Dr. Marie-Claire Moreau

Educator, Coach, Life Strategist

Course placement — where your child should begin

placement tests

 
 
What grade is my child operating at?
 
Which level of the program should I buy?
 
How do I know if a homeschool book is too easy or too hard for my homeschooler?

These are just some of the many questions that parents ask when trying to determine which homeschooling products to use.  Particularly when a family hasn’t used a certain publisher or product before, it can be difficult to gauge exactly where the child should “drop in” to the program.  When starting a new set of books, a packaged all-in-one curriculum product, or even just choosing books off the shelf at the local retailer, how do parents know which ones to buy?

Fortunately for modern homeschoolers, there are many placement tools now available.  Some come in the form of general testing.  Better still, others come from the makers of the products themselves.

In a nutshell, the word “placement” refers to figuring out at which level a child should begin. That is, which grade, what step, which level or even what book, depending on the product, is most appropriate — for a particular child, given that child’s readiness to do the work.

Placement is different for different products.  Not all speak the same language.

Sometimes, products are developed with grade levels in mind.  Grade 4 students would typically use the 4th grade book.  Students in 11th grade would use the 11th grade book.  And so on.

Other products are offered in levels (think: stages or tiers).  For instance, after a child completes the first level, he or she simply moves on to the next.  And then the next.  Until the program has been completed.  The publisher may make a recommendation about the range of ages that might fit within a particular level.  Other times, no age or grade is ever mentioned, leaving it up to the parent.

Still other products are advertised for any age.  In fact, you’ll sometimes find a resource labeled, “All ages” or “Ages 10 to adult”.  Some general electives, foreign language systems and online learning options are written this way.

So how should parents decide which ones to use?  There are basically two ways that parents can go.  The first is using intuition combined with trial-and-error.  With this method, parents (or students, if old enough to help) use good judgement to select materials and then give them a try.  If they work, great.  If not, it’s back to the drawing board.  Though trial-and-error may not always be the most efficient or least expensive solution, it works.  That is, it works as long as parents aren’t stubborn about getting their money’s worth and using the materials anyhow.  Or, if parents simply don’t notice the clues from their children, allowing a bad situation to continue.

The other way is placement testing.  And lest anyone worry about the word “testing”, be aware that placement testing is easy and painless, and nobody but parents ever need to know the results.  With placement tests, students and parents work together to choose the right resource.  Either the parent reviews a set of benchmarks, or the child completes a series of questions, and then a recommendation as to the correct level immediately becomes apparent.

Placement tests from product makers come in many shapes and sizes.  To get an idea of what one might look like, just a couple of these are linked below.  Note these do not comprise an exhaustive list of placement tests.  These are merely offered to show an example of the kinds of placement offered by the makers of different homeschool materials:

Placement Center from Calvert School

Saxon Mathematics placement tests

Math U See competency exams

Thinkwell Math placement tests

Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL) placement tests

Connect the Thoughts reading placement for Lower School

Alpha Omega placement tests

Singapore Math placement tests

There are many others that can be found by calling manufacturers or visiting product web sites.

Placement testing can also come from testing agencies.  Tests offered by these groups are designed to place children, no matter what curriculum products are being considered.  It is beyond the scope of this post to list them all and comment upon the practicality of using tests for this purpose; however, visiting either one of these pages:

Test Prep Review

Internet4Classrooms

will offer a quick glimpse of just a few of the kinds of tests (placement and other kinds) that are available for free download or purchase.

Keep in mind that no placement test is ever fool-proof.   Many things come into play when children are being tested for course placement, some having nothing to do with the subject being tested at all.  However, when taken correctly, in an ideal setting, these tools should offer at least a general result that parents can then take a look at,  seeing if the placement sounds right to them.   And there is never any harm to taking additional placement tests, either at a level above or below from the same publisher, or from another developer altogether, just to be sure.   Or not taking a placement test at all, and just using judgement and observation, as described earlier.

For more about this topic, watch for future posts about testing and placement.  You are also invited the search this site to see what else has been written so far.

Scheduling non-readers

When you’re homeschooling, every bit of organization helps. One of the most successful organizational strategies is to use schedules for just about everything that goes on during the day.  Talk to any successful homeschooler and you’ll quickly find out why — it’s because having schedules helps keep the chaos down and the productivity up.

But, what about the littles? Can they be scheduled, too?

To some degree, yes. They may be young, but preschoolers are more than capable of performing little chores around the house and being in charge of small areas of their own. Plus, since preschoolers take pride in helping and having their own responsibilities, it’s fun for them, too — that is, as long as they can “read” the schedule.

For very young children and other non-readers, a graphic approach is best.  Parents can certainly purchase scheduling systems –  like THIS one or THIS one – to use at home.  However, preschooler schedules are so much easier (and cheaper) to make at home.  The additional benefit to making them is that the schedules will be completely customized to fit the child AND use the exact same language (the specific words and phrases) that is used at home.

Schedules for the very young don’t need to be fancy — they just need to convey a message.  Parents can draw pictures, cut images from books or magazines, or use free on-line clip-art instead.  Something as simple as this could work quite nicely:

Water flowers

Play with puppy

Help with baby

You can include words on graphic schedules, too, as shown on this one.  As a bonus, preschoolers will eventually learn to read these phrases, too!

Schedules can be changed as often as necessary.  If youngsters get bored or discover new things they like to do, the schedule can easily be modified for the next day, week, or whatever time period is being used.  Learning to use a schedule and adapt to periodic changes will prepare youngsters for the schedules they’ll need to follow when they’re older, too.

What to teach year by year

Probably one of the most common questions homeschoolers ask is what to teach.  Even outsiders are prone to wondering how moms and dads decide what to cover each year, some even assuming that school districts provide the actual curriculum to follow.

The truth is that homeschooling parents decide exactly what to teach, and when, if ever.  With the exception of states that mandate the teaching of certain subjects, such as health and physical education (required in Pennsylvania) or  music and drawing (mandated in Massachusetts), parents not only decide upon the curriculum but  are free to change it at any time along the way.  (Find out what your state requires HERE.)

While the ability to choose is very appealing to some families, others prefer to follow an outline.  Knowing what others are teaching, what is taught in schools or what is assumed to be the proper grade sequence can be comforting to those who prefer to follow a previously-designed curriculum, rather than creating one on their own.

There are many places to find this kind of information.  After browsing through these books, research and other resources, parents can then choose what they’d like to teach in their own homes.*

Standard Textbooks and Curriculum Products: Books and curriculum systems are designed to be followed from beginning to end.  Following the table of contents or daily lesson plan is a way to cover all of the material that the author or publisher recommends for that age/grade child.  Merely teaching the lessons in order or reading the chapters in sequence can work as a spine or an entire course in those subject areas.

Core Knowledge Recommendations:  A content-specific guide that parents can follow year by year, grade by grade, to insure progress of knowledge and skills for grades K-8.  Used by schools and homeschoolers alike and can be followed in part, or in its entirety.  Books are available for purchase, plus the entire sequence may be downloaded free HERE.

World Book Typical Course of Study: Based on research and combined with the study of national courses and syllabuses, World Book offers a free curriculum guide for parents with students PreK-12.  The curriculum, outlined in a yearly format, details what is generally required for every grade across the US.   It provides a detailed guide of topics and major concepts in most academic areas typically taught in homeschool. Find it HERE.

 

Homeschooling Helps: Several books have been written about what to teach and how to design a homeschool curriculum.  These books are available from book resellers and online.  Just two of the books are pictured here, but readers are encouraged to search for others on their own.

National Curriculum and Standards: Sets of standards have existed for years and are thought to insure that all classroon students are prepared for graduation and the workforce. Many states recently adopted the Common Core Standards which are purported to be benchmarked to international standards, thus insuring that students nationally emerge as competitive in the global marketplace.  The Common Core Standards can be viewed HERE. Other standards, like the new Social Studies Standards and even the older NSTA Science Standards may also be helpful for seeing what is typically taught in each grade across the US.

Online Philosophy- and Method-Specific Guides:  For those who have made the decision to homeschool following a particular philosophy or using a particular method, online guides can offer the structure and information needed to homeschool by grade, every single year.  Charlotte Mason users, for example, may like the free Ambleside Online Curriculum, and those looking for an old-fashioned biblical education based on old texts and free downloadable books might like the curriculum plan offered by Old Fashioned Education.

Finally, families using an eclectic homeschooling approach should be encouraged to use bits and pieces of any of the above.  Curricular recommendations may be used in whole or in part, or can be modified too, determined only by the needs of individual homeschoolers.

**The products pictured in this post are merely examples of the many options available for purchase or download.  They are shown to help the reader and should not be misconstrued as an endorsement or recommendation for any of the specific items or products shown here.  Note that, unless specified, we receive no benefit, compensation or recognition for featuring products on Quick Start Homeschool.

Down time

I recently met a mom who told me about her children and their homeschooling.  She reported that, “all of their waking hours” were spent doing book work.   It was her belief that the children should be at the table completing schoolwork all day long.  I saw the dining room table and, in fact, it appears that is what they did.

Because homeschooling is all about what parents deem best for their own kids, you can think what you want, but in the end, it is up to each family to do what they do.

In comparison, in my home, I always tried to make sure that my children had adequate “down time”.  While we had (and still have) a very rigorous homeschooling schedule, I made sure to schedule time off on a regular basis.

As someone who needs  time to myself, I suppose it was instinctive to make sure that my children had time off as well.  (Now, we know that the literature says that children need personal space and time for play, too.)  In fact, as they were growing up, I tried to enforce an informal rule that I established about leaving the house for activities – that is, one busy day out meant that the next day was spent quietly at home.  This worked well for me, as I was always able to get things done at home on alternate days.  Plus, my children had time to read, play, go outside, or whatever it is they were unable to do on days that we spent driving and schooling all over town in the van.

While this may not work for everyone, it is just what I did.  Other families may adopt different schedules and create time off in other ways.  It’s just something to think about.

During down time, children do many things.  Homeschooled kids in particular seem to find many clever uses for their time.  It isn’t always about watching televison and playing video games, although that happens (in my home) too.  But it is often about other things, as well.

For example, when my children have time off they sometimes do things like this:

They also like to do this:

Sometimes, they try this:

And other times, they do this:

And even this:

I don’t consider this time wasted.  In fact, if this kind of thing occurs in your home, you may in all good conscience award homeschooling hours for these kinds of activities.  I do.

Now, it’s my turn to ask…Do your children have down time on school days? If so, what do they like to during time off?