Half speed with Beyond

[mopdop]

Hi ladies, I need some help. I have looked back over the previous 'half speed' threads and received some good ideas. My ds is 6, just coming out of Christian school where he did Bob Jones K. I ordered Beyond, since I feel it is a better fit than LHFHS, however I know he won't be ready for Bigger next year. So I want to do Beyond over 2 years. I am waiting for his co-op schedule to come out, but I am planning that he'll be doing some fun stuff in co-op once a week, which will be school for that day. So, I'll be doing HOD 4 days a week, with math & reading every day. I want him to finish 1a/1b for math and the emerging readers, but slow down on the other stuff.

Bob Jones uses pre-cursive handwriting, however his teacher decided he would do better learning cursive right away. I'm ok with that, however I don't feel like he got a solid foundation in how to form the letter's b/c he was writing cursive over pre-cursive sentences. Does that make sense? I have Pictures in Cursive from Queen Home Supply, which I truly love. and was thinking of doing this one day, and copywork the next. If that doesn't fly well with him, doing just the cursive this yr, and the copywork with the 2nd half of Beyond next year. Any suggestions on that part?

Here is what I'm thinking for this year:

*Math, very quick phonics lesson to get what Bob Jones K didn't cover (Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading lessons are really short), emerging readers & LA's (spelling) every day

*History, Rotating bottom left box, Bible Study, cursive one day
* Poetry, Music, Storytime, copywork the next day

Do this for 34 weeks and see where we end up!

Then next year, we can do the remaining units in Bigger, with DITHOR, spelling list 2 and the 2a/2b schedule in the appendix.

Does this sound like a reasonable idea??? Any advice, suggestions or tweaking would be welcome.

Thanks,
Mandie

[krismoose]

Bob Jones uses pre-cursive handwriting, however his teacher decided he would do better learning cursive right away. I'm ok with that, however I don't feel like he got a solid foundation in how to form the letter's b/c he was writing cursive over pre-cursive sentences. Does that make sense? I have Pictures in Cursive from Queen Home Supply, which I truly love. and was thinking of doing this one day, and copywork the next. If that doesn't fly well with him, doing just the cursive this yr, and the copywork with the 2nd half of Beyond next year. Any suggestions on that part?

Hi Mandie,
My ds learned cursive first and absolutely loved Pictures in Cursive - something about the new art every week was very motivating to him. He ended up doing through book B. If he's not solid on his formation yet, I would just do PIC every day and wait on additional copywork until it's easier for him. PIC is copying sentences after the primer, so you could choose whether to do more PIC books or switch to the poetry copywork. I would have him do some every day, though, rather than every other day. My ds still doesn't copy much at one time, but he *really* wants to have a full stanza done by the end of the unit, so sometimes he even does a line or two on the weekend.

I think your schedule looks good!

[mopdop]

Thanks Kristen.

I just sat and planned out the first 10 weeks - I am a bit of a planning freak - and decided to have him to Pics four days a wk, on the days we do the HOD activities, and then do copywork on the day we 'only' do math, spelling and reading, on his co-op day.

So, we'll be going half speed, 4 days a wk - super slow!!! Mean's we'll get through less than half the program in 34 wks, but I can speed up, or go 5 days a wk, next school year depending on how we do this year. I love all I have found out about HOD so much that i already planning next yr, and we haven't even started this year yet!!!

[Mommamo]

I think you have a pretty good plan for now. But keep the option of going full speed later open. The guides build so well on themselves that I"m afraid that if you don't end up going full speed, then your ds won't be ready to go into Bigger full speed. Also, if he places well in Beyond then he should be able to handle it. I think it's great to start out halfspeed, but you might want to consider full speed after a while. If you go 4 days/week it adds nine weeks to the course, so that's an option to make it last a little longer. You could always go 4 days/week when you get to Bigger, too, in order to make it a little longer until you get to Preparing.

[my3sons]

...But keep the option of going full speed later open. The guides build so well on themselves that I"m afraid that if you don't end up going full speed, then your ds won't be ready to go into Bigger full speed. Also, if he places well in Beyond then he should be able to handle it. I think it's great to start out halfspeed, but you might want to consider full speed after a while. If you go 4 days/week it adds nine weeks to the course, so that's an option to make it last a little longer. You could always go 4 days/week when you get to Bigger, too, in order to make it a little longer until you get to Preparing.

I think this is good advice! It is rare that dc take a full 2 years to go through an HOD guide. Half-speed is usually done for a time to let dc grow in the areas they need to to be able to do the guide full-speed. If you are thinking your child definitely will need 2 years to get through Beyond and to be ready for Bigger Hearts, you may just want to go with LHFHG this year instead. Doing LHFHG one year and Beyond the next year will do more to prepare your child for Bigger Hearts than doing Beyond half-speed over 2 years. Just a thought!

In Christ,
Julie

[mopdop]

I really do think he is well placed for Beyond right now (apart from the handwriting issue) however my main worry is having him do Bigger next year. From what I have read on this board, I think he'll have a rough time doing Bigger as a seven year old boy! So maybe we'll do the full program, 4 days a week and go on into next fall with that.

At this point I don't even know for sure when his co-op classes are or if they'll even fit!!! I am just hoping the ones I want him to take are offered on the same day, since they are by the same lady. I am just such a planner that I want to see how the year will unfold, although I don't plan to start school until the end of Aug, when my younger one will start preschool.