heartofdakota.com

I'm already thinking and trying to plan for the next school year with my two boys. We are finishing up Beyond Little Hearts right now. They are both 8 but my oldest will be 9 next month. I think that the spelling and the math were not challenging enough for them with this book and I wish I had begun with Bigger Hearts. However, since I didn't do that wondering what I should do in the fall? I like that Bigger hearts does more American history and I know I can move to levels 3 and 4 for math but not sure what to do with the spelling. If I skip Bigger Hearts and move to Preparing Hearts, will my boys miss a lot of American history? I don't want to miss out on American History. Just not sure which route I should take.

Thank you,
Amanda

If they've gone through the level two words of spelling, then you would just move them into dictation.

I would not skip bigger hearts.

I would definitely not skip Bigger. You will just start dictation with them if they are done with the spelling. There is a lot more writing in Bigger than there was in Beyond. There is a big jump in skills and it would be a huge jump to move up farther. Bigger is a very important year.

Even if you havent' done the second spelling list, if he didn't miss the ones on the first list I would move him on to dictation. I would not skip Bigger just to move up in spelling because you would be doing the same spelling in either Bigger or Preparing. I wouldn't skip any of the math either. If he's beyond where you are in math, then I'd have him move through quickly until you get to a point where he has to slow down.

Was it only spelling and math that was too easy? If so, definitely don't skip Bigger. Remember that these are two areas of HOD guides that are easy to customize. I would have your children take the placement test on the Singapore website and see where they really place and start at that level. Then for spelling, Bigger has the first set of dictation as well. That will be harder than spelling because they also have to write everything grammatically correct. I think the spelling in Beyond may look easy, but the kids are learning how to study words, write them, etc. We just started Beyond this week, and my daughter only missed 1 word for unit one (both lists) yesterday on Day 2 (back - forgetting the c). But that is fine with me. She is gaining confidence with writing words and spelling them herself. And I think that is a important.