How do you handle this?

[mom2agang]

I have 2 daughters close in age one is 8 and the other 9. They are 10 1/2 months apart. We raise them pretty much as twins. They do school together. They are both starting 4th grade. My 8 yr old is more mature and does really good in school. My 9 yr old does good except she struggles with anixity.(sorry I can't spell) she has to be moving or it just ruins her.(she does not take anything for it.) My 8 yr old wants textbooks. She is a let me just read and do it leave me alone. But my 9 yr old you give her a textbook and she about throws up. You can tape the earth on the floor and tape where the continents are and she loves doing school. I've been doing HOD ( which I LOVE) but I was thinking of switching to more textbook to "free" me up my 8 yr old is on board with the thaught my 9 yr old isn't. Then I thought about seperating them. Would that be a good idea? And have just the 8 yr old do textbooks? Or should I gently push my 9 year old into textbooks?

[Tidbits of Learning]

I'm just going to be honest here. Doing textbooks may free you up for school time, but not for grading or evaluating time. With textbooks, you normally let the child go off and read to themselves. We switched from a living books program to textbooks 3 months in this year. I have no clue what my children have studied and I am spending a lot of time grading questions, worksheets, and tests.

It didn't really free up my time as much as it just changed what my time went to during school. I'm not saying textbooks are bad and that living books are the way to go at all. I am just saying that normally it is a trade off. You don't really gain time.

I lost knowing what the kids were learning and gained lots of grading time trying to figure out if they were learning.

BTW, I have 2 girls 13 months apart and we have raised them similar. Always together, they are in separate grades though b/c we didn't start hs'ing until this last year. Mine are the opposite of yours. My 9 yr old loves textbooks and just give me an assignment list. My 8 yr old will sit and get upset and just I can't finish and well it is awful with textbooks.

I am not sure exactly how I am going to do next year and whether we will combine, but I am not going to push my 8 yr old gently or otherwise towards textbooks since I learned the hard way that what works for one kid won't work for the other.

I would say to give them each what they want. HOD is supposed to get more independent in the upper years. I would continue that with the anxious one and then I would try textbooks for the 8 year old. You may find that she thrives on it or you may find that she doesn't want to do all textbooks after all, but you won't know until you try.

BTW, a little separation can be good. Our dd's had to play on different sports teams this year b/c of the b-day cut off and it really gave my younger a chance to shine.

[NanceXToo]

My opinion? You are already aware that your daughters have very different learning styles. That's the first step. The next, as a homeschooler, is allowing for and respecting those differences and then planning for them. They are individuals and should be treated as such. Something public schools can never do, but you can.

[Strawberry Queen]

Well, I might have your younger dd do some work independently but not everything. You can giver her a list of things to do and she can do some subjects by herself. I'm assuming that she has a math text and maybe some grammar or spelling to do by herself.

 

It would seem that using texts for your older dd is out of the question for now. I would keep your girls in the same program but maybe they can have different assignments. You can have one explore the topic by making projects on a large scale. Your other dd can use the same info and do a written narration or whatever the thing is.

 

I'm assuming that you have other kids to juggle, as evidenced in your siggy, so you don't want to do too many different programs. Maybe just tweak it for your dd who wants a more sit and read approach.

 

hth

[Donna T.]

What HOD program are you using? Are you considering making changes for next year or will you be working through the summer and maybe making changes before then? I'm wondering what HOD program you are currently using and what one you would be moving up into if you continue.

 

It may be that you can continue with HOD (since you said you love it) but adapt one program to the needs of both of your children.

 

My oldest is the "just let me read" kind of learner but my youngest must have something to do. He loves books also but school for him means, "What are we going to do today?" nor just "What are we going to read?" There is a three year age difference with my children. But, with yours being so close in age, I bet you can find a way to adapt one program to both of their learning styles.