challenging on him as well at first but he could write and write and write (spells everything wrong LOL but doesn't mind copy work one bit). All kids are different. My youngest is gifted and taught herself to read and taught herself math. She is very advanced in everything she does. The placement chart is the best tool to help us help you pick out levels and whether or not for us to advise you to combine or not. My only final piece of advice would be to try and make so that you don't end up doing back to back guides. While many have done it, doing it in the younger years seems to be more challenging than in the older years since the kiddos need much more of mom when they are younger.

[MelInKansas]

You are right in that having them in separate guides is a lot of reading aloud for you - in the younger guides. As they get older they will read a lot more of their own stuff. Even with my 3 in separate guides they all like to listen into others' storytimes and if they are done with their own stuff I let them. I always leave read-alouds to the end of our school day because everybody loves them so much that we will do them. You could also combine storytimes, but it's not absolutely necessary to do so. Also since you love read-alouds I would recommend buying as many of the book packs as you can - though I know travelling overseas it's hard to take a lot of things like books. If you are packing a shipping container I guess you can put them in there. I have had to scramble to find books for each child to do in storytime and/or DITHOR and the book packs include each genre and are planned out so well for those things. I like to change up the storytime when I go through a guide again, just for my own sake.

[missionarymama]

Wow, thank you all for that advice! These message boards are so helpful! I'm very glad I decided to post I really appreciate it!

[missionarymama]

Also Daneale...one thing I want to clarify. What exactly did you mean about not doing back to back guides?

[Nealewill]

I meant that I would not teach from two guides if they were only one guide apart. So if you have one child place in Bigger and one child place in Beyond, then I wouldn't teach both at the same time. I would just place both children in Beyond and adjust math, spelling, literature and possibly grammar for the older child. I wouldn't necessarily even consider having the older child do the extensions unless they are in the extensions range. HOD recommends always placing combine children in the lower guide and adjusting for the older child. It has worked out beautifully. Also, all of the materials in the guides is usually geared at a grade or two ahead of what age it is actually used for anyway. Or the materials is geared toward multiple grades and can easily span both the younger and older age. So even if you do have an older child who is combine with a younger child, and you are doing a lower guide, you definitely aren't holding anyone back buy place them both in the lower guide. Even though HOD is definitely geared at making kids independent and that is what makes it much more possible for mom to run multiple levels, it is also geared to combine similar ages and that can make it much easier on moms who have kids that similar in abilities or moms who do want to combine some of their kids.

For me, I only recently decided to combine two of my kids. I was that mom who planning to be that mom who is going to run back to back levels. That means my two younger kids were always going to be one level apart. I ended up choosing to combine because I was working quite a bit and I didn't want to run three levels anymore. I wanted more free time for me and for my kids. But I kept having a nagging feeling like I was holding my middle child back for selfish reasons. To make a long story short, I ended finding out that my son could very easily meet the graduation requirements at my alma mater (which is one of the top 100 high schools in nation) with minimal tweaks to his high school education even if he doesn't complete the final high school guide. I would literally only need to add in Economics and Finance. That is all. After seeing that, I had total peace about combining my two younger kids and knowing that my son won't complete the final high school guide.

Does that make more sense what I was saying? Sorry that was confusing.

[rumkimom]

As others said, I would check to see where your kids are on the chart. I would suggest having the oldest on his own (in either Bigger or preparing depending on where he places) and then the 6 & 7 year olds combined in either LHFHG or Beyond (wherever the younger one fits). LHFHG is great for 1st grade. My 9 year old boy is in Bigger and my 7 year old boy is in LHFHG this year.

[missionarymama]

Okay, great! Thank you all! And Daneale, you weren't confusing! I'm just new at this As I read back through it, it totally makes sense. Thank you!

[Nealewill]

Feel free to keep asking away I had never heard of HOD until 2 years ago. When I found them, I asked a lot of questions and even called them on the phone. They are so wonderful and helpful!!!!! I can honestly say that I actually read their catalog from cover to cover also LOL.