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Hi, I'm completely new to Heart of Dakota. I'm planning to use it next year with my 5 & 7 year old sons.

Using the placement chart, my 7 year old places in Beyond. My 5 year old places in Little Hearts.

I'm considering using the left page stuff of Little Hearts for His Glory with both of them. Then use the right page of Little Hearts with my 5 year old. But the 7 year old would use the right page of Beyond with the Classic Set of books for storytime. I was thinking to also start with the Emerging Readers for the 7 year old, but probably start about in the middle then move him up to Level 2 when he's ready.

Is this a good plan or no?

Thanks!
Joy

I'm pretty new here, so maybe others with more experience will chime in too. However, from what little I have learned since I've been on this board, I would do EXACTLY what you are doing if my children were in the same situation! LHFHG is wonderful, and both of your children will learn so much from the history, science, Bible, etc. Then, doing "the basics" at there level will make it a perfect fit for both of them.

I have a 5 and 7 year old and we are doing all of LHFHG together. The only exception is I bought the Beyond book for the emerging readers with my 7 year old. My theory was I want to keep them together as much as possible and not do two curriculums. We do alot of extra reading of great classics on our own so I wasn't too concerned with the story time being meater in Beyond than the Burgess Books of LHFHG and my 7 year old "missing out" on something.

LHFHG is a great curriculum and i"m glad we decided to do it in it"s entirety this year. Now we will be doing Beyond together next year and my 8 year old (2nd grade) will be doing the harder spelling words and my 6 year old (1st grade) will be doing the easier spelling words.

Anyways...that's my two cents for what it's worth!

I agree with the others, it sounds like a great plan.

Welcome to HOD!

Do you think your seven year old would be OK with the LHFHG story books? That way, they could both listen to the read alouds from Beyond together next year.

Joy,

Welcome to the board! I think your plan sounds great. I agree with 8arrows on the storytime. If your 7 year old could listen in to the LHFHG readings, you could save the rest of the Beyond readings for the next year. If, however, you are a reading loving family, and want to read-aloud LHFHG storytime and Beyond storytime, then dive on in to the Storytime in Beyond too.

It will work well to do the last half of the Emerging Reader's Set for your 7 year old and then move into Level 2/3 of Drawn into the Heart of Reading for the rest of the year (with the Level 2 books). You'll also want to use the Spelling List 1 or 2 for your 7 year old as scheduled on the right side of Beyond and most likely do the gentle grammar lessons on Day 5 as scheduled in Beyond for your 7 year old too. If you're using Singpore Math, then you can use the 1A/1B or 2A/2B as scheduled in Beyond as well.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks for the help. I do know my 7 year old loves Burgess books so I'm sure he would listen in to the LHFHG readings. I just thought the added genre readings with the Classic books and narration questions with Beyond's right page would beef up the program for him. Then year after that, when we do the history part of Beyond, we could use the Boy Interest set with both boys, was my thought. By the way, I really like the variety of reading lists and will make it fun, fresh programs to redo with my girls later with the Girl Interest sets. Yes, we are a book loving family!

Thank you for the reassurances that I'm on the right track. I didn't want to overwhelm us with too much to do but did want it to be the right level for each boy. For my 7 year old, we will do the Spelling (probably the first list as we haven't done any spelling this year for 1st grade), the grammar (haven't done any grammar yet either), and Singapore 1A/1B with the activities in Beyond. I was planning to save the science in Beyond until next year, as we already have science stuff we are really enjoying, but everything else I'll do as planned. Hopefully!

I'm so excited that I'll have to restrain myself from starting before we move this summer. I'm glad to have a good plan in place that we can start as soon as the moving/unpacking is somewhat settled.

Thanks again,
Joy

Joy - I just got the chance to read your post, and it has all been figured out already! WOO HOO! I would have advised you to do EXACTLY what you have just described. Enjoy! LHFHG is great fun, and the right side of Beyond sounds like just the right amount of "upping the level" for your 7 yo. Be sure to share your "box day" with us - it's an HOD tradition!

In Christ,
Julie

Box day is today! Yay! I'm excitedly looking through it all. Fun

Hooray, Joy! Have fun going through your box!

In Christ,
Julie

yay! box day is so much fun!

Hi Joy,

I am pretty much in your same situation this year. My oldest daughter turned 7 in Nov. and is in first grade, and my younger daughter is 5 (will be 6 June 25th) and is in Kindergarten. With both girls we're doing LHFHG and on the right side of BLHFHG the Emerging Readers, Language Arts spelling and grammar. With my oldest daughter we're doing math from BLHFHG also. My oldest daughter is also doing A Reason for Handwriting level B book since we haven't been doing the copywork in BLHFHG.

When we start BLHFHG, on the right side we'll do the Language Arts copywork that we haven't been doing, DITHOR, and storytime. My younger will be doing the BLHFHG math and my older will be doing BHFHG math. I'll also add in more grammar from BHFHG and Cheerful Cursive for older daughter.

HOD has been working out really well for us. Sounds like your plan will work perfectly for you as well. And my 7 year old loves the storytime from LHFHG. I've been trying to do as much with them together as I possibly can. With two other little ones running around, the easier I can make things on myself the better. It looks like our kids are pretty much the same age, so you understand.

Hi April,

Thanks for sharing how you did this year. That's encouraging for me to see this working for someone else with 2 younger siblings tagging along. It has sure been a challenge this year trying to teach just the 1 and deal with all the interruptions of the other 3.

It does sound like our kids are very similar ages. My youngest is also named Bethany, only Bethany Hope instead of Bethany Joy. All your children have great names. My other daughter's middle name is Grace.

It's nice to "meet" you here.

Thanks,
Joy

Joy,

I'm so glad you received your box and are enjoying looking through all of your items! There's nothing like receiving a box full of great books.

Blessings,
Carrie