"Extensions" for Little Hearts and Beyond; and other ???

[sharonb]

I'm looking at probably placing my upcoming 2nd grader in Little Hearts with my upcoming K'er, rather than in Bigger with his big sister. He really probably places best in Beyond, but I can't do back-to-back-to-back guides like that! Math/LA will be done at the appropriate level regardless. I just don't know if he's ready for the vocab/notebooking/etc done in Bigger (not to mention longer readings), at least not yet. But at some point, I think his skills will really take off, and I'm wondering what I can add to LHFHG and then BLHFHG next year if he needs extensions. Should I take ideas from Bigger and apply them to LHFHG this year once he's ready (find words for a vocab notebook, make notebooking pages for science, etc)? OR, would it be better to just put him in Bigger and let him ease into those assignments, requiring just a little bit at first?

See how I'm torn here???

How much should I use attention span as a factor in placement? If it's a big factor, then LHFHG will be the winner. He's barely paid attention to any science/history this year, and i've let him get away with that since we spend SO MUCH time each day working on phonics and reading (those are not his strong subjects!). Math, thankfully, is a breeze for him. He's just ready to go play by the time the 3R's are done.

BUT, I don't want to make things TOO easy for him either. But then again, if I let him combine with his younger brother, once they reach Bigger he can use the extensions. I guess I'm just concerned about his 2nd and 3rd grade years, and whether it will be "enough" to place him with his younger brother. I want to do this right, and not have any regrets. So, please humor me and help me make a decision!

[my3sons]

I think I'd lead toward placing him in LHFHG with younger dd, as long as you're going to go full-speed with it. I do think that being able to pay attention and listen quite well are both skills that help a student be successful with BHFHG. I'm guessing that since he's been working with his big sis in Beyond this year, he may be like most boys and be somewhat content to let her give the answers. I think he may really shine being the older of the 2 doing LHFHG. I think taking that year to really cement his reading and writing skills would be a huge help to him moving through the HOD cycle of guides. The other option would be to do BHFHG half-speed with him, but I don't know what you'd think about that for oldest dd. As far as making it harder, you could use the first grade options, and supplement with books from the "Reading about History: Optional Literature Supplements" in the Appendix of LHFHG. Each unit has books suggested that you could use for this, though you'd need to either plan ahead and get these or check your local library for them. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[DHT1999]

My 2nd grader has really enjoyed Little Hearts this year. He placed into Beyond but I choose Little Hearts for several reasons. It has been a light program for him but he has been sitting in on almost all of Preparing. If he had not been doing that, I would have used the books in the Little Hearts Appendix to add a little content to the program. For us, that wasn't necessary but you do have that option. Now, he is using the Bible/History/Storytime in Little Hearts and the LA, including the poetry, in Beyond. He is almost done with Singapore 1B and will start 2A in the next month or so.

I haven't quite decided if I will put him in Beyond or Bigger Hearts for next year. I'm leaning towards Beyond with the LA in Bigger Hearts but then I talk myself out of it!!

I first purchased Bigger Hearts to combine my sons for this year but then I decided against it. My youngest just wasn't ready for all the writing and my oldest needed to move on. So, that's what we've done and it's been perfect.

I think your 2nd grader will enjoy Little Hearts. My son absolutely loves the Burgess books. He hated to narrate at the beginning of the year but now he's learning to tell it back with some order. He really "gets" the devotional material and I find him humming the little hymn stanzas to himself through out the day. His favorite part is the dramatic play and thinking games. I'm really glad I used Little Hearts with him this year.

[Mommamo]

Another thing I don't think has been mentioned-in LHFHG your kiddos can do the books listed in the appendix. That really adds a LOT to the program. C was on the younger end of things when we started, but she has always LOVED to be read to. We really enjoyed reading the books out of the appendix. I think that would really help boost things for an older child. Also, if you're doing math and reading at each child's level, I think that Beyond and LHFHG can definitely be boosted for older kiddos. I'm hoping to do LHFHG when my middle child is at about 2nd grade and my youngest is about kinder/pre k. We'll see if it works out that way, but that's just to say that I think it would work out just fine.

[sharonb]

I forgot about the extra books listed in the appendix of Little Hearts. That's a good place to start!

Julie-
If you remember from my other posts, we dropped the Beyond guide several months ago for various reasons (none of which really seem to make a whole lot of sense to me now, LOL!), so that's another reason why I don't really feel like my ds is ready for Bigger. He hasn't been getting narration practice this year. But when I do ask questions about what I've read to them, you are right, dd is the one giving the answers. About 95% percent of my time spent one-on-one with ds this year has been on the 3R's (which I think is okay, since he's a very young first grader). His phonics and reading lessons were taking close to 2 hours a day (we use R&S). It seems a bit extreme, but he has learned so much and has improved greatly. He has also learned how to stay on task better and isn't taking quite so long these days! I think I mentioned this in another post a while back, but if I put ds in Little Hearts with his younger brother, then he'll be using CLE 2 Math, R&S 2 Phonics (half-speed, since it's been challenging even for my current 2nd grader who is very good at phonics), R&S 2 English (half-speed), Spelling from Bigger. So, really he wouldn't be using any of the math/LA stuff from LHFHG. He would be using it for Bible, science, history, etc, hopefully gaining some sit-still-and-listen-and-learn-to-narrate-skills! My 5-year-old, however, fits great with all of LHFHG, so he can do it as written. It'll be nice to be able to do that.

[MomtoJGJE]

I would put him in LHFHG... My oldest DD will be 7 in April and we'll begin Bigger sometime in July and do it half speed for a while. I've heard there's a pretty big jump between Beyond and Bigger and if she hadn't been doing well in Beyond this year I'd probably slow it down and wait until a bit later for Bigger. You could easily do LHFHG with him and add in the extra books (just for him) and do 1st grade options for him and K options for your other one.

As far as attention spans, my DD has a decent attention span and it's all she can do to sit for all the reading in Beyond... she DOES, and she gets it, but she doesn't LIKE it. Plus he'll be exposed to whatever you do in Bigger with your oldest.

After my past few weeks (I put DD2 "down a level" from LHFHG that she was doing easily to LHTH along with the right side of LHFHG) I've realized that it's easier to bump them down and actually DO all the work as opposed to MY being lazy or whatever and skipping it all together.

[my3sons]

I forgot about the extra books listed in the appendix of Little Hearts. That's a good place to start!

Julie-
If you remember from my other posts, we dropped the Beyond guide several months ago for various reasons (none of which really seem to make a whole lot of sense to me now, LOL!), so that's another reason why I don't really feel like my ds is ready for Bigger. He hasn't been getting narration practice this year. But when I do ask questions about what I've read to them, you are right, dd is the one giving the answers. About 95% percent of my time spent one-on-one with ds this year has been on the 3R's (which I think is okay, since he's a very young first grader). His phonics and reading lessons were taking close to 2 hours a day (we use R&S). It seems a bit extreme, but he has learned so much and has improved greatly. He has also learned how to stay on task better and isn't taking quite so long these days! I think I mentioned this in another post a while back, but if I put ds in Little Hearts with his younger brother, then he'll be using CLE 2 Math, R&S 2 Phonics (half-speed, since it's been challenging even for my current 2nd grader who is very good at phonics), R&S 2 English (half-speed), Spelling from Bigger. So, really he wouldn't be using any of the math/LA stuff from LHFHG. He would be using it for Bible, science, history, etc, hopefully gaining some sit-still-and-listen-and-learn-to-narrate-skills! My 5-year-old, however, fits great with all of LHFHG, so he can do it as written. It'll be nice to be able to do that.

That's right - sorry I forgot! Yes, I can see your thinking behind all of this then, and I do think that makes sense. I also believe in hitting the 3R's especially hard early on, as it makes the rest of school go so much more smoothly. Doing LHFHG with him would allow you to do that, and then the next year, he'd be totally ready for Beyond. Good thinking!

In Christ,
Julie