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I was wondering if anyone has used Beyond w/ their dc in K and 2? I'm trying to combine and this would be the program right between them. Should I go this way, use LHFHG, or use Bigger? (FYI - I have everything but the reading pkgs for the first 2 programs and a few of the books for Bigger.)

K

I am going to be using it this year with a second grader that is 7 and a 5 year old we are calling first. She would not be in first if we did ps but she will turn six mid year. My 5 year old is about 3/4 of the way done with the Reading Lesson and she can write her letters, knows how to do some copywork. I am looking through the manual and I am really thinking she is going to be fine. But I am willing to slow down tweak if need be to keep them together for the long haul becasue I think ultimately it will work for us. I know Julie did Beyond with a 5 year old. I am sure she will answer.

Anyway I think it really matters on where they both fall on the placement chart if it seems like you will be OK with the younger one on the skill set. Try taking an honest look at that and see where they would both fall independently and then look at the overlap to see if Beyond looks like a possibility. My 7 year old would not be ready for Bigger. My 5 year old is just at the tip of Beyond and so it seems like it will work for us. I think taking that honest independent of each other look really helps. Hope you get some better help than this. But good to see you anyway.

water2wine wrote:...I think it really matters on where they both fall on the placement chart if it seems like you will be OK with the younger one on the skill set. Try taking an honest look at that and see where they would both fall independently and then look at the overlap to see if Beyond looks like a possibility. My 7 year old would not be ready for Bigger. My 5 year old is just at the tip of Beyond and so it seems like it will work for us. I think taking that honest independent of each other look really helps. Hope you get some better help than this. But good to see you anyway.

I think this is excellent advice, and this is what I would do in your shoes. If you get a chance to share your thoughts with us after checking out the placement chart, I'd feel better about trying to give you advice about this. Here's a link to the placement chart:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

In Christ,
Julie

I used Beyond with a first and a second grader last year. It really went well. Glad to see you over on this board!

Hi, Ladies~

Ds 6 will be starting K. For everything, he places in LHFHG.
Dd 8 will be starting gr 2. She places in both Beyond and Bigger. She's an emerging reader but is finishing up w/ some phonics. She has been asking to learn cursive and is ready for it. Grammar is borderline - I think she could use a bit more work on the basic parts of speech but she understands the mechanics and usage. I think she could do the gr 2 R+S. I'm not using SM for math so that doesn't apply.

My thought was to use Beyond for both in Bible, History, Science, Storytime, and Poetry + Rhymes. For Reading, Writing, Grammar, and Math I would use either LHFHG or just my own stuff for ds and the gr 2 materials from Beyond.

I'm really trying to make it easier on myself but it's seeming to get harder instead of easier. I so want to use HOD but really can't do separate programs. Would this work?

K


Oh, God is good. I have just been given a Bigger manual to use. Could I do that for dd and have ds "sit in" like I was planning w/ Beyond?

If you can only do one program I would look at Beyond with some modifications for the younger one as you said. You can learn cursive in Beyond if that is what you want. I might consider getting LHFHG the TM, the Singapore math and the Do It Carefully and Finding the Answers and whatever your choice is for phonics such as The Reading Lesson, and handwriting, do the right side of LHFHG for your littlest one except for story time. That has all your LA and math planned out for you for your son. Your daughter does Beyond as written except if you want you do cursive instead which is no big deal at all. Then next year they both do Bigger but you use the right side of Beyond for LA and Math for your son for LA and Math.

Does that work? You are really running just one program but letting Carrie plan out the LA and Math for you on your ds who is below the Beyond level by using the LHFHG plan just on that. I think that might give you what you want. It would be easy and you would have them really in one program. The other option is to do Beyond and you customize LA and math on your own and plan it out for him for this year and next year you still follow the same plan with Bigger but using the right side of Beyond for LA and Math for him. I do hope that makes sense.

I'd do Beyond with both of them, and use LHFHG for your 6 yo's LA and Math. I think this will be a good placement for everyone, and your little one will be getting all of those key skills he needs while still being easy on you as the teacher since it is all planned out already in LHFHG - and it is excellent. I wouldn't have your 6 yo try to do BHFHG. He placed soundly in LHFHG, and BHFHG is such a wonderful program that is worth the wait to be able to do it fully when he's more ready. You will essentially be teaching from one manual (other than for the little guy's LA and math, which you'd have to do to meet his needs no matter what you chose). I wouldn't want either one to miss out on Beyond. It is such a good program, and it is excellent preparation for Bigger Hearts (which would be very difficult for a 6 yo). HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Just as an encouragement. My 7 and 9 year old who did Beyond last year (6 and 8 ) have moved on to Bigger this year. It is working well for both of them. If you start with Beyond for both, you should have a smooth ride combining throughout.

Just thought I'd add my two cents here.

We started school last Monday and the week was awesome!! I have two dd's in Beyond. The oldest is 7 (8 in Jan.) who is "2nd grade" and the younger is 5 (6 in Nov.) who is "K". I have had NO problems with anything so far!! They both LOVE and completely understand the History, Science, Bible, storytime and poems. My 2nd grader is doing awesome!! Everything is right on target for her!! We are doing the emergin readers schedule with her and also reviewing her phonics with the program we used last year. My Kinder. is doing great with it all!! She is doing RME for phonics (she can already read quite a bit on her own) but is not doing any spelling or copywork from Beyond. I felt that those two things were above her level right now. We are not using Singapore this year and for her copywork we are using a Beatrix Potter set that I purchase online. It's perfect for her because she starts out by tracing over all the copywork assignments for a while then she moves on to writing them herself later on. She LOVES this and NEVER complains about doing it. I let her use markers and she enjoys that!

I plan on stretching both Beyond and Bigger out over the next three years just so I can keep the girls together. It works out great and when we get to Preparing they will both fit in the age range with my oldest using the extention packs. (I love the way the programs are set up like that!!)

I believe that Beyond will work extremely well with K and 2nd grade children!! If at anytime you notice your little one not understanding you can slow it down while still keeping her Phonics and math at the regular pace as those are not so vital to the lesson plans. This is an extremely flexible program!! Pray, ask the Lord for guidance and sit back and enjoy HOD...it's going to be a lovely ride!!

[quote="my3sons"]I wouldn't have your 6 yo try to do BHFHG. He placed soundly in LHFHG, and BHFHG is such a wonderful program that is worth the wait to be able to do it fully when he's more ready. You will essentially be teaching from one manual (other than for the little guy's LA and math, which you'd have to do to meet his needs no matter what you chose). I wouldn't want either one to miss out on Beyond. It is such a good program, and it is excellent preparation for Bigger Hearts (which would be very difficult for a 6 yo). [quote="my3sons"] I totally agree with Julie on this one!!

Thanks for your help, ladies. I really appreciate it.

K

Hi Krissy,

So are you saying that your plan is to take 1 1/2 years to do Beyond and 1 1/2 years to do Bigger? I have two girls who are 2 1/2 and 4 right now doing LHTH, and I'm trying to figure out how I can work it out for them to do the HOD guides together without too much going over my younger dd's head. No way will my 2 year old be ready for LHFHG next year, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to take a year break and do something else....I'm considering GTG.....and then come back and do LHFHG when my oldest is 6 for 1st and my middle child is 4 1/2. That would put them in Beyond at the same ages you are doing it, 7 and 5 1/2. Please keep me posted on how this is working out for you! I am still wondering how it will work out as they get into the older guides, which is why I was wondering about your plan to stretch Beyond and Bigger out.

busybee4 wrote:Just thought I'd add my two cents here.

We started school last Monday and the week was awesome!! I have two dd's in Beyond. The oldest is 7 (8 in Jan.) who is "2nd grade" and the younger is 5 (6 in Nov.) who is "K". I have had NO problems with anything so far!! They both LOVE and completely understand the History, Science, Bible, storytime and poems. My 2nd grader is doing awesome!! Everything is right on target for her!! We are doing the emergin readers schedule with her and also reviewing her phonics with the program we used last year. My Kinder. is doing great with it all!! She is doing RME for phonics (she can already read quite a bit on her own) but is not doing any spelling or copywork from Beyond. I felt that those two things were above her level right now. We are not using Singapore this year and for her copywork we are using a Beatrix Potter set that I purchase online. It's perfect for her because she starts out by tracing over all the copywork assignments for a while then she moves on to writing them herself later on. She LOVES this and NEVER complains about doing it. I let her use markers and she enjoys that!

I plan on stretching both Beyond and Bigger out over the next three years just so I can keep the girls together. It works out great and when we get to Preparing they will both fit in the age range with my oldest using the extention packs. (I love the way the programs are set up like that!!)

I believe that Beyond will work extremely well with K and 2nd grade children!! If at anytime you notice your little one not understanding you can slow it down while still keeping her Phonics and math at the regular pace as those are not so vital to the lesson plans. This is an extremely flexible program!! Pray, ask the Lord for guidance and sit back and enjoy HOD...it's going to be a lovely ride!!

my3sons wrote:I wouldn't have your 6 yo try to do BHFHG. He placed soundly in LHFHG, and BHFHG is such a wonderful program that is worth the wait to be able to do it fully when he's more ready. You will essentially be teaching from one manual (other than for the little guy's LA and math, which you'd have to do to meet his needs no matter what you chose). I wouldn't want either one to miss out on Beyond. It is such a good program, and it is excellent preparation for Bigger Hearts (which would be very difficult for a 6 yo).

my3sons wrote: I totally agree with Julie on this one!!

Jennifer,

This is the plan the I came up with: (read carefully it's kind of confusing )

2009/2010 - ages 5 (6 in Nov.) and 7 (8 in Jan.); Kindergarten and 2nd grade: 18 units of Beyond @ half speed (32 weeks of HOD).

2010/2011 - ages 6 (7 in Nov.) and 8 (9 in Jan.); 1st and 3rd grades: 8 units of Beyond at half speed ( Aug-Dec.); 8 units of Beyond at full speed (Jan-Mar '11); 5 units of Bigger at half speed (Mar. - June '11). Begin DITHOR with 3rd grader. (34 weeks of HOD)

2011/2012 - ages 7 (8 in Nov.) and 9 (10 in Jan.); 2nd and 4th grades; 29 units of Bigger at full speed continuing DITHOR and Extension pack for 4th grader. (29 weeks of school w/HOD but other subjects will continue...we may add special projects to finish out the year as well.)

2012/2013 - ages 8 (9 in Nov.) and 10 (11 in Jan.) 3rd and 5th grades; Preparing at full speed adding DITHOR for 3rd grader and DITHOR and Extension pack for 5th grader. etc.

I may have some tweaking to do as we go along as far as how many units we do at half speed and how many we do at regular pace (we like to keep 4 day weeks around here though) but this is what I could come up with. I hope that it makes some sense!! It took me a while to understand how to get this plan nailed down...I sat with calendars for 3 school years and the catalog so I could compare grades/ages and materials covered for hours before I was able to finalize this.

Here are the age ranges according to the manual: Beyond 6-8; Bigger 7-9 w/ extensions for 10 & 11; Preparing 8-10 w/ extensions for 11 & 12. The plan that I came up with allows for both of them to fall very nicely into the age ranges I think! My youngest will be in the middle of the ranges and my oldest will be at the end but able to use the extension pack! *sigh* I just love HOD!!!

Right now half speed is working wonderfully for us!! My kiddos are still young so they are enjoying having plenty of time to play! And I am also learning that slow is best...at least for us! Like today for instance; we did phonics/reading and math and they were done for the day. They loved it!! We do three units one week and two the next. I may not be doing "half speed" like it's suppose to be done but I've enjoyed our relaxed schedule. And if I find that the children can handle going faster we will speed it up when necessary.

Beyond really is perfect for both of my dd's!! The Lord really blessed our curriculum choices this year as well as the laying out of the school year!

I hope that you can understand some of that! Let me know if you have anymore questions!!! HTH!! Oh, My younger dd was bearly able to keep up with LHFHG last year....sometimes she was into it and other times she could have cared less! I know it depends on the child but your dd will most likely not be ready for it next year! Take it slow! You might even be able to spread LHTH out over two years You could always add more work for your oldest but at least they would still be able to start together in LHFHG. Just a thought!!

by the way...we are trying out schooling year round this year...9 weeks on 2 weeks off with 7 between each year...

Thanks for sharing this! I'm going to study it later when I have more time. Can you tell me what ages your daughters were when they did LHFHG and you said your youngest struggled through it? Did you do it at full speed or stretch it out? Thanks!

We began our year last year in June because I was expecting and the baby was due in Oct. I wanted to get a good chunck of school done so that I could take a good amount of time off without having to worry about being behind. Anyway, my youngest dd was 4 ( 5 in Nov.) (Pre-K) and my oldest was 6 (7 in Jan.) 1st grade. They loved the storytime, Bible/history and activities but when it came to working in the workbooks my youngest didn't last too long. She didn't take to the fine motor skills books (which I was disappointed about because I loved those books ) She loved math however!! There were just days when she just didn't care to join in and "do school" with us...which I didn't push because she was young and we hadn't started "officially schooling her" anyway.

To be honest with you after the baby was born our lives were so crazy that we only got to the basics...math, phonics/reading...so we didn't finish the entire manual for LHFHG. I had thought about repeating it but my oldest needed something a little more so we went with Beyond (she actually used the right-side of the Beyond manual last year but this year we will be repeating it just with the 2nd spelling list.)

I have had NO problems with my youngest this year! Nothing is above her level on the left-hand side of the page so far. I am not having her finish the fine motor skills book from LHFHG because she doesn't care for them and is getting fine motor skill practice from the RME workbooks. She is learning right a long with big sis and is loving it!! What a difference a year makes!!

I will pray that you can figure out a schedule for your dd's!! I know how much easier it is when we can keep our dc together!! Unfortunatley my youngest two are 3 years apart so I won't be able to keep them together but I am glad that things are working so well for my oldest two.

Let me know if you have any more questions!!


Blessings!!

I understand about babies changing up the school routine, lol. I actually bought LHTH at the end of last year and did it for awhile, but I was big time pregnant and I just got tired and put it away. My middle daughter wasn't even two yet, and she wasn't quite ready for it. Then I had my baby in March, and at 5 1/2 months old now things are back to normal around here and I'm trying LHTH again. It's working out great! My 2 year old is actually 2 1/2 now, and boy what a difference these months have made. She is very bright....talks at the level of a 4 year old like her sister (so the pediatrician tells me!) and she loves to do all the crafts and even the extra fine motor skills worksheets I throw in every once in awhile. I don't think the workbook stuff will be an issue for her....I was mainly concerned about the history and/or read alouds going over her head. I guess I'm just going to quit trying to plan everything out, lol, and just see how this year pans out and where they are at skill wise next spring! I definitely feel like I will need to hold off on LHFHG next year if I want to keep them together, as my 2 year old will only be 3 1/2 then.