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Hi! If you used MFW K and/or 1st, which level of HOD did your dc place in? Right now we're using MFW K with an advanced kindy who matches the placement chart for HOD's Beyond. I'm thinking of going with Beyond for 1st instead of LHFHG. Has anyone done this? How did your dc adjust to the different teaching style/method of HOD after completing a level or so in MFW?

If you read the chart and your child places in Beyond NOW but you wouldn't start Beyond until later that should be fine. Really the placement chart is your guide. You can adapt some things up or down as needed though writing, narration, comprehension, and ability to handle a longer school day are thing you want to be sure to have your child correctly placed for. Reading, math, English/grammar, spelling/dictation, and science are all areas you can adapt pretty easily if your child doesn't fit exactly in the guide.

Another thing to consider is age and maturity. My daughter placed into Beyond but I am glad we chose LHFHG. At this age, you want learning to be fun and enjoyable. We keep moving at her speed in math and phonics (using Horizons), but I didn't think we needed to push in Bible and History. If we do 1 guide a year, she will still finish all of the guides counting LHFHG as 1st grade. I did buy the Beyond guide though for the emerging readers. We have done some of the spelling and grammar out of it as well, although I found that our phonics program has enough of that for her most weeks. For the early guides, I don't know if the placement chart is always the only place to look. I think the scope and sequence chart as well as the sample weeks are great places to look too. Also look at the history books and devotions (you can see sample pages on Amazon for example). See what you think is the better fit maturity wise. You can always beef up the 3 R's as needed.

I am using Beyond with my 1st grader. It is perfect for her!

Beyond is perfect for first grade.

8arrows wrote:I am using Beyond with my 1st grader. It is perfect for her!

We are using Beyond for 1st as well, and it is absolutely perfect. We used LHFHG for K though, notMFW, so I don't know how MFW K and LHFHG compare, I think that was her question.

Thanks for the response! Yes, my dd was ready for MFW 1 but she was a young 5 so we decided to use K and just beef up the phonics/reading/math/writing (sounds kind of silly as I type that ). As we head into our 3rd month of K and I think about what's to come, I see she fits into HOD Beyond now. So I was thinking to use Beyond for 1st, but I hear a lot of people use LHFHG for 1st. I suppose I'm looking for something that I don't have to supplement to death so she isn't bored. She's my kiddo that feels almost insulted when constantly presented with things that are way too easy.

~~sigh~~, I'm just remembering when my other kiddo was in this position and we didn't think it through and just put him in a higher grade. Now, he will be finished with high school at 16. We don't want this for our daughter (ds either LOL). But at the same time, we want her to have the perfect amount of challenge and honor her age at the same time. I guess I'm secretly hoping she won't be ready for Bigger when she is in 1st (since she placed in Beyond now) bc that seems like an awful lot for such a young person. I'm just rambling....

The earlier guides, LHFHG and Beyond, some kids can be ready for (or seem ready for) pretty young. Writing would be one area though that I would look at carefully because I can tell you from experience once you move up to Bigger and they start doing their own writing, if they are not ready it is a struggle. We have made it (4 weeks from finishing Bigger now) and she has grown and I think now she is ready for Preparing. But I probably rushed into Bigger.

If your DD is great at writing though then she might do OK. Bigger is a lot more work. But the blessing of your son finishing HS at 16 is he can take college classes as a HS student, at least in our state that is cheaper for some reason than taking them when you are actually in college. My nephew took a whole year of college classes his senior year in HS and so now he saves a whole year of college expenses.

Remember that with HOD it is super easy to do the higher level math and language arts. If you choose to do Beyond, you could easily use the math and LA in Bigger, and it wouldn't affect how long your day is much. By the time you get to Preparing, guide only has page numbers for grammar and math, so you wouldn't need to buy the next guide after Bigger. Or if there is another math and LA program you want to use, it is super easy to switch out those boxes. This is what I really like about how HOD is set up.

When does she turn 6?

How far along is she in The Reading Lesson?

So you started her in MFW K but are only a few weeks in, and wish to find something more challenging? I think... that I read that MFW K is more like HOD's Little Hands, where they're just learning letters and sounds and preschool stuff.

Have you looked closely at LHFHG? She *sounds* ready for Beyond, and likely could do it BUT she is only 5... when the guides start getting harder, well...

Because of her age and you NOT wanting to rush her through school like ds, I would say, take a good look at Little Hearts for K.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone! I think using Beyond but swapping the two boxes sounds like a nice idea. Like mentioned, when the guides get harder it would be much more difficult to keep up with the writing, as she would be young.

I also looked at the LHFHG guide...actually, I bought it with the K option. How are the 1st grade options with LHFHG?

My dd won't be six until April so she is pretty young even though she is mature in an old-soul kind of way. She did the first 50 lessons in 100 EZ Lessons. Then we started playing around with a book I had: The Reading Lesson, bc she liked the uncluttered pages. We are on lesson 11 out of 20.

As for MFW K, I love the character training and science so I plan to finish it for this year. The phonics is very, very easy. It is fun and hands-on and is a beautiful introduction to letter sounds and early reading. I am using LHTH and it is a step up from that, as it teaches very simple reading skills. I would say it is in between LHTH and LHFHG. I see it as a PreK4 program. So, I have done some things to make it more challenging for dd. It is easy to ramp it up and she has learned a lot from the character training. But I will probably use it next year with my other dd as a PreK4 program.

I see, I see. That sounds good then, using MFW for this year and then going on to Beyond for next year. ...For some reason I thought you were wanting to go into Beyond NOW. My son is 6.5 and doing Beyond for 1st and he is really enjoying it.

The first grade options are basically the math and reading. I wouldn't recommend the 1st grade science book as activities are the biggest part of the science (not the reading from the book), and it is easier just to use what is written in the guide on each page. My daughter turns 6 in December, and she is really liking LHFHG right now. If you are flying through MFW, you could easily add in LHFHG and slow down MFW. Basically focus on the left side of the guide plus storytime.

Thanks everyone! I think we will go with Beyond for 1st grade since she places in it now. She might not be challenged enough if she did LHFHG as a first grader, as it would feel like we went backwards in placement. I do like the idea of doing the left side of LHFHG with MFW K, since she is finishing each day very easily and only after 30-40 minutes. She often asks for more so that is a great idea!