Needing help with placement and using multiple guides...

[robinwilson]

Hello! I am mom to 8 children. I am looking ahead for next year. So I know placement will change between now and next August... (at least I hope it will.) However, I am trying to prepare financially for next year. I will have a:

4 year old girl.... loves to listen to stories but I am not interested in formal preschool
6 year old girl.... 1st grade... beginning reader... still learning phonics
8 year old boy... 3rd grade... emergent reader...writing is hard for him
11 year old girl... 6th grade... strong student
12 year old boy... 7th grade... dysgraphia.... dyslexia... still a good student... but has to work hard
14 year old boy... 9th grade... a little immature... strong reader and writer
16 year old boy...11th grade... strong reader... loves computers.... writing is hard... asperger's
18 year old girl... Leaving home for college....

I am thinking of combining my 11 and 12 year old. They seem to study well together. Maybe CTC? I was thinking of combining 6 and 8 year old in Beyond? Not sure about that though. Finally, I was thinking of Missions to Marvels for my 14 year old and World History for my oldest boy. That is alot of money and alot of guides... And I am still not sure about the 6yo and 8yo. Does this even sound doable? Would there even be enough hours in the day?

~Thanks in advance,
Robin

[StephanieU]

When I was looking at your descriptions, I thought you could possibly combine the two sets you mentioned. The older set I would look at CtC through Rev2Rev. The "average" 6th grader is often capable of RtR, so, look at that and one above and below.
I think if you are two combine the other pair, Beyond would be my choice. An 8yo is probably too old for LHFHG, and a 6yo is too young for Bigger (and Bigger does have a lot of writing). I would look at the first week of Beyond and see if it seems do-able for the 6yo before buying.
As for the other two, those would be the low end of the guides I would probably look at - MtMM and World Geography for the 14yo and then World History and American History 1 for the 16yo. For the 16yo, it would also depend on what social studies credits you have already completed and what you need. World Geography might even be an option (combined with the 14yo) depending on credits.

[MelInKansas]

Have you had a chance to look through the HOD placement chart? It gives in detail all the areas the child would need to be ready in for each guide. That will help you start, but combining with as many kids as you have is also a very good idea and I would try to if you can. In the older guides it's not such a big deal, I think once you pass CTC or Rev to Rev the teacher allotted time is about the same each day because you just need to confer with the student and grade their work. But in the younger guides, adding guides adds quite a bit more time because you are reading everything and you are guiding them through activities, etc. Are your older kids used to being independent with most of their work and reading and following detailed instructions? How is their follow-through? Have they had much exposure to CM style narration? That is the skill that may be a trip-up as you switch from another curriculum.

Combining will also save money in the short term. With all your kids, you will find HOD to be a great value long-term because the majority of the resources are reusable.

So yes, placement will change by August, but all you can see is where they are at now so go ahead and look through the placement chart for each of your children and let us know where you think they fall. Keep in mind also that for Bigger on up there are extensions that can be added if you were to combine two of your kids in the guide. With Beyond, the "extension" is often adding a few of the things from Bigger for an older child: cursive, grammar, and then having them do math and reading at their own level (which all children in HOD do anyway).

[robinwilson]

Melissa,
I noticed that you are using multiple guides. Can you give me an example of how many hours of teacher-led instruction you are doing per day?

~Robin

[Jennymommy]

Hi Robin A few questions should be answered here... First, what credits do your highschool dc need for graduation, and which have they accomplished. It may be that you could combine the 16 and 14 yos in WG, using the LA from WH or US History 1 for the older ds, and maybe science as well. There could be several options there, and as pp mentioned, you will be re-using curricula several times over the years which may affect how you look at the cost. Another question, if you look at the first week of CTC vs. RestoRef, where do you see your next two dc placing best over all? Either guide allows you to adjust LA, math and science as needed, and you can add extensions in reading if necessary. For your 8 and 6 yos, I might keep them in Beyond/Bigger and LHFHG, respectively. This is because the guides move up in difficulty pretty quickly, and you don't want to outstrip the younger child's abilities. I will post some links on length of time for each guide in case that helps. I am currently using WH, MTMM and RestoRef, and my overall teaching/grading time is about 2 hours a day, including reading 2 story times. My youngest definitely takes the most time, but he is a very dependant guy in general

[Jennymommy]

Hope these help. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093&start=135#p74537 , viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15841&sid=134ecbb0c ... aa#p111321. Lynn's blog is a great resource for dysgraphia as well:-)

[robinwilson]

I have looked at the placement charts and that is how I chose the placement in my original post. I mainly based it on their reading and writing abilities. I don't know about keeping the 6 yo and 8yo together. There is a fair amount of sibling squabbles between those two already. I think they would both flourish having "their own" time with mom. My question is really... would I have time to do it all?

My 16 yo has already completed his world geography credit using Abeka. He has also done a year of church history as well. So he needs civics, world history and us history. He has done physical science and is currently finishing up biology. So he will need chemistry and physics as well.

I am enjoying reading your replies. I am finding your opinions helpful. I desperately want to switch to a more literature based method. I want my kids to enjoy school, not just endure it.

~Robin

[MelInKansas]

Robin,

I would say my focussed time with the kiddos is probably about 5-ish hours per day. Of course with all the littles there are breaks and interruptions in there. We start around 8:30 and with a mid-morning break, and at least an hour of lunch break we are done at about 1:30-2:00. Note this is with my oldest doing math and science with her dad each evening after littles go to bed. For CTC I spend about 1.5 hours with her, Preparing 2-2.5 hours, and Beyond about 1.5-2 hours. It really depends on how involved the projects and activities are as to where it falls and quite honestly I skip some of the activities with the youngers (where I have to be involved). Once you get to CTC and above the kids do projects on their own and your time with them is discussion, checking over work, short teaching times with math if that's needed and such.

HOD is great for literature and loving learning. I love all the things I and my kids learn and the way we discuss them together, and how the Bible is brought into nearly every subject.

[MomtoJGJE]

I'm really no help at all when it comes to the high schoolers.

The only thing is that maybe you could combine your 11, 12, and 14yo in RtR? There are ways you can make the "middle school" guides work for high school. I don't know them to tell you though That would keep your cost down some.

As for the 6 and 8yo.... What about combining them in LHFHG except you could buy the Beyond or Bigger guide for spelling and the emerging readers schedule. You could get R&S2 for the 8yo and just do one lesson per day. That way you'd still have individual time with each of them, but still combine them some... all while keeping YOUR time to a minimum?

Also, running multiple guides is pretty easy once everyone gets in the swing of things.

[my3sons]

I have looked at the placement charts and that is how I chose the placement in my original post. I mainly based it on their reading and writing abilities. I don't know about keeping the 6 yo and 8yo together. There is a fair amount of sibling squabbles between those two already. I think they would both flourish having "their own" time with mom. My question is really... would I have time to do it all?

My 16 yo has already completed his world geography credit using Abeka. He has also done a year of church history as well. So he needs civics, world history and us history. He has done physical science and is currently finishing up biology. So he will need chemistry and physics as well.

I am enjoying reading your replies. I am finding your opinions helpful. I desperately want to switch to a more literature based method. I want my kids to enjoy school, not just endure it.

~Robin

Hi Robin, and welcome to the HOD Board! The ladies are doing such a great job of helping, and as you can see, there is much to consider in placement, which is why this dialogue is so good! From what you've shared so far, I'd combine your 6 and 8 yo in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. You can have your 6 yo do phonics, and your 8 yo do the Emerging Reader's Set (which was a favorite set of beginning books with all of our sons ). Your 6 yo can do Spelling List 1, and your 8 yo can do Spelling List 2. Your 6 yo can do Singapore Math 1A/1B with the hands-on activities planned in the Beyond guide, and your 8 yo can do 2A/2B with the textbook/workbook approach from the Appendix. Beyond is not a hard guide to teach - it takes about 2 hours or less. So, even if this little duo is not the happiest pairing, they only need to be paired for a short amount of time, they'd be doing different spelling/LA/math for part of that time anyway, and the amount of time it will save you in teaching is worth it. In the scheme of choosing guides for a large family, combining is often necessary for the best overall day for everyone, and this duo seems the most natural. I think they will love Beyond..., and I think you will too!

From what you've shared so far, I think the next duo to combine would be the 6th and 7th grader. I would try to have them do Resurrection to Reformation together, but do check the placement chart and first week of plans to be sure. RTR is targeted toward 10-12 yo dc, so this would fit their age and maturity better than CTC. For your 9th grader, I'd look closely at World Geography High School, and see if he can do that. Since he is a strong reader and writer, it would be wonderful if he could do the WG guide, as he could do the 4 HOD guides for high school as they are written, with no tweaking/adding/etc. on your part through his high school journey. MTMM can be used as a 9th grade guide, and there are many wonderful ladies doing just that happily with their high school dc. However, with a larger family I think it is necessary to make decisions based on what is best for the overall family, for the dedicated busy homeschool mama, and for the realities of many blessings to teach within a day! Not having to add/tweak things in the MTMM guide because you are using the WG as is would be nice; however, that being said, if you look at the WG High School guide and first week of plans and find yourself thinking it's way too much for your 9th grade ds, and it's going to require you stepping in and helping a lot in areas that are supposed to be independent... well then, MTMM would be better.

Finally, the World History High School guide makes good sense for your 11th grader. He has already had WG, and he needs WH, so that is the logical guide for him to do. That being said, HOD is breaking up US History over 2 years in 2 high school guides (US1 and US2), so that will be something to look at next year. But, for now, WH makes total sense, sounds like a good placement, and is an awesome guide (we just finished it recently with our eldest).

If you get the chance to look at the first week of plans for these guides and have more to share about your thoughts then, please do share! Sometimes placement advice changes as more information comes to light. However, based on what you've shared thus far, these are the placements I'd suggest. On a side note, I think you will truly learn to love HOD! It is an incredibly satisfying way to go about schooling our dc at home! We've used HOD with all of our dc from the start, and our oldest is now 16 yo and at the start of the US1 High School guide. What an incredible journey it has been, and one that I'd repeat again if given the chance to start over in a heartbeat! It is education of the mind, heart, and soul at its best. I'm truly excited for you to begin, and once we get through this placement process and you get into a good routine with your guides (usually a few months in for me), you will probably look back at this time we spent on placement as some of the best time invested in your kiddos' lives ever. Looking forward to getting to know you here!

In Christ
Julie