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I plan on homeschooling my 3 girls in the fall. I will have a 5K, a 2nd grader and a 4th grader. the 4th grader is advanced and the 2nd grader is a little behind, so I don't feel like I can use the same program for them. BUT it makes me sad that the 4th grader will miss the US history (in "preparing") that the 2nd grader will get in "Beyond". Is there a way to make them work together? or will that confuse the ciriculum for the 4th grader....

Not sure what to do....as a perspectice homeschooler, doing 3 different programs seems daunting.

Any advice?

Hi Erika!
I am sure the ladies will be able to give you some great advice. Welcome to the board!

Erika,

Welcome to the board. You are going to love HOD. This is our first year with HOD and it has been wonderful!

Have you had a chance to look at the placement chart? These wonderful ladies encouraged me to really look that over and see where the kids fall. Reading seemed to be easy for all my kids, but the writing is where all or most of my desicions were made.

We are doing Beyond with my 2nd grader, Preparing with extensions with my 6th grader, and RevtoRev with extensions with my 8th grader. If your 2nd grader is not a strong writter and still needs to grow in reading, Beyond would be a good fit. I haven't done anything lower than Beyond, but I here the other guides are great. You might even be able to combined the k5 and 2nd grader in the guide right before Beyond and work on the areas your 2nd grader needs time to grow in.

I would look at Bigger for your 4th grader maybe with extensions. I am going to do Bigger with my 3rd grader at half speed for part of the year and when he gets closer to being 9 then we may go full speed(doing both sides of the guide) I might add in some extensions but will have to see how he is growing in writting and reading.

If this is your first year home schooling and first time with HOD, I would try to go slow and start with a guide lower than you think and try to combined your younger 2, just to get you started. You will start to see what extras or more advanced work they can handle.

As far as where they are in History they will listen in on each others stories, or at least mine do. Sometimes younger one won't listen to all of the older ones stories and history, but the older ones will listen for sure to the younger ones stories. We work in the same room most of the time.

I am sure there are some others that might have some more advice. Check the placement chart see where they fit. If they are a strong reader but need to grow in writting, that is important to consider. You don't want everything to be hard for them. Just some thoughts. Hope this helps.
welcome to the board!
blessings,
Stacey

We are new to HOD too. We will also be using those two guides...hoping to start with them part time I the summer, using Beyond with my 2nd grader and Preparing with my 4th and 6th graders , I have the extensions coming for the 6th grader. Very excited to start and hoping hod helps us to love homeschool. This has been our first year, and its been chaotic and all around not good. Hoping to change that.

I agree with checking placement. My 3rd grader is loving Bigger. We're doing it about 2/3 speed. We'll finish it up for part of 4th grade in the fall. Used with math, reading and LA at the 4th grade level I think Bigger would work fine for most 4th graders. I'd try it as written, add extensions if you find they're needed.

Welcome! This is our third year with HOD and we LOVE it!

connerika wrote:I plan on homeschooling my 3 girls in the fall. I will have a 5K, a 2nd grader and a 4th grader. the 4th grader is advanced and the 2nd grader is a little behind, so I don't feel like I can use the same program for them. BUT it makes me sad that the 4th grader will miss the US history (in "preparing") that the 2nd grader will get in "Beyond". Is there a way to make them work together? or will that confuse the ciriculum for the 4th grader....

Not sure what to do....as a perspectice homeschooler, doing 3 different programs seems daunting.

Any advice?

Hi connerika, and welcome to the HOD Board! You will want to carefully look at the PHFHG and CTC first page of the placement chart to see if your 4th grader is ready for all that CTC entails. Here is a comparison of the two in case this helps...

Comparing PHFHG to CTC in Skills:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12582&p=90658#p90658

For your 2nd grader, I am wondering if he places in Beyond solidly? It may be possible to have him do LHFHG with the first grade options with your 5K child if that child is ready for LHFHG. Or, if Beyond is a solid placement, it is an outstanding guide! I'd just get to enjoying it with ds!

Once you check out the first page of the placement chart here, and share some of your thoughts with us, we'll chime in with more specifics! Don't worry about missing anything, history comes back around, and all the guides are enjoyable! Here's that link...
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

In Christ,
Julie