7th grade placement for next year

[aprilmd]

Ladies,

I have my youngest DD8 doing HOD - Bigger and she loves it. I have a total of three DDs and only moved over my youngest this year. If I was honest, at first I didn't feel there was enough work for my children. This year was a trial year. However, I have found HOD to be wonderful and it has the perfect amount of work. Besides the right amount of work, we are having fun and enjoying it. We all look forward to DD8's books. The Bible application is excellent. My daughter is allowing the Bible to penetrate her heart, and this brings joy to my heart and to our Father's heart. DD8 will be able to finish all the guides that are scheduled by 8th grade.

Next year I want to move DD12 and DD11 to HOD. DD12 and DD11 have used Sonlight for three years. Since DD12 is going into 7th grade, I feel I only have two years to complete the four-year history cycle. DD12 is an excellent reader (she can read anything that is age appropriate), and she is already using R & S English 5. She has completed IEW A and is doing Jump In Writing. She keeps journals, LOVES research and typing out her results. She will continue with Saxon Math since that is working for her and it is all she has known. She LOVES, LOVES independent work. She would rather me give her all her work and be sent on her way. DD12 hates cursive but does it when required. If she is allowed to type she will do so all day. She really enjoys a lot of reading.

This is my question - do I just finish her 7th and 8th grade with Sonlight (they have a two-year history cycle) or do I place her in the next guide? She would miss CTC and miss the last guide. Would that make sense to do? I sure wish I had moved everyone sooner. DD10 would get to do guide CTC, second year study and the third year study. Again, she would miss the last study guide. My other option with DD11 would be to do Preparing with Extension next year and then have her finish up Sonlight 7th and 8th grade. The reason I am only accounting for up to 8th grade is I plan to follow traditional college entry classes for high school, in hope that my children will go to college. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

In His love,
April

[juliekay]

Hi April,

Thanks for posting because I am also thinking about next year already! It's not too soon - is it?! This year I have DS8, DS11.5 & DS 12.5 all in Preparing with extensions and additions for the older 2. It's been a great fit. Preparing and CTC are very much laid out to have your child follow the guide and do most of their work independently so I know that Carrie's next guide should do the same if not even more so child-directed. I would NOT worry about the history cycle at all! As a history major and prior-to-homeschooling-high school history teacher I personally think that homeschooling parents worry about this too much. Of course, homeschooling is the best and we parents are the greatest teachers, but your children WILL NOT remember it all & it doesn't need to be learned in chronological order. What counts is that they learn to love learning and know the basics that will allow them to continue learning!
Our plan for now is to have DS7th & DS8th indulge in HOD's newest guide next year for like you we have long-term high school plan that will involve CLEPs and duel enrollment, but I'm not sure if we will start right out at 9th grade. There's a lot of maturing that needs to happen here! Because my boys are planning to continue on and into college education that means that we plan to step UP on the science next year. I'm anxious to hear what Carrie has selected for the new guide to see IF I need to add OR what I may need to add OR if we need to choose an altogether different science program.

Just to share how we have additionally extended the HOD guide for our older children:
DS7th: TT7; Latin for Children Program; Greek workbook (same author as the Latin); Science in Preparing AND History of Medicine & most likely will also do the World of Physic & OR World of Chemistry.
DS6th: TTAlg. 1; Latin for Children; Greek Workbook; Beautiful Feet history of science; The Answers Book.

Why this has worked out so well for us is because I can keep all of the older children in the same Guide - doing all the fun reading and projects together, so it's been fun to simply choose extensions that must be independently done so that I can work with my DS8 and DD4 and keep DS20months from tearing the house apart!

The plan for DS8 for next year is NOT CTC. He's been struggling enough this year with all that is required of him in Preparing. He'll step back to Bigger with Extensions and then when he is 10 he'll move onto CTC. I'm only sharing this just to let you know that there is a huge step in what is required of the student from Bigger to Preparing and then CTC.... I think your older DD's will find the work in HOD challenging enough.

[my3sons]

Hi April! I'm so glad to hear your dd8 is loving HOD, and that you are making plans for moving your other dc to HOD. Carrie is piloting the next guide and its extensions she's writing with her oldest ds this year. He is 13 turning 14 yo this Dec. I was laughing as I was reading this description of your dd because if you changed the "she's" to "he's" and the "hers" to "his" - that description fits Carrie's ds EXACTLY:

DD12 is an excellent reader (she can read anything that is age appropriate), and she is already using R & S English 5. She has completed IEW A and is doing Jump In Writing. She keeps journals, LOVES research and typing out her results. She will continue with Saxon Math since that is working for her and it is all she has known. She LOVES, LOVES independent work. She would rather me give her all her work and be sent on her way. DD12 hates cursive but does it when required. If she is allowed to type she will do so all day. She really enjoys a lot of reading.

I think if I were you I would put both of your older dd's in the next guide. You could look at the extension package for your oldest and see if you wanted her to do that. I whole-heartedly agree with Julie, the pp. I'd put the whole history cycle aside and place them where they best place. Doing the next guide and then the following guide will do an excellent job of preparing them for high school, even though they wouldn't do the last guide. We are doing CTC now, and it is outstanding. It has helped my almost 10 yo move more to independence with skills he needs to, and it still has given me my teaching time where I need it with him the most. I know the next guide will be even more that way, and being privileged enough as Carrie's sister to chat over the skeletons of the next subsequent guides to follow with her, I'm very excited about where they are heading! I am fully confident they will be excellent preparation for high school, even for high school with the purpose of preparing for college, even for students who may not finish the last HOD guide. I know Carrie is planning on trying to get on the board again this week, and she'll surely have some good advice to give as well. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[aprilmd]

Bump

[Carrie]

April,

I apologize for taking a bit to get back to you. My computer was no longer working well, and so my hubby bought me a new one. However, my new one is so sensitive that it keeps clicking back every time I type causing me to continually lose my posts. So, this is my fourth try to answer this one! Ah, the blessings of modern technology!

In thinking over your plans for your oldest kiddos, you could honestly do any the scenarios that you are pondering. Part of the ultimate decision-making for your oldest child will be what your family deems most important for that child goal-wise. With my own oldest son that was a decision we had to make as well. He is currently in grade 8, and we chose for him to do parts of CTC as a 7th grader and pilot much of our new RTR as an 8th grader. He has had one whole trip through the history cycle but will be in the middle of the cycle going into high school.

The reason we decided on this route for him is that we had done Sonlight for him in his younger years and Ambleside in the middle years. While he is an amazing reader and thoroughly enjoyed his education, both of those routes left Bible at a fairly minimal entry into his day. So, my husband and I sat down and decided that for our family the goals for the next years for our oldest son needed to be even more Bible-focused and less focused on completing the history cycle. That didn't mean that we let up on his writing, reading, and math preparation for high school. It just meant that history took a different turn than the path he'd currently been on.

I must admit it was initially hard for me to let go of the "completing the history cycle" mentality, as we'd started out with my oldest son in a more classical education mode. However, once I was able to see clearly what my hubby and I's goals were for my oldest son, it made our decision very clear.

I don't share this to say that this is the route for every family to go. I will share that I have seen a big change in my oldest son's heart and in his approach to how he views his studies through God's word. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing him immersed in God's word each day. I will also admit that I took back more teaching time through using HOD with my oldest son's education in grades 7-8 than he had been having with Sonlight or with Ambleside. He balked a bit at that at first, but eventually has really grown during our time together. He is still a very independent kiddo. I will share that we are planning to use Medieval History-Based Writing Lessons (from IEW) for RTR, which we will schedule 3 times a week (with an optional assignment on days 4-5 for older students). This has taken some teaching time but is very well laid out and is time well-spent in preparation for high school writing.

Deciding what your goals are for your oldest child's education will make a difference in how you design that child's studies. So that is the place I would begin with your oldest child. I'd sit down with your hubby and determine what your main goals are for that child.

Next, what you do with your oldest child will likely affect what you do with your next child in line. So, I'd next move onto that decision.

I'm not sure if this helps at all, but hopefully it will give you some options to ponder.

Blessings,
Carrie

[water2wine]

This was something I struggled over a lot. I finally came to a conclusion that is giving me peace. It is not one that is for everyone but I will share it just in case it works for you. My oldest is on the same path as Carrie's oldest for the guides. She is now in 7th in CTC. She also is an excellent reader and writer. I made a decision a while back that has served me really well and I share it because it has really affected every other education decision I have made since then. I decided to not let the history cycle be my guide and instead let the main thing be about discipling my kids toward relationship with Christ. I do not mean that to sound smug at all. I was just in a way making the history cycle the end all to our decisions on what to use when and it just occurred to me one day it really is probably not the emphasis God would have for my children. We still want to get it in and in fact plan to I have just decided letting worrying about it the way I did so much completely go. In that we are really blessed by HOD and I do not want to let that go either. So my plan is to just go ahead and let my oldest stay in HOD. She will be in tenth grade for the last guide. I already have her on Math, LA and science on her level. She wants to do something in the medical field and I feel like if I keep those things on level and challenging for her we are set. The rest can be added to with independent reading if need be and Carrie is always wonderful at suggesting things as we have needed. I feel like I can see the way HOD is progressing each year and CTC is working well for us in 7th so I expect the progression will be perfect for our oldest. She is college bound and she has goals but my biggest goal for her is keeping her firmly grounded in Christ with everything she learns. I feel like this is our chance to grab a hold of her heart for life. I like the way HOD partners with us on that. So I have decided to keep her on that path. The gap that might possibly be there in "having enough" I am feeling is an opportunity to add more Bible and Christian world view material.

Not a decision that would work for everyone but it is one that I am thinking is going to work for us. It is not a typical one for me to make because I am the type that is worried usually about having enough but HOD has really blessed us so much it seems like holding onto that for as long as we can is a good option for us. Just another option to maybe visit down the line if you feel like your child is really doing well with HOD. It was very freeing for us to make our decision about what we use mostly on how it helped our children grow in the Lord and less about where the history cycle took them.

Praying you find the best decision for your family.