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I have recently decided to homeschool my 2 school age children next year. My son, 7, has been in a classical blended model school for the past 3 years. We have loved the model and the school, but have felt God leading us to homeschool full time next year. My daughter, 5, has been doing Pre-k/K at home this year. I have been researching curriculums for next year and have fallen in love with HOD! I really like how it is laid out and its simplicity. I am struggling on where to place my children. I originally was going with age- Jayden, 7 Beyond Little Hearts and Abby, 5 Little Hearts. But as I looked at the skills, I realize that I might need to place them in a category higher. I want to challenge, but not overwhelm. Here is where my children are this year:

Jayden, 7, 1st grade: He has had phonics training for the last 3 years and he is reading independently. He hasn't been tested (yet) for reading level, but I would guess he reads on a 2nd-3rd grade level. He has been writing in a journal all year composing original sentences. He has also been doing an English curriculum that has covered everything from nouns, pronouns, prepositions, etc to topics, synonyms, and antonyms. He will have completed Singapore math 1st grade at the end of the year and did fairly well. He has struggled with word problems some, but mostly has excelled in math.

Abby, 5, Pre-k/K: She has been doing phonics this year and is an emerging reader. She can read simple books like the Bob series. She can write and does so daily with her phonics and handwriting curriculum. She will have completed Singapore math K at the end of the year and did very well. She understood all concepts (to date) and has not had any problems with math.

Based on these facts, I have considered putting Jayden in Bigger Hearts and Abby in Beyond Little Hearts. Both have bdays in November so they are on the older end of their grade. What do you all think based on the descriptions above? Would it be too hard to place them a bit above their age? or just enough of a challenge?

Thanks for reading and any thoughts! Blessings!

Have you looked at the placement chart?

I'm looking really at what you are saying about your daughter. I would suggest LHFHG with 1st grade options in math and handwriting. I would look at doing the emerging readers with her if she is ready for them. The only 1st grade option I wouldn't recommend as I did try it and went back to the K suggestion was the science. The science is far easier as written.

The reason I am suggesting this is so that you don't end up doing back to back guides and also because the history readings etc are at a higher level comprehension level so do require some level of maturity. It does sound like your son would probably be best in BHFHG but possibly do it half pace for a little while just to settle him in to what is required of him.

I do pray you find the right placings for your children. I have misplaced my girls at different times, but now they are placed firmly and securely, schooling flows so much better in our home, and they are truly reaping the benefits of being placed correctly.

You say "7 year old, 5 year old, Bigger and Beyond" my first instinct is no, that would be too much. But considering you aren't starting until August (I assume) and by then they will be almost 8 and almost 6, it makes more sense. But here are a few other factors to consider. First, the placement chart is really your best guide. Place them where their skills and attention span are. The age ranges help in "soft" areas like attention span and ability to complete a longer school day. While a very young child might be capable of reading at a much higher level, you don't necessarily want to push them in that too early because their attention span and mental ability aren't quite there. It's too much.

Reading, math, and L.A. (grammar, spelling) are really easy to customize, whereas History, Bible, Narration, Writing are a little more tied to the guide level. So if your child fits in most areas but is ahead or behind in reading or math, you would still stay with the guide they fit in. But if they don't have the writing skills, even with comprehension and maybe narration skills, you would go down a guide because if they can't keep up with the writing in a guide they will just keep getting behind. I hope this makes sense. It becomes a lot more of a struggle.

Another thing to consider is whether or not you want to be in back-to-back guides. There are two factors. First, Bigger and Preparing are both the most teacher-intensive guides, they will require the most time and energy from you. The older guides move into more independent work so while there is more work, it is less work for you. Generally if it can be avoided people don't like to do those two guides together in the same year. Second, you may lose energy and excitement for the material if you go through it two years in a row, with your older one and then the following year with the next one. People have said they get burned out on it that way. Many times if children place in back-to-back guides you can combine them in the lower guide with add-ons or extensions for the older child. Your history, science, poetry, Bible, and storytime (and rotating activities like Geography, Art, etc) are together with no adaptations. You do separate math, grammar, reading, spelling with each child, adding challenge for the older one sometimes from the next guide. For the younger guides, you will often have to buy the next guide in line to use to beef it up for your older one. By Bigger Hearts there are extension books for older children to read to enhance their knowledge in the history and science being studied.

I hope this helps.

I think the ladies have given you great advice. I have 4 kids and I definitely suggest keeping a guide in between them in these younger years for your own sanity. Bigger is very parent intensive and Preparing is a big jump in skills so if you were doing those back to back a few years in a row...you can easily burn out.
It sounds like BIgger would be spot on for your son.
For your daughter, I would suggest looking further into LHFHG. I have done it for both 1st and K (at different times) with 2 children and it worked will with them both. I had some other thoughts but had a few questions first.
Is your daughter going into k or 1st? Are they turning 7 and 5 or 7 and 5 now and turning 8 and 6 in November?

Tidbits of Learning wrote:I think the ladies have given you great advice. I have 4 kids and I definitely suggest keeping a guide in between them in these younger years for your own sanity. Bigger is very parent intensive and Preparing is a big jump in skills so if you were doing those back to back a few years in a row...you can easily burn out.
It sounds like BIgger would be spot on for your son.
For your daughter, I would suggest looking further into LHFHG. I have done it for both 1st and K (at different times) with 2 children and it worked will with them both. I had some other thoughts but had a few questions first.
Is your daughter going into k or 1st? Are they turning 7 and 5 or 7 and 5 now and turning 8 and 6 in November?

My daughter is 5 now...she will be 6 in November. We have done mostly K work with her this year....handwriting, math, and phonics. There isn't a lot of pre-k curriculum that I liked, so we tried K books. She has done fabulous

I would aim for a guide in between them. LHFHG for your dd6 who is still phonics/emerging readers. The emerging readers set is much more difficult than Bob books. Whether K or 1st, I would probably continue phonics for 1 more year. I would suggest that you get a hold of one of the recommended Bibles to see what is expected at the beginning of ERS. They are reading from those Bibles for around 10 units or so with the ERS and there is some pretty hard words in them. I would probably suggest going back through The Reading Lesson with dd6 as it goes to a 2nd grade reading level and could help cement phonics. Bigger will have the emerging readers schedule in it's appendix if you decide she is ready for it. If you are considering this her K year, I would suggest doing the K options and using the Essentials Math K as it is very different from the Singapore Standard books. There is an alternate math schedule in the appendix for Math 1A and 1B if you are considering this her 1st grade year. I am not sure what handwriting you are using or phonics, but you could just use LHFHG and continue on with the next level of what you are using. HOD is written where you can use your own options for math and language arts. I would really just encourage you not to put them in back to back guides at this age/stage of schooling b/c it is much more parent intensive in BHFHG and PHFHG to train them for independence and it can burn you out fast.
You don't mention history, science, or storytime and there are a lot of skills to be learned from those boxes in LHFHG that would make BLHFHG run more smoothly the next year. I would really suggest you print out both sample weeks for LHFHG and BLHFHG and compare the 2. You can go to Christian Liberty Press' site and look inside the history books used and get a pretty good sample to really feel out the sample week in practice. You can search on there for each title that HOD uses and then click the book and a look inside option is available that will show samples from each book.
http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/little ... t-week.pdf
http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/beyond ... t-week.pdf
Personally, having done the younger guides with more than 1 child at a time...I don't recommend back to back guides.

I was in your place last year with my oldest and your 5 yo (mine has a Dec. birthday). Skill-wise, she could place into Beyond, but I thought about what I wanted school to be for her. I knew I was pushing her in math, reading, and extra-curricular activities (AWANA and choir), so I decided to go with LHFHG. And I am so glad I did, First, the history is right on her level. Second, at the beginning of the year, storytime and devotional stretched her. Now that we moved to the US history and away from the Biblical history, it is perfect there too. Although she could have handled Beyond probably, making this year fun is important to us.

And as for Emerging Readers/Bob Books: We read all of the Bob Books then worked on My First and Level 1 I Can Read books before starting the ER series. The last set of Bob Books was close to the level of the My First I Can Read books. And the Emerging Readers start with Level 2 I Can Read books. So, you will want to work on reading before starting those.

First, have you looked at the placement chart with an open mind? That was my hardest thing starting out. I was only thinking about what she was capable of doing and not what would actually be feasible on a day to day basis.

My suggestions from what you've read would be to do LHFHG with your younger one. Do first grade options with her (I also prefer doing the K science... I do that no matter what age we go through LHFHG.). It's really sweet and they really learn a lot. I regret not using it with my oldest. I wouldn't worry about doing a reading program with her yet. Just have a year of reading for fun. Build fluency for a while.

With your oldest, I'd probably lean toward Bigger if he fits there with listening and writing. Can he sit and listen to fairly long readings with few pictures? The books in Bigger are older books with language not generally found in books now. They are harder to get the hang of, but not impossible. I would start half speed for a few weeks just to get the flow down. Even if he doesn't NEED it, it really helps the rest of the year go smoothly.

The guides are written with an age range in mind, not a grade level necessarily. So while your children are at the older end of their grade level, your younger would only be in the middle of LHFHG and at the earliest end of Beyond. I've had early, middle, and end of age ranges and they seem to get more out of it when they are middle or end. Your older would be right in the middle of Bigger and still in the age range of Beyond. So I don't think it would be pushing him to do Bigger.

Hope this helps some.

This thread has helped me so much!