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This is DS's first year of homeschooling. He's 6.5yo and has been pulled out of public school in the middle of 1st grade. Based on the placement charts, sample guides, and reviews, I should place him in Beyond. However, I REALLY want the biblical history basis of Little Hearts as a foundation, and in reviewing the books in the 1st grade package of Little Hearts, it seems to cover a lot of skills that DS just didn't get in public school.

Doing this will basically have DS repeating the 1st grade. Math is fine (as soon as I pulled him from public school I discovered that although they'd moved on to telling time and adding triple digits, I realized he couldn't even subtract single digits). The only thing that gets to me is reading. There doesn't seem to be an alternate schedule for it...only phonics. However, as far as reading goes, DS could probably fit right in the first level of DITHOR.

Would you teach down a level in this case?

YES!!! I would not want him to miss LHFHG.

I would go with LHFHG! Personally, I prefer it for 1st grade. Like you said, I would do 1st grade options and look into doing the Emerging Reader set if he has completed phonics instruction. If his skill level is beyond the begining of the ERs, I would just take a look at those and begin at an appropriate skill level for him. Doing this would fill any gaps moving forward, and would prevent you from getting to the later guides where there is a bigger jump in skills too soon. I hope this helps in some small way! Take care!

KayCee,

Welcome to the board! We're glad to have you here! Whenever you have a child coming home to school for the first time, there can be a bit of decompressing that comes with the transition to schooling at home. So, with this in mind, it is usually better to go a bit younger in a program to allow your little honey time to settle in to schooling at home. However, we also do not want the schooling to seem too easy.

So, with this in mind, I do think you could use LHFHG if desired for the main program. Then, you would need to add the Emerging Reader's Set from Beyond (following the daily year-long schedule in the Appendix of Beyond and its daily questions). You would also need to use the spelling lists from Beyond, along with the four-day-a-week spelling plans (since your little son is reading so well), and you may want to do the gentle grammar lessons in Beyond too (which are on the 5th day of plans each week in Beyond). You will probably need to do 1A/1B for math, following along with the hands-on daily math plans in Beyond as well. So, you'd do all of LHFHG each day (except for math) and do the math, spelling, grammar, and Emerging Readers from Beyond.

To sum up, you would use the main plans for LHFHG with the first grade Economy Package from LHFHG, and indvidually order the Devotions for the Children's Hour, the World God Made, and Hide Em' in Your Heart Vol. I CD (from LHFHG). You would also add-on the first grade handwriting workbook from LHFHG. Then, you would also order the Beyond guide (by itself), the Emerging Reader's Set (with Beginner's Bible - as you get choice of Bible within the set), and Singapore Math Workbooks only for 1A/1B to go with the plans in the Beyond guide. This is because when you use the hands-on math plans in Beyond for 1A/1B, you do not need the 1A/1B textbooks for math (as the Beyond guide covers that within it already).

Your other option would be to use Beyond for all things as written. Either option will work!

If you have other questions, ask away! We're glad to help.

Blessings,
Carrie

When I used LHFHG with my 2nd son, I did exactly what Carrie just described to you. I used Beyond gentle grammar lessons, the emerging readers, Singapore Math 1A/1B, and the spelling list from Beyond. It was a perfect fit! I agree that you do not want to miss Little Hearts! The read a-louds are so much fun and it really sets the tone for the following guides. I think it will be a perfect transition for you to schooling at home.

Also, I didn't start my oldest son in HOD until he had just finished the 2nd grade. (we were schooling at home the entire home, but I didn't find HOD until after 2nd grade) He really placed in Bigger, but I put him in Beyond because I wanted to renew his love for learning, and so for all intents and purposes we did 2nd grade all over again. (but he never even knew it because HOD was such a different approach, and we changed curriculum across the board, so everything looked brand new to him) It was a perfect choice for us to do a guide below where he placed. It gave him the proper foundation and set him on a really great track. He now loves learning and is an excellent student!

My dd, a now 7.5 year old will just be finishing LHFHG in the next 2 weeks! We used all of LHFHG, with the 1st grade options for math and science. It was a great year! My dd loved every bit of it.

Yes; I think it's a great idea. Glad you are wise enough to do that!

Welcome to the HOD Board, babykaykes! I think you have thought through this so well, and I bet you and your ds are going to have a terrific time in LHFHG together! I agree - that Biblical foundation is so important. Keeping Christ at the center is a key priority of HOD's all the way through the guides from year to year, so you'll enjoy seeing those Biblical truths be built upon through the coming years as well. I like the ideas Carrie shared for using Beyond's LA and math with your ds, along with using LHFHG as his main program. I think this would be the winning combination for your ds! I'll look forward to getting to know you here - the ladies here are great.

In Christ,
Julie

We did LHFHG as written when dd was in 1st, because she has struggles in certain areas. I almost started with Beyond and then realized, because of reading different threads on this board, that Little Hearts would be a better fit. It was. Yes, most of the skill level was on target for her. But, I am so glad that she had the foundation from LHFHG. I think the gentle start was good for her, and she has matured so much over these past 2 years doing HOD. I am confident that she will be ready for the new skills in Bigger this fall at 9 years old. Honestly, I think she'd be ready for it now, but we aren't going to miss one part of Beyond. She's my last one, and I'm so glad we had the privilege of doing HOD, basically from the start. I'm enjoying it, and wishing I would have had it to use with my other dc. You are making a wise choice.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I'm going to do some more looking, but it looks like we may go forward with LHFHG-1st grade options with the Emerging readers set from Beyond. I'm thinking he'll be ready for DITHOR when we start the complete Beyond guide again next year.

I'm so thankful I found HOD early on. No other curriculum has spoken to me as much as this one, so I know I won't be disappointed!