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My 5 1/2 year old is doing beyond with my soon to be 8 year old. He can do the copy work, but I've put him back on just handwriting cause he really needs the practise. He's doing great on spelling list 1 and does SM 1A with ease. I'm just concerned I'm pushing him too fast. I know I did earlier. I made him do saxon 1 (K bored him to tears) and saxon phonics K which, IMO, just squashes the love of reading. I feel I turned him off of learning. He is coming around though. I see posts about the 'fun' of little hearts. DS really does seem to be enjoying beyond and as I said, I just cut out the 1 part that was too hard. He participates in LHTH with our 3 y.o. Is he missing anything from LHFHG?

I wouldn't necessarily say he is missing something by not doing LHFHG. I will tell you this my son also has done Saxon phonics at school and it does squash the love of reading. I too debated about whether to put him in LHFHG or BLHFHG and decided to do LHFHG b/c I so want him to love coming home to school and for it to go well. His handwriting is horrible though and we have a lot of work to do with it. I haven't done beyond, but LHFHG is perfect for a small boy. We are afterschooling and have only made it to Unit 3, but he loves to school with Mom as he calls it and is counting down the days until public school lets out. It is just the right amount of school work and play and I can not tell you how much we LOVE the Thornton Burgess books (my 7 dd sits in on them they are that great).
It sounds to me like you are doing what would be the 1st grade options for LHFHG already with Beyond (handwriting, Math 1a & 1B). All you would be adding with LHFHG would be the Thinking Skills Grade 1 and the Storytime (Thornton Burgess books). LHFHG doesn't have spelling yet. Is he already doing the emergent readers? They aren't in LHFHG either. You would still be doing BLHFHG for that part if he is already reading them.
I also think I would look at it from the perspective of whether or not he was going to move up to Bigger with the 8 yr old. If I thought that he was going to need 2 years in BLHFHG and I wouldn't be combining them in Bigger the next year anyway, then I would seriously consider doing LHFHG with the 1st grade options and continuing the spelling list from BLHFHG. I would look at the introduction and first week of Bigger and then I would really evaluate whether I thought my then 6 1/2 year old would be ready for it in a year. I would also look at the first week and introduction for LHFHG and see if it was something I could fit into my day running LHTH and BLHFHG also.

He's enjoying story time in Beyond. I should pick up that grade 1 skills books, that's a good idea. He's still on phonics. We've just moved into silent E in the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Tecahing Reading. I would imagine he'll be on emergent readers by Christmas. We're only on unit 3 now, but he did understand the day 5 LA stuff about fragments and run-ons. I will have to have a look at Bigger to see what I think of next year for him. Then plan is to keep them together if possible.

Mumkins,

I read your post with interest. I'm just curious. How far are you in Beyond? What unit are you on?

Joy

We just started. Today is Unit 3 day 2.

Ok, so you aren't very far into Beyond. That's good to know.

You wondered if your son would be missing any "fun" if he skipped LHFHG. I wish to reply to that.

I am currently doing Little Hearts with my 5, 6 and 7 year old. Technically, all of my children placed into Beyond, but my plan was to use this program for the long run. Plus, I really need to combine for convenience sake, and I have two more coming up in the ranks, not to mention my other responsibilities around the house....we're all busy, right?

We are in Unit 32 and the children *STILL* ask to do HOD first thing every day. That is such a great testimony in and of itself! We do the left side of the page together, and storytime. They work at their own level in all other subjects.

The children have enjoyed every aspect of LHFHG. Our biggest accomplishment this year was learning how to narrate. The Burgess Thornton books are perfect for that purpose, because there is review built into the beginning of each chapter. Plus, as an additional bonus, they are great for teaching character. We have had many wonderful discussions from these stories.

I love the Devotions for the Children's Hour, and I think this book is worth it's weight in gold. I have an older version of the book, and in it, there is a Note to Mother and Dad. It ends by saying, and I quote, "These lessons should be used more than once. Spurgeon tells us that in planting beans the old practice was to put three in each hole; one for the worm, one for the crow, and one to live and produce a crop. In teaching children we must give line upon line and precept upon precept, repeating the truth which we would teach until it becomes impossible for the child to forget". I say amen, amen to that. I just love how this program has such a strong Biblical foundation.

My kids love the rhymes in motion. We just don't do the one for the week, but we also do several others. I know they don't work for every family.

There are additional books listed in the appendix to go with every unit. I try to check these out of the library for my oldest. She enjoys extra books and reads many of them on her own.

I'm sure I am forgetting to mention a few things. Oh, my two youngest love the 1st grade thinking skills book.

This year has been a dream come true. I can't praise this program enough. Something to think about, and this is my only hesitation in my post. Do you really want to do three programs? Yes, I highly recommend LHFHG for your son, but it's great to combine children too.

I can see why you might be concerned about advancing into Bigger at such a young age. I have both the Beyond and Bigger manuels, and that's just what I see.

Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you either way!

Joy

Val and Joy have done such a great job of talking through this wit you. I do think LHFHG is a wonderful program, but I know you'd like to combine, and your dc really are close enough in age to do so. If the only thing your younger one is putting on hold doing with Beyond is the copywork, I think you can continue with it quite happily. Have you though about doing Beyond 4 days a week and taking a bit longer to go through it that way? Also, when you reach Bigger Hearts, you can do it half-speed and add in any of Beyond's right side of plans that fit your younger ds better. As has already been said, if you're thinking by Bigger Hearts to separate them anyway, you may as well separate them now. However, in the long term, if combining is important for you to be able to do, I'd keep them together in Beyond because it will put you on a nice pace to combine. You can always slow a program down - there are extensions in every program beginning with Bigger Hearts, so you can slow it down and extend for your older at any point to keep it also appropriate for your younger. With 2 more precious ones on the way to being homeschooled, I think I'd try to keep your older 2 as a pair, and your younger 2 as a pair, running 2 HOD programs. But, you will know best!

In Christ,
Julie