Going to start Beyond Little Hearts

[grandsophy]

In a few weeks we'll start Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory with my third grader. She isn't wild about reading chapter books, so we'll use the emerging reader books. But I found that most of the Girls Pack as well as the Classic Pack books are at our library on CD! My dd loves to listen to books on CD (which works out well, as I do not enjoy reading long books out loud). So we can read at her interest level and she can listen to many of the other books as well.

I am wondering if the Girls Pack/Classic Pack are scheduled in the curriculum, though. I'm not finding them. And it puzzles me why Paddington Bear is in this year of American History. (Not complaining, we love Paddington Bear!)

[Tree House Academy]

The "girls books," etc. are options for the Storytime section (read alouds). There is no set book you have to read - it is by genre, though, so you want to make sure to choose within the correct genre.

We are doing Beyond with emerging readers with my 1st/2nd grader and loving it SO much! Hope you have a great year!

[funkmomma71]

As Tree House Academy stated the "girl/classic packs" are the read alouds for storytime and are not linked to the history. Even though you have many of the books on Cd, be sure to listen along with your dc because she will be doing narrations and so will you, as a model for her, therefore you will need to know the details of the story. The storytime is integeral to the overall LA program, it will help your dc transition to DITHOR or any other reading program you choose down the road as it helps build comprehension and narration skills.

We are now using Beyond and LOVING IT!!! My daughter is always bummed when we are done for the day. She wants MORE of every subject, hopefully she will settle down soon and be satisfied with what we are doing.

Best Wishes!

[grandsophy]

Oh no! Narration! I vaguely remember reading about this in a homeschooling book, and thinking it sounded complicated to implement. This is something new to us. Is it explained in the curriculum guide?

If I read the book will I be able to guide dd through this?

[grandsophy]

I am so disapointed that the books aren't keyed to the history. That's why I chose a program like this! I thought it used living books to teach history.

[water2wine]

Oh no! Narration! I vaguely remember reading about this in a homeschooling book, and thinking it sounded complicated to implement. This is something new to us. Is it explained in the curriculum guide?

If I read the book will I be able to guide dd through this?

Yes and don't worry it is very easy to do. It is explained in the manual.

[water2wine]

I am so disapointed that the books aren't keyed to the history. That's why I chose a program like this! I thought it used living books to teach history.

It does but the story time is teaching the literary aspect of genre. Some of the genres are more easy to coordinate with history than others. But you will find the read alouds very living and very much coordinating to history. Hope that helps.

[my3sons]

We're doing Beyond a second time through with a second child and loving it still! Oral narration is guided and explained very well in the daily plans you'll be doing - so no worries. Nancy makes a great point about the Storytime and learning the genres. That has been important to helping our dc grow in their reading skills and deepen their reading comprehension. I think this is integral to becoming a well-rounded reader. For example, learning to understand the genre of mysteries makes it possible to learn how to analyze foreshadowing, cliffhangers, etc. by looking at the clues. If you desire more history-focused Storytime titles, just look in the Appendix of Beyond at the "Bibliography: Suggested Storytime Titles" for ideas - there are usually several more history-focused titles listed there, or of course you can choose your own just making sure to match the genre being studied. Enjoy Beyond - it is an excellent program!

In Christ,
Julie

[Tree House Academy]

The History portion IS living books. The read alouds can be about history too. Our first read aloud was Squanto (which we finish on Friday) and we have LOVED it! The history portion of the manual is different from the read aloud portion. It is scheduled and you are told which books to read and when. Trust me, you will get plenty of both worlds.

Narration is retelling a story. There is nothing complicated about it. You just have to make sure your child can do it without ramblng on and on or trying to get too detailed. You also want to make sure they can hit the main points in their retelling. Likely you already do this and just dont' realize it is narration. I know that, when my ds and I read a chapter book together, before starting on the next day's reading, I always go back and briefly retell what happened in the previous reading. That is narration. HIOD has your dc/you do the narration just after the reading, so that makes it even easier!

[grandsophy]

Ok, I've looked for narration stuff in the manual, and I'm not finding anything about it, but there ARE lots of discussion questions. I can handle discussion questions.

Other homeschool stuff I've read has always made narration sound complicated, as if the child is supposed to summarize in detail everything she just heard. I'm not an audio learner myself, so that freaks me out!

[water2wine]

I just wanted to point out a section in the Beyond manual that may be of help for you. In the back the third section of the appendix is called Bibliography: Suggested Storytime Titles. You can pick any of the books here for your Storytime. They are broken down by genre and some might fit the history more than the ready made packs. If these are not to your liking or do not all fit the bill you can put in any book you want that is the same genre as what is being covered in the storytime box. So you can choose your own books if that suits you more. HOD has just tried to make it easy but you are not required to use those titles. Anyway it is a great part of the program but it is not required to make the program work so Storytime can be skipped if it is not what you want to do for your family.

I will also be starting Beyond this year as well but have done Bigger where narration instructions are given to the teacher. It appears that in the Beyond Manual Narration is handled in the StoryTime box in the form of questions that you ask the student to get them to narrate back to you what was read. So if you decide to do the storytime it is all taken care of for you and all that you need to do is read the questions to prompt your child. Hope that helps you.

[grandsophy]

I did find that section, with other recommended titles and I think that will be helpful.

The manual is a little overwhelming to me, as I'm used to a workbook format that is just open and do it. Dd has done well with the workbook format (ABeka)--we had tried Winter Promise in Kindergarten and it was not a good fit for us. Now I'm trying Heart of Dakota because I want more History, and everything coordinated.

[water2wine]

Oh good. I can see how the manual would feel a little overwhelming. It is different than anything out there. When you start using it I think you are going to see that it flows really well. I was actually spending a bit of time looking over the History activities in beyond to see what was in the timeline they will be making. I am really excited about using Beyond this year. I can see the flow. Having done the guide before Beyond and the one after it looking deeply at how Beyond flowed was just such a blessing. I can really see the big picture of where Carrie takes it all with the history and building the skill levels. I think you are going to find that it is going to be a nice easy program to run when you actually do it. Just give yourself a couple of weeks to get the flow of it and even if you need to start out half paced is fine if you need to do that. Then when you see how it runs so smoothly you'll wonder why you fretted. HOD is wonderfully simple to use. It;s really designed so you can fodus on teh deep learning and just enjoying the memories you make while your child grows more in the knowledge of Him.

[grandsophy]

It's the preparation and gathering of supplies that worry me. Can I really be that organized?

I tried to do a Heart of Dakota program for preschool last year and I didn't stick with it. My oldest was in 2nd grade and I concentrated on her. Organization of children's materials is difficult for us. Last year she kept losing her pencils! Every day we'd be ready to start math and have to hunt all over the house for a pencil. So frustrating. I tried everything. A pretty purse for pencils. A box for pencils. This year I bought a sharpener and we're going to use regular pencils (I'd thought mechanical pencils would be easier for her but we just could not keep track of them) and I'm going to buy 100 of them.


I'm glad to know there's a timeline involved. I was planning on having dd make a timeline so she could see how it all fits together.

[water2wine]

There is very little preparation that is required for Beyond. Just read the introduction and you will be set. I would tie that pencil with a string and tape it to the table she uses or else tie it to her binder so she has it. I have found that having a place for things really does help. I keep all our books in a crate that comes out each day and goes away with the books each day when we are done. We use a magazine file for all the same child's books and folder's or binder to go all in one place. They take it out each day and everything goes back in that magazine file. In the beginning you might want to check that she does put her things away in the same place each day and have it so you have control of the books not getting lost and you will find you have instant sanity. We all hunt for pencils though and OK I will admit we do have some pencil wars and it does make a person crazy. I have had it where you have to check out a pencil and return it at the end of the day and that pencil has your name on it. So I hear your frustration on that. But the helping them to have a place for everything and the having a place where all the HOD books go really will help you getting the day done. The program runs itself if you can just keep that together.

Don't worry this year will be better. Last year is over and this year is the best one ever! Enjoy it!