New and need help with placement for 4 of our children

[lisa_mom2many]

Hello! I am new to HOD and am trying to decide on the best placement for 4 of our children for next year. I have read the placement info, but am still unsure. Here is some background on us:
We have seven children. Their ages at the beginning of next school year will be 8 months, 2, 10, 11, 13, 15 and 18. Our oldest is graduating this year. Our youngest is just a baby. I was thinking of purchasing something for our 2 year old, just for fun and to make her feel included, too. So, my focus for curriculum for next year is with our 5th grade son, 6th grade daughter, and 8th and 10th grade sons. I was thinking of grouping the two younger ones together and the two older ones together since our 8th grader would prefer to be placed with his older brother versus his younger siblings, but I want to do whatever is best for everyone. Having a baby in 2010 and then one at the end of 2011 has really thrown off our schooling, even more than it already was. I feel like a failure, but I will not give up so I am going into next year with high hopes that we will finally have found a good match for our family with HOD. I feel like I have kids here and there and everywhere across the board in regards to schooling and what levels they are at and what needs they have. We haven't done much work with writing assignments or diagramming with any of the kids and I noticed that both of those were mentioned on the placement charts. We also haven't done too much with cursive, although they have all done some cursive. A big problem we have is with the older boys staying focused. Although they are old enough to be independent learners, they do not stay on task or get work done on their own. I know that I have to get on top of this, but with a nursing baby keeping me rooted to my seat for a big portion of the day, and a busy toddler to keep up with, I just haven't managed to this year. I really like the looks of the HOD schedules and I think the way everything is easily and specifically laid out will really help each of us. Here is some other info about the kids:
Our 5th grade son was slow to start reading, but is doing well now. He has a harder time with writing. Writing seems difficult for him and he has trouble with spelling as well. Math concepts are easier for him and he was ahead of his grade level before this school year and is probably at grade level now, although we are not doing Singapore Math, which seems to be harder.
Our 6th grade daughter has dyslexia. She reads well, but struggles with punctuation and math concepts. I plan on working with flash cards and multiplication facts over the summer with all of the kids because they could all use a boost in this area, but the younger two really need it. She loves projects and is a natural artist. She loves to draw and paint and does well with both. She loves to write, but makes many mistakes with punctuation and spelling and gets tired of being corrected. I feel so bad when I read a letter that she has written because there are so many mistakes with run-on sentences, capital letters, periods, and spelling. She has gone over these things a million times, but it is just hard for her. I'm not sure what to even expect from her because of her dyslexia, but we just keep working on it.
Our 8th grade son doesn't seem to have much difficulty in any particular subject. He is the type who just wants to race through everything and get everything done as soon as possible so he can have the rest of the day off, in his mind anyway. He doesn't like grammar and still confuses things like adjectives and adverbs and such, but I wouldn't consider that out of the "norm."
Our 10th grade son has a very hard time focusing. I can spend all day telling him to do his work and him staring at it blankly. He doesn't seem to think it's too hard. I just think he feels overwhelmed anyway. This year he is working on Biology and Algebra, but he is way behind. He was working on history with the younger kids and I, but we pretty much stopped most of our lessons after the baby was born. He was doing Easy Grammar, but found it really boring as well.
I think all of our kids would do well with one-on-one attention and help, but I just don't seem to have the time. Some people say that it is "just a season" but I could very well have another baby every year or two, in which case that makes a very long season. I'm hoping that somehow we can make HOD work for us. I'm hoping that all of the reading will actually be enjoyable and perferable to our kids. So, now back to which curriculum is best for each child. Going by age and grade level, the younger two would be in RTR. My biggest reason for wanting them there is the fact that it has body image/design/puberty books for boys and girls in the devotional section, which I really like. If I did a younger set with them, then it would be kind of late to do these another year. However, I can't help but wonder if RTR would be too hard and maybe they would be better off in one of the younger ones. I think CTC might be better for them.
As far as the older boys go, they would place by age and grade into MTM, but I think I would rather use RevtoRev because we already own and wanted to use Exploration Education Advanced and "Who Is God? And Can I Really Know Him?." Is there a benefit to the older boys using the same curriculum as each other or would they be mostly "on their own" anyway? Would it be better to use RTR with all 4 and beef it up for our oldest? How much reading aloud would I need to do? If you group the kids together, do you need to buy duplicates of all the books that they would read on their own? Any help or advice would be appreciated. I've been homeschooling for five years and each year I am still struggling to figure out how to do things with kids who seem all over the board academically and with their personality and learning style. How much time do you think I would need to devote each day to get everyone done? Thanks for any help and advice.

[my3sons]

Hugs to you, and encouragement - YES, you can do this, and HOD is a help to busy mamas everywhere!!! I think I would do CTC with the younger two, and just get the puberty/girl/boy books to do on the fifth day, working through one chapter at a session. I agree, these are important to do, but I would not choose the core guide based on them. For your older dc, I would use RevtoRev. I think this would work so well!

In CTC and RevtoRev, dc should use the teacher's guides as student planners, reading the directions for the "I" independent boxes themselves. You can either get each of them their own guide, or leave the one guide open in a central location for each of them to use. I know some moms set out on the counter the books needed for the "I" boxes that day. As dc move through their work sharing materials, if the book is on the counter, they can use it and do that box. If it is not there, someone is using it, and a different box's assignment should be done with whatever books are available on the counter.

Carrie has mentioned having a meeting time for dc in the upper guides. We do this and have found it to be very effective. My oldest works through his guide, and around 2/3 of the way through his school work, I have a meeting time with him. I do my teacher parts at this time (i.e. grammar lesson, math lesson, reading instruction, "T" boxes in the plans). Then, I go through each box he has initialed that he is done with and spot check his work right then and there. I ask the follow-up questions if there are some in the guide, listen to the oral narrations if there are any for boxes he has done the reading for, etc. Also, helping him have a routine order to doing his work helps him clip along. So, typing out or writing out the names of the boxes of the plans and the order they are to be done in is a simple way to do this.

With multiple dc, it is important to have older dc take a turn playing with the youngers. This frees up teaching time for you and helps build bonds between older and younger siblings. Having teacher blocks of time and independent blocks of time planned cuts down on interruptions and gives a good flow to the day. Here is our past schedule for RevtoRev, PHFHG, and LHTH in case this helps demonstrate better what I am trying to describe here...


What are your thoughts though after reading this? Keep the questions coming, and we'll work together til you are set! HOD is an incredible blessing in our home. I think it will be in yours too! Looking forward to chatting more with you!

In Christ,
Julie

[lisa_mom2many]

Thank you so much for your reply! I think CTC and RevtoRev sound great, but I still feel a little worried about my younger children. When I think of the amount and type of work that I did at their ages, it is by far more than what I picture them being able to do. I don't know if I've been far too easy on them or what. Maybe they would surprise me if given the chance, but I still feel worried that CTC could be too hard for them. On the other hand, they are picky about things seeming too "babyish" to them and I think some of the books in Preparing might seem like that to them. What do you think? I feel like I've struggled so much in the past (and currently) with trying to find something that works for us and I just don't want to choose poorly.

Thanks again,
Lisa

[my3sons]

Hi Lisa! I think that PHFHG is a possibility too. I wonder if it would help to print off the first week of plans for PHFHG, and then also for CTC and compare the two? You could look at them first on your own, and then if you were still torn, have your children look at them and see what they felt comfortable with. There can be an adjustment period coming to HOD, as it is definitely meaty in the upper guides. The amount of reading, writing, and Charlotte Mason style kinds of learning dc have done in the past when coming to HOD make a difference in placement too, so you are wise to consider that. Here are links to each of the first week of plans for these guides - keep in mind the letters in the top right hand of each box indicate whether each should be done "I" independently, "S" semi-independently, or "T" teacher-directed...
http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/PHFHG-sample-week.pdf
http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/CTC-First-Week.pdf

If you decide to let your dc choose, be prepared that they may give you some opposition if you choose a different option then. I'm hoping by printing off the first week of each, maybe it will be easier to see which you think will fit them better. If you really could be happy going either way and you want to have them decide, then that is an option too. Just an idea! Hope something here helps! Keep asking questions until you are set!

In Christ,
Julie

[lisa_mom2many]

Thanks Julie! That was a good idea to print those out. I also printed out the first week of RevtoRev. I really think CTC will work for the younger two and RevtoRev will be nice for the older two. Do you have any advice on placement for English? I am thinking about trying the recommended Rod & Staff. We have not had good luck in the past trying to find English or Grammar programs that we liked. We've done a lot of starting and stopping and so I don't really know what level the kids are at. I was thinking of putting the younger kids in Building With Diligence: English 4, since that is the youngest one they have scheduled in CTC and I think they would do okay with it. I was thinking about putting the older kids in Following the Plan: English 5, since that was listed as a good starting place for basics, but I don't know if that will be too easy or "young" for them since they will be 8th and 10th grade. I read that the English 6 didn't have much in the way of review of the basics and I'm a little worried that they may have missed a few things over the years. On the other hand, they have definitely gone over things like nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, punctuation, etc. I just don't know exactly how proficient they are or how hard Rod & Staff is. Any thoughts on this?
Also, our daughter will be 2 next month. She is a demanding, vocal, on the go kind of little girl, lol. Do you think I could start using LHTH with her next school year or should I wait? I thought it might be nice to at least have it here and give it a try and then we could always wait if we needed to or re-introduce it a few months later.
I'm very excited about my choices so far. Thanks for your help! Oh, one more thing, will I know what items I need to buy duplicates of for multiple kids, or would they tell me if I phoned in the order instead of doing it online? I won't be ready to order for a few months, but I want to make sure I don't forget anything when I do.
Thanks again!

Lisa

[my3sons]

I'm so glad you were able to determine CTC looks like a good placement. It really helps that HOD puts the first week of plans on the website - helps us visualize our day with our kiddos so much better. As far as your dc doing CTC, I think doing R & S English 4 will be fine. It is scheduled full-speed in CTC, so they will complete it in a year. For your 2 older dc, I am wondering if looking at R & S English's Scope and Sequence would help? If you click on these, they will enlarge...

You could do either R & S English 5 or 6, whichever one you feel would best fit them. HOD gives great advice to do a good portion of each lesson orally or on marker board, reserving just one section of your choice for dc to write on notebook paper. This helps lessons clip along, reduces the amount of writing, while still laying an excellent foundation of grammar. We do it this way and love it! It's not flashy, but it really, really does work well.

As far as duplicates, for CTC they are...
Student Notebook pages for CTC
Jashub's Journal
Drawn into the Heart of Reading Student Books
Write with the Best
Math Workbooks

Duplicates for RevtoRev are...
Student Notebook pages for RevtoRev
Heroes of the Faith
50 States Under God
Inventor Student Notebook Pages
Exploration Education Logbook
The Exciting World of Creative Writing
Drawn into the Heart of Reading Student Books
Math Workbooks

For your little 2 yo, I think she would love LHTH! I would wait until you get your oldest 4 going though, and then start slowly with your little toddler, going half-speed. I did find that this filled such a need for our little one, and though I was teaching 2 other HOD guides, adding in LHTH half-speed actually made my day EASIER because I was getting in that special 1:1 mommy time with my toddler each day. Half-speed LHTH only takes about 15 minutes a day. LHTH has 1 page of daily lesson plans each day. To go half-speed, I just read the Bible story and did a few boxes of plans. The next day, I reread the same Bible story and did the other half of boxes on that page. My ds LOVED this! I just put a checkmark in the corner of each box as I did them, so it was easy to pick up the next day. My oldest ds also enjoyed taking a turn with the little guy too. I let him choose a box to do off and on, and they both enjoyed that for their scheduled playtime together. LHTH has 2 Bible choices and 2 devotionals, so a child can go through it once or twice. If you need something fun and constructive for some of your older dc to do with your little one for a scheduled time together, you could go through LHTH more quickly with the younger Bible/devotional this time around, and then again with the harder Bible/devotional the next time around. Either way, you'll want your little one to be about 5 yo when she begins LHFHG.

In Christ,
Julie