New to homeschooling with placement questions

[rumkimom]

I am also in NY (somewhat near Albany). I have one son and one daughter with special learning needs and they both tend to score quite low on the CAT test (we do them every year as it is easier for me to just do those than a written report), but we have never had any problems with our school district. If you have any NY specific questions, please let me know....I have been homeschooling here in NY for 12 years and am graduating my oldest this year.

[rumkimom]

OH, BTW my one son is behind yours....he is 8 (in April) and going in Beyond in the fall. I do have him listed as going into 2nd grade though. We adopted him almost 2 years ago (totally new language/culture) and started him in Kinder at that time so he is older than other kids in his 'grade'. He is not yet reading but did OK on the 'going into 2nd grade' CAT test that we did with him.

[farmfamily]

I agree with StephanieU. I always do math full speed with daily reading practice and when my daughter went half speed she did Rod & Staff full speed too. My kids do quite a bit of standardized testing (usually 3 tests a year each in language arts and math), and so far have almost always tested on level or even ahead in everything.

Heart of Dakota is a pretty flexible program and the guides have some room for adjustment within them. Beyond is described as a "first or second" grade program in the catalog, and Bigger is "second or third grade" with extensions for fourth or fifth. If your child completes Bigger by the end of third grade and then does a guide a year they would exactly complete all the guides by the end of high school. At the moment that is my goal for my kids. Since my son is only in second grade and doing Bigger, I can afford to go slowly at times and still be fine for finishing all the guides. If at some point he reaches a time when he needs to complete one guide a year in order to get to all the guides by 12th grade, then I would start trying to complete one guide a year. Actually this is what has happened with my oldest. She is finishing sixth grade and just completed Res to Ref yesterday! She has done a guide a year for the last 2 years and it has been fine. She is busy, but it is quite possible for her to do everything in a year, and since her guide is much more independent than Bigger/Preparing it is not too hard on me.

Now if she were to show signs that the work was too difficult for any reason then I would not hesitate to slow her down in her guide even if it messed up the "goal" of being able to do all the guides. That is the beauty of homeschooling: we get to meet our kids at the level they are and help them succeed. There are even extensions for using lower guides with older kids if needed, and Carrie has given lots of advice on how to use guides like MTMM and Rev to Rev for high school.

In your case you consider your son to be entering third grade so if you wanted to have the same goal of being able to complete all the guides by twelfth then you would need to complete Bigger in a year. BUT several things mitigate against that. First your son is very young for his grade. In fact, I don't see how he is considered entering third because I thought all states now had the age cutoff by September. Second, you want to have a gentle and enjoyable first year homeschooling him (an excellent plan, I think!). Third, he will likely need an adjustment period to homeschooling/HOD. Fourth, if he's anything like my older kids at that age he will beg to participate in some of little brother's LHFHG readings and activities (they are fun!). I would be inclined to let him as long as he is respectful of brother and lets him have priority and also lets him participate in Bigger activities. BUT that will add to the length of his school day. Finally, you are considering Beyond as an alternate option for him, and you can always remember (like someone said earlier) that even if it takes you 18 months to finish Bigger, you would still be ahead of where you would be if you chose Beyond for the next school year.

I actually use my older daughter who completes a guide a year as a kind of benchmark. If she manages to finish her guide then I have done enough school for the year since the others do school every day that she does. For my son in Bigger, I technically didn't do half speed. Each day I did math, spelling, handwriting, and reading practice, and then as many of the other subjects as we had time to complete (trying to be sure that I completed at least half of a HOD "day" each day), then the next day I would do the daily subjects and then pick up where we we left off. We have managed to get to Unit 20 (out of 34). By the way, in the past we have schooled year-round but this summer we have so many activities planned (including a trip to Europe - yay!) that we will have to take at least 6 weeks in a row off. This will be new for us!

[rumkimom]

NY's age cut-off is Dec 1 (not Sept like many other states).

[farmfamily]

Interesting. Here in California our cut-off date used to be like that when my daughter started Kindergarten 7 years ago, but they have gradually moved the date to September to align with other states. But I looked it up and I guess not all states are the same, and in NY it seems local authorities determine the date.

[MamaKB]

I've gotten such great responses from you all, and I am so grateful for the tremendous amount of help I've received! I don't have time at the moment to reply to each response separately, but I've read every word and soaked it all in. Thank you all so much for all your help, truly!

I was very close to making a decision on which levels to use for my kids, but before I ordered, I thought I'd try calling HOD, just for some extra peace of mind. I left a message, and received a call back from Julie, who was so incredibly sweet, kind, and patient with me, and we discussed each of my kids' academic levels, abilities, and struggles. We talked for just over an hour (it didn't even feel that long, as she was SO friendly and easy to talk to, that I felt like I was speaking with a close friend!) and at the end of the call, I had such a beautiful peace in my heart about where to place each of my kids. We even came up with a tentative plan for my littlest ones as well, for when the time comes. Without a doubt, HOD is most definitely the right place for my family as we begin our homeschooling journey, and I am SO grateful that God has led us here! I honestly cannot say enough what a wonderful impression I've received of this company so far, along with the helpful and kind community I've found on these message boards as well. I am so happy to be here, and thrilled and excited to begin homeschooling with HOD this year!

So, what did I end up choosing for my kiddos? Well, for those of you who suggested LHFHG for DS2 and Bigger for DS1 - which was most if not all of you, LOL - you were spot on! After reading all of your replies and digging deeper into the placement charts, the scope and sequence of each level, and reviewing the sample pdf files, I started to come around to the idea that Bigger might be the best placement for DS1. After talking to Julie, and learning more about this level in greater detail, we were both convinced that Bigger should suit him just fine. So, I went ahead and placed my order last night for Bigger, LHFHG, and LHTH (for DD1, who's 3). I was so excited to press that 'submit' button, and have this decision behind me, LOL! I feel very good about my choice, and I will ease my son into this level and take it at his pace. I am pretty confident that he will do well!

Side note, I'm also SUPER impressed that, even though I placed my order last night at around 9:30 pm EST, I already received a shipping notification email this morning, around noon. Wow! My package is scheduled to arrive by Monday, so only a few short days and our goodies will be here! I'm very, very excited (in case you couldn't tell, LOL).

Thanks again for ALL of your helpful replies! I appreciate it very much!