In June 2010 I gave birth to my 3rd son. Along with him came some serious health problems (for me) which led to us enrolling my older two boys in two local private Christian schools two days a week. My eldest (almost 6 now) has been/is attending what is called a Homeschool Center which uses primarily ACE curriculum. He is in a first grade class but working at a second grade level. At first I was overjoyed to find a school with so many positives (I didn't have to completely give up homeschooling, it was Christian based, he could be with peers but still work at his own pace, and best of all, we could afford it!). However, now that I am nearly fully recovered, I'm looking forward to bringing him home fulltime once more and I've been considering what to do when that happens. As I'm looking over the HOD placement chart, my heart is breaking for how much he has missed out on in his time at school and I'm anxious to get him back on track. I just need to get my plan figured out before I can do that. Thus I am assessing where he is at now and trying to figure out where he needs to (re)start with HOD.
While he is continuing to excel in math, I'd say 95% of it has been paper and pencil. Fortunately his learning style does very well with workbooks, but I feel he's missed out on a lot of the "why" and different ways of thinking that I loved about the Singapore math. This was all brought back to me as I had him take two of the Singapore placement tests this morning. I am also wondering if he's been spinning his wheels with busy work. He easily passed the 1A test and although he CAN do everything in the 1B test, I'd say he's only MASTERED about 70% of it because about 30% of it hasn't actually been taught to him in school yet (multiplication, division, borrowing, carrying over, and changing currency (ie. 10 dollar bill for 5 dollar bills)). I *think* those things are meant to be taught by the end of the year, but the frustrating part is that he was well into Singapore 1A back in spring 2010. It seems like after this much time he should be farther along, right??? (Just to clarify, last year he used all ACE curriculum. This year he has traded his ACE Math Paces for Abeka's Arithmetic 1 and is currently on lesson 34. The school suggested the switch for him because they felt he was blasting through the ACE curriculum too quickly and in the Abeka Arithmetic book "there were more lessons than he could possibly complete in a year." I agreed to it because I felt the quality was better than what ACE was providing.)
As for reading, he is quite the little reader. I'm pretty sure he's learned about as much as he could possibly learn phonics-wise. He frequently reads for 30-60 minutes at a time just for fun and he's gotten in trouble more times than I can count for staying up hours past bedtime with a stack of books he's snuck into his bed. He reads things such as the NIV Bible, Amelia Bedelia, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Toad and Frog, the I Wonder Why series, the Kids Ask series, Step Into Reading books (up to level 4), I Can Read books (up to level 4), nonfiction reference books (i.e. the encyclopedia of butterflies), batman comic books, and more, all independently with only very rarely coming to me for help with tough words (like he finds in the encyclopedia). So zero worries there.
However, I think he could use a bit more instruction in the area of comprehension/retention.As for writing, he is good at constructing sentences, but doesn't much enjoy it. Having to rewrite things for neatness is a constant issue and I only hold him to the standard that "If this were out of context, could I tell what it was supposed to be?". I've been forced to lower my standards to this level due to the incredible amount of busy writing involved in his ACE curriculum. Having him write everything to my preferred level of neatness would just be torturous for us both and he'd fall way behind. (He's required to complete and test in 3 Paces per subject per quarter.) Last year I also had him working on an "Imagination Journal" at home which was basically responses to writing prompts, but this year they keep him so busy with busy work he hasn't had the time for it and there is no creative writing assigned through the school except maybe a journal entry once a month and one book report per quarter (if you can call filling out a form creative writing
). He knows to capitalize proper nouns and the beginning of sentences. He knows to use a/an at appropriate times. He knows to use a question mark, exclamation mark, or period. ... etc. I do find, however, that when creating sentences from his imagination he will often revert to spelling via phonics (in other words, he spells it how it sounds to him and using the phonics rules he remembers). His science, though God-centered, has been pretty shallow and has included almost no hands-on activities. He has learned surface information about: creation, things like lakes, rivers and oceans, mesas, valleys, and mountains, plant parts, butterfly cycles, and they are currently working on weather and the four seasons. The primary focus of the ACE Paces (aka workbooks) seems to be an increase in science related vocabulary and a heavy emphasis on relating everything back to God. Just now when I asked my son what he was learning in science at school his answer was "Um... reading and writing." When I prompted for more detail, he couldn't give it. I had to double check his book to be sure I was right about them still being in weather and seasons!
Unfortunately I think his answer was probably more accurate. I know for a fact he's learned NOTHING about the steps of the scientific method. His school does not use the ACE Bible Paces (at least my son hasn't been given any). Last year we winged it for the subject of Bible Study. This year we've purchased our own copy of BJU's Bible Truths 4th edition workbook which he is working through on the days he's home (MWF) and which I use as a loose guide for which part of the bible to read that day. I read the Bible aloud to both my older boys (my youngest won't sit still for it and is usually napping anyway). We alternate between our 4 different children's Bibles and when we read the more advanced one I take the time to explain things to my middle one that I think may be worded too high for him. We also occasionally read from and discuss "Big Thoughts For Little People" and "Big Truths For Little Kids", and listen to our "Hide 'Em In Your Heart" CD, all of which were purchased the same time as our original HOD guides. However, he has learned little-to-nothing about biblical history as a whole (only random bible stories I've selected and of course the creation story, but nothing that really ties it all together). Teaching him Bible history was one of the things I was most looking forward to with HOD. He has had no other form of history instruction at all.
His ACE curriculum has no rhymes or poems that I recall and the only "storytimes" are very short (no more than 1 page) stories in the workbook which he is meant to read aloud to me. There are no readings assigned for me to read to him, though of course I still do other readings for fun and at bedtime.
In short, what began as a God-send in a time of need, has now become dramatically disappointing and it's time to move on. The question is, to where?
Using the placement chart, it seems my 6 year old fits perfectly in Bigger for reading, writing, and grammar. However, he seems to score in the upper range of the Singapore math assigned to Beyond. Yet when it comes to just about everything else he is WAY behind!
So I'm really not sure which path to take. (In case you're curious, my middle, now almost 4 yr old, is doing excellently in his Preschool and, after this morning's assessment, seems on par with everything covered by LHTH except the biblical history which I am making a note to start covering at home. I've already been using parts of LHTH on his at home days, but will start putting more emphasis on that section now that it's been brought to my attention. He is a kinesthetic and social learner so the Reggio Emellio style Christian-based school he's attending has really brought out the best in him. As such we've decided to allow him to continue there until he ages out (around June 2013) before bringing him home to get started in HOD full time. And my youngest is just 16mths old so I'm not really doing much of anything except trying to get him to TALK!
as opposed to screaming when he wants something. ) And if you've made it through reading all of that,
GOD BLESS YOU!!! And thank you so very much for taking the time to help me with this decision! 
If you really wanted to move along, you could start studied dictation by getting the Bigger guide as well and using it. BUT, with a 6 yo, I personally would not.
It worked okay, but the other way around would have been better