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Hello! My son is 5.5 and we are in week 21 of LHFHG. I am trying to decide what to do next year for first grade and I think we will move on to Beyond even though he will have just turned 6. (we school year round so far). He loves reading and is working his way through the emerging readers set as we do LHFHG. He is currently reading "The Bears on Hemlock" so I imagine we will be finished with the ER by the time we start Beyond or soon after.

My question is should we start DITHOR right after we finish the ER? He will only be 6 and I'm not sure if much of it will be over his head. He is doing well with the questions from them ER.

The other thing we could do is take a year off and do another program so he will be in the middle of the age ranges instead of the bottom. I actually have another K program at home we could do. That way he would start Beyond and DITHOR at age 7 instead of 6.

Have many of you had a child go through successfully at the younger ages? Beyond at 6, Bigger at 7, Preparing at 8? I know half speed is an option too, but he really likes school and always wants more. I realize this could change as he gets older too.

If you have other ideas please let me know them. I have been obsessing over this for some reason and would like to decide once and for all!

I will be interested in seeing responses from this thread as well. My daughter is 5 and 1/2 and we may be doing Beyond next year but with the ER set, not DITHOR. I plan on waiting until we get close to the end of Little Hearts and and then I will take a look at where she falls on the placement chart at that time.

When I read the title of your post my first thought was 6 would be the youngest I would start a child in Beyond. Since your dc has been doing LHFHG and doing well with it, he should be fine to progress directly onto Beyond. One thing that you could do is just do 4 days a week once you get into Beyond and just stretch it out an extra 9 weeks that way. I don't think 6 for Beyond or even 7 for Bigger is a problem and if your dc is doing well progressing along with the guides, then probably he will be fine even with Preparing at 8. All of those are in the age range of the guide. It's just on the younger side. You will find as you continue to progress through the guides that each one gets more challenging and takes longer so you may find down the road that you want to slow down the pace to 4 days a week or even half-speed for a while. If not though, I wouldn't worry. Each guide prepares the dc well for the next and since he will be in the age range, you don't have to worry about the content being inappropriate for his age.

DITHOR is a bit of a different story since he will be below the recommended age range. It does involve quite a bit of writing and analysis for one so young. I know what some people have done with a younger dc that has finished the emerging readers is have them read through the DITHOR level 2 pack at the suggested pace, but not do the workbook just asking some comprehension questions or having a child narrate after the reading then saving the full DITHOR program until the following year while doing the level 3 book pack. Another option is to do DITHOR but instead of having your ds write his answers in the workbook, you write them for him. When he is ready, you can write his answers on a white board and have him copy them into the workbook. Then finally by the end of the year, you would have him write the answers in the workbook himself. That is a way of easing into the writing of the program that works for some who start it early. I would learn more towards the first option of reading the books and holding off on the full program until the following year while doing Bigger unless you feel he is really chomping at the bit and needs more.

Thanks for your response. I really like the idea of just getting the level 2 books and not doing the full DITHOR program. I never thought of doing that.

Thanks!

My young 6 year old (her birthday is August) has excelled in Beyond, but we're not doing DITHR either, just the ER set to start, which she flew through and I let her! Now we're doing what was suggested with the level 2 books and I'm starting to just talk about genre/characters/setting, nothing formal at all. I'm approaching it sort of like grammar is approached in Beyond planning to do more formal teaching on the matter in 2nd grade next year.

We did Beyond at 6 yo for several of our dc and found it to be a wonderful fit. We got the Level 2 DITHOR set and read them at half-speed. By the second half or last third of the set, we began DITHOR half-speed. Worked great! I did the writing in the DITHOR Student Book first, then wrote on the markerboard and they copied half, and then they took it over and I just helped with any spelling that they found difficult. This was a smooth transition!

In Christ,
Julie