heartofdakota.com

Hello!

I am new to HOD as of today. We just got our box for my little one today and I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I am. I am so excited to get started with her.

I am hoping to get some advice.... I have four girls that will be using HOD next year. I have already purchased Little Hearts for my 4 yo dd (she turns 5 next month) so I've got her figured out. I feel very comfortable with that choice. For my two older girls, I have decided to use Bigger with extensions. They will be in 4th and 5th and I am going to combine them. I feel like they need more American History exposure and with the extensions, they will be right on track.

Now for my 2nd grader (7 year old) - I am having a hard time deciding on this.... Should I go with Beyond or Bigger for her? I have looked at the placement chart and to me, she fits right on the verge of both. She confuses her poor ole mom:) She does need a little more phonics instruction but is reading and writing well. I feel like I could combine her with the older girls in Bigger and just take it slower if I needed to. But I also don't want her to miss out on anything and would be glad to give her more years with HOD, so I am thinking Beyond.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance!
Maddykate

I will be doing Bigger with my 2nd grader this coming year but that is where he placed on the chart. I think you could easily combine her in with the other girls and I think the activities look great for a 2nd grader. We will finish up Beyond this year, so we are already in the cycle, but I think if I were you I would try to combine rather than start out with 3 programs..at least until you get the feel of it. Hope that helps..

Well, I'm no expert, but it seems like going with Beyond would do three things: allow her to work at her own level, be a little easier than Bigger for you to add to all the other things you are doing, and keep her in HOD longer! That's my two cents.

MaddyKate,

Welcome to the boards! We're glad to have you here! It sounds like you have a good fit for 3 of your girls so far, so that is a reason to celebrate. I'm thinking it may be a good idea to try to combine your 7 year old for at least the history and science portion of the guides if at all possible. While you certainly can run 3 programs, if there is any way you could do 2 instead, it would really help!

In deciding where your 7 year old would fit best, it will help to look at how well she listens to read-alouds with pictures. Is she able to listen to chapter books read aloud pretty well? It would also help us advise you a bit better if we know where she's placing as far as writing and reading goes. Is she able to copy several sentences or more without difficulty (like Bible verses or text from a book)? Is she able to read early reader type books yet, or is she past that? Could she copy a drawing on paper from a model without too much trouble (like a diagram or a map)?

If you get a chance to pop back in with some insight that would be great!

Blessings,
Carrie