need help placing my kids

[Jenny]

Hi! We are currently using Beyond with my 6 year old for 1st grade. He is doing great! My question is about next year (2nd grade). He will be ready for Bigger, but I am concerned about him completing that too soon and moving into Preparing before he is ready for the independence/maturity. I have considered going half-speed with the history/science portions of Bigger and spreading that over two years.

I will also have a 5 year old beginning his Kindergarten year. I think he is too old for Little Hands and not quite ready for Little Hearts so I feel stuck in the middle. He is extremely verbal with a high vocabulary, a great storyteller, and is good with math skills. However, it is taking him a little longer to grasp the letters/sounds and fine motor skills, and he has a REALLY short attention span (unless he is watching tractors or construction trucks) I'm just not sure where to place him.

Any advice will be appreciated. This year was such a good fit for my oldest and we love HOD. Next year just seems a little confusing. Thank you!

[countrymom]

You could go 1/2 speed with your 5 yr old, giving him time to catch up with reading and not overtaxing his attention span. I am currently doing that with my youngest and it is working great. I know what you mean with your 6 yr old, I am in the same boat. I did start Bigger out at 1/2 speed, but I guess we went full-speed too soon into the guide so I am considering taking some time off (we usually school year around with 1 week breaks). I actually think my son could do preparing, I am just not ready for him to do it as he is so young. You could also do Bigger at 1/2 speed. There really are a lot of skills in the guide to learn and build on so 1/2 speed might be perfect, at least for awhile.

[Jenny]

Thank you for taking time to help. One concern I have about letting Bigger take 2 years is that combined with Beyond that will be 3 years of American history. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be dragged out that long. Thoughts?

[8arrows]

I like the idea of going 1/2 spead with LHTH since your little guy still has a short attention span. I might just keep going with Bigger at full speed unless you notice it is too much. If so, feel free to slow down to 1/2 speed. It will be another great year either way.

[Jennifer-Anne]

I am also having trouble with placement. My gut is to put both kids in bigger...my kids are girl ( almost 7) fluent reader, reading chapter books and boy (turned 9 in January) also fluent reader. We did MFW Adventures (American history) last year and MFW ECC (geography) this year. Next year would be ancient history in MFW but I feel my youngest especially is not ready for the time period and I just found HOD and really like the curriculum. My son would probably be ready for Preparing but I would like to keep them together if at all possible. Also, I just am not sure I want to take on two different programs since my kids are only 26 months apart. I think if I went with BEyond Little Hearts for my youngest it would also repeat many of the books we read with Adventures in MFW whole Bigger uses different books then we have read. Do you all think Bigger with the extensions would be enough for my 9 year old boy who reads everything he gets his hands on?

[my3sons]

Hi Jenny, and congrats on your honey doing great with Beyond! What a good feeling, right? One thing that I love about HOD is that it is super easy to change placement to half-speed or full-speed at any given time. I sure have taken advantage of this from year to year, and it has allowed me to fine tune each child's placement according to each of their needs (or our life situation) very easily.

Your ds is doing well with Beyond, and he will transition into Bigger Hearts just fine. One thing I have done with my dc to try to choose a good pacing for each of them is to have them do 2 weeks of the new guide half-speed. If I find this to be a solid fit, we just keep going with half-speed, and when I am starting to see that they are ready for more (or I am thinking about adding things), that is my signal to have them go full-speed. I have gone half-speed for up to 4-5 months before moving to full-speed, thus making the longest time we've spend in a single guide 1 1/2 years. I have never been in the same guide for 2 years. We've just always found it's time to move on more quickly as they were ready for more. So, I would just begin Bigger Hearts half-speed for a few weeks or even a month if you think you need more time, and then assess if half-speed or full-speed is a better fit. If full-speed is a good fit, then it's full-speed ahead madam. Don't worry about PHFHG yet. Even if he gets to it at 8 years old, that's still in the target age range, and he'll do fine if he was doing fine with full-speed BHFHG. If you are truly worried about this, you can always do BHFHG 4 days week, taking 1 day off each week, to take a little more time without dragging out the material unnecessarily. Then, when you start PHFHG with him, do the same thing - giving a trial 2-4 week half-speed run, and see what you figure out as being best then.

For your 5 yo, if he is between LHTH and LHFHG, but doesn't know all of his letters/sounds, I'd definitely start enjoying "Little Hands to Heaven" with him. It is the best introduction to homeschooling because it teaches solid preschool skills in a short and sweet way. It takes 20-30 minutes a day, teaches excellent Biblical history in a fun way, uses super resources, and has activities that are get up and move type things - that even boys will enjoy. It also is a nutshell version of LHFHG, and it gets dc into the habit of doing a micro version of a balanced school day consistently every day prior to doing the more full-blown day of LHFHG.

Those are a few thoughts I had, but what are you thinking now? Love to hear from ya - keep asking questions til you are set! The ladies love to help here!

In Christ,
Julie

[Jenny]

Thank you, Julie. It always helps to hear other moms' experiences. Your suggestion matches my initial plan perfectly. I just keep overthinking it.

First of all, I really wish both boys could learn together (except for the 3 Rs). I am not worried about balancing 2 guides...I think it would work fine time wise, scheduling, etc. It is just that I think they would enjoy it so much. Just can't quite figure that out.

Secondly, if I use LHTH, I would add in kindergarten level math (he is ready for that), handwriting practice, and k level reading instruction. Then I feel like he needs some kind of science, social studies, and story time. If I add that in I feel like he will be overloaded. Any suggestions on that?

[my3sons]

Thank you, Julie. It always helps to hear other moms' experiences. Your suggestion matches my initial plan perfectly. I just keep overthinking it.

First of all, I really wish both boys could learn together (except for the 3 Rs). I am not worried about balancing 2 guides...I think it would work fine time wise, scheduling, etc. It is just that I think they would enjoy it so much. Just can't quite figure that out.

Secondly, if I use LHTH, I would add in kindergarten level math (he is ready for that), handwriting practice, and k level reading instruction. Then I feel like he needs some kind of science, social studies, and story time. If I add that in I feel like he will be overloaded. Any suggestions on that?

Glad to help in any way! Often it is in the talking it out that we as moms figure out what we want to do, so let's keep talking it out. You can choose to have little brother listen in on Bigger Heart's Storytime, and do that together. They can each share their Bible verses at the kitchen table at breakfast. They can share their projects with one another - so much sharing honestly happens when dc are together in their home for homeschooling, that it is almost taking the time to value each individual child and their abilities and interests that gets harder to do. When dc are placed in different guides, this is made easier.

So much of learning, even in history and science, is tied to the LA skills of writing and reading, especially as dc mature. Likewise, maturity of content makes a big difference as dc age. Check out the writing skills needed for BHFHG, and you can probably see your oldest is growing into these areas, while your 5 yo is not ready for them at all...
Amount of writing in BHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1516&p=11829

Often times, our oldest dc just take off, widening the distance academically and maturity-wise between our first and second dc. We have found this to be true. Carrie describes it well here...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6155

I just want to encourage you that our sons are in 3 different guides, and they would say they feel like they are being "homeschooled together," as they support each other's individual learning and celebrate each person's work... that and they are all under 1 roof in the same small area. We feel very blessed to homeschool in this manner, and I think your dc would be so pleased to be thriving and doing well in their schoolwork, and able to 'shine' in their own merit each day without being overshadowed by their older sibling.

For your 5 yo, you can easily do LHTH with the harder resources and add in LHFHG K LA and math skills. Many families do this and enjoy it. Really, storytime and history are already part of LHTH, as Biblical history is taught via reading the story Bible. Science can wait a bit, as some science related topics are touched upon in active exploration in LHTH.

Another option would be to do 2 LHTH lessons each day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. This will give ds about 4 1/2 months before beginning LHFHG, get him used to the consistency of homeschooling in a balanced way, and prepare him for LHFHG nicely. You can easily do just one lesson of the K math/LA from LHFHG during this time as well. I think this would be a good happy medium. However, you could always start half-speed LHFHG too, if you felt that was a better option overall. Hope something here helps!

In Christ,
Julie

[8arrows]

Jennifer--Anne, I think your post is getting lost in here. I do think Bigger with extensions would work for your 9 year old and keep your children together. Plus, I tend to think our "gut" is often right! My girls will be almost 7 and 8 3/4 in the fall. They will be finishing up Beyond and moving into Bigger. They enjoy being together. You might want to post separately to get more opinions/advice. Julie will probably be checking back on this thread. I bet she will she this and definately help you with placement!

[Jennifer-Anne]

You are so correct about the "gut" feeling thing I really think I will follow it this time. It sure does help to have others input though so thank you! I love these HOD message boards.

[my3sons]

Thanks for pointing this one out, 8arrows! I didn't see Jennifer-Anne's post, but I would be glad to help. From what you've shared, I think your 9 yo would be just fine with BHFHG and extensions, or he could be fine with PHFHG too. For your almost 7 yo, I guess it would depend on her writing abilities. She will be fine with reading, and hooray BTW for her being a fluent reader already! Bigger Hearts has a fair share of writing in it. Maybe she could ease into it though? So, I guess the important question is, where does your 7 yo place according to the placement chart when you think of her alone? Also, will she be 7 soon, and when would you start? Another thing to weigh in placement is life situation. Things like health concerns, work, family concerns, family size, sibling's relationships, etc. all can make a difference in the right placement for a family too. I certainly don't expect you to share any or all of that, but I just wanted to mention that so you know I understand there are often other factors to consider that are not or cannot be shared here but may be equally or more as important in your decision. I'll check back soon and be glad to help though!!!

In Christ,
Julie

[Jennifer-Anne]

Hi Julie,

What a well thought out response with so many good thoughts Julie. Thank you so much for taking the time. My 6 year old will be 7 in March and we would probably not be starting Bigger until July. She can write several sentences together into a simple 4 -5 sentence paragraph. Of course she does have a few misspellings and forgets capital letters often. I think I am going to try her on Bigger with her brother (the just turned 9 year old). They work very well together and are extremely close. We did MFW Adventures together last year and MFW ECC together this year. I just am wanting to switch because I like the approach of HOD bible and MFW seemed more geared for older students and missionary studies. I was having to modify quite a bit and add in things. Thank you again for your response.