What would my child be missing out on if I did choose to combine him/her in a guide that doesn’t fit him/her on the placement chart?
When I was in high school, I played volleyball and basketball. I had always “started” throughout middle school and into high school, until my sophomore year. In that year of basketball, I had a coach with whom I had a personality conflict. The conflict was that he did not like my personality, and I didn’t particularly love his! Now hopefully I have grown and matured since then. However, the point is that I ended up on the bench for almost the entire season. After that year, I went on to a different coach. I was back to “starting” again, but no one can ever tell me that you feel a part of a team when you’re sitting and observing, watching, and listening from the bench! So, what does this have to do with your question about your child’s placement? Well, read on!
Little ones need to get in the “game” instead of just sitting on the sidelines.
Often in homeschooling, we let our little ones sit on the” bench”. They are simply observing, watching, and listening in but rarely getting truly involved in the “game”. So, at HOD, we write our guides with family balance in mind. It is so easy for families to get out of balance by targeting one or more key members of the family and targeting the teaching toward that child. When grouping large age ranges together, the parent must choose what age to target their teaching toward. Often teaching is targeted toward the older child. In that case the older child is receiving the skills he/she needs, while the youngers are simply tagging along, which often equates to sitting on the bench.
Every child needs to be actively involved in learning.
Proper placement in HOD is the key to balance within a family, making sure all learners are getting the needed balance that gets them involved in the learning. Our HOD guides seek to balance time spent on various subjects within the school day, the amount of time required to complete a guide each day, the teaching time required by the teacher in presenting and guiding lessons each day, the time and attention given to various skills within the day, the way various learning styles are addressed within the day, and the individual time given to children at various age levels during the day. In this way, every child is participating and learning, and no one is left simply watching and listening.
Blessings,
Carrie
