Doing a program at half-pace question

[Carrie]

There will be 3 more guides to come after CTC, so in a perfect world kiddos would do CTC as a 5th grader in order to finish the HOD guides by the end of grade 8. However that is only from the history cycle perspective, and at HOD we honestly believe if kiddos 3 R's are in place then they will be prepared for high school regardless of whether they've completed the HOD history cycle. The one year overview of American history in Bigger followed by the one-year overview of world history in Preparing Hearts do much to cover kiddos as far as the study of history goes, making the following years of history study at a deeper level another pass through history.

Blessings,
Carrie

[sted]

Okay, one more question. If I put my 6yr. old + 8yr. old in Beyond next year (with Bigger LA for older child), I can move them up together with extensions however, that would leave my 6yr. old hitting CTC in Grade 4. Wouldn't that be too early? One option I have is doing a year of Canadian History in there somewhere which would put her in CTC in Grade 5 but then I'd have to plan that all out on my own. Any advice?

Thanks,
Shannon

[Carrie]

Shannon,

I should have said that 4th or 5th graders are ideal for CTC (as the ages on the CTC guide are 9-11 with extensions for 12-13). So, your kiddo would fit just right by doing CTC in either 4th or 5th grade and your older would fit well in the extensions. I was just thinking of my own kiddo doing CTC next year, and he'll be in 5th grade. And... I was typing on too many threads in a row trying to get caught up before we left on our trip and was a bit foggy.

Blessings,
Carrie

[sted]

I didn't know whether to start a new thread or continue this one. Carrie, I think the thing that worries me most about putting children in different manuals eg) letting my eldest branch off on her own for CTC is missing that family togetherness. Albeit, it is challenging at times but things like read-alouds seem to help bring us together as a family. How do you manage to keep the family togetherness when everyone is working at a different level? I'm sure you do it but I'm just wondering how? We do family worship together in the evening but I guess I'm trying to see how we can do some of that during the day.

Thanks for you help,
Shannon

[Carrie]

Shannon,

I often do one of the read-alouds with the kiddos at lunch. Then, I'll look at other things within the guides that combine well across the age levels to round lunch time out as well. One year, it was the hymn study from Bigger that everyone participated in. Another year it was the poetry from one of the guides. We also always all take a recess break together mid-morning (even my big boys) and all do lunch together.

We've done picture study, composer study, nature journals, books on tape, and poetry with all of our boys across the grade levels, as those areas lend themeselves better to combining than many other areas.

Anway, those just happen to be the areas in which we've had the most success combing.

Blessings,
Carrie

[sted]

One more scenario: What if I put my eldest in Preparing w/extensions and then my 9 yr. old in Bigger? Would that be crazy? My 6yr. old would "tag along" for history and science and then I'd start a HOD program for her next year such as Beyond. Or else I'd do Little with her this year (if I were really ambitious). I could put both older kids in Preparing but then I don't think my middle daughter would be ready for CTC the following year and Preparing would perhaps be a little above her ability now.

Any advice?

Thanks again,
Shannon

[Carrie]

Shannon,

While you can easily entertain many different scenarios with HOD, typically the best scenario is the one that fits your kiddos best on the placement chart, as that results in less tweaking for the mama and makes the activities in history and science at the right level for the your kiddos' in writing, reading, and independence.

So, I would still go with the recommendation I gave you earlier in this thread, when we finally pushed aside all of the scenarios not truly based on the placement chart. I'll repost my advice to you based on the placement chart information (below) as that would be my best advice for your family:

Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. It really helps me to "see" where each child is at skill-wise which makes my advice more solid. First off, I'm thinking that all history cycle focusing aside the best fit for your kiddos HOD-wise would be to combine your 6 and 8 year olds within Beyond, and add the right side only of Bigger Hearts for the 3 R's (and possibly the science) for your 8 year old. This would fit both kiddos well and would put them on track to head into Bigger Hearts with extensions as a team the following year.

Then, I'd place your 10 year old in CTC which she could use quite independently (especially if you think she's be able to do Sonlight 3 + 4), then she could easily do CTC mostly on her own as scheduled too. This would give her the additional writing that she needs through Write with the Best and suit her interest and ability level overall. It may be time to consider allowing her to branch off into her own guide, which is completely up to you. I know for me it was a relief to let go of the history cycle as the driving force behind my curriculum decisions and to just have things be on the right level without all of the sometimes frantic tweaking it took to make the history cycle fit everyone.

So, with that being my primary recommendation, if you deeply desire to have all of your kiddos on the same history cycle, then Bigger Hearts will fit your 8 year old well, and you'll be adjusting up for your 10 year old and down for your 6 year old. In this scenario, I worry about your 6 year old being pulled along with the older kiddos so that is definitely something to weigh. This will be what happens whenever you group kiddos together, whether you use HOD or something else. So, we're no different than the other programs out there in that respect. While you could definitely put your 6 year old in Beyond at half-speed instead, at that point you'd actually be running two programs (Beyond and Bigger), so then I'd definitely lean toward my original advice for 2 programs with Beyond and CTC instead.

Blessings,
Carrie

[sted]

My only concern is placing my daughter in CTC and it perhaps being a bit over her head. I looked up the Story of the Ancients sample and was wondering if it might be a slight "jump" for her in terms of some vocab and content. Perhaps Preparing would be a better transition for her into HOD? So, I guess I could put her in Preparing with my younger two doing Beyond together (adding Bigger's right side for my middle daughter). Do you think that would work

Shannon

[sted]

One more question, Carrie. How old is your son who is using CTC this year? Just so I can get an idea of the ideal age for this program.

Thanks,
Shannon

[Carrie]

Shannon,

My second son will be using CTC as a fifth grader, my sister's son will be using CTC as a fourth grader, and my oldest son piloted the history portion of CTC with extensions last year as a 7th grader (even though he's a very advanced learner). So, you'll find HOD different from other programs in that if your child fits well on the placement chart within a particular program, he/she will typically do best in that program. We don't focus much on grade level at HOD, but lean more toward skill level within placement.

HOD programs are very rich in that kiddos of multiple ages can take much from each of the guides, however a child's 3 R's placement will drive how successful that child will be with the assignments within each HOD guide.

If you felt your oldest child would fit well in Preparing Hearts, instead of CTC, you would know your child best.

Blessings,
Carrie

[sted]

Sorry to take up so much of your time on here. Okay, my oldest daughter told me," Let's go with CTC", she read the Ancient book text herself and didn't seem to have any problem. I think she'd up for a challenge. This will be good for her as I was looking for something to give her "more to do" but not just busy work, meaningful learning for next year.

I am gradually letting go of my vision to do American History with all the kids next year. My only fear is that she won't get any but the way she put it, she told me she can learn it later at a more advanced level. (We're Canadian but I've always wanted to do a sequential year of Am. History!) So now I will scour the CTC choices and hopefully not have too many questions about what to order. I am hoping that the program you design next year or the year after will have a good portion of Am. History along with World History?? Looking at SOTW that was my one criticism in that she wants to give Americans such a global view which she feels is lacking, that she doesn't go into much about Am. History.

Anyhow, thanks for all your help. The good news in taking so long to decide is that the Canadian dollar has gone up in the mean time compared to the American so it will a cheaper exchange rate for us!

Do I submit my order and then you give me a quote as to shipping to Canada?

Shannon

[Carrie]

Shannon,

My hubby runs the shopsite, but I think it will calculate your order with U.S. shipping. Then, I believe my hubby will email you the upcharge for the Canadian shipping and give you your shipping options, asking permission before charging the difference to your card in shipping to Canada.

It sounds like you are sorting through your options and finding a good fit for your duaghter. I know it takes time to sift through options, and I do clearly remember when I left Sonlight with my oldest son and was struggling to give up my vision for having all of my kiddos on the same history cycle as well. However, I have to admit that once I did I could see the freedom in having each child in the place that fit him best. We've never looked back and have thoroughly enjoyed our school this way for over 5 years now!

Blessings,
Carrie

[my3sons]

Shannon,
I just wanted to encourage you that with each of our dc, when they are doing school with the proper placement, everyone (including me ) is happier. I've really noticed the time amounts fit each child better. For instance, my oldest doing CTC next year really does need to be doing school around 4 to 4 1/2 hours, but my middle ds really should not be - he instead, should be doing school about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, which is exactly what he's doing by doing Beyond. There is no waiting for the little one to catch up, and the discussions are more appropriate to maturity level (especially Biblical application, and history/science content). When we do school this way, they both finish by lunchtime and have the whole rest of the day to be together. We hang our papers/projects on the fridge, talk about them over lunch, and they always see what the other one is doing and often redo some version of their projects together in their free time later anyway. They share with each other what they're doing in school, without comparing.

In Christ,
Julie

[sted]

Hi Julie,

I think I'm convince that may be the best way to go. Thanks for your encouragement. Now I've decided on CTC for my oldest. It was recommended by Carrie that my 8 and 6 yr. old go into Beyond but I really am now thinking my 8 year old will be 9 next October and needs to be doing more difficult work. She'd be just find doing Beyond but I really need to push her to do more. I think she'd capable however her attentnion span is short but I'm thinking the short lessons will help her somewhat with this problem:) So my dilemma is this: While she'd fit perfectly into Bigger, my 6yr. old could do LIttle with her 4yr. old (turning 5 brother) however skill wise (LA wise) she would fit perfectly into Beyond. Is that crazy? Does anyone do ( and survive) three programs at once? While I'd love having everything laid out perfectly at their level, would I go mentally crazy jumping between three programs? Now I'm looking at Beyond and Bigger and seeing what I could combine. Is Storytime combinable? Also, what about the poems? I may stick my 6yr. old with Bigger history (not worry too much about her getting alot) but keep them seperate for science. Any ideas?

Also, if I follow this plan, would it be advisable to skip doing DITHOR with my CTC daughter and just have her doing reading, waiting to add DITHOR the following year to keep things simpler?

Thanks,
Shannon

[sted]

I was thinking this over and wondering if doing Beyond and or Bigger at half pace would make sense. It would be at their level but we'd slow the pace down a bit. Maybe thus avoiding repeating a program two years in a row? Would I do the right side one day, left side the other?

Shannon