heartofdakota.com

Hello! I have an almost 6 year old who is working on MFW 1st grade, we are about half way through but I am looking forward to next year. She is ALMOST done with phonics. If I look on the charts, it LOOKS like beyond may be a good fit, but I still am not sure. Her reading is still kind of choppy and slow. Which is okay, I dont want to push her, but its not fluent, if you know what I mean. She loves to listen to chapter books and would probably sit for a whole book if I would read it. She can copy about two sentances of copywork at a sitting. She knows that you start a sentence with a capitol letter and end with a period, a bit about contractions and compound words. (Everytime she finds a compound word she comes and tells me about it!) As far as her math skills go, she will use concrete objects like stuffed animals to show me adding and subtracting problems and can almost count up to 100 by 1's and 5's and 10's with only an error here or there. We are doing Guest Hollows "Little Otters Science" about the human body and she pretty much begs me to do more and more of it. I keep going back and forth and back and forth over which guide to chose, LHFHG or Beyond? Another thing I was worried about is that with the history readings, I dont know how I will keep her from "just" reading two or three pages at a time. She'd want to hear it all right away, I know because I have the "Little Pilgrims" book and she cannot get enough of it, I had to HIDE it!!
Please give me some suggestions!! Thank you! Jennifer

Beyond sounds like a good fit for her but perhaps you could continue some phonics instruction if you don't feel like she is ready for the emerging readers yet. I'd have her take the placement test at Singapore to find out which level she is ready for. That is, if you are planning on using Singapore.

Thank you for your reply! Anyone else who has HOD experience?

Hi! My son was six at the beginning of this last year and we began with Beyond. He knew pretty much what you are saying that your daughter knows. He did fine. I did not do the emerging reader set. We just stuck with phonics and the readers that we had. Next year we will be doing Bigger and it also has plans for the emerging reader set. The grammar in Beyond is very light, but enough for this age. It also has spelling lists for 1st and 2nd grade. It is a great program!

I think Beyond would be a good fit. If she completes MFW 1st, she should be fine with the emerging readers. They should actually cement her reading skills. Keeping to the shorter readings that correlate with activities really increases retention, so you may just have to be firm, stop the readings, and keep the excitement high for the next day. We really enjoyed Beyond last year. If you do need additional phonics, Explode the Code might be a good pick. Have fun deciding.

Thank you everyone for the good advice. Like I said, we are only half way through MFW 1st grade, so she does have time. I am just so excitedd about HOD that I cant wait to order it!

Hi Jennifer! I totally agree with these wise ladies - your dd sounds like a perfect fit with Beyond! We are on are second trip through Beyond with our second ds, and loving every minute of it. It is perfect for that age - just enough fun hands-on balanced with the right amount of academics. The gentle grammar was a great introduction, and the spelling and copywork are done in bite-sized ways that make it appropriate for that age. The history and science readings were meaty, but just enough length for that age. I think it is really important not to get ahead in the readings because it throws off the whole day's plan - which is one reason we all LOVE HOD - because the guide is open and go, and the plans are on a nifty 2-page spread. With the living books we're using, I like to keep the anticipation high and keep them wanting more, and that's what the shorter readings have done for our dc - they cannot wait to start school the next day! I think you'll find that to be such a breath of fresh air as well. I'm very excited for you to begin your journey with HOD - be sure to share your box day with us, we love to share in the excitement!

In Christ,
Julie

Jennifer,

I'm late to this thread, but I just wanted to pop-in and welcome you to the HOD board! We're glad you're here! I agree with the ladies that Beyond sounds like a good fit for your little honey.

We look forward to getting to know you better.

Blessings,
Carrie

I just wanted to chime in (late) and add that I also think Beyond sounds perfect! I'm using it with my dd who is almost 6 (we started really early on LHFHG so she's on the young side for this guide) and she's doing really well with it. It's been a perfect fit. Your daughter sounds like she's at a similar place in her reading skills as mine is. We added some more phonics because I didn't feel like she was quite ready for the emerging readers yet. And as it was mentioned, the emerging reader's set continues in Bigger so that's always an option for later. We're doing the math in Beyond, but we're considerably further in the guide for math then we are for the history etc. I think she's doing Unit 6 for history etc. and Unit 18 for math. That's what's nice about HOD, it's very flexible and you can tailor it to fit your child without it being a lot of extra work or hassle, and the program still works beatifully.