LeAnna wrote:Julie,
My daughter would be exactly in the same boat when she would start bigger. So as to try to not get myself confused, I am wondering if I should just do Beyond with my 6.5 year old at 4 days a week fullspeed, and come up with something else for my 5.5 year old for that year. I am wishing now, that I had waited with her to begin LHFHG until she was 5.5 years old. Oh well. You took Beyond at half speed with your 5.5 year old, is that right? Was he fine with everything? My concern with starting in Beyond with her at the younger end, is that she won't get the most out of it that she could if I waited a year.
LeAnna
I took LHFHG at half-speed, and I'd planned on doing Beyond half-speed for awhile too - but after a few days of Beyond half-speed, I decided to do it full-speed 4 days a week. We will get a little less than halfway done with Beyond, take the summer off, and then start back up with Beyond next school year, 4 days a week. Then, I am going to start Bigger Hearts half-speed 4 days a week for as long as that's a good fit (we'll do DITHOR 3 days a week though yet). I may go full-speed if he's ready for it, but more than likely Bigger Hearts will be the one that we need to do half-speed because I know it has things my ds will not be ready to do daily.
I need to explain my ds though.
He is my little social pumpkin, and he cannot stand to be off somewhere doing something else, and not receiving his due amount of attention. When I had him doing less school, he was constantly thunking around us with loud toys, whistling at the top of his little lungs, and sharing stories with older brother (who needs his time to finish PHFHG). He also was an early writer and reader. So, after a few days of half-speed I decided it would be easier just to do Beyond full-speed as long as he was ready for it. We took the writing part slowly. He did not copy the poem at all the first few weeks (though we enjoyed the other activities with it). Then, he began by writing 1 line of poem on a few lines I drew far apart on typing paper. I gradually made the width between the lines smaller, and soon he began to write 2 lines each day, then 4 lines each day, and finally he could write 4 lines each day on wide-lined notebook paper. This process took us about 3 1/2 months or so, doing Beyond 4 days a week.
For spelling, he was able to do the lists just fine, but I did do Explode the Code workbooks 1 and 2 with him from about the middle of LHFHG to the end of LHFHG to get him writing simple words more easily in prep for him doing Beyond. As far as writing the sentences for spelling words in Beyond, I first had him write only 1 sentence on K handwriting paper (Miller Pad and Paper has about every size of HW paper). I used the steps in the post I linked below to help him with spacing:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2459&p=18229&hilit= ... nes#p18229
I gradually used smaller HW paper and had him do more sentences, and now he's writing all of the sentences on wide-lined notebook paper just fine.
So, I say all this because if you have a little one going into Beyond on the young side, it will more than likely take a bit to fully do the writing portions. For me, it has been worth helping him the writing and doing Beyond as we are because he really was ready. So, I guess you can weigh whether dd may be able to grow quite quickly into Beyond, in which case you can keep them together and help her grow into it (maybe even have her begin doing a bit more writing each day, even just her name, family members' names, etc. or even Explode the Code Level 1 or 2), and also making sure her reading comprehension is alright, etc. Or, you could just not mess with all of that and instead do Beyond with older ds 4 days a week, and something else with dd. If that is the option you like best, we could talk about that too. I think we could fill in things for her while still moving her on quite easily.
I also wanted to say I like the 4 day a week plan that has been shared here as a solution to those that have a missing year with HOD. We're actually doing that now with Beyond because we were doing it with PHFHG, and it's worked out great. Thanks for sharing that plan - awesome way to fill the extra year easily over time, and give yourselves and your dc a day off each week to boot!
In Christ,
Julie
What to do with that missing year???? How have others thought of working this out?
). Now, I LOVE Beyond, but that may be a bit much for anyone. I apologize for not thinking of this earlier - that's what I get for posting when I'm short on sleep! 
Anyway - I think one the goal of 2 programs - Beyond and LHTH - somehow - would be best. 
By having her listen in on the readings, she'll be gaining in the listening department too, and you won't completely close the door on her rejoining your son.