How to decide which level to place a student?

[WildOlive]

My daughter will be 11 in Sept. We have been doing Sonlight, and I have not been pushing her very hard. She is incredibly bright and insightful though. Her comprehension is awesome, but she hates to write, so I am afraid I haven't pushed too hard with the written work. I am trying to decide if I should place her in Upper Grammar or Dialectic (we will be doing TOG Year 1 starting in Sept.) I also have a son who is going to be 7 and doing lower grammar work.

I know you can switch back and forth among levels, but I am hoping to plan so that I can buy the books in advance.

Thanks!

Renee

[Juliezar]

Do you have Year 1 yet? It really helps to be able to look at the actual book choices and decide which is a good amount of reading for your child. Perhaps you will want to put her in Dialectic for Lit. and UG for history or vice versa to start. Or if you really want to focus on writing for a while, you could do all UG for your first year or half of the year to give her extra time for writing. May God guide you as you start this new adventure!

[WildOlive]

Yes, I received my Yr. 1 box of goodies last week. I don't think she'd have any trouble at all with the amount of reading, it is all the writing that would go along with the TQ's and AQ's. She just finds writing very laborious. We did some IEW last year and she can write some really great stuff, but it takes her forever and she hates it. I wonder about possibly requiring her to write out the AQ's and doing the TQ's together verbally? On the one hand I know I need to start requiring more of her, even if she doesn't particularly like it, but I also don't want to put so much work on her that she starts to hate school.

[WildOlive]

Or maybe I could just pare down the number of questions I have her answer...

[Pat]

Does she know how to type and is she fairly competent with it? If so I'd try D level, if not I'd spend the next year learning typing and stay at UG level. Being able to type up answers to the D level questions would, I think help her a bunch to be ready for D level.

You'll also want to slowly build up to the writing part of Tapestry if you plan to use that part.

[DanaCinTN]

Hi,
Be sure and read the article on the Loom entitled "Accountability and Thinking Questions" so that you'll gain more insight as to why we don't even suggest that parents assign all of the questions in written form. I think it will really help!

Blessings,

[WildOlive]

Thanks, the Loom article did help. I certainly feel like she is ready intellectually for dialectic. She does not know how to type. I wonder if we worked on that this summer, if she could become proficient.

[Marcia]

I would certainly think so! Most parents these days buy/use an interactive computer program to teach keyboarding that is fun and kids love it. Maybe others will chime in with their favorite current programs?

[2girls1boy]

I would certainly think so! Most parents these days buy/use an interactive computer program to teach keyboarding that is fun and kids love it. Maybe others will chime in with their favorite current programs?

All 3 of my children have learned typing/keyboarding using "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing for Kids". I found it relatively inexpensive -- and it has been a lot of fun.

[Pat]

We've used Typing Instructor which has children's version. It's pretty cheap.

How quickly your daughter can get up to speed depends on her. My oldest picked it quicker than my youngest.