Planning for next year.....

[MistyP]

We are going to be finishing up LHFHG hopefully before we move the end of April. DD #1 will probably not get all of the emerging readers finished but I'll have her read the rest over the summer. We did MUS this year but will probably go with Singapore next year. DD #1 has started The Early Reader's Bible from the Emerging Readers. DD #3 (3 yo) has done a little in Little Hearts but mostly floated along =)

My plan for next year....
Beyond with DD #1 in 2nd and DD #2 in 1st, Singapore 1 & 2
DIHOR 2 for DD #1 and finish DD #2 on Emerging Readers
May have to continue some handwriting worksheets for DD #2 since she still needs some work on it.
Would like to start Spanish
DD #3(4 yo)-LHTH, DD #4 will be 2 so add her in some
ETA: As recommended, Bigger guide for Singapore Math 2, a Globe

My concern: Spelling for 2nd grade, my DD #1 can easily spell all of the List 2 words from BLHFHG

Does this sound good?? I have the Beyond Guide, would need to package to go with it and the wonderful readers (so looking forward to those!) and DIHOR and probably the book pack.

I do have a request to consider. A CD with all the pages you have to copy from LHTH in PDF would be lovely! I would much rather buy a CD with them on it to print than try to photocopy all the pages I need to from the guide.


I would like to combine DD #3 and DD #4 in the future, they are 20 months apart not sure how I can do that without holding DD #3 back some or doing a different curriculum with her until DD #4 is ready for LHFHG....but that's for another couple years!

[my3sons]

Well, God blessed you with the daughters, and He blessed me with the sons! It sounds like you have a good plan for your dc next year! I think you will enjoy doing Beyond so much. I'm assuming you meant DD#2 has just started the Early Reader's Bible? If that's right, then I think you've placed both of them so well for their LA and math, as well as within the core guide of Beyond. Even though your DD#1 can easily spell all of the List 2 words in Beyond, I think I'd still do the second spelling list with her because of the rest of the skills covered in the LA box with the words. Both of our dc could easily do Spelling List 2 when they did Beyond, but it was the rest of the skills they needed to strengthen to prepare for the rigor of dictation. Here's a post where I explained this, if you just arrow down to "my3son's" (that's me ):
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5645&p=41357#p41357

So, I'd encourage you to have her do this box with Spelling List 2 in preparation for dictation in Bigger Hearts the following year. In CTC, we are doing Level 4 of dictation, and it is plenty challenging, even though my ds has become an excellent speller, so I wouldn't have wanted to get there any faster.

To pave the road to combine DD#3 and DD#4, I wonder if you could do LHTH with the younger resources this year, and then with the older resources again the next year, only add in DD#4 that next year? Also, that next year, you could add in the K options from the right side of LHFHG for DD#3. Then, the year after that, you could possibly be able to start LHFHG half-speed with the 2 of them, taking it slowly to let the little one ease into it, and using the K resources for DD#4 and the first grade resources from the right side for DD#3 (though using just one science). I know that's down the road, but it's just a thought I had.

You'd also mentioned handwriting for DD#2. We did "A Reason for Handwriting A" while doing Beyond to cement our dc's handwriting, and it was easy to do and worked great. We just did a page a day. They loved writing the Bible verse on the special paper in the back and sending it to family members at the end of each week.

I think your plan sounds super! I just thought I'd throw out a few things in answer to your questions for you to consider, but you are well on your way to fine tuning your plan and will soon be off to another great year with HOD!

In Christ,
Julie

[MistyP]

Well, God blessed you with the daughters, and He blessed me with the sons! It sounds like you have a good plan for your dc next year! I think you will enjoy doing Beyond so much. I'm assuming you meant DD#2 has just started the Early Reader's Bible? If that's right, then I think you've placed both of them so well for their LA and math, as well as within the core guide of Beyond. Even though your DD#1 can easily spell all of the List 2 words in Beyond, I think I'd still do the second spelling list with her because of the rest of the skills covered in the LA box with the words. Both of our dc could easily do Spelling List 2 when they did Beyond, but it was the rest of the skills they needed to strengthen to prepare for the rigor of dictation. Here's a post where I explained this, if you just arrow down to "my3son's" (that's me ):
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5645&p=41357#p41357 So, I'd encourage you to have her do this box with Spelling List 2 in preparation for dictation in Bigger Hearts the following year. In CTC, we are doing Level 4 of dictation, and it is plenty challenging, even though my ds has become an excellent speller, so I wouldn't have wanted to get there any faster.

Thanks Julie! Yes, DD #2 is reading the Early Reader now, I was running out of stuff for her to read so I finally let her start that. She was so proud I don't know anything about dictation so thanks for explaining that. I will have the do the words next year too.

To pave the road to combine DD#3 and DD#4, I wonder if you could do LHTH with the younger resources this year, and then with the older resources again the next year, only add in DD#4 that next year? Also, that next year, you could add in the K options from the right side of LHFHG for DD#3. Then, the year after that, you could possibly be able to start LHFHG half-speed with the 2 of them, taking it slowly to let the little one ease into it, and using the K resources for DD#4 and the first grade resources from the right side for DD#3 (though using just one science). I know that's down the road, but it's just a thought I had.

It is stretching for me to think about combining both of them with DD #4 being so young still but that is 2-3 yrs from now too! One of the reasons we chose HOD was to combine DD #1 and DD #2 and it has been so nice!

You'd also mentioned handwriting for DD#2. We did "A Reason for Handwriting A" while doing Beyond to cement our dc's handwriting, and it was easy to do and worked great. We just did a page a day. They loved writing the Bible verse on the special paper in the back and sending it to family members at the end of each week.

I think your plan sounds super! I just thought I'd throw out a few things in answer to your questions for you to consider, but you are well on your way to fine tuning your plan and will soon be off to another great year with HOD!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks again! I figured up what I would have to buy for next year and I think I paid about that much for ONE MONTH of DD's Kindergarten than I will for a whole year for what I still need Thanks Heart of Dakota! I'm thinking we may have to use some extra $$ for Art supplies and perhaps Rosetta Stone

[christina101902]

I think thats an awesome idea, I would pay extra for a cd that had all of the pages needed to copy as well. It would be so much more convenient having four little ones to chase who has time for photocopying lol. HOD i hope your reading this , because a PDF cd would be a great addition.

[MomtoJGJE]

I was coming on here to ask about the printable stuff for LHTH!! I would definitely buy that...

[Carrie]

Misty,

It sounds like you have a good plan in place for next year and my3son's did a great job of answering your questions! I'm so glad that you're having a good experience combining your kiddos within HOD! That blesses my heart!

As far as a printable CD for LHTH goes, we have considered that for a future possibility however there are a few hurdles currently in our way. We are in the process of transferring all of our guides from LHTH up through Bigger Hearts to a new software program, as the program the plans were originally created within is no longer available! The content actually has to be transferred one box at a time for each day of plans, as the program that was meant to bridge from the old software to the new one we're working within doesn't work for us due to the box format we drew on our template originally! So, you can imagine how very time consuming this is!

We are slowly getting the guides transferred to the new format. Until they are complete, we are not taking on any new projects (as writing a new guide each year, along with designing full-color notebooking pages, reading and selecting new DITHR book packs, creating the new/updated version of the catalog, and getting the new website content up each year is taking every minute we have outside of teaching!)

As we ponder projects, since LHTH works as written and requires making only two worksheet copies per week to teach, it is not high on our list of priorities right now to adjust. But, we do think it's a good idea for the future!

Blessings,
Carrie

[Kathleen]

Hi Misty!

I had one other thought about your plan. If you're switching DD #1 to Singapore this coming year, you might want to have her take the placement test to see if level 2 would be the right level. Here's a link to that. http://www.singaporemath.com/Placement_Test_s/86.htm If she takes and passes the level 1B test, she'd be ready for level 2A. My son switched to Singapore in 3rd grade and does well with math. He had finished 2nd grade math with another curriculum and placed in 2A. (He could have actually passed that level as he got a little more than 80%, but I could see that we definitely hadn't covered some things that were there, and that level helped him ease into the Singapore way of thinking about math.) My guess would be that starting with level 1A or 1B would be a better fit if she's coming from something else.

If she is ready to use level 2A this year, I'd highly reccommend getting the Bigger guide so that you can use Carrie's hands-on ideas with her during the lessons. We loved those!!! (And level 2 is the last level to use them before going to the textbook. )

Kathleen

[MistyP]

Thanks for the consideration Carrie! I understand!

Kathleen-I did look at the placement test online, I think she is pretty close. She has done Math-u-see Alpha this year. I didn't realize there was activities for 2A & B in the Bigger guide Will have to add that on to my list