Need help with Placement

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LeAnna
Posts: 412
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:59 pm

Need help with Placement

Post by LeAnna » Mon Apr 06, 2015 12:03 pm

I have used the earlier guides with my kids, have had other school arrangements for awhile, and am now considering using HOD for this coming school year. I'm overwhelmed all over again! lol! So many new choices! Here is what I am thinking, but would love the input on other ideas. Preparing for my 4th grader, add in cursive since he has not had that yet. Also, using DITHOR 2/3 with Level 3 readers. Or should I use 4/5? He is a great reader, but a reluctant writer. We have used other grammar- Evan Moor and Daily Language Skills, so no diagramming. Would English 3 be good for him? For my girls, 6th and 7th, who also have not done diagramming (Easy Grammar and Evan Moor), I was thinking English 4 and English 5? Not sure on that one. For both of them, I was thinking of combining them into Rival to Revolution. Good choice? I have forgotten to mention that both have had a year of Excellence in Writing, if that helps. For the following year 2016/2017, I was considering putting my then 5th grader and 7th grader in CTC, to give my 7th grader one more year to use MTMM. Is this strange?
Since, we haven't done a lot with DITHOR, I was thinking about 4/5 for my girls. Good?
Thank you for your help! :D
Love my husband of 18 years this year;
Love my 3 teenagers--13, 15, and 16. They keep me young, but hanging on for dear life! :lol:
Used HOD in the earliest years with all three of them!

LeAnna
Posts: 412
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:59 pm

Re: Need help with Placement

Post by LeAnna » Mon Apr 06, 2015 3:30 pm

Now, after looking some more, I'm wondering if I should do Resurrection to Reformation instead, for my 6th and 7th grader. Also, use extensions for 7th. Does this sound better? That would put me MTMM for 9th. Is it high school credit worthy?
Love my husband of 18 years this year;
Love my 3 teenagers--13, 15, and 16. They keep me young, but hanging on for dear life! :lol:
Used HOD in the earliest years with all three of them!

Nealewill
Posts: 1611
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:08 pm
Location: Cincinnati, OH

Re: Need help with Placement

Post by Nealewill » Mon Apr 06, 2015 6:54 pm

For your 4th grader, I think if he is a very good reader and loves to read chapter books, I don't think the level 4/5 would be out of line. With Preparing though - he will be reading quite a bit to himself with history and science though through the year. My oldest did Preparing last year and she read the level 3 books. Some were longer and harder, some where not. She was not a voracious reader :-) But she loved everything she read :-) As for grammar, I think R&S 3 would be fine. My oldest didn't have exposure to formal grammar until last year and it went well. The R&S book does a very nice job of hand holding.

As for your other two kids, I see that you mentioned you would put the 6th grader in a higher level and then bump down to CTC after that. I personally would not do that. Each level increases with difficulty. So if you bump them down, it may be shocking on them to complete the higher level after that. I would be afraid you would loose steam. If you really want to keep your older two together, I would put them both in Resurrection to Reformation now and give the older child the extensions. With MTMM, it can easily be modified to make it high school worthy and many moms have done this. You would just want to be sure to add in economics during this year, use DITHOR but update the books to be high school worthy books, you could modify science or skip it and use the science from WG, and then add in Spanish from WG. Modifying may sound daunting but this would really be the only year with significant changes. However, some people have had kids stay together and find that after RevtoRev, they may skip MTMM because a particular child is ready for High School. You could do that too instead if your oldest was ready for that workload. But many others prefer to just modify MTMM. So I think there is a lot of freedom.
Daneale

DD 13 WG
DS 12 R2R
DD 10 R2R

Enjoyed DITHOR, Little Hearts, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, CTC, R2R, RevtoRev, MtMM

LeAnna
Posts: 412
Joined: Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:59 pm

Re: Need help with Placement

Post by LeAnna » Mon Apr 06, 2015 8:12 pm

I was thinking about that. I think you are right, the jump down and then a big jump up, could be a shock. I think for the DITHOR, I would actually do 2/3 for my 4th grader. He's a good reader, but a reluctant writer. Thank you!
Love my husband of 18 years this year;
Love my 3 teenagers--13, 15, and 16. They keep me young, but hanging on for dear life! :lol:
Used HOD in the earliest years with all three of them!

MomtoJGJE
Posts: 1534
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:20 pm
Location: Gastonia, NC

Re: Need help with Placement

Post by MomtoJGJE » Tue Apr 07, 2015 5:36 am

I agree that I'd probably put them in Res to Ref.... I might even wait on the extensions and see if you need them for your oldest. It's pretty meaty stuff just in the regular lessons.

As for your youngest, I think Preparing is an awesome guide to start with and its' also a great guide for fourth grade IMO :) And we do the same thing for DITHOR that you are saying. Actually I do it half speed in Bigger, so my 4th grader is finishing up level 2 books right now. But I think they still get a lot out of it with the lesser amount of work. They are able to actually think about what they are learning instead of just trying to get through it.

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