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I just wanted to get some sage advice from you wonderful ladies. I am looking at my plans for this fall when my dc will move into Beyond Little Hearts. Do you think it would be better for my dc to have a separate storytime with their individual "boy/girl" books? I know that all the book sets would be enjoyable by both children! I was just wondering if it would be better for them to do the Storytime box individually or if they would benefit more by doing it together. I know there isn't a right or wrong answer here, just wondering what you ladies that have already "been there, done that" think? My dc are only 17 months apart in age with the ds being the oldest of the two. They are currently on the same level of Motor Skills & Math even though I do Math with them individually most of the time. They are both in the same book in Phonics but my ds is ahead of my dd. I had to actually stall my dd in Phonics because my ds was struggling. I felt it was more important that ds learned to read before dd for confidence reasons.

Thanks in advance!!

I think if you're combining them in Beyond...already and things are going fine, I wouldn't separate for story time. It's just something 'extra' for you to do that could become stressful. However, if you like all the book selections and just can't decide, you could purchase some of each (boy interest and girl interest) and read those either during story time or during a separate read aloud time (that's not part of school, so no stress!) such as right before bed. Just my thoughts. Others will probably be along soon with more suggestions.

inHistiming,

I had though about the "extra" work for me! I just couldn't decide if it would really be a benefit to them or not. I really couldn't decide on the book selections, so I have them all. I have picked up some at our library for a quarter!! I also request specific books for my dc for gifts as well. I am just glad that they love books as much as I do!!

I think it would be fun to do it together with the two of them, and just do 1 Storytime book each time. You could alternate a boy pick with a girl pick to keep it even . You can always read some more titles at night if you'd like, but otherwise, one thing we did for my oldest ds (once he was old enough to read well independently) is put whatever books we didn't read for previous Storytimes in a basket under his bed for him to read at his leisure. He has loved this! In fact, we're doing it again with the CTC books that are Boy/Girl picks, since we chose to do the History Interest for Storytime. I just feel sad at the idea of them missing such good books, but I don't have the time (nor inclination ) to read more than 1 right now. So, this is a way I never feel like they're missing out. Just an idea to keep in your back pocket!

In Christ,
Julie

I am doing Beyond with my DS and DD right now who are 20 months apart. We have really enjoyed doing the storytime together. I have had a difficult time just picking one book to read (there are so many good ones to choose from) - so, I choose one that we read for storytime during school and then if there is another that we want to read in that same genre we read it at non-school times, like just before bed. For example, during the Fantasy genre, we read "The Trumpet of the Swan" during storytime for school. But we also read" Kildee House" and we listened to "The Cricket in Times Square" together at snack times and before bed.

Thanks, ladies! I don't want to miss out on all the good books choices either! I am learning though that I have a tendancy to be over-zealous in my plans!! What looks good on paper can actually be overkill! I think I will stick to one book for storytime and just add in the others for fun! That is working fine in LHFHG. So if it isn't broke, don't fix it!!

Thanks again!!