Beyond vs Bigger

[momto2boys]

This will be my first year homeschooling. I have 2 boys, 1 that will be almost 7(2nd grade) and 8.5(3rd grade) at the beginning of the school year. My 8 yr old is advanced for his age, my 6 yr old is doing fairly well with 1st grade, but is struggling a little, I think mainly due to maturity and being a "young" 1st grader. I am looking and HOD and trying to decide which curriculum to go with. My oldest seems ready for Bigger , but I think that my youngest needs Beyond. I was hoping to go with 1 program so that it would be a little easier for our 1st year.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am nervous about my first year, but God led me here and I know that He will see us through it.

[montanamom]

We are currently finishing up Beyond with my 7 year old. If possible I would suggest having them in their own guides, but if you really want to combine, consider using Beyond, so that your younger child doesn't hit the future guides to 'young'. If combining, maybe you could do the L side of Beyond with both & then use the R side of Beyond for the yonger & just use appropriate math/reading/language arts for the older (or get the Bigger guide to follow the R side of the plans for the older one). Just a thought...

Good luck...whatever route you choose, I'm sure you'll enjoy HOD!

Pam

[mom23]

When I started HOD I also thought combining would make things easier for our first year of homeschooling, but I found within a couple of months that was not true for us. I truly think that things are easier with HOD if you have each child placed where they would individually place, without consideration of their sibling. I guess our kids were two years apart, though, and two grades apart. Your situation may be different!

If you combine, I would recommend Beyond (usually place the younger one correctly, and then build up from there for the older one as needed.) Using the right side of Bigger is a great way to do that! That just means that you place each of your kids in their level of math and reading, spelling and writing. When we did this, there was not a lot that I used the guide for, I guess the most necessary part of it would be for the hands on math activities. Those really are a necessary part of making Singapore math work! There are two levels of spelling written into the Beyond guide, the other things just tell you to do the next lesson the next day.

Talking in circles here, but I think what I'd do is order everything for Beyond as written for the younger one, and then Bigger manual, math, reading, and the grammar book (handwriting, if he's ready for cursive) for the older. Try placing them together and see how it goes. You'll know pretty quickly if it's not working out-you'll find yourself holding your older one back for the younger one to catch up, or pushing the younger one too hard to keep up with the older one. You'll see signs of frustration in you kids...if these things happen you will have a head start on buying the things you need to bump your older one into the Bigger guide. If you do start Bigger later, just start at the beginning and take it at its natural pace. There are lots of us that carry one guide over into the beginning of the next year to finish it up!

HTH! Welcome to HOD I'm sure you'll love it!

[melissamomof3girls]

We just started a couple weeks ago with HOD. We left another curriculum after 4 years with it because the dream of combining just didn't work well for us. I have found so much enjoyment in doing separate guides with the girls. It gives such sweet time together and allows them to play with one while another does work and vice versa. There's never just one left out alone.

I started my 9 year-old (10 next Feb) in Bigger and my 7 year-old (8 this Nov) in Beyond. Since we were new to HOD and this was different than my girls were used to I didn't want to push them too hard. Plus, I figured I'd much rather add to their stuff if they need it than have to "dumb down" to their level if it was too hard. I spent too much time doing that with the curriculum we left.

So anyway, I have no great advice for which you should choose, but just wanted to share our story and encourage you that you can do two guides and that if you doubt the "higher" level will be too much, just go with the lower one. You can always add to it.

(((hugs)))

[my3sons]

Great advice I agree with here! Beyond is the one to go with if you want to combine. A 6 turning 7 yo would have to be advanced to do Bigger Hearts, and even then, it has a lot of writing requirements...

Amount of writing in BHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1516&p=11829

You may really enjoy just keeping them separate. This is actually easier to do when dc are accurately placed. If your older ds is a shoe in for Bigger Hearts, and your younger ds places solidly in Beyond, or even in LHFHG, I'd consider doing them separately. Have you checked out the placement chart?
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

Can you share a bit about each of them with the first page of the placement chart in mind, and we can give more detailed advice? That would help us help you better - if you get the chance to pop back in here with your findings, that would be super!

In Christ,
Julie

[momto2boys]

Thank you all so much for your help! After viewing your comments and re-reading the placement chart, I believe that we should use separate guides for each boy. I can't wait for our first year of homeschooling with HOD!
Now, to work on handwriting this summer! They both definitely need improvement!

[my3sons]

A homeschooling mom with a good plan is a powerful thing - and that's you now! Sounds like you have a good plan intact - which guides did you decide on? I think you'll enjoy HOD as much as we have through the years. It truly is such a blessing to be able to homeschool this way!

In Christ,
Julie