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I am going to start Little Hearts for His Glory in the fall with my daughters who will be in kindergarten and 1st grade. Should I add a grammar and spelling program for my 1st grader? I've looked at Growing with Grammar and A Reason for Spelling and they both look good. I especially like that A Reason for Spelling goes along with A Reason for Handwriting. I don't want to add what isn't necessary though. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Dear April,

Let me start my reply with the disclaimer that I have only used LHFHG for not quite two units, so I am not far into the program and am NOT an expert by any means. With that said, IMHO, I think that there is really no need to add any additional grammar or spelling program. I am finding this program to be very well rounded and just right for my first grade dd who is 6. Will you be doing a Phonics program? That and what Carrie has written in the LHFHG guide should be plenty.

In Him,

Thanks Christa. We had started The Reading Lesson about 1 1/2 years ago when my daughter was almost 5. We completed 13 lessons and then she started a 3 day kindergarten at a local church and we haven't done much with it since then. She finishes kindergarten in May. She is already reading quite well and has self taught herself so much. I plan on finishing out the reading lesson though. We still work on it some, but not consistently. She writes a lot and just sounds things out that she doesn't know how to spell. She usually does well enough that I can figure out what she is trying to write even though it isn't spelled correctly.

Wow, April! She is a bright little girl!

I have not had experience with a little one that learns reading quite so early or easily. Maybe some of the other moms have had that experience and they can share their thoughts on what you could do.

I do know that in the Appendix is a listing of "go along" books. I haven't included those yet, but that might be something you could do to add to your experience with the program.

Yes, I am blessed to have bright children with a love for reading. I started teaching my oldest daughter to read because she wanted to start school so bad, but she wasn't old enough (she didn't turn 5 until Nov.). Her 3 year old little sister showed interest too, but didn't quite comprehend yet. When she turned 3 1/2 the light bulb turned on and now she will be 5 in June and is reading at almost the same level as her big sister who will be 6 1/2 in May. I love teaching, and so I have to control myself and try not to buy everything that looks good or fun. I think my 6 year old will be ready for grammar and spelling by the fall, but I want to do LHFHG together with my daughters and it doesn't really address that yet.

You might want to consider using Beyond Little Hearts for your older daughter, instead. You can use a phonics program or the emerging readers set (both are scheduled in Beyond-phonics in the daily plans, emerging readers in the appendix), and grammar and spelling are written right into the Beyond manual, so you wouldn't need separate programs for those. Sometimes combining is not the best way to go, if there is a big gap in abilities. Then again, if the younger one is so advanced in reading, maybe Beyond would be the best choice for both? You may have to adjust the math level, though, depending on where she is with that, and depending on if you plan to use Singapore or another math. Have you seen the placement chart?
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
It really helps a lot in deciding on a program!
Best of luck!

faith0428 wrote:She writes a lot and just sounds things out that she doesn't know how to spell. She usually does well enough that I can figure out what she is trying to write even though it isn't spelled correctly.

I'll ask first.... Do you want to hear my speech on inventive spelling?? hee hee

(I know you weren't asking me...but I'd like to hear it! )

Let me hear it.

Kathleen wrote:(I know you weren't asking me...but I'd like to hear it! )

I wrote my thesis on orthography, so I tend to get up on soapbox about this!

The long and short of it is this, inventive spelling has its place - maybe when children are playing at writing on their own - but on the whole, research indicates that using this type of "spelling" for a lenghy amount of time can cause the child to make an imprint in the brain of the incorrect spelling that is very difficult to correct.

It was all the rage in the 90's, but most public schools (at least where I taught) are getting away from it due to poor test scores. Kids in the 8th grade were spelling "saw" as "sol" b/c this was the way they were doing it in elem. and it just stuck.

Copywork is excellent writing practice for elem. and that is just one of the multitude of reasons why I love Carrie's programs!

Hope you're not sorry you asked!

Makes sense to me. And since she is showing an interest in writing, I thought it would be best for her to be taught how to spell correctly and to learn some basic grammar. It appears that spelling and grammar aren't introduced until BLHFHG though and I had planned on doing LHFHG with my two daughters together who will be in first and kindergarten in the fall. I thought it would be easier than doing both LHFHG and BLHFHG. Especially since I will have a 2 1/2 year old son and 16 month old daughter running around too. I'm still going back and forth on whether to go with just LHFHG and add spelling and phonics or do both LHFHG and BLHFHG. My fear with doing both is that once my younger is ready for BLHFHG next year that she will find it less fun because she would likely sit in with her big sister this year.

Just a thought...if you plan to do BLHFHG the following year, you could get both guides this year. You could do LHFHG with both of your girls, adding the spelling and grammar from BLHFHG for your 1st grader. Then you could do Beyond the next year and start R&S 2 with your oldest.

I have not done this, but it's an idea. I think it would still save you time, and you could keep them together for most things. I'm sure someone who knows more will give you more advice.

I'll give you an example April, of how I use my phonics lesson to teach spelling with Little Hearts..........

Our page (we're using Phonics Pathways) today was -th....
There is a big list of words to practice sounding out and reading.

math bath Seth Beth hath thump thin (etc....you get the idea)

We practice reading our new words and the new sound and there are always sentences at the bottom of the page to read. After the lesson, I have the kiddo I'm working with choose 6 words and 1 sentence to copy in their phonics notebook.

Next day, we read over the page again and then close the book. They turn to the next page in their phonics notebook and I dictate a few words and a sentence to see what they can spell from memory. The lessons all build on each other so there is constant review. They are learning to read and spell all in one.

You could use this method with any phonics books such as The Reading Lesson or First Reader....

Hope this helps you with your decision. Spelling and phonics are not different subjects....just the same concepts presented in the reverse format. Clear as mud??

You can also do this with simple readers. All this week we are reading one of those easy reader books called "I'm a Caterpillar" (I have Spring fever!). One of the sentences in the book is "The eggs have thin shells." Well, since our sound for today was -th and our sound from yesterday was -sh I thought this would be a great sentence for us to copy and illustrate. They see a good sentence example, spell correctly, and practice reading all in one quick lesson.

This is getting longer than I intended, but I just want you to see that you don't have to have a spelling program!

Sorry so long, but hopefully somewhat helpful!

Mel

What I am doing with my ds is the History, Science and storytime from LHFHG and then the Math and LA from BLHFHG. In BLHFHG there are 2 spelling lists. I am doing the first list this yr then next yr I will do the second list when we are doing that history. Instead of having him do the copywork from BLHFHG, I have him copy simple sentences like The car has a flat tire. It is not really that hard and takes about 2 - 2.5 hrs.

HTH
Sarah

Thanks for all the great advice! It really helps.