heartofdakota.com

It's official, I am no longer a HOD stalker. I am now a member.
I have spent a great deal of time looking into HOD via the catalog, website, and this amazing message board. I am so very pleased at what I see and the amount of wonderful support given to those with questions here on the message board. I have been through more than my fair share of curriculum choices in the years I have homeschooled but so far nothing felt or worked just right for us. I do know there is no such thing as the perfect program but I would really like to find something that fits our family more so that what we have done so far.

We were recently given LHTH and have used it for a week so far with my 4 year old son. We LOVE it! My son loves it! I do add on some "paper school" for him as he really wants to write. But I like the layout of the book and I really like that even at such a young age my littlest one is learning about God in all things.

My questions are about placement for my middle son. He is 7 (8 in June) and in 2nd grade, if you count grades. I have looked at the plcement guides and even spoke to another about where to place him. I was told he could place in either Beyond or Bigger and on the placement chart he could fit in either . He is reading books that are in the emerging readers set, but is still working through a phonics workbook and just recently started the Rod and Staff English 2. He is not a big reader but he does well when he reads. I still help him with the larger or odd words but he does hold his own. He is still working through a phonics workbook but more so because he does not like to write, not because he can't do or does not understand the work. He also started Rod and Staff English 2 a bit ago and is on lesson 7. He is doing well with the R&S English, even though I have him do almost all of it orally.

He is not a big fan of writing. I do have him work from the BJU Press handwriting workbook and we have started to work on cursive. But it still takes some work to get him to write more than a sentence. He can write and can write neatly he just fights it, alot. For history the poor thing has been drug through parts of Sonlight, Mystery of History (which is a great history program) and some BJU Press. So he's had lots of exposure to different styles of learning but nothing consistant yet. I would really like to change that. He also REALLY loves science! He has done great with any science we have done with him, so my only worry about HOD science is will there be enough science for him.

So I guess my question is for those who have used Beyond and Bigger which one would you suggest? Would Beyond be too young for him? Will Bigger be too much writing for him?

A lot of the ladies follow or recommend the rule that if a child places squarely in the middle between two guides, go to the lower guide. We are on unit 6 of Bigger right now, and having gone through Little Hearts and Beyond, based on what you have said I would lean toward placing your son in Beyond. You could continue with the English, do math at whatever level he is at, and finish the phonics and emerging readers. At that point you could go into DITHOR even if you were still be in Beyond. Given his age he would be ready. Beyond is a wonderful guide and it would allow your son to grow into the writing requirements, as well as the narration skills that continually build in each guide. Another year's growth along with the writing practice your son will get in Beyond such guarantee a happy year in Bigger when he gets there.

I'm placing my soon to be 7-year-old daughter in Bigger next year as a 2nd grader HOWEVER, I would not be doing this if we had not been through Beyond. After getting the guide for Bigger recently and perusing it I see how pivotal Beyond really is before getting into Bigger. There is a progression of skills there that you may not see as such until you get to Bigger and the workload is more. That being said, I am still starting out half speed and plan to be there for a while with my girl as she adjusts to the greater expectations and is learning new skills like using the dictionary, narrating (retelling) portions of text that we read, and an increased amount of writing.

I have a good friend who is considering HOD if she can convince her husband to pull her out of school. She is academically at the same spot with my daughter, but I've spent a lot of time discussing the curriculum with her and am encouraging her to go with Beyond for 2nd grade for the same reasons. I truly believe the only reason my young 7 year old will be ready for Bigger is because of the prep Beyond gave her in 1st.

My 9yr. old ds is using Beyond and the emerging reader. I chose Beyond because of his writing abilities. My son can narrate, do copywork, sit through long passages of reading and is now just learning cursive but Beyond looked like a better fit for him.

I have done both Beyond and Bigger with my older ds. If your child is still working on maturing in the handwriting area, it will be a great benefit for him to grow into the writing requirements while in Beyond. I speak from experience, because my son had a hard time with the amount of writing and we had to make adjustments for the first half of the guide. Now I have learned, there is no need to rush through the guides.
Especially for boys, it seems that Bigger is great when they fall in middle to end age range and more toward 3 rd grade.
Success and be blessed in making your decision!

Thanks everyone!
After some reading these thoughts and someone thinking on my part I am leaning towards starting my son in Beyond.
I think from what I have read here that starting him in Beyond will give him time to learn how HOD works and what will be expected of him and to give him the time needed to work on his writing without overloading him. You all have been wonderful, thank you.
I have to say that I have not had this much help and guidance from any other place when it comes to homeschooling. I am very impressed with HOD and those who take time out to help those of us still trying to figure things out!

Thank you

mamatothree,

The ladies have done a terrific job of talking through your placement options with you. They are truly gracious about helping one another!

I agree with their wise advice that it is better to wait to start Bigger if you have a child who is still strengthening writing skills. You can easily continue with Rod and Staff 2 for English and likely can begin somewhere mid-way through the Emerging Reader's Set, depending on the books he is reading at the time when you are ready to begin Beyond with him. The schedule for the Emerging Reader's Set is in the Appendix of Beyond, so you won't mess up your daily plan by starting at whatever point in the set fits your child best.

As the ladies have already pointed out, whenever your son finishes the Emerging Reader's Set (following the daily schedule with questions in the Appendix), he can just head into Level 2/3 of DITHR with the Level 2 book pack.

As far as science goes, if you are a science-loving family, you can always add something additional for science if desired while using Beyond's science to cover all of your bases scope and sequence-wise. That is truly the beauty of HOD in that each family has enough time outside of "school" to pursue their own interests, yet HOD covers what is needed.

Blessings,
Carrie

Welcome to the HOD board, mamatothree - officially, that is! I'm glad you have come out of lurkdom - it will be great to get to know you here. I enjoy the ladies on this board so much too, and their advice is solid and encouraging. You've already received such good advice here, and I agree whole-heartedly with the decision to have your ds do Beyond! We enjoyed Beyond and the Emerging Reader's Set very much with our sons. The questions for the Emerging Reader's Set really helped my dc begin to develop solid reading comprehension, as well as beginning oral narration skills. They were excellent preparation for DITHOR Level 2/3. Having sons, I especially appreciated how Beyond gave them time for their writing skills to catch up with their writing skills. I think you will enjoy Beyond so much!

In Christ,
Julie

Ladies, This was a very encouraging thread, as I have been asking questions about placement as well, this really helped me firm up my choices. I kept going back and fourth between Beyond and Bigger because of the fact my son has read the readers, but he is just not wanting to write so lets not stress him out, but encourage him.

I am excited to order but a bit nervous at change, that part is hard. We will finish out what we are doing and take some time off for summer and get ready for a new adventure. I hope my kids will be as excited as me!

blessing Stacey