Questions about Beyond

[mom23]

Hello, I'm new to HOD. My kids are in public school for 3 more weeks, and then we're planning to homeschool next year. I'm so excited about the things I'm seeing and hearing of HOD! I will have 2 in school next year-our daughter will be 8 and ready for 3rd grade, our son will be 6 and ready for 1st. I'd like to have both of them in Beyond Little Hearts-I thought it would be easier for us to all be working on the same thing. It seems a perfect fit for the 1st grader; I'm just a little concerned about how well it will fit the 3rd grader. It fits her in age, and we plan to use Drawn into the Heart of Reading for her. When I read the catalogue, it says this is intended for 1st or 2nd grade. Do you think I need to beef up any areas for my 3rd-grader, and if so, which ones? Would I just be better off to begin them in two seperate programs?

I did give her the placement test for math, and she's needing some review of concepts in 1B, but I expect that she'll fill in those gaps quickly and be ready for 2A in a couple of months. I was reading some comments on the helpfulness of the hands on lessons in the teacher guides-do you think we'll be okay with the textbook of 2A, or would it be much better to be able to refer to the user guides for Bigger? Honestly, if I were placing just her I would solidly put her in Bigger Hearts. I guess I was just stuck on the idea of having them together (for the ease of our transition into homeschooling, as well as for financial reasons.) Am I on the right track, or do I need to give up on this idea and just have 2 seperate school programs?

I was also wondering about handwriting. It doesn't look like Beyond includes this (from the catalogue). Do I need to add it in on my own? My 3rd grader will definitely be ready to begin cursive, and my 1st grader seems to need some reinforcement in this area.

I appreciate any advice. Thanks so much!

[jenntracy]

Hello and welcome!

I will just say what I would do if in your situation and was able to do it financially.
If Ifelt that my daughter fell solidly into her own program, I would place her there.

Sometimes it is easier to place them where they belong rather than trying to adjust a program to make it fit.
If you did have to beef up the Beyond program, for your daughter, consider that you may have to purchase extra books to do that.
Whereas if you get two separate programs, your younger one will use the next guide in the future.

My two oldest are 16 1/2 months apart. My son will be 1st grade in Beyond (10-2003 b-day) and my daughter will be in LHFHG for K (03-2005 b-day)

In future it would be nice to combine. who knows. right now i find that it will be easier to do them separately, even if i will be doing back- to back.
It is what i feel is best for MY family.

Just some things to think on.

Jenn D.

[pjdobro]

I think you would be fine to combine them both in Beyond for all of the learning through History portion (left page) and Storytime. You can use the Learning the Basics just as written for your 1st grader. For your 3rd grader, I would get the Bigger manual and do the Language Arts (R&S grammar 2, spelling or dictation list, and handwriting), Reading Choices (DITHOR), and Math Exploration with her. You could just do the Singapore textbook and workbook with your dd, but the hands on in Bigger are beneficial and you'll want the Bigger manual for other things as well. It would still be simpler (and less expensive) to do this than to do two programs and they would both be doing a large portion of their studies together. The only thing I would wonder about is the science. You might want to beef it up with some extra reading or such on the science topics for your daughter. I think I would save the actual science in Bigger until the following year when you are doing the History portion of Bigger. It's possible you might want a bit more history reading for your daughter as well. Carrie can probably give you some suggestions for extra reading to do with Beyond to beef up the History if you feel that is needed.

For Handwriting, Beyond does copy work of the Poetry reading each week but no other formal handwriting is scheduled. In Bigger, Cheerful Cursive or Italic D is recommended and scheduled.

The great thing about starting them together in Beyond this year is it will get easier as you continue to combine them. Starting with the Bigger guides, extensions are available (and a schedule provided) to beef up the program. After your daughter is past Singapore 2B, the math explorations stop so you'll only need to follow the schedule in the back of the book for her math. As far as the grammar and such, it will be easy to just use the next R&S guide. As a matter of fact in Preparing both level 3 and level 4 are listed as a choice in the schedule. So what I'm saying is this year is the only year that you'll need to work out of two teacher's manuals. Starting with next year, you should be able to combine and and pretty much have everything you need in one guide

Welcome to HOD!

[John'smom]

I'm combining my 2 dc in Beyond next year. My next school year they would have just turned 6 & 8. This is our first year with HOD. I just wanted to chime in and say that I'm upping the Grammar by using Rod and Staff 2 with my ds and we'll be upping the Science and use Apologia's Botany as well. Carrie suggested upping both of these for a 3rd grader. She suggested upping the math and spelling by getting the Bigger manual, so you may want to do that. I already have my own Math and Spelling programs that I'm continuing with. Well also be doing DITHOR.

I've had time to look over the Beyond manual and I feel there's no need to up the history for my ds who will be 8. The books used in Beyond are written on a 3rd-5th grade level already. They're perfect for reading aloud to a 6 & 8 year old. Super excited about next year. HTH!

[Busymomma1]

We combined with a 6 and 8 y/o in Beyond this year. It "fit" my 6 y/o better, and then I advanced the skill levels where appropriate for the older. That way, you are working on the same history, science, poetry and Bible lessons (left page), and then for math, grammar, reading, writing, etc, you can do grade-appropriate work for each child. For example, we use MathUSee, so I just jotted the page #s in the math box for each child, for example. And I adjusted DITHOR as appropriate for dd 8 and did The Reading Lesson for ds 6, again, just noting each child's lesson in pencil in the reading box. Or, as others suggested, you could get Bigger and do the right side for your dd.

I think it will work well, b/c when you get to Bigger, the workload really increases, and you can add extensions for the older. I'll be doing that this year with my oldest. That way, they'll both be in the same guide, but dd 8 will do extensions, Rod and Staff Grade 3, more advanced dictation,etc. So, it's very doable.

AND... being your first year homeschooling, you might find combining helps you ease into it. And then, as you get more experience, you'll be able to combine or separate with more confidence? Just a thought.

[mom23]

Thank you all for your help!! This is so valuable to have the experience of others to learn from--I'm sure I'll be leaning on you all quite a bit in the coming year(s) . Thank you