Need help with choosing for multiple children

[schultzjen13]

I'm thinking about next fall, and I'm looking for some advice. My twins will be ten and will be doing CTC. My daughter, who will be 7 and in second grade could probably place in Bigger, but would probably do better with Beyond. I'm not using HOD with her this year. I will also be adding my five-year-old son into the mix as a kindergartner. I really can't imagine using three different guides- I think I'd go crazy. Would I do my 7-year-old a huge disservice to put her in LHFHG with my kindergartner, but then supplement her time with reading, math, and maybe science? Thanks for any advice offered!

[igeagewalker]

HI, I don't have much advice to offer since I only began using HOd but I wanted to bump this up to the top for others to see. I have 11 year old twin boys who just starting using CTC (they just turned 11 in Jan.) and then two older children -13 year old and 16 year old both homeschooling. As for as combining the 7 year old and the Kindergarten child, I think it would depend on the skill level of the 2nd grader. If she is reading and writing pretty well, I think it would be hard to have her go down to a Kindergarten level. I haven't done a HOD guide at the Kindergarten level but I can imagine it wouldn't take much time. Thus, doing three guide might be doable? Just a thought.
Hope you get some more responses!
Pam

[8arrows]

I did the opposite, I put my K with my 2nd grader in Beyond. She was an old K though (6 in Nov.). I figured if she didn't do well she could always repeat the guide later, but they are both doing well. We did take it slow and will finish up over the summer or the beginning of next year. I know I do a better job with the least possible guides to cover everyone.

[schultzjen13]

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm hoping to hear some more people chime in. Has anyone else has this issue, and what did you do? I'm thinking more and more that it would not be a good thing to have my daughter do LHFHG, as it wouldn't challenge her. But, I'm still nervous with the thought of having three different guides!

[farmfamily]

When does she turn 7?

I would say that you could get the Beyond manual and do the right side of that manual (as in language arts and math), and combine your dc in the left side of LHFHG. As long as she's at her level in the 3Rs, I think she will be challenged enough. You could add the Beyond storytime if you wanted to give her some more listening - and repeat it next year with a different book pack. (We have read nearly all the Beyond book pack books and have loved them all!).

18 months ago I had a just turned 7 year-old and 5 year-old, and I chose to put the 7 year-old in Bigger half-speed and the younger in LHFHG. My older girl, who is a perfectionist and easily distracted took forever doing the notebooking and all the writing required for Bigger - even half speed. By the second semester we gave up on Bigger, and I combined her with her sister in LHFHG. We added supplemental titles from the back of LHFHG, my older daughter was ready for DITHOR, which was a good challenge for her, and she did copywork of poetry (like in Beyond, but I let her pick a poem from an anthology I had). She also did spelling from Beyond (eventually dictation from the Bigger manual) and we continued Rod and Staff 2 & math at her level. Both she and I have loved how the combining went. My girls really enjoy doing things together & our day is definitely more streamlined than if they were in 2 different guides. We are now most of the way through Beyond and continue to love how it is going.

However, that's just our experience. I know on this board there are many who have found "uncombining" to be better for their family. I would say, jump in and try combining (or uncombining if you prefer), and see how it goes. You will know if you've made the wrong choice after a few weeks!