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A few questions....
As it is looking, and I don't see any way around it. ... It is looking like we will be finishing HOD at the end of our 7th
grade year, instead of 8th. So... my question is are any of you doing the same, and do you know what you are going to be using for your 8th grade year? Carrie, do you have any ideas for this too?

I was looking at trying to drag my feet and do everything 4 days a week and start each new year with a little bit of the last years book, but I just don't know for sure. I know that I have a ways to go, but planning this with a year gap, is kind of hard.

As it looks right now, I am finishing up LHFHG with my 5 1/2 year old and 6 1/2 year old. The older will be able to move on with no problem, but my younger, I just don't see her ready to move on to Beyond. I have thought about going slower, but there are so many things that she doesn't seem like she can understand fully, or be mature enough for yet. And, techniqually, she will be in K this fall, so I don't really want to push it too much. My question is should I wait a year until Beyond with her? If I do that, I will eventually, have one is LHFHG, one in Beyond and one Bigger all at the same time. Is that manageable? I want her to be able to get the most out of the program, so I am just frustrated as to what to do. And, then if I don't do Beyond with her, then what do I do?

LeAnna

Ya know, I was wondering the same thing...... What to do with that missing year???? How have others thought of working this out?

Hey gals - you know a million things could happen between then and now - but I'm a planner as well and can see where you are coming from! I'm planning on going half-speed with Bigger Hearts - probably taking 2 years to do it. Riley (6 yo) is on the young age end of the guides, and I can tell he'll need to take Bigger Hearts half-speed because it is a guide that has quite a few introductory skills in it. With my older ds, he will probably just graduate a year early - but who knows? I may slow down with him if he needs to - right now, he's going great guns and has no need to slow down. We'll see! Otherwise, I believe Carrie is thinking she will share suggestions as well.

In Christ,
Julie

LeAnna,

I know that you're already through LHFHG, so this may not help you as much. But, I'm thinking that I'm going to do a 4-day schedule with the 1st 3 guides for Allison. Grant will already be in Preparing, so he'll already be on a 4-day schedule, so we'll just match that with the littler ones. This will almost buy me that year, and like Julie mentioned...you just never know what will happen along the way.

Kathleen

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 have been pondering this question for some time now and have come up with a solution. My dd, will be finishing up LHFHG by June and after this we will be doing the next two guides on a 4 day a week schedule, this will allow us to complete them over three years and be done with Preparing by the end fourth grade rather than third grade. My dd, is 5 now and would be doing K this year if she was in public school, this plan will put her at the same grade level as other kids her age and it will allow us more flexibility in our scheduling. By spreading Beyond and Bigger out over three years, I will also be able to throw in some fun unit studies or lapbooks in order to give her 34-36 weeks of school per year. I hope this helps.

Nancy

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

Thank you Julie, for explaining all of what you do. My younger one is a wiggle worm, and hasn't been comprehending very well with LHFHG. That accompanied with needing to do A Reason For Handwriting A.... I think I am liking the idea of doing Beyond with my older (6.5)-- 4 days a week and something else for my younger (5.5)... Just to help her move easier into Beyond the following year. I hate to separate them being so close in age, but just going by how she is doing now in comprehension and writing, I just don't think she is going to ready to even move on to 4 days a week. I would much rather her get more out of the program and have her work more smoothly into Beyond and be ready for Bigger.
I will definitely be doing the 4 day a week plan from Beyond through Preparing. That will help a lot!!! And, keep me from going crazy about that 1 empty year!!
What are your suggestions then for Audrey for this fall? I know I am going to go ahead with Singapore Primary 1A and 1B, and we are working through the Reading Lesson with no problems. I am also going to have her do A Reason For Handwriting A. I was thinking maybe I would have her work through the Thinking Skills for Grade 1 from LHFHG, since we are finishing with the other ones from there. I just don't know what to do for science or history. I know I probably don't need much, but do you have any suggestions for anything that I could do with her?

Thank you so much,
LeAnna

LeAnna wrote:Thank you Julie, for explaining all of what you do. My younger one is a wiggle worm, and hasn't been comprehending very well with LHFHG. That accompanied with needing to do A Reason For Handwriting A.... I think I am liking the idea of doing Beyond with my older (6.5)-- 4 days a week and something else for my younger (5.5)... Just to help her move easier into Beyond the following year. I hate to separate them being so close in age, but just going by how she is doing now in comprehension and writing, I just don't think she is going to ready to even move on to 4 days a week. I would much rather her get more out of the program and have her work more smoothly into Beyond and be ready for Bigger.
I will definitely be doing the 4 day a week plan from Beyond through Preparing. That will help a lot!!! And, keep me from going crazy about that 1 empty year!!
What are your suggestions then for Audrey for this fall? I know I am going to go ahead with Singapore Primary 1A and 1B, and we are working through the Reading Lesson with no problems. I am also going to have her do A Reason For Handwriting A. I was thinking maybe I would have her work through the Thinking Skills for Grade 1 from LHFHG, since we are finishing with the other ones from there. I just don't know what to do for science or history. I know I probably don't need much, but do you have any suggestions for anything that I could do with her?

Thank you so much,
LeAnna

LeAnna -

I'm revising my post here because as I reread your original post, I realize my suggestions here won't really help you! You will actually have the exact problem you were trying to avoid... you'll be teaching 3 HOD programs in the very near future. Also, I've really thought hard about this, and anything I try mish-mashing together in an effort to help you is not going to be as good as just doing an HOD program - whether it be at half-speed, full-speed, combined, or not combined. So, I have reread past posts and thought and thought about this... and I think you should either go half-speed with your ds and dd in Beyond - keeping in mind all of the things you and I have already chatted about with adjustments - or I think you should work toward combining your 3 yo and 5 yo in a program. Would LHTH (with phonics and math added for Audrey) for the 2 of them next year work? I think the end goal should be to do LHTH and Beyond at the same time - with Audrey doing either one. That way, you will only ever be running 2 HOD programs at once, and you will have a year off between them (i.e. the next year, you would be teaching LHFHG and Bigger Hearts). I have really appreciated being able to switch programs like this. I realize it would not be a perfect fit for everyone - but I agree with your goal not to be doing 3 HOD programs when your dc are really close enough in age to combine. I think you would feel refreshed to begin each year, rather than being on the cycle to always be redoing a program you taught the year before - you would actually be teaching the same HOD program 3 years in a row (i.e. Beyond this year with older ds, Beyond next year with younger dd, Beyond the following year with youngest ). 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.

In Christ,
Julie

Oh Julie! That sounds perfect! I had been pondering this over and over in my head ...and out loud to my husband. I feel so much better about this now! Thank you! I think we will do just the things you have listed for this fall, and then move on to Beyond, the following year with no problems.
Thank you,
LeAnna

Wonderful! Having a plan in place makes everything feel better - so glad you feel good about this, LeAnna - your children are blessed to have parents weigh so carefully what they do. That is well worth the time and effort - it is, after all, a year of their lives and of yours as well. Blessings!

In Christ,
Julie

Just to give you another option....

We are probably going to be done with the guides in 7th grade also. I'm hoping Carrie will end up writing more guides , but in case she doesn't my plan is to take that 8th grade year and do some kind of geography/culture study like Sonlight Core 5, WP Children Around the World, MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures, something like that.

Thank you Stephanie! I was thinking about that too.

LeAnna

LeAnna,

The ladies have done a terrific job of tossing out options for you. It sounds like you are well on your way to having a great plan for the upcoming year. You may also wish to consider having your daughter listen in on the history readings in Beyond and reading aloud the Storytime from Beyond at lunch to both kiddos, because your daughter may actually surprise you in her growth. If so, there's always a chance she could still combine with your son when she's ready. Kiddos gain so much in 6 months. 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. Just something to consider.

If she's not ready for listening in on these areas, no worries. She'll be getting enough with your plan as you have it laid out.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks Carrie! I was thinking about doing some of the Beyond Storytime with Audrey, but wanted to save some books for storytime, once she gets into Beyond. I was thinking of mixing up between the Classic and the Girls set and divide them up between the two. So, Olivia would get some different ones with Beyond that Audrey could listen in on. Then, when I put Audrey in Beyond the following year, she could have a different set of books.... something fresh and new. Do you think that is doable?
I think my plan is this for Audrey....
Math: Singapore Primary 1A and 1B
Phonics: Finishing the Reading Lesson and moving on to Emerging Readers
Handwriting: A Reason For Handwriting A
Science: My Father's World mixed with One Small Square Backyard
Thinking Skills Grade 1
Storytime: Mix and Match of Beyond's books... whatever Olivia will be using
Also, combining The Egermeier's Bible with Little Songs for Little Souls.... maybe just have her listen in on Beyond History or we are also working on Lapbooking the Little House on the Prairie series.... either or... not sure yet.
And, then I think the following year, she will have matured enough and be capable at doing Beyond just the way it is, and then do fine in Bigger down the road as well

LeAnna