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Cross-posted all over the place .

After looking at samples of the history books for Beyond, I think we might do the left side/history from LHFHG but the right side of Beyond for 1st grade. Has anyone done this? How does it affect the flow for the day? How will I ever get away from using two guides? My kiddo needs the basic skills from Beyond but I'm afraid the history might be a bit much for her as a young 1st grader.

My daughter was in that position this year. She could have done Beyond, but I didn't want to push too hard and make her not like learning. So, we are doing LHFHG. We are using a different phonics and math program, and we just started the Emerging Readers. We bought the Beyond economy package thinking we would do the spelling and grammar in there as well, but with the phonics we are doing (which contains some spelling and grammar), we stopped after two weeks. We don't need to buy the Bigger guide for next year either way though since we aren't using the math explorations. Even if we had done the spelling, we wouldn't have needed Bigger for that, as it has two spelling lists, to be used for two years. The grammar would have been the only thing we would have possibly wanted Bigger for, but Carrie just tells you how many pages to do a day, and I can figure that out from the preview week. After Bigger, there aren't math explorations, so the guides can be used easily for advanced and on target students in the 3Rs. So, the longest you would need 2 guides would be 2 years (LHFHG with Beyond, Beyond with Bigger).

Thank you!! What are you using for phonics and math?

We are using Horizons because that is what we did for K. I do like the math (and I supplement when needed, as I used to teach math for elementary school teachers, etc), but I don't love the phonics. I don't love that it combines handwriting with phonics in K and then continues to add in a lot of spelling, grammar and writing in 1st. I would prefer these separate. So, I plan on using Horizons for math for my younger two, but not the phonics.

Yes, my son works from 2 guides. Last year he did LHFHG for the left side plus story time. Then he did math, emerging readers and spelling from Beyond. This year he uses Beyond for all but math, language arts and reading which he does from Bigger/DITHOR. This is the last year we need 2 guides. Additional math and dictation are listed in the appendix of Bigger for next year and Rod and Staff is basically one lesson a day. So, if you follow a similar path, you will only need 2 guides for 2 years.

I will also have a young first grader in beyond(using little hearts for kindy now) and after much debate on various options I finally decided to go for it and go half speed which will stretch out the guide giving her some time to mature before she hits the upper guides. Have you considered half speed?

I thought about two guides initially but it sounds just more complicated to ME and I like to keep things as simple as possible for my sanity lol. Honestly, I don't even follow the right side exactly in Little Hearts and just do the next thing plus I'm using different phonics and it still works great. I love the reminder but don't feel tied to do it exactly. Love how easy HOD makes for flexibility!