proper placement is so important
Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 5:32 am
My 11 yo daughter and I just finished week 2 of Preparing with extensions. It was a great 2 weeks. We both loved it. Carrie did such an awesome job writing the guide and putting everything all together. It's a perfect balance of time in all of the different subjects. My daughter is on the upper end of the age (the reason I'm doing the extensions) and I wish we weren't "behind" and she was in CtC, BUT, it is great that she is so well placed and can do everything independently that she is supposed to do, and also she can do the reading that is supposed to be me reading to her, I just do follow-ups. I would not be able to do it all with her if she needed more help. Based on the dynamics in our household and demands on me in this season, I coudn't do it if she was so challenged that she needed a lot of help. I could probably put her in CtC right now and she could do it with me a little more by her side-but I know we wouldn't be able to move through it because she'd be waiting on me.
I wanted to encourage others and give an example of why Julie and Carrie (and others on this board) place so much emphasis on getting the correct placement and how key that is to having a great year--for you and for your child. Don't place your child in a guide just because of age or the time period in history. It's all about building the skills to be able to learn and think and grow, not just getting everything "covered".
If you notice in my signature, I have a 17 year old Liberian daughter just finishing up Preparing in the next few weeks. She has been working on that for a long time, but she has very low IQ and some learning issues, obviously. I have to tell you, when we started the guide I was so discouraged because she needed me for almost everything and I thought it was a waste of time because she would never improve. She wanted me to read everything because she was so slow and she thought she could understand better when I read--she reads everything on her own now--her written narrations were a mess, from content to spelling and grammar, they are great now and I hardly have to correct anything in them anymore--she couldn't do the vocab, she always picked the wrong definition for the context and she couldn't copy out of the dictionary without missing words and spelling things incorrectly---95% better! She loves it, loves to learn and can't wait to do Creation to Christ! Just her continuing to do the skills over and over she has improved so much. I see the same thing with my son in Beyond, only 8 weeks in and he is already improving in the skills and taking on more copy work, etc than he could do at the beginning. I understand better now how the skills in one guide, if they are truly doing what is required (or building up to it as the guide progresses), prepare them for the next.
Anyway--just encouraging everyone that HOD is fantastic and to pick the placement carefully!
Blessings,
I wanted to encourage others and give an example of why Julie and Carrie (and others on this board) place so much emphasis on getting the correct placement and how key that is to having a great year--for you and for your child. Don't place your child in a guide just because of age or the time period in history. It's all about building the skills to be able to learn and think and grow, not just getting everything "covered".
If you notice in my signature, I have a 17 year old Liberian daughter just finishing up Preparing in the next few weeks. She has been working on that for a long time, but she has very low IQ and some learning issues, obviously. I have to tell you, when we started the guide I was so discouraged because she needed me for almost everything and I thought it was a waste of time because she would never improve. She wanted me to read everything because she was so slow and she thought she could understand better when I read--she reads everything on her own now--her written narrations were a mess, from content to spelling and grammar, they are great now and I hardly have to correct anything in them anymore--she couldn't do the vocab, she always picked the wrong definition for the context and she couldn't copy out of the dictionary without missing words and spelling things incorrectly---95% better! She loves it, loves to learn and can't wait to do Creation to Christ! Just her continuing to do the skills over and over she has improved so much. I see the same thing with my son in Beyond, only 8 weeks in and he is already improving in the skills and taking on more copy work, etc than he could do at the beginning. I understand better now how the skills in one guide, if they are truly doing what is required (or building up to it as the guide progresses), prepare them for the next.
Anyway--just encouraging everyone that HOD is fantastic and to pick the placement carefully!
Blessings,