Beefing up Beyond

[The2youngs]

I currently have a 5yo Kinder and a 6yo (7 in May) 1st grader. We are working our way through Little Hearts now and will actually finish it in the Fall, taking a break from "formal" school for the summer.

My 5yo is, I believe, a pretty typical Kinder. He recently finished 100 Easy Lessons so is reading fairly well at about a 1.5RL and we are starting Emerging Readers and will continue into next year. He's progressing excellently in Singapore Early Bird math (the old version), understands and can retell our read alouds, etc. I have no doubt he will do well in Beyond next year and plan to use it pretty much as written (with the exception of adding in handwriting, which I believe - per Miss Mason - is better done at 6yo, rather than 5yo). He thoroughly enjoys LHFHG, especially the rhymes, music, and dramatic play.

My 6yo is a whole different story. He learned to read at 3, currently reads at about a 5th grade level, inhales any and every book in sight, is finishing up Singapore 2A this week (and has yet to come to much of a challenging concept). He writes his own stories with excellent grammar, is a pretty natural speller, can memorize like a champ, and on and on. If it was just him, I'd have no problem moving him straight to Bigger next year simply because he is fully capable of it. He's just been blessed with an incredible mind. All that to say, I don't want to just give him tons of work for the sake of having more work, nor do I want him to rest on his laurels because school is just so easy. I'm hoping to find a good balance.

At this stage, I really want to keep my boys together. They're best friends and love being together, plus our family/ministry situation, I believe, would make running multiple guides more challenging. I expect I'll have to separate them in a couple years but I'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

So, my questions are:

1) How have you beefed up Beyond for a child such as mine?

2) Do you see a problem with stretching Beyond out over 1.5 years? We only do HOD 4 days a week and leave Fridays for music, art, nature study, and recitations with another family in town. I expect to just continue math and reading at full speed along with our Friday stuff.

At this point, I'm considering some/all of the following:

- adding R&S 2
- adding DITHOR 2 (I know these books would be very easy reads but I'm not convinced of my son's comprehension skills - he whizzes through books much like I do, with a vague recollection of having read something.)
- adding Cheerful Cursive (he has been begging me for months to teach him, to which I agreed if he could demonstrate diligence in his daily copywork for the remainder of this semester - this is added to his LHFHG work)
- adding Elemental Science's Sassafras Zoology (I have no problem with HOD's science at all; this is more just because my kids love animals and read alouds so I thought this looked like a neat opportunity to study something they love)

If I utilize any/all of these options, do I need to purchase the Bigger guide for the Fall?

Wisdom from those who've gone before would be appreciated, as well as insight others may see from a more objective viewpoint!

Thanks!

[Gwenny]

I think you have some incredible ideas! I would definitely just do those and have fun with the Zoology book instead of putting him in Bigger. Keep them together. You don't want him hitting those later guides too early anyway. I was just reading another post by Carrie the other day reminding us that just because they "can" read a book, it doesn't mean that they "should" read it. They might need to mature a little more, or will be able to better understand it at a later age. I think those early readers miss out on some great age appropriate reading because we let them and want them to read the "chapter books". He can continue learning and growing with other things than the guide also.

Blessings!

[MelInKansas]

No, for those additions you would not need the Bigger guide. The things you would find in the Bigger guide would be Dictation (next step up from the spelling lists), and hands-on math activities for Singapore 2A and 2B which it sounds like maybe your son has already done. Carrie didn't write any hands on activities for 3A and up, I believe the Bigger guide has pacing for 3A and 3B, and it would provide you pacing for Cheerful Cursive and R&S 2 but the pacing on those is pretty simple, generally it is one page a day of Cheerful Cursive and 2 pages (or so, finishing a lesson) in R&S 2. DITHOR would be a great addition it sounds like. I would encourage you to maybe select a higher reading level books (level 3 perhaps) but do the 2/3 student workbook and 2/3 activities from the DITHOR teacher's guide to help grow his comprehension and analysis skills. Also for 2/3 level the child reads to you most of the time (which takes more time, but helps them grow in reading aloud skills as well as you can stop and check comprehension or talk about difficult words if you like). Or I actually picked and chose from the level 2 list and the level 3 list, those I thought my DD would like best (and had to avoid a couple that she had already read).

You may find, as I have, that your son reads higher level books but doesn't understand a lot of what he reads. I was like that too. I still tend to race through reading and have very little comprehension of what I have read afterwards. I think DITHOR is helping my DD grow in this a lot (she is like me).

I think there are extension or add-on books for Beyond in the Appendix that you may want to have the older one read, or make optional for him if he is interested.

I don't know how extensive the science you are talking about using is or how many days a week you are planning to use that, but I would encourage you that even very bright 5 and 7 year olds don't need to be doing school work for 4 hours a day. Outings, playtime, activities, living life with you and learning life skills, all these things will help your children grow just as much. Everyone told me when my children were preschool-K age to just enjoy the time and not worry too much about school (do what you can but don't stress about it and don't push it too much) and now I totally understand why they said that. Sometimes when all your kids are littles you do need more structure so you add in things that aren't "necessary" but they are fun and helpful. As long as you and your kids are enjoying the school work you are adding and it doesn't seem like a burden, it's good. If it starts to feel like too much or the kids are feeling overwhelmed, then it may be time to rethink it a bit.

I hope this helps.

[my3sons]

There are such good, wise responses here already! I think I'd add one thing at a time, and stop short of 'too much.' I'd begin by adding DITHOR 2/3, as this will fit his reading level nicely and help him deepen his writing skills and reading comprehension skills. After doing DITHOR for a month, I'd add either the science or R & S English for a month. If more is still needed, I'd add things one month at a time. I would be careful about going overboard though. Gifted dc often want free time to explore their own interests and love the creative process of choosing their own things to delve into. You may find simply going on nature walks, reading several of the Storytime sets of books from Beyond rather than just one set, adding DITHOR and going all out on its kickoffs and projects, and doing the extra science experiments in God's Wonderful Works may be enough to spark creativity in ds already. One thing I'd be sure to do - make sure you do all of the Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory plans to their fullest intentions. If adding things makes that suffer, the next year will be tougher and will suffer too. Four days a week should be just fine! HTH and have fun with your 2 precious kiddos next year in Beyond!

In Christ,
Julie

[The2youngs]

Thanks so much to all of you for your great advice! I'm glad I've got some time to really ponder all of it and figure out what's best for our family. I will definitely be sure to be slow to add in each item, so as not to overwhelm either myself or my son.

A couple questions:

- What do I do for spelling if my son can already spell all (or maybe 90-95%) of the words in both lists? My first thought is to start now looking at all of his free writing stories and whatnot and making a list of the words he misspells and just start divvying them out each week once we begin Beyond? Other thoughts?

- If I do add R&S2, do I just skip the weekly grammar lesson? I would assume so, but Julie's encouragement to not skip anything from the guide made me wonder if I should do both.

Thanks so much!!! Really appreciate the wisdom of so many ladies!

[Gwenny]

You can start him on the dictation passages. I don't think they are in the back of Beyond, you would need to get the Bigger guide for that. If you buy the guide now, just let them know you already purchased it from them (if you buy from them-which I recommend ) and they will still give you the package discount when you buy they other items for Bigger. You could then use the Bigger guide for the hands-on activities for Singapore also. The activities in Bigger are for 2A and B. There is a schedule for 3A and B in the back.

You would not need to do the Day 5 grammar days in Beyond for your older one. For that box, your older can do a dictation passage each day and your younger one can do the spelling and day 5 grammar lesson.

Btw-i LOVE Beyond. It's a great guide.

[my3sons]

Gwenny had some great answers to your questions! I agree - as you'd be doing R & S English 2 with your older ds, he doesn't need to do the weekly grammar lessons in Beyond. You could use the Bigger Hearts guide for both dictation and R & S English 2. When you get ready to order all of Bigger Hearts packages next year, you can let HOD know, and they will credit back your package savings by looking up your sales order and verifying you ordered from them. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie