What to do for 7th, 5th, & 2nd graders

[mom2jbg]

Hi everyone! I'm new here. I think I've decided to go with HOD for my 3 boys for next year. I would love to get it now but don't have the $$ yet. They will be 7th grade-13yo, 5th grade 10yo, & 2nd grade-8yo. We are currently using SOTW Ancients. I'm not sure what I should do with them next year when we use HOD. Is HOD easy enough that you can do more then one program with? Or is it better for me to get them all into one?

I was kind of thinking I would go with the new one, RTR for my older two and do Beyond for my youngest. But if I do that will there be enough programs to go through for my middle son all the way through? I'm just really not sure what would be the best option for us. Can anyone give me some insight?

Thanks so much!!

Blessings~April

[Mom2Monkeys]

Welcome to HOD!! You'll find tons of support and encouragement here. These HOD moms are awesome! I can assure you , you and your boys will all LOVE HOD!!

We'd all love to help you figure this out. The best way for us to do that is to figure out first where each of them falls on the placement chart. That will help us provide you with some more options. The placement chart is here : http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php Without knowing the placement, my initial thought would be putting your two oldest together in CTC w/extensions for the oldest if needed. It's pretty full without! Or even Preparing (w/extensions for the oldest) if they aren't used to the CM way of learning.Then your youngest in Beyond or Bigger depending on placement.

Just FYI, there are many moms here doing 2-3 of the guides at once with multiple children. There are many that are combining several into one. I'm doing more than one myself and I find it very doable even with a newborn, a toddler, a K'er learning to read, and a 3rd grader. It was a rough start, but we are getting it now! (can't say the nursing newborn and toddler didn't have a part of the roughness!) My kids love school thanks to HOD and they are growing academically and spiritually by leaps and bounds!!

[eazbnsmom]

Hi April,

Welcome to HOD! As the previous poster mentioned I would definitely check out the placement chart to see where your children fit. I will have a 7th, 5th, (3rd) & 2nd grader next year too. It is easy to do more than one program, I did 3 this year and 2 my first year. I would start off (if possible) trying only to do 2 programs the first year as it helps to give you a good feel for HOD. I think the 2nd grader would be in his own program next year (Beyond or Bigger) and the other two might be able to be combined in CTC w/extensions for the 7th grader as well as his own math (depending on the where they place)...there are other posts if you do a search on beefing it up for a 7th grader, but we will be able to help you more once we know what skill level your boys are at. We are really enjoying HOD, hope you will too!

[mom2jbg]

Hello!

Thank you both for your responses! I looked at the placement charts like you suggested and it looks as if my 2nd grader would do Bigger, my 5th grader will fall in Preparing or CTC, and the 7th grader will fall in CTC or RTR. The only thing with doing CTC is, that is the same time era we are on right now. I don't know that I want to repeat it again next year. Also, if I continue long term with all of them through HOD, what would that look like for them? I'm a bit of a planner, but it doesn't seem as if there is enough programs to get them all the way through.

So, what do you think? Any ideas?!?!?!

Thanks again!!!

Blessings~April

[mom2jbg]

Anyone else?

[juliekay]

Thank you both for your responses! I looked at the placement charts like you suggested and it looks as if my 2nd grader would do Bigger, my 5th grader will fall in Preparing or CTC, and the 7th grader will fall in CTC or RTR. The only thing with doing CTC is, that is the same time era we are on right now. I don't know that I want to repeat it again next year.

Blessings~April

Hello April,

What do you think about using a Preparing for your older 2? This is an excellent starter for older children who are getting used to CM style work. It is a fabulous quick flash through history, but from an amazing Christian/Hebrew/Biblical view point! We've have had an amazing year so far with Preparing and my oldest two - 12 & 13 - have not only enjoyed it, but we have had some of the best in-depth discussions concerning God, redemption, Old Testament law and God’s grace, Legalism vs. Liberty – and more! We too are tired of the ancients so we are jumping this year from Preparing to the new RTR.... just with the older 2. This may also work for you.

[mom2jbg]

Thank you both for your responses! I looked at the placement charts like you suggested and it looks as if my 2nd grader would do Bigger, my 5th grader will fall in Preparing or CTC, and the 7th grader will fall in CTC or RTR. The only thing with doing CTC is, that is the same time era we are on right now. I don't know that I want to repeat it again next year.

Blessings~April

Hello April,

What do you think about using a Preparing for your older 2? This is an excellent starter for older children who are getting used to CM style work. It is a fabulous quick flash through history, but from an amazing Christian/Hebrew/Biblical view point! We've have had an amazing year so far with Preparing and my oldest two - 12 & 13 - have not only enjoyed it, but we have had some of the best in-depth discussions concerning God, redemption, Old Testament law and God’s grace, Legalism vs. Liberty – and more! We too are tired of the ancients so we are jumping this year from Preparing to the new RTR.... just with the older 2. This may also work for you.

That's not a bad idea, I will look into that. Thank you!

[Carrie]

April,

The ladies are doing a terrific job of giving you some options to ponder. All of them are good possibilities, so I'll throw out one other thing to ponder too. If you do find that your older kiddos truly fit best within CTC, I will say that CTC is a different view of the ancients from almost any other program out there because it focuses on the history of the Israelites (with the history of the other civilizations with whom they interacted intertwined). It then moves into Greece and Rome as a pre-cursor to the world into which Christ made His perfectly timed appearance. Then, it ends with a deeper look at the life of Christ which comes directly from reading the books of Luke, John, and Acts. So, even if you've done the ancients already, I wouldn't rule out CTC based on that alone. We, too, had done the ancients with my oldest son, but I had him test CTC for us anyway as I wanted him to have the Bible-based tour through that time period. Just something to ponder. No matter which way you go, we pray you'll be blessed by HOD!

Blessings,
Carrie

[Tree House Academy]

Hello!

Thank you both for your responses! I looked at the placement charts like you suggested and it looks as if my 2nd grader would do Bigger, my 5th grader will fall in Preparing or CTC, and the 7th grader will fall in CTC or RTR. The only thing with doing CTC is, that is the same time era we are on right now. I don't know that I want to repeat it again next year. Also, if I continue long term with all of them through HOD, what would that look like for them? I'm a bit of a planner, but it doesn't seem as if there is enough programs to get them all the way through.

So, what do you think? Any ideas?!?!?!

Thanks again!!!

Blessings~April

My thoughts: 2nd grader in Bigger (lots of teacher led work, needs your help), 5th grader in Preparing with Extensions if necessary, and 7th grader in RtR. Here is why: RtR is pretty much written to the student with very few teacher intensive parts. This frees you to work with the others. Preparing starts to make the student more independent, so you would be working with the 5th grader some, but not terribly intensive either. Both of those are 4 day programs, neither is re-doing the part you just studied. The 2nd grader in Bigger would need you much more as he/she learns some of the skills taught in Bigger (which prepare her to do the other manuals and gain independence as she does so). This also keeps you from teaching all three manuals back to back...and the ones that will be back to back are the more independent manuals. If cost is a consideration (which is always is for us), it may get costly this year, BUT next year, you would save some because your upcoming 3rd grader would slip into Preparing. Your 6th grader would go to CtC and your oldest on to the new manual.

The other option may be to combine the 7th and 5th graders into RtR this year and change the writing requirements a bit to fit the younger child's abilities. It would involve some tweaking, but could work if you are committed, I am sure.