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I will be doing Beyond this year with my 2nd and 1st grader. Has anyone ever combined this with their two boys? I wonder if it'll go by too fast for my older one and I'll end up having to sub out Bigger for him, ultimately leading me to do two different guides.

You could have your 2nd grader do Rodd and Staff 2 from the right side of bigger (you don't really need the guide to do it, just do a lesson a day). You could also have him do cursive if you think he is ready. If your son is ready, you could also do DITHOR for reading. At that age I would do most of it orally if you go that route. Those are easy ways to beef up Beyond for your 2nd grader.

Quite a few families use Beyond for 2nd grade. Are you condemned about your first or secund grader? Are they in those grades now and rising to 2nd and 3rd before you start?

Thanks, countrymom. I did plan on doing DITHOR and R&S 2 with my older son. Why do you think I should do it orally? I have it but need to look at it more in depth. He's definitely not ready for cursive yet.

StephanieU, the boys are in K and 1st right now. My oldest will be 8 in November and both boys are very bright, eager learners. I wanted to continue on in the guides without missing anything, especially since they didn't do any history, minimal grammar and minimal science in PS.

If they are going into 1st and 2nd, I would start wtih Beyond as written. If you find it is too light for the 2nd grader, then add in cursive writing and Rod and Staff. I wouldn't do DITHOR with Beyond unless they are great at writing. There seems to be a lot of writing in that. The Emerging Readers start at a second grade reading level and go up from there, so most kids are at that level late in 1st grade or in 2nd grade. Definitely look at the book list for the ERs. Most likely your older one will place somewhere in that series. We will start on Monday with Beyond for 2nd grade. We started the Ers after my daughter had finished Horizons Phonics K and half of 1 (we finished the second 1st grade workbook while doing the ERs). We also did all of the grammar topics in Beyond at the end of LHFHG, so we will do the grammar in Rod and Staff 2 slowly. We might start cursive this year, but I am not planning on it yet. I really think cursive is great at a 3rd grade level, so it will probably wait until Bigger for us.
Other things you can do to add to Beyond without increasing the workload a ton is add some notebooking for history and science. There are sheets parents have made or you could do it on your own. We are planning on doing the history sheets and then doing our own science journal with some pictures (drawn or via camera) of the experiments as well as a summary or reflection "paragraph" each day we do science. But, I also know that if these don't get done, that is fine. They are there if they work well for us, but Beyond as is is enough for 2nd grade with age appropriate math.

The history and science are really interesting and I believe there are even supplemental titles for history if you want to go more in depth. I think they are appropriate for even a very bright 8 year old, there is just so much to be learned. Your older son you might find can answer the comprehension questions in the history books, whereas many 6-7 year olds cannot. Narration is also a skill that it is good to work into and Beyond has the perfect lessons to help them learn how to narrate what they read/hear.

DITHOR is great and if your son is a good reader and you don't mind doing the workbook pages orally/on a white board and having him copy that would really add some depth/work to Beyond. It is almost good to be in an easier guide, giving you enough time to fit DITHOR in without struggle. But it seems you have the appropriate add-ons for him so I bet he will have just enough challenge for school work and it will be great for him. I wish you a great first year homeschooling!

Thanks, ladies! I appreciate all of the feedback.

My older one is reading at about a 4th grade level and can certainly do the comprehension aspect of DITHOR, but I want him to have neater printing before we delve into cursive. Maybe I'll have that as a goal for the second semester.

This will be our second year homeschooling, actually. I did LHFHG two years ago when my oldest was in K. I wanted to try HSing out and we did. It went well but I felt he was missing out on many things socially since I had a new baby and we didn't leave the house too often. After a lot of prayer, God really spoke to me and gave me peace about the fact that I need to send them to PS. So, off they went this past fall as I cried a bit the whole first day. Still, I knew that I could trust God. About 3 weeks in, my husband looked at me and said, "So, when are we homeschooling again?" I pretty much knew the first day of school when they came home with their work (it was so basic). However, we commited to the year and are almost done. God knew I needed to send them so that I'd feel confident in my decision to HS for the long haul. Now that I've done both, I know what works best for our family and am thrilled with the fact that they'll be home again and we can resume our close-knit family lifestyle as we learn about all things school and faith related.

I am a little aprehensive about HSing with 4 kids in a small home, though. I'll have an 8yo, 6.5yo, 3yo and 1yo come fall! By His grace I can do it. I think I can!

Thanks for sharing more of your story. I hope you find this board a great place to get support, and I hope you are able to connect with others. We find our social life here to be almost too exciting, I have to limit and stay at home so we can get school done! I appreciate mom support and of course my kids love the relationships they are building with other kids.

You CAN do it! Beyond combined will probably be perfect for your situation on many levels. You could take the summer to try to train your little ones (especially the 3 year old) and get things into a rhythm that will allow for homeschooling to run more smoothly. For me, read-alouds and the child doing their reading to me are the two things I try to make sure have as little interruption as possible. Those are hard to deal with interruptions and keep going/get back to it. So I plan them at the absolute best time. Either I read to them while they are eating breakfast or a snack, or right after breakfast (with my oldest). Other parts have aspects where I can turn my attention away for a brief time and the child can keep going. Hands on activities, Bible verse review, and poetry are things that often the whole family can either participate in or at least be present for. There are great threads on here for how to plan your day and how to keep little ones happy and occupied while you school.

Thank you so much, Mel! I appreciate your words and encouragement. I love the HOD boards! They were so helpful to me when I first started two years ago. I'm excited to get to know everyone here better.