gifted placement - starting HOD now

[Maribeth]

Hi - we are planning to start HOD soon. to place my 10 year old will be a challenge - she is reading at more than a 7th grade level yet is in 4th grade. her sister is in 2nd grade. i would like to teach them together. can i use the "bigger" teachers guide and set and then supplement my 10 year old with the extentions?

[Maribeth]

to add a note, my 10 year old has "gobbled up" Little Women and Little Men recently with very good recall of facts from the book.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I get wanting to have your kids learn together b/c it makes teaching easier to only have to do it once. However, with your description of your children...I would not combine a gifted 4th grader with a 2nd grader. You didn't really describe your 2nd grader, but I have a gifted child who has been labeled gifted since 3 years old. She actually tests college level on her achievement tests last year in 7th grade. She is gifted in language arts and taught herself to read at 3 years old and was reading 3rd grade level books in kindergarten and can read and go along with college level texts now. However, her skills in math and other subjects are not anywhere near her abilities in language arts and literature. My oldest kids are only a year apart in age each...I can't really combine any of them. My oldest is gifted and if I combine her with her sister then her sister feels dumb and slow as well as my oldest unintentionally takes over the show. Basically, I am either pulling my younger along with the older or dragging my older down to a slower pace to stay with my younger. Not ideal academically for either of them and much harder to teach that way.
I really wouldn't combine those ages and skills b/c most 2nd graders are still learning to read and write fluently. A fourth grader (especially a gifted 4th grader) is ready for so much more than a 2nd grader. I would really just take the placement chart and take 2 different colored pens and mark check marks to where the kids place in each guide in their age range then go back and see which has the most check marks. I would think there would be at least a guide between them in skills and abilities right now. Have you checked the placement chart and seen where they place individually?

ETA- I let my gifted kid explore learning outside of school to enhance her and encourage her skills. She taught herself digital art and coding for the computer one year. She also reads books outside of school that are high level. I really had to figure out that just b/c she could read and comprehend at a much higher level than her grade/age level that she still needed to learn so many skills in order to succeed all around academically in all of her subjects.

[Maribeth]

Wow - thank you, that is such a helpful reply! Do you find at tall that older texts with HOD are too old for your gifted child in other ways than the reading level? I hope I am explaining the question well. Many books she can read but I don't want my daughter to read yet. Maribeth

[StephanieU]

I have a fairly gifted younger child, and I am glad I didn't push her into Beyond even though she placed there. HODs books really are chosen with the ages recommended. I think this is especially the case for read-alouds and Bible. So, I wouldn't place a child too far ahead of the ages. You can always use the extensions in a higher guide for the 10yo if needed for more reading, although I think you will find HOD fairly challenging as is. At first glance, things can seem really simple in the HOD guides, but there is a lot more depth than originally meets the eye.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I think I am understanding what you are asking. If you are asking if content in higher level books are issues, then I can definitely say yes. You will find as they grow into middle/high school level that language, relationships, and other more mature topics are in many novels. This is not really an issue for us anymore as my dd is a bit older. She is 13 and we have covered lots of books that have rather grim and dismal topics. However at 10, she could have read those same books and they would have haunted her for a while. The good thing is that HOD warns you about things in the catalog when you are ordering such as the WG guide and Shane having quite a bit of language and offers a substitute A Christmas Carol instead if it is an issue for your family. I really have felt that as long as my dd was at least the youngest age on a guide that we wouldn't have any issues with reading material.
There are some really good things about the order and age range for HOD. I wouldn't put my dd into a guide that wasn't her age range. According to the placement chart by age alone, your dd should place in Preparing, Creation to Christ, or Resurrection to Reformation. Now RTR is the highest guide that she fits into the age range. So I would start with those 3 guides on the placement chart and check off under them where she fits in the other areas. We haven't had any issues with content this way. I really believe no matter the academic level of your child that staying in the age range for a guide is a good plan.

[mommyofmany]

I agree that a gifted 4th grader may need more of a challenge than using Bigger. How are your 4th grader's writing skills though? That would be an area I'd consider more so than the reading level. You can always add in quite a good deal more challenging reading for a gifted reader if you combine them. If her writing skills are fairly average, she may do fine in Bigger with the extensions and maybe some other added work too. If she is also advanced in writing, I'd be apt to put them in separate guides. Sending prayers you can come to a peaceful decision!

[Nealewill]

Just curious as to what you decided to with your kids.

I also have a gifted child who is a challenge to figure out what to do with. She is actually 5 right now but she is reading at a 3rd grade level, spelling 2nd grade words and doing 1st/2nd grade math. I placed her in Beyond, which is one level up from what she would have done but we don't plan to move her to Bigger until she is almost 7 because of the volume of work associated with each level.

I do agree that your child would not be nearly as challenged with Bigger and should be in a different level. But you could definitely modify any level to meet your child's needs. With DITHOR you could pick harder books for you DD to read. With math and grammar, you can easily modify that to your dd's level as with spelling. I think the History would be fine if you added in the extension but I think you will be very disappointed with science for your older child. If you were set on keeping them together for Bigger, then I would add in a new science program for you 10 year old, add in a writing curriculum, and find a way to add in weekly vocab activities.

One thing that is great though about HOD is that is written to your child once you start doing Preparing. This is my first year doing HOD and I have been VERY impressed with how easy it has been to run multiple guides. My oldest is doing Preparing and she is working very independently. It seems like a great fit for her. The guides have boxes marked with a T (teacher directed), S (semi-independent) and an I (independent). Every morning she works on her own on all of her independent boxes and then I meet with her for the teacher directed boxes. She has actually gotten to the point she is reading her grammar book to herself and doing the emergency lesson plans (these are for the parent to give to the child if they don't have time to actually "teach" directly to the child) in DITHOR because I might not be ready when she is. And she also is doing almost all of the semi-independent boxes alone as well. I am finding that running 2 levels is a breeze in my home.

Since this is your first year with HOD, if it were me (and from the description you gave), I would probably have your DD do Creation to Christ. If she loves to read and reads fast, I would have her read all of the history read alouds to herself instead of having her read the extension pack because of the mature content within the book. For DITHOR I would have her then pick either the boy or girl read aloud set for CTC and have her use those. Those books are actually written to a 6th and 7th grade reading level. The writing portion of this level should be at her level since it is written to be used with grades 3-12. You could adjust math, spelling and grammar to her level. And then I think you will find that the science is much more enjoyable for her hopefully at this level.

You could definitely do RTR instead of CTC if you prefer. But the one nice thing about HOD is that even though your child is gifted, there are a lot of skills that are taught that I think are kind of independent of the giftedness. Reading, math, and spelling can all easily be adjusted to your child's level to match her giftedness and you can then pick whichever topic set you want to study for history and science because those books span various ages/grades as well and are interesting and meaty whether you child is gifted or not.

And one last thought - not sure when you plan on your child graduating (or if you even think about it LOL) but I was thinking if you decided how many years you have left go until she gets to 9th grade work, then you might just pick your favorite HOD levels for her to do out of the CTC, RtR, RevtoRev and MTMM. Each one of these levels is independent of itself and one doesn't need to be completed prior to the next. I would start with the lowest level you want to do and go in order on up skipping any level you don't plan to do. This way, your child's age should easily align with whichever level you plan to complete. But I personally think you would be much happier with a higher level if you can do it. This way, she is challenged at her level, has a healthy workload and will be ready for high school classes and college classes - which ever route you choose for her when she is ready for that.