Placement Chart

[Kathleen]

Sophie,

I'm praying for you right now as you think through what to do with your oldest. It sure can be difficult to decide sometimes. Just wanted you to know that I'm another mom who has been exactly where you are. My oldest has always had everything come very easily to him and was a super early talker. He was in paragraphs by 1 year old, and the Parents As Teachers man who came to visit us brought along his testing stuff when Grant was not even 18 mo old and he was already well past what they expect from a 5 year old in all the language/thinking skills categories. He learned to read quickly, and loved to read to me. He learned to write and it was neat, too.

And while I really understand that curiosity and love for learning that's there in your 4 yo (because I saw it in mine), I think the caution is that we moms can easily snuff that out by pushing our 1st borns at that age, and then they're discouraged when they're 8. And, I think that's what Tamara was saying, too. Her little girl couldn't get enough at 4 either...and it wasn't until several years later that she didn't love the challenge anymore and they had difficulty. We just don't want to see that happen to you in 4 years. I think it's pretty normal for our 1st borns to be much more advanced academically as they get so much more one-on-one time with us through those toddler years. I know that for me personally, even in public school where I attended, they did special testing and told my parents that they could move me to 2nd grade as a new K'er. I'm glad they didn't.

For our family, Grant ended up going to K and 1st at a small Christian school in town. Many blessings for our homeschooling journey have come out of those years, but one of them definitely is that it prevented me from pushing him at that time. School is so much more enjoyable for him now because of that.

Now, all of us moms know that God has given YOU the job of parenting your son. We know that it's for you (with His help) to decide what's best for your family. We'd all love to support you on your journey what ever you decide. But, like the other ladies here, I can see how someone pointing these very things out would have helped me so much as I couldn't envision what was down the road at that time. (Now, I have no idea if I would have listened. ) But when we're asking God for wisdom, I know that he has provided that for me through other like-minded moms who are following Him and are down the road a ways ahead of me. And, I am so thankful for that! I know that He will give you wisdom when you ask as you ponder this next year in your family's life.

Kathleen

[Sophie]

MomtoJGJE: I've done so this year and I'm just tired of coming up with lesson plans myself. It has cost me so many evenings away from DH. I'd like something that comes in a box Adding a bit to the program would of course not be the same, so yes, I'll consider that!

I know what you all are saying, I really don't want to see him hit that wall. I also don't want to see him like he was when he was unchallenged. We've had a good year with Grade 1 material this year, not too challenging, not too easy. The material it self was just boring He loves living books and narration, so that's why I started looking at HOD

So, but what do you do with a little one that wants to move on? Just say no? He's very interested in learning to spell correctly. I'm just not sure if I can stop him.

[Mercy]

Hi Sophie,
I also want to join in and encourage you a lil bit. I wish that someone had been so upfront with me about my oldest who was very advanced at 4/5 yrs. My second born is also very gifted. She knew all her letters, their sounds and was beginning to read at 2 years old!! I saw what had happened in my oldest...exactly what Tamera was saying...he hit that wall and really floundered for years. He is still struggling with school. Its such a shame to see. One thing that I have tried to keep in mind with my daughter, who is now 6 years old, is there is much more to their little lives than school. Humility is a wonderful lesson for these sweet young smarties that we have, so yes, it really is ok to slow things down a bit and have some "play." My daughter really did not like the rhymes, but she is growing in her personality so much. She thought for sure LHFHG was "baby stuff", yet she is growing incrementally in all of her skills. Our children are only this little for a small time. Let them enjoy it! Children do not need to be burdened down too early with heavy learning. I would not have thought HOD was challenging enough when my poor son was young. I overloaded him, then thought unschooling was the way to go when the burden was too heavy. HOD is just perfect!! I wish I would have been humble and wise enough to have known, way back in the beginning stages of hsing. I can feel exactly where you are at. Especially with my daughter...I had know idea how to -not- put so much priority on learning. You are the mommy and you know best, but if I could go back and redo everything I would do LHFHG as is...enjoy every minute of this time with my son...put some great books around the house for him to read (no pressure), and buy some fun kits to do whenever the learning bug hits. Lol! Then...be content. HOD does allow each child to grow and learn step by step and at their own pace. But, without that heavy burden that many curriculums put upon these gifted little people the Lord has given us.

May you be blessed by the the Lords JOY today!!
Mercy

[Mercy]

Sophie,
I just wanted to say that probably your best bet would be to buy LHFHG, then pray, pray pray that miracle finances come so you can also buy the beyond TM. That way you could begin spelling with him. I am not sure where he is at with math, but he could move along at whatever pace suits him in that case. I still would recommend LHFHG...the first half of the year is mostly all Bible stories ad we can never spend enough time leading our lils to Jesus! Also, the burgess books are so special. My 11yo son still loves to pick these up and read them!

Let us know what you wind up doing and how it all goes.

Mercy

[krismoose]

I agree that the science as written in LHFHG is light, but I have also seen that it allows the child to actually do the activity nearly independently, which is very different from other K-1st level science programs I've looked at. IMO, much of the meat of the program is in the Bible/History read-alouds and storytime read-alouds, and I think your son would learn a lot going through those. One of the great things about LHFHG is that is is very short and sweet, yet teaches so much over the year. I undestand what you're saying about not wanting to come up with your own plans, I've been doing that all year and I'm *so* looking forward to starting Beyond soon! If I were you I'd check out some Janice Vancleave Play and Find Out experiment books from the library, and pick one or more of them to go through together. Many of the LHFHG science activities are about animals, so perhaps you could also borrow or buy a used copy of a kid's animal encyclopedia that has more info in it. Not one of those "My First Animal Encyclopedia" types, but the next level up. Those would add more science without adding more work for you

[solagratia824]

Hi Sophie,

Just wanted to let you know that I've been thinking of you and praying for you... having had been in a similar situation, I know it can be frustrating sometimes trying to match the needs of accelerated learners.

I had some ideas that came to me that may or may not help... some for beefing up LHFHG, and some for slowing down Beyond I've thought through some of these options for my own son... so I thought it might help to share some ideas...

To beef up LHFHG:
Read-Alouds: You could use the supplemental read-aloud suggestions in the Appendix of the LHFHG guide (just be aware that some of the books on the list are used in later guides - I think the list was made before Carrie wrote the later guides)
Science: You could have your son write journal entries to record his observations of his science experiments - he could dictate to you and then copy from your writing - this would be an opportunity for learning proper spelling, punctuation, etc as it comes up.

To stretch Beyond out over 2 years:
You could go 1/2 speed through the "Learning Through History"/Storytime areas, meaning maybe you'd do something like History Reading/Bible Story/Rotating Box one day (since they're thematically related), and then do Poetry and Storytime the next day, instead of all on the same day. This would shorten your school day, which I think would help for your little one.

You could go full speed in LA, reading, and Math because I think there's enough in the Beyond manual for two years:
Language Arts: In Beyond, there are TWO spelling lists, so you could do one the first year of Beyond and the the second for the next. You could just do spelling the first year, and then add in the grammar the second year. But if you wanted to do the 5th day grammar lessons the first year, I think you could maybe add Rod & Staff 2 daily the second year for grammar. (Which would put you doing R&S 3 for Bigger... but I think that would be ok because when you get to Preparing R&S 4 is a scheduled option)
Reading: The Emerging Reading schedule also has one supplementary book listed per unit, so you could use those to make the readers last 2 years... you'd just have to make up your own comprehension questions for the other books.
Math: continue what you're doing for math.

I hope that helps!

[Sophie]

Thank you for your prayers! Your post does indeed help. It's good to know, that there is a booklist in the back of LHFHG! And the science notebook idea sounds like fun. I could do the same for the history readings as well, if he wants to. The option for spreading Beyond over 2 years sounds good as well, with the suggested ideas, like skipping the grammar and adding the extra readers. Thank you so much for this post The last couple of days I've been rethinking our choice for HOD in general, because I just didn't know how to place him, and have been looking at other curricula. BUT, this now looks very doable again!

[Mercy]

Hod works really well with gifted children since you are able to move at whatever pace they need. I know I mentioned that I wouldnt have thought HOD was challenging enough, but it really truly is. I just wouldnt have looked at it enough to see how beautiful it tailors to ea child. You are able to meet ea child wherever they are at academically. Its pretty awesome really!!

Just wanted to encourage you to not give up on HOD.

[Mom2Monkeys]

Don't get me wrong...mine loves a challenge too! It's the brick walls that got her as she got older that were the biggest issue. I know you know your child best, but I see many similarities in your son and my daughter... And in you and me! I wrote similar posts about my DD at that age! And had similar objections and reasonings....and here I am 6 years later regretting my decision to keep plugging along. Had I even slowed it down to only 3 days a week, instead of every day, that would have helped. I wish I had just stayed AGE appropriate and let fun stuff be the challenge. Thinking skill books, science kits, logic puzzles, and higher level bedtime stories...while keeping a slow and steady progression in academic that are appropriately challenging. LHFHG may have some easier parts...but the skills he's learning from them are being deliberately taught and likely not some he already possesses as a 4yo. The readings, and other things already mentioned may be more of a challenge than you realize as the year progresses. Not to mention, they are interesting and fun! The challenge can come in on perhaps having him narrate some from the storytime or answer more questions. Have him do more of the writing, have him try to memorize the rhymes and poems, perhaps even copy some of it or you could copy it off and have him illustrate it. There are plenty of ways to bump up the challenge without getting to far in, too soon.
Math should be fine bc with Singapore, there's a learning curve for you too! Singaporean kids don't start 1a until the year they turn 7...so obviously deliberate about not jumping past the math in LHFHG even if on the surface it seems easy, bc again...there are "hidden skills" and a whole new method of teaching an learning with Singapore math that pays dividends when you do it as HOD suggests. Starting at the beginning gives you a great heads up too. I think you really know your son an his likes and needs so well, and would know just what to do in LHFHG to make it the challenge he seeks while still letting him be a kid once you got into it. My 7yo is a bright kid too and LHFHG stuff is fun to him. In fact, all my kids enjoy participating in LHTH with my 4yo! Once I "allowed" them to just be little, the 'babyish' stuff they felt was below was much more fun! They see it as a break from the sit down work. I'm really glad to have learned early on that K isn't meant to be rigorous even for the most gifted of kids...I've seen now I can instead wait a year or two and get twice as much done in half them time and have memories of fun and sweet money's to look back on instead of school work.


I'm sure this is choppy...sometimes it's really difficult to post from
My phone with interruptions! Lol

[solagratia824]

Oh good, I'm so glad that my post helped.

Mom2Monkeys had some good points and more good ideas about LHFHG.

Something that I remembered too is that the first 9 units of the Emerging Readers are from the Early Reader's Bible OR The Beginner's Bible. For the Early Reader's Bible, the questions are actually in the book itself, so you wouldn't need the Emerging Reader's Schedule in Beyond for the questions for that one. You could actually start your son with the Early Reader's Bible without needing the Beyond manual. So, you could start LHFHG with the Early Reader's Bible and delay the purchase of Beyond for a couple of months. I have also heard several people say that they used both of the Bibles to extend the Emerging Readers.

[Mercy]

Think of it this way...

Left side is fun side, right side (basics-the 3 Rs) is where you challenge him. It is easy to get extra books on the unit you are studying too. Like someone mentioned (sorry, I am having trouble finding who mentioned it...) in LHFHG the science is mostly animal study. The first half of the year the history is almost all Bible, which really gives you a chance to minister to your little guys heart. I love the connection it has given my daughter and I. To me, there is nothing more important!!

Carrie, the author, has had a lot of experience as a teacher and has a special gifting on placing children. I am sure she will chime in with her thoughts here soon.

I will be praying for you Sophie as you decide what is best for your kiddo.

[twoxcell]

I just wanted to add my 2 cents in since I was in a similar situation last summer. My dd was 4.5 last summer when we started Beyond, and I started to combine her with my ds. She enjoyed the first couple of weeks we did with it, but I was starting to worry that she wasn't really getting the most out of it. I purchased the Bigger guide from someone and when I saw that I knew she would not be ready for that at age 5.5. I also had tried to use SM 1a/1b with her and she could do the early stuff all right(with some writing help from me) but looking ahead in it I saw how fast it ramped up and didn't want her to do that. I decided to get her LHFHG and I'm so glad I did. LHFHG is much more challenging than it looks and she even struggled a bit at first with listening skills and narrating. I'm also glad I went back to the K math. I did buy her the Singapore Essentials math K also because she loves math and wasn't getting enough with just the EB book. I also want to let you know that MEP 1 is actually K math and MEP 2 is 1st grade. We did some MEP between Horizons and SM. My dd was doing MEP 1, and ds did a bunch of MEP 2 before starting SM 2a/2b. MEP 2 is much easier than SM 2a/2b. MEP does a lot of puzzle type things that make the math look more challenging but the numbers being used are much smaller, and there is no Multiplication and division in MEP 2. SM starts multi/divide in 1b. Personally if I were you I would get LHFHG with the 1st grade options(including SM 1a/1b, which we love.) and just beef it up a bit with the books in the appendix, some fun picture books, and a few science kits or extra science books(from the library) to go along with the topics. Even with this plan you will still have the same problem I do, at this rate my dd would finish HOD at age 16. HTH

[Sophie]

Just wanted to let you all know, that we've chosen LHFHG + Early Reader's Bible. I will beef up the science with extra books and we might go a bit faster through it if needed. I'll make a little science notebook for him (thank you for the idea!), so he can write as much as he wants. We'll stick with what we're using for Math now, as we both love it so much.

Thank you for your help and prayers!

[solagratia824]

Yay! I think you are in for a great year.