Ok Girls, what are you thinking about doing NEXT year!

[my3sons]

I don't know what we are going to do next year. I am REALLY wanting/needing to combine my boys. They will be 1st grade (twins) and almost 3rd grade. We are doing Little Hearts now and Bigger Hearts. Bigger Hearts is a struggle for my (now) 2nd grade boy. I rushed him through Beyond last year and REALLY REGRET it! I'm *considering* combining them with Beyond next year and maybe adding in more for history and science with my (then) 3rd grader. He is not as emotionally mature as others his age and (compared to them) he is behind in writing and reading. I've thought about stopping Bigger now and just trying to add more to Little Hearts for him to combine them now but I don't want to confuse him or have him loose momentum. But if I do Beyond next year, will he be stepping back instead of moving forward?

So, I don't know what we are going to do next year.... I know we won't finish this year until late July - early August. And I plan on schooling year round from here on out. We have such beautiful fall and spring weather and such awfully hot summers that it makes more sense to take our breaks then.

Summer - could you do Bigger Hearts half-speed right now? Maybe doing the left side of the plans one day, and the right side the next day would spread out the reading and writing more for him, and he could grow into it more? What unit are you in?

In Christ,
Julie

[Vicki]

I would think you could easily combine them, and just beef up the writing if needed. I have some ideas for beefing up Beyond for a child who is at the age limit of the program, but is not quite there maturity-wise. It is working for us, and I have no problem waiting for Bigger 'till he's ready.

[MamaMary]

Summer - could you do Bigger Hearts half-speed right now? Maybe doing the left side of the plans one day, and the right side the next day would spread out the reading and writing more for him, and he could grow into it more? What unit are you in?

In Christ,
Julie

Julie, you are so smart! What a GREAT idea

[happy@home]

We divided LHFHG into two years using Units 1-17 this year and 18-34 next year. My ds missed the cutoff for ps kindergarten by just a few weeks so he is 6 and my dd will be 5 this month and I wanted to combine them in one level. (They are only 17 months apart in age.) I though this was probably the best thing to do so that I didn't get too mature for my dd yet didn't hold back my ds in the process. The old saying has been true for them so far in that girls learn academics sooner than boys sometimes. We used the K choices for LHFHG this year and my dd had no problem keeping up!! (She even caught on to addition faster than ds.)

This fall we will start the second half of LHFHG using Thinking Skills 1st Grade, Reason for Handwriting A, Our Father's World, and Primary Math 1A & 1B.

We used BJU Math K5 this year and though it is a wonderful program it takes FOREVER to do. We used Sing, Spell, Read, and Write kindergarten this year and will be doing the 1st grade portion this fall. I had already purchased both of these programs before I found HOD and since they were both very costly I really had to go ahead and use them. But that is another reason why HOD is so great. It didn't take anything away from the actual program for me to use my own math and reading. That being said, I intend to use exactly what Carrie recommends for EVERYTHING for as long as my sweet husband allows me to homeschool.

I am adding supplemental reading from the appendix of LHFHG and have found several other Burgess books at my local library to fill in the gaps for storytime. I even used the Big Thoughts for Little People & My ABC Bible Verses from the LHTH choices. I have spent a lot of time filling in the empty spots that I created by stretching LHFHG into two years, but I didn't want to push by dd beyond what she was capable by trying to put her in Beyond or Bigger later on before she was ready. I am already looking forward to starting Beyond the following year because I won't change ANYTHING!

I just have to say that I truly love the Burgess books! We just finished reading Bowser the Hound (an extra one I found) and I actually cried during one of the final chapters. My ds said, "Oh please, Mom, tell me you're NOT gonna cry!!"
It was a very sweet story! But I have to admit I am tears waiting to fall! I purchased the Burgess Animal Book for Children & the Burgess Bird Book for Children to add in next year as well. You just can't have too many Burgess books!! lol

The only sad note is my oldest dd will be in 9th grade next fall in ps. I would love to have her at home as well. There is so much that goes on in her middle school I can't imagine what awaits us in high school. Sorry that is a whole other topic!!

[Lynnw]

Next year I will likely still be doing Beyond with my 7 and 5 yo. I will probably start my oldest (will be 5th grade) in Ancients. He will probably be finishing FLL4 and maybe ALEKS for math - though I'm not sure if we'll return to MUS or go to something else(but he loves doing ALEKs even though it is lacking in instruction, imho). I may switch my 7 yo to singapore and not sure if my 5yo will go to singapore or MUS alpha. If we finish Beyond sometime around Christmas, I'm guessing I'll take my 7yo (will be 8 yo by then) to Bigger. But I might take my 5yo (will be 6) back to LHFHG. Not sure if I'll be able to add LHTH for my 4yo or not. We'll also be participating in Classical Conversations. Even though I'm not a huge fan of that much memory work we have a great group of families here and we just can't tear ourselve away! Plus my dh will likely deploy to Afghanistan in Oct/Nov and we will definitely need that weekly contact with our other homeschooling friends!

I'm guessing this is the first year I won't need to shop at our homeschool conference because I'll be waiting for Ancients to come out in the fall (and HOD won't be in Cincy) and my other decisions (math) may not be made by then. So, I still have things to pray about, but mostly I'm praising God for leading me to HOD because it's making so many of my decisions easier!)

Fun to think about!

[wisdom4us]

I don't know what we are going to do next year. I am REALLY wanting/needing to combine my boys. They will be 1st grade (twins) and almost 3rd grade. We are doing Little Hearts now and Bigger Hearts. Bigger Hearts is a struggle for my (now) 2nd grade boy. I rushed him through Beyond last year and REALLY REGRET it! I'm *considering* combining them with Beyond next year and maybe adding in more for history and science with my (then) 3rd grader. He is not as emotionally mature as others his age and (compared to them) he is behind in writing and reading. I've thought about stopping Bigger now and just trying to add more to Little Hearts for him to combine them now but I don't want to confuse him or have him loose momentum. But if I do Beyond next year, will he be stepping back instead of moving forward?

So, I don't know what we are going to do next year.... I know we won't finish this year until late July - early August. And I plan on schooling year round from here on out. We have such beautiful fall and spring weather and such awfully hot summers that it makes more sense to take our breaks then.

Summer - could you do Bigger Hearts half-speed right now? Maybe doing the left side of the plans one day, and the right side the next day would spread out the reading and writing more for him, and he could grow into it more? What unit are you in?

In Christ,
Julie

Hi Julie, we are in unit 8. We picked it back up about 6 wks. ago after stopping at the end of unit 2 at the beginning of the school year. I had forgotten that you had recommended that we do it half pace until I was reading this today. We start school between 9-9:30, break for lunch between 12-12:30 then go again until 2-2:30 and I'm exhausted... The twins are running around doing what they do while I'm trying to work with their big brother and he's distracted by all their "noise" so that makes him go slower. Then I find myself loosing patience with everyone and I fell awful for letting it get the better of me. That's why I'm hoping to combine them as much as possible. Sorry, this sounds like a whine to me and I hate that - it's just where I'm at right now. We do have a schedule but it's just too dog gone long....

[Carrie]

Summer,

I would definitely go with Julie's suggestion to go half-speed with Bigger Hearts, allowing your son time to grow into Bigger more. What parts is he struggling with?

If you give Bigger at half-speed a good trial run (a month or so), and it isn't getting better, you could consider combining your son with your twins next year in Beyond. Since your son has already done Beyond this isn't the best option. However, you mentioned that you rushed him through it, so I'm wondering how much of it he missed?

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts if you get a chance. Possibly, you'd want to start a new thread?

Blessings,
Carrie

[Daisy]

I'm planning on using

Bigger with my 7yo (2nd grade)

and

Ancients with my 10yo (5th grade). She'll be 10yo by the time we start in the fall.

I'm dying to order. Just waiting for CA to get it's act together and send me my tax refund.

[Mandy in TN]

In August I will start Bigger with my ds who will be 7 in the Fall.
Mandy

[wisdom4us]

Summer,

I would definitely go with Julie's suggestion to go half-speed with Bigger Hearts, allowing your son time to grow into Bigger more. What parts is he struggling with?

If you give Bigger at half-speed a good trial run (a month or so), and it isn't getting better, you could consider combining your son with your twins next year in Beyond. Since your son has already done Beyond this isn't the best option. However, you mentioned that you rushed him through it, so I'm wondering how much of it he missed?

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts if you get a chance. Possibly, you'd want to start a new thread?

Blessings,
Carrie

Starting a new thread called "DS' Struggles w/Bigger". I was going to do that anyway, I didn't want to take away from the poster's original plans for this thread so great minds think alike Carrie!

[Vicki]

Well, if all goes according to plan, we'll hopefully start up with Bigger Hearts in September. I was hoping to start in July, as I'm chomping at the bit to get started with it. I've read through the guide several times, and I keep it by my bedside for nightly reading--it's just so interesting. I should add...so is the Preparing guide. It's good reading too if you'd like to go ahead and order it to read through it first. I'm really starting to think that's the best way to approach using the guides anyway. It seems to just make good sense to read them through and get a feel for what the year will be like. It builds excitement for you, and then it is passed on to the children as you cover each unit.

So, we'll be in Bigger Hearts by September if all goes well. In the meantime, we're having a lot of fun with Beyond, even though we could be in the next guide. My little guy is just not quite ready for that step yet, so we're taking little steps each day to get there. In the meantime, I'm trying to organize my books by story-time, DITHOR genre, and bedtime read-alouds. I'm also trying to put together a kind of notebook for our use in Bigger Hearts so I can be truly organized!

[Jen in Va]

Catching this topic late--ds #1 is home from college on spring break. Next year he'll be returning home to attend a local university due to financial issues. Sigh.

Dd will be a senior next year. She'll likely start taking some courses at the local community college--we did this with our eldest, too.

Ds #2 turned 6 in October, and we will finish Little Hearts around mid-May. We'll get him started in Beyond at the start of June (3 days a week), although he'll be in Beyond for the math and reading schedules very, very soon! His reading is really taking off now--he's even starting to read to himself 'in my head' as he says.

[SoaringEagle]

Starting sometime in August '09, we'll start LHFHG, but the whole program this time, as it is written. My dd will finish up The Reading Lesson and we'll be using Abeka phonics 1, mostly orally and I want to try CLE math. I do also have Singapore math too. My son will be starting the About Three workbooks that CLE sells. He'll tag along if he wants when we do school with my dd or else he'll play/color/cut/paste.