Placement Help Please!

[Kim2000]

I am interested in getting some advice about where to place my son next fall. He is currently in 1st grade in a privtae school and will be turning 7 in April. With respect to his academic skills, I would currently describe him as an emerging reader. He can read through the "I Can Read" level 2 books fairly quickly now, but I always have him to read to me. Most recently, he has started reading Leprechaun in Late Winter (Magic Tree House #43) to me. He reads the first 2.5 to 3 pages of a chapter to me, and I read the remainder of the chapter to him. I don't think that he could read the entire book from cover to cover.... unless it was over the period of a couple months!

With respect to his writing skills, his handwriting has progressed very well over the past couple of months. He still occasionally flips his "b"s and "d"s. He is writing multiple sentences a day, but he is not yet writing paragraphs. He is learning the basic parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, pronoun) and proper punctuation and capitalization. I don't think that he will ever be a natural speller. Before stumbling across HOD, I looked at the Rod & Staff curriculum. I would place him in R&S 2 for English to start next year.

On the math side of things, he is very bright. Math comes very naturally to him, and he intuitively gets it. He can currently multiply and divide via word problems. Since he has not used Singapore previously, I plan to place him in 2A/2B. I expect him to move through those books rather quickly though.

Does this help? I have an idea where I plan to place him, but I would rather not bias anybody else. Thank you in advance!

[Tabitha]

Bigger seems to be a fit, with him being on the younger end. You can always spread it out and take longer to go through it.

My only concern with Bigger, is Preparing comes next. There is a nice jump in skill levels between these two guides. That is where moving slower in Bigger might help.

My 7 1/2 yo daughter is in Beyond. She uses Singapore 2a/2b. This is fine for her. Bigger, with the history content/reading amount would be too much for her right now. She will be ready for it next school year. She does not write as much as your son, but does write a nice page size letter with awesome phonetic spelling.

How is his reading comprehension? Would the content/amounts in Bigger be suitable? Too much? If that is right up his alley, it does seem to be a good placement for him.

Eta: and by comprehension, I'm meaning you reading and him listening and being attentive.

[Kim2000]

Bigger seems to be a fit, with him being on the younger end. You can always spread it out and take longer to go through it.

My only concern with Bigger, is Preparing comes next. There is a nice jump in skill levels between these two guides. That is where moving slower in Bigger might help.

My 7 1/2 yo daughter is in Beyond. She uses Singapore 2a/2b. This is fine for her. Bigger, with the history content/reading amount would be too much for her right now. She will be ready for it next school year. She does not write as much as your son, but does write a nice page size letter with awesome phonetic spelling.

How is his reading comprehension? Would the content/amounts in Bigger be suitable? Too much? If that is right up his alley, it does seem to be a good placement for him.

Eta: and by comprehension, I'm meaning you reading and him listening and being attentive.

Thank you for your input! With respect to his comprehension and his ability to be attentive, it all comes down to his interest level. If he is engaged, he can sit and listen all day long (of course, he asks a million questions as well!). If he finds the activity at hand "boring", he will definitely tune out and become very squirmy. However, I do think that living books will be a good fit for him.

[Tabitha]

That is a better word for it, "interest." The only other thing I'd wonder is if the amount of reading you'd do with him in Bigger would be too much for that age, or what his interest or understanding would be. His age is the only things that makes me question that, not his other abilities. And, taking it slow through Bigger could certainly remedy that if you feel Beyond is too light for him.

I'm sure Carrie will have some wonderful thoughts to share.

[Kim2000]

I would really like to order before this weekend. Does anyone else have any other insight on where my son would best place? Thank you again for the advice!!!

[Tabitha]

Have you looked at the week views for both Beyond and Bigger? If you can get the history/science books from your local library, you could go through the bulk of each week with your son and see how see does with each one. I know all the info wouldn't be there for you to use, but you'd get a little feel for each program.

If I thought of him as my child my gut is saying Beyond with the Emerging Readers, the 2A/2B math placement, and since there isn't much different in the science books you could go either way. We used the K just because that is what was planned in the main part of the guide (with the schedule for 1st in the appendix). If he wants more work than what this gives then you can move at a faster pace and you're into Bigger sooner. There is plenty of writing in Beyond, and starting here allows him to get use to HOD's style. There is poetry copywork, spelling, actitives...plenty of things for him to work on his writing. There are grammar lessons that HOD adds in each week as well. Once you move into Bigger, then there is more writing for history, science, english, cursive writing, and dictation (unless you choose to continue to use the provided spelling lists). This additional writing in Bigger might be too much right off the bat if he's at the point of writing a few sentences a day now, and if more would be too much for him.

Selecting which one can be hard when they are caught right in the middle. I've pushed my girls before, and it ended up backfiring. Other times I didn't, and wish I had. If one guide isn't speaking to you 100%, I'd call HOD and pick their brains for more placement help.

[8arrows]

If you are planning to start in the summer or fall, I would lean toward Bigger. If you are starting right now, I would lean toward Beyond. I would look over the sample of each and see which you think would make for a happier year, as you could have a successful year with either.

[Tabitha]

Re-reading, I see this is for fall placement. If there is no rush to buy the books now, that is plenty of time to try out a week using the sample Carrie provides on the main site and see how your son does. Fall is quite as bit away for skill development to continue for him, placing him better in one guide vs. the other. More than likely he'll fit Bigger to a tee then, removing any concerns you may have now.

Do you need to buy things now, or can you wait a few months?

[Kim2000]

Re-reading, I see this is for fall placement. If there is no rush to buy the books now, that is plenty of time to try out a week using the sample Carrie provides on the main site and see how your son does. Fall is quite as bit away for skill development to continue for him, placing him better in one guide vs. the other. More than likely he'll fit Bigger to a tee then, removing any concerns you may have now.

Do you need to buy things now, or can you wait a few months?

I don't need anything now, but I am a major planner. I want to start putting together notebooking pages and figuring out what supplemental information I want to use for my 4th grader. My initial thought was to place him in Bigger, and after really looking over the weekly plans, I do think that Bigger is the best option for him. I am going to hold off on ordering any sort of reading package because I just don't know where he will be when we start school.

Thank you so much for you help! You really helped me think through the proper placement!

[Tabitha]

That sounds like a good plan.