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Tonight I found my old catalog and was flipping through it, and I was thinking on how I wanted to go through the rest of this year and next. Since I just started BLHFHG( this week)with my dg 6 and 7, and had planned to finish out the year doing 4 days a week.... My question is, will that be okay if I keep that plan for next year too, using BLHFHG. That will take me 3/4 of the way into next year, right? That would put my oldest at finishing a little after she turns 8. Will I be okay to keep everything the same, or do I need to add DITHOR for her next year, even though I am using BLHFHG. Since she will be 2nd grade next year, too, do I need to add in the Rod and Staff english?

I think it would help my younger to go at that speed, but I want to keep my older daughter challenged too. I would love to hear any ideas that you have!

Thanks!
LeAnna

LeAnna,

I agree that it would work fine to go 4 days a week next year too, but you are right that you will want to look at adding DITHR (whenever your daughter is through the Emerging Reader's Set) and also will want to add Rod and Staff English 2 (when she is a third grader). When she is a third grader, you'll also want to move onto the dictation passages within Bigger Hearts.

One other thing to make sure that you are doing is to do math 5 days a week (by the time your daughter is a second grader). In that way, she won't be behind in math as she moves through the levels.

Blessings,
Carrie

Okay, yes, she will be doing math 5 days a week. I think I am going to go ahead and work through BLHFHG 5 days a week until school is out for the summer, then pick it back up the next fall, work through through the rest of it either 4 days or 5 days a week, and then move right on to Bigger 4 days a week.... using DITHOR with older dd. As far as having one in 2nd grade and one in 1st then, with Bigger, what would I do for English, if I wait until 3rd? If I finish the Emerging Readers with my dd, then 1st grade, I wouldn't want to move her too fast into DITHOR, would I? Would one year of say, reading the level 2 books, be good for her?

Thanks!
LeAnna

If dc do well with the Emerging Reader's Set, I'd say they are probably ready for DITHOR 2/3 upon finishing it. Will your dd be 7 yo then? If she's 6 yo, you could begin DITHOR slowly, going through the Level 2 DITHOR Book Pack (or books of your own choosing) more slowly. If she's 7 yo (the youngest starting age suggested for DITHOR), but writing is a barrier to doing DITHOR 2/3, I wouldn't hesitate to do the writing for her for awhile, as this allows dc to show their comprehension of what's read without writing. Or, if she's capable of the writing but is hung up on the spelling, write it for her on a markerboard for her to copy from into her DITHOR Student Book.

In Christ,
Julie

Julie,
Both girls will be about just turned 7 and 8 (1st and 2nd) when we start Beyond. By slowly going through DITHOR, how would you suggest? One or two days a week? Should I plan on going the same pace for both girls? Do you have in suggestions on how I should approach LA... just stick to spelling for another year, or start Rod and Staff English 2 with the older?

LeAnna

Carrie or Julie,

What too, would be your suggestion for Bigger Handwriting for my dd6, who will be tech. 1st grade? I don't feel she is quite ready for cursive... although I think she would like to be.

Thank you,
LeAnna

LeAnna wrote:Julie,
Both girls will be about just turned 7 and 8 (1st and 2nd) when we start Beyond. By slowly going through DITHOR, how would you suggest? One or two days a week? Should I plan on going the same pace for both girls? Do you have in suggestions on how I should approach LA... just stick to spelling for another year, or start Rod and Staff English 2 with the older?

LeAnna

If they are 7 and 8 and are ready for DITHOR full-time along with the writing, I'd just start it as is. If they need some time to grow into it, we have gotten Book Pack 2, and are going slowly through it, since my ds was 6 yo when we finished the Emerging Reader's Set. My ds reads a bit to me every day (about 2-4 pages), as I think this is important for my ds and his growing reading fluency and comprehension. We are probably going about half-speed at this time, taking twice as long with a DITHOR title as the regular pacing would take. We read every day, but we do the DITHOR instruction from the TG every other day, or a little each day, and I do the writing for the most part. We are enjoying this laid back approach and will continue it until next year when we do Bigger Hearts full-speed.

As far as your older dd, she could do either the spelling list or the R & S English 2. I would base it on how well she writes, and also on whether you enjoy doing grammar earlier or later. We loved the grammar lessons in Beyond, so if she hasn't had any grammar as of yet, you may want to just do those. Or, you could easily stretch out R & S English 2 over 2 years, and begin it this year, doing it only every other day. I would also base this somewhat on her comfort with writing as this becomes more and more a part of grammar, though much can be done on markerboards (things like diagramming which starts in R & S 3 really can't be done without writing it). HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

LeAnna wrote:Carrie or Julie,

What too, would be your suggestion for Bigger Handwriting for my dd6, who will be tech. 1st grade? I don't feel she is quite ready for cursive... although I think she would like to be.

Thank you,
LeAnna

If she hasn't done A Reason for Handwriting A, I'd do that or something comparable. We did this with my 6 yo ds during Beyond, and it helped him grow in his handwriting so much.

In Christ,
Julie

We had just started doing 4 days a week with Beyond. My oldest just turned 7, and the other just turned 6, so I was hoping to take 4 days a week clear into the following year, which would put us at ending the book about a month after there next birthdays (8 and 7). Before we started Beyond, we were working on A Reason For Handwriting A, and now have been doing the copywork in BLHFHG. So, if I carry this out, and just do that with the both of them, along with the grammar in Beyond, and the spelling words... and start DITHOR with them when they finish the Emerging Readers, that would be good? I really would like the girls, if at all possible (they are only about one book apart in them) to do DITHOR together. Like you say, we can move slowly through the Book pack 2. I like the idea of everyother day.

Sorry if I keep repeating myself. I am an outloud thinker! I would love to keep that 4 day schedule in Bigger too. The girls would be about a month after their 8th and 7th birthdays. I am a little concerned with some of the work load for my younger, and need a little reassurance. I might want to keep her with just the spelling words, huh? My older, I might keep her at the spelling words too, for say half the year, and then move into the Rod and Staff slowly. She won't be a third grader though until Preparing. Will that be okay? I know Carrie said 3rd grade for English.In Preparing, do they give you the plans for English 2 and 3?

Now as far as handwriting my younger in Bigger... she will just be 7, and 1st grade. If we have done the copywork in Beyond and A Reason for Handwriting A... what would be your suggestion. Is Cheerful Cursive going to be a good choice based on her age. If I had to say right now, I don't know that she would be ready... however, we have the year to grow and she could improve a lot! As far as grammar for her in Bigger. I know I defintely do not want her to start English 2, until Preparing, but if we have already done Beyond LA, by then... what would be a good choice for her?

So sorry for all the questions. You are probably overwhelmed by now.. I know I am!!! I do appreciate a lot, all the help you guys give!!!

Thanks!
LeAnna

LeAnna wrote:We had just started doing 4 days a week with Beyond. My oldest just turned 7, and the other just turned 6, so I was hoping to take 4 days a week clear into the following year, which would put us at ending the book about a month after there next birthdays (8 and 7).

This would be just fine to do, and is what we are doing too. Once we get to PHFHG, that is a 4 day schedule.

LeAnna wrote:Before we started Beyond, we were working on A Reason For Handwriting A, and now have been doing the copywork in BLHFHG. So, if I carry this out, and just do that with the both of them, along with the grammar in Beyond, and the spelling words... and start DITHOR with them when they finish the Emerging Readers, that would be good? I really would like the girls, if at all possible (they are only about one book apart in them) to do DITHOR together. Like you say, we can move slowly through the Book pack 2. I like the idea of everyother day.

Yes, to all of this! Sounds like a good plan.

LeAnna wrote:Sorry if I keep repeating myself. I am an outloud thinker! I would love to keep that 4 day schedule in Bigger too. The girls would be about a month after their 8th and 7th birthdays. I am a little concerned with some of the work load for my younger, and need a little reassurance. I might want to keep her with just the spelling words, huh? My older, I might keep her at the spelling words too, for say half the year, and then move into the Rod and Staff slowly. She won't be a third grader though until Preparing. Will that be okay? I know Carrie said 3rd grade for English.In Preparing, do they give you the plans for English 2 and 3?

I'm a tad confused about this part. You must be talking about the following year in this part of the post, right? If I'm off here, let me know.
Keeping a 4 day schedule for Bigger Hearts would be fine. I wouldn't worry about the workload for your little one until that time arrives, as dc often grow in areas we don't foresee. However, to put your mind at ease, if her writing in particular needs time to blossom to do every part of Bigger Hearts, you can easily take that into account. For example, there is an option of doing 1-3 vocab. cards in Bigger Hearts. You can just have her do 1, and your older dd do 2, or maybe 3. For copywork and notebooking, you can do half the writing for her and have her do the other half. We love a marker board at our house and use it often to ease into writing skills. If you have one of those, you can write it on there and she can copy from it. I would probably keep your youngest with just the spelling during BHFHG. For your older dd, she could either do the spelling if she hasn't yet, or she could start Rod and Staff 2. If you are wanting to keep them together for grammar, I'd start R & S 2 half-speed and take it from there during BHFHG. You can always go full-speed if you'd like. There are many ways to finish R & S English 6 by Grade 8, many half-speed and full-speed options. I'd error on the side of going full-speed at a point you know they're really ready for that. R & S 2 is scheduled in BHFHG, and both R & S 3 and 4 are scheduled in PHFHG to give several levels to choose from at that point.

LeAnna wrote:Now as far as handwriting my younger in Bigger... she will just be 7, and 1st grade. If we have done the copywork in Beyond and A Reason for Handwriting A... what would be your suggestion. Is Cheerful Cursive going to be a good choice based on her age. If I had to say right now, I don't know that she would be ready... however, we have the year to grow and she could improve a lot! As far as grammar for her in Bigger. I know I defintely do not want her to start English 2, until Preparing, but if we have already done Beyond LA, by then... what would be a good choice for her?

I'm thinking this is referring to the following year with BHFHG, correct me if I'm wrong please. I would not have your younger dd start Cheerful Cursive until PHFHG, but that's just my thought on it. I would instead have her focus on doing the other types of writing taught in BHFHG - like copywork, notebooking, vocabulary cards, lab reports, etc. Again, you can ease her into these areas by sharing the writing with her at first, using a marker board, and then helping her be able to do it totally on her own by the end of the year to get her read for PHFHG. I would think about doing R & S 2 half-speed at that point with her, doing much of it orally and having her only write a portion of it. I described how we do this at this link, in case this might be beneficial:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4659&p=34269#p34269

LeAnna wrote:So sorry for all the questions. You are probably overwhelmed by now.. I know I am!!! I do appreciate a lot, all the help you guys give!!!

Thanks!
LeAnna

No need to be sorry for asking questions - that was the entire reason this board was created, so ask, ask away! Hope this helped, but as more if questions come to mind! I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this after you ponder a bit. Don't overthink it though - HOD is so flexible and pacing should be chosen based on your wants and needs for your family, so there really isn't one right way to go about this, but instead many roads that lead to success!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you so much, Julie!

After contemplating this again, I think that we are going to stick to a 4 day schedule with Beyond. I really want to savor the guides and I think that this pace will be better for my younger. I don't want to rush her either, into the Bigger guide. When the girls finish the emerging readers, I think we will start DITHOR and just move slowly. By that time, they will be 7 and 8. I like the idea of doing it 3 times a week.

With Bigger, I really wanted to wait until at least half the year to start Rod and Staff 2, with my older. So, I could go ahead and do the first half of the year Spelling. But, I also like the idea of maybe going at half speed too. I just ordered the book, so i will have to take a look and see.:)I too, agree that I shouldn't start R&S 2 with my younger until Preparing. Is that when you thought I should take it at half speed? She will just be tech. 2nd grade then.

I am glad to see that you would not recommend her starting cursive until Preparing too. I felt like it would be just too big of jump for her.

Thanks for picking apart all my questions!
LeAnna

LeAnna wrote:I too, agree that I shouldn't start R&S 2 with my younger until Preparing. Is that when you thought I should take it at half speed? She will just be tech. 2nd grade then.

I'm glad to be of some help, LeAnna! I was thinking for you to go half-speed with her if you wanted your 2 girls to be on the same R & S English level together, though I think you'd probably find it easier to have them separate in the long run for this. If you are fine doing separate levels with the 2 girls, then I would just wait and see whether it seemed better to do R & S English 2 half-speed slowly over 2 years at that point, or if you wanted her to go full-speed with it. I think you'll know better what will work for her needs at that point.

In Christ,
Julie