New to this board with a few questions

[abrightmom]

Hi there!!
I am researching, thinking, praying, agonizing . . . Sound familiar?!
I am considering Bigger Hearts for His Glory for my oldest for 2nd grade. Based on the placement charts and his abilities/skills he fits perfectly in that guide. My younger son who will be a first grader actually fits very well into the Beyond guide.

Herein lies my dilemma . . . I don't think I want to do two guides. If I choose only ONE I'd definitely want to go with Bigger for my older son. He wants/needs MUCH MORE than my younger (who is younger developmentally anyway while the older is just moving fast academically). If I do choose to use Bigger for my older is it recommended to read through the history books from Beyond first?? We can easily fit that in now as we aren't doing much for history and he loves loves loves books/reading/being read to. I don't want to use Bigger, which is biography based, and have him feel clueless because he doesn't have the history background that Beyond might provide for him. Any thoughts or recommendations? I do wonder if using two guides is SIMPLER than it sounds I'm very willing to consider it if it's REALLY doable!!

Another question:
Currently, we are using Writing With Ease and First Language Lessons (Peace Hill Press) and they are working well for us. WWE is narration and copywork at this stage. It LOOKS like we could set that aside for now because narration and copywork are integral to the BHFHG program, right?? I know that FLL 2 and R&S English 2 are interchangeable. I own R&S 2 so we might switch over to that if we go with BHFHG . We'll see!

Thanks in advance for any counsel you can give me!!

[dawntx]

Hi, Katrina! Welcome to the board. This is my first year w/ HOD- so I only have limited amounts of knowledge... If you really want to do just one guide and your 1st grader fits more in Beyond, I think it is usually suggested that you actually combine with the younger in mind NOT the older. I know it seems strange because we always get so concerned about our oldest not being challenged enough. If you go with Beyond for both, it would be easier to beef up the 3R's for your 2nd grader than to have to water down for your 1st grader because Bigger is a lot of work and a lot of oral listening w/o pictures, narrating, copywork, etc. (for a 1st grader- I think). You would have to really change it to help your younger and if he is not ready for a lot of writing, you would be changing Bigger a lot for him or possibly be dealing with meltdowns. It just sounds like it might be too much for your younger! Maybe other more experienced ladies can give more expert advice.

I know that last year, when I was considering combining my 4th grader and my 1st grader, Carrie suggested that I combine them in Beyond and for the Left side of the manual (the History/Bible side) and then beef up the Rt. side for my 4th grader-(the 3R's) and I have been informed that the history is plenty "meaty" for even the big brothers! We actually ended up keeping our 1st grader in ps and bringing home just our 4th grader and so we did Bigger for him w/o extensions and it has been plenty "meaty" for him. Next year, we will bring home our then 2nd grade ds and put him in Beyond and he is very bright and an academic over achiever! I just do not want to teach a guide back to back.

Now, if you want to teach 2 guides, I've heard many ladies say that it's not difficult because HOD is so wonderful!( I will find this out next year!)You could do Bigger w/ your 2nd grader and Beyond w/ your 1st grader. The only "problem" that I could potentially see (if you call it that) would be teaching Bigger 2 years in a row which I've heard can be difficult on a mom. Another idea...??? Have you looked at LHFHG for your 1st grader? You could use the 1st grade plans for that if wanted another idea to put some space in between guides.

As for the history readings in Beyond- I do not think that you have to have them read to understand the history in Bigger. They are 2 different approaches to American History. The biographical approach in Bigger has you learning about history while you are learning about some of the amazing players in the history of America. I can't really talk much about Beyond because we haven't done it yet. (some of the other ladies may suggest you read them). I know it's hard to not want to miss out on anything. As for the Grammar/language arts part of the curriculum, YEs, you could set aside and just do the copywork and narration as it is suggested in the guide and then do R& S 2 if you decide to do Bigger for your ds.
I hope this helps soem. Pop in again and let us know what you think- The ladies here are so encouraging and helpful- you will love HOD whatever you decide. You know your dc best!

Dawn

[jenntracy]

I will agree that most ladies say it is better/easier to go with the guide that is best for the younger child. Then you can add to the guide for the older. it is harder to try to make it easier.

i will be doing back to back guides with my kids next year. my son will be in Beyond for 1st grade. He already started the emerging readers before Christmas and started 1st grade level math in January(we use Math-u-see). My daughter will be in the LHFHG. They are 16 1/2 months apart. My daughter just wasn't ready to combine with brother. My son is already at the younger end of guide and it would be pushing it for my daughter to add her in too. She will be 5.5 yr old when she starts LHFHG, which i think will be a good fit for her.

We will see how it goes. I think it will be better for the children and maybe the 2nd time around for the guides i will have it down pat. I am loving teaching and learning so much. I don't think I will mind teaching back to back.

You could try combining if that is your desire and if it doesn't work, you can just get the Bigger guide for you older without your younger missing a beat from Beyond. I think combining might just work for you based on what you say for your children's placements.

Praying you find peace in your decision.

Jenn D.

[inHistiming]

I used Beyond with my 2nd grade daughter and we loved it. The following year we used Bigger and combined with my older son (5th) and he still loved it too even though it's for 'younger' students. We used the extensions to beef up the science and history readings and it was fine. We're actually doing the same this year, using PHFHG(4th and 6th) without extensions (didn't purchase b/c we tried separating then decided to go back to combining) and it's also working out great. My husband just didn't want me to spend more money at this stage in the game so we will probably purchase only the extensions we still need before we begin again in the fall. Anyway, all that to say that it is easy to combine with HOD, and as long as the Math and Language Arts are kept at their own levels, I think the rest would work wonderfully for your boys. When we were doing Beyond with my dd and my son was in another program he always wanted to listen in on the readings and he's 2 years older! The stories are very engaging and the projects and experiments are always fun. Many people do decide to have their kids in separate programs and if you think that's best then that's what you should do, but I think Carrie (the author) suggests combining if possible. The main thing is to look at the placement chart to see where each child fits...then make your decision with that in mind. Here is a link to that chart, in case you haven't seen it yet.

http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

I'm glad you're here at HOD. I think you'll love it no matter which program(s) you choose to go with. And as a pp mentioned, you can always separate them later if you think it's not going well. We'd love to hear from you again too once you've made your decision or if you have more questions. Looking forward to 'seeing' you around the board!

[abrightmom]

Ladies,

Thank-you for your thoughts and for sharing your own experiences!! I appreciate it so much. I did use the Placement Chart (very helpful ) and spent some more time looking at everything. I am SO impressed with the organization of each year, the progression of skills, the resources used, etc. Wow!! I am very excited!!

Bigger is definitely the right fit for my older and based on some past experiences with this kiddo I feel strongly that choosing that for him is the right course . Fitting my younger into that is a better plan for me/us. I have a 4 year old as well and have toyed with the idea of putting DD4 and DS6 into LHFHG. I have to spend more time with those samples first . . .

Any links to other threads that will demonstrate HOW Moms combine children and/or how Moms use two guides? What does using two guides look like in the daily schedule?

Thank-you very much!!!!

[Tree House Academy]

I think that really depends on the child(ren). We started Beyond last fall and within about 6 weeks, I realized it was just too much for my youngest son. He had not gotten used to listening to me read without pictures (he is a very young 6 year old with a birthday at the end of Sept), he wasn't getting the text and wasn't able to answer the questions. It was pretty evident that I needed to drop back and do LHFHG first. We did and it has been WONDERFUL. Even though he is an advanced reader (4th grade level with help according to his last assessment), he needed to do the "fun stuff." This year with Little Hearts has allowed us to focus on the basics and enjoy the history, Bible, read alouds, thinking skills, handwriting, and art.

My older son is the opposite. He needed a higher level than what we started with. I think choosing the right manual is really key and I highly recommend switching to one that is right for your child if, for some reason, what you get is not working. I wish I had just moved ds10 up to Preparing...but I was bent on doing a year of Am. History and I tried to force the square peg in the round hole, so to speak.

That said, my kids are 4 YEARS apart...but I will be doing CTC and Beyond next fall (did Beyond and parts of Bigger this year) and there is absolutely nothing to teaching both manuals. When you get to Preparing and above, the manual is written, in part, to the student which makes them more independent and you have to worry much less about "teaching" two manuals at the same time.