Need help, please!

[ccharley]

Hello! I have a few questions in regards with how to make Little Hearts work for my dc or if I need to go ahead and do Bigger. Basically I started HS in February with my daughter who was in Kindergarten. I also have a 4 yo ds who joined in with us occasionaly and enjoyed doing the history and memory scriptures, etc. Where I got a bit confused... was that b/c my dd was ahead of where the math was we started working ahead in the Earlybird math. We finished the math book already. Both of my kids enjoyed the reading, Reddy Fox, etc. but wanted to read more than one chapter and we went ahead in that. My dd is also reading well, around end of first, second grade level. Well, my question, is should I get Bigger for her and do Little Hearts with my son? I wanted to keep them together but my daughter needs more. She is writing very well, too. She needs spelling, etc. I was thinking maybe to not spend anymore money and try to make Little Hearts work b/c with us starting so late we didnt get very far into it. My son is right at the Little Hearts Level according to the placement chart. Should I have him tag along with Bigger? I'm so confused...
Thanks in advance

[netpea]

first question, did you mean Beyond? Beyond is the next step after Little Hearts. Then after Beyond comes Bigger.

second question, have you looked at the placement chart to see where your dd would fall?
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

Let us know what you think and we can help you better.

[Kathleen]

Hi and welcome! I don't think I've "met" you here yet. It sounds like you and your kids have been enjoying Little Hearts. And, I'm quite sure that what you're asking about is going on to Beyond Little Hearts, right? The Heart of Dakota programs go...
Little Hands to Heaven (LHTH)
Little Hearts for His Glory (LHFHG)
Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory (BLHFHG)
Bigger Hearts for His Glory (BHFHG)
Preparing Hearts for His Glory (PHFHG)

It took me a while to figure out which was which as people "talked" about them and abbreviated.

Now I haven't used the 2 programs that you're talking about yet... I'm doing LHTH with my 4 yo and going to start Bigger and DITHOR with my 8 yo. BUT, I've learned a lot from all the great ladies here who are so good at talking through options with everyone. (I'm sure you'll get lots of help! ) I can see a couple of options for you...

1) You could continue to keep them together for the "Learning through History" page and then get the Beyond manual and split them for the "Learning the Basics" part. Your dd could go on in math, add in the light grammar that is there, finish phonics. You could continue to do their read-aloud together, or let them both listen to 2 read-alouds and whoever it was "for" could narrate or answer questions, or separate them. Since you're ahead on the Burgess books, you could get more of them that LHFHG doesn't include maybe?

2) Get the Beyond program and start with you dd and just continue LHFHG with your son.

Option 1 is what I would try if I were you. One other thing that I have learned from Carrie and some books about Charlotte Mason is the value of reading books slowly on purpose. (I may not, probably not, have ever thought of this one on my own... ) It gives the kids a chance to "live" with the books for a longer time which increases what the learn and remember from them. (I may be forgetting other benefits here, but I think that's the general idea.) Anyway, you could try taking the readings slowly, like they're scheduled, too, leaving your kids begging for more!

I look forward to hearing what works for you!
Kathleen

[crlacey]

Boy that's not an easy question without really knowing your kids.
Definitely see where your DD places on the chart.
If you want to keep them together, than by all means do so. Just add in a little more meat for LA and math. There is also an appendix in the back of the guide with extra books you could add in.
I hope some of the other ladies who have used Beyond can help you since I am only on unit 6 of Little Hearts.

[my3sons]

Great advice from these ladies here! All of those ideas are good options. I'll just add one more little idea to the mix about LHFHG in a minute. But first, I just wanted to say that Beyond... sounds like a good fit for your dd. There are several reading options, several spelling options, and several math options in Beyond..., so I think you'd be able to find a well-matched fit for your dd in all of those areas.

For your ds, you could do LHFHG and maybe take 2 years to do it, doing the left page of the plans one day, and the right side of the plans the next day. Since he's on the young end to be doing LHFHG, doing it at this slower pace would free up some teaching time for you to do 2 HOD programs, and also would help him end up more in the target age ranges for the older HOD programs as he grows.

Kathleen made a good reference to Charlotte Mason's (and Carrie's) view of savoring books. I stick to my guns when my dc beg me to read ahead, and I just don't do it anymore. I've found they do savor our HOD books then, and they view the books as being very special and set apart from all of the other books in our house.

We do race through other (non-HOD) books at any pace I want to or they want to, whether it's at bedtime or during their free reading time. I always tell them, read as much or as little as you want during those times, go as fast or as slow as you want, and reread anything you want to as many times as you want to - but during school we're going to go the pace that's in the guides so we can really "live with the books" as CM and Carrie would say. It's made the books we use with HOD very special to our dc. As Kathleen said, I wouldn't thought of it on my own either, but it makes sense to me now - and I've only been teaching for about 11 years now - it may take me some time, but I come around eventually!

In Christ ,
Julie