heartofdakota.com

Hi! I'm Amanda - as you can see from my signature, I'm married and homeschooling 3 great kiddos, ages 11, 7, and 4. This is our 3rd year of homeschooling and we LOVE it:-).

My 4 year old is currently doing My Father's world K. I used this (and MFW 1st) with my middle child and it worked well for him, but she is just not "clicking" with it, SO I'm looking for something else for her for next year. According to the placement chart - Little hearts looks about perfect for her, yay!

As I've been looking (and looking and looking LOL), I keep coming back to HOD, and wondering since there is such a big age gap between my older 2, and not such a big gap between the younger 2, if it would be better to try and combine the 7 and 4 year olds (they will be 5 and 7 at the start of next school year - the middle one just turned 7), rather than folding in my middle guy with my then-12 year old. Clear as mud? Is there anyway to combine the then-5 and 7 year olds in Little Hearts? My 7 year old finished MFW K and 1st, and is reading fairly well (He can read the first grade Pathway readers, stuff like that). Would Little Hearts be boring for him?

Thanks!

Little Hearts is written for 5-7 year olds. So, without knowing anything about your dc abilities, I would say they may fit nicely in Little Hearts together. I just started LH with my almost 5 year old this week. We're going to take it slowly and I think it will work out nicely. I also used Beyond with my daughter last year and we are finishing some of it this year.

Take a look at the placement chart on the site to see where your children fit. I know some of the other ladies here will be able to help you too, once we know where your children place. Good luck with your search. We love the HOD products!

Little Hearts is a perfect follow up to MFW K. I know....that's exactly what I did!

Your 7 yo could probably do the history, science, storytime, and Bible from Little Hearts, but would need something else for math and reading. He sounds ready for Drawn, maybe level 2??

Now, Little Hearts is VERY similar to MFW 1....sooo....you may want to consider another program....Beyond would work. You might want to put both of them in Beyond and each use math and reading on their level??

Are you going to use Singapore or something else?? Either way works fine with HOD.

OK....that gives you a few options, and I forgot to mention, check out the placement chart on the HOD site.

Glad to have you here!
Mel

I think I know you from ezboard message board! Am I right!? Just for the record, my friend Jenn used this log in name there. I was stacyb momof3 when I created my log in there... now I tend to us 2n2 on boards Jenn isn't on!

I had looked into MFW for K for DS#1, but ended up just doing my own thing for K and 1. I found BeyondLHFHG for second grade and it has been wonderful.

I think what is wonderful about the program is you can use the parts that fit perfectly and just alter the ones that you need to, without disrupting the whole program.

Amanda,

Just saying hello and welcome!

Candice

Hi Amanda! Welcome to the HOD boards! I am very torn in my answer here. Could you take a peek at the placement chart and say where you think your 7 yo would place on his own? Then I promise to get back to you! And I know others will too - here's that link:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
So glad you are here, and we'll be watching for your post!
In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for your help! (and hey Stacy - I DO remember you! And I finally got to meet Jenn in person earlier this school year - that was really fun)

For everyone else, the 7 year old is an ALL-boy kind of guy:-), VERY wiggly with limited tolerance for sit-down work, but also VERY smart. He places on the chart pretty solidly into Beyond, except he's probably ahead in math. He's done with phonics instruction, but I wouldn't call him an "independent reader" just yet - emerging reader is a good term for him. He can write all his letters, but again, has limited tolerance to how much of that he can/will do. (yes to being able to copy a sentence - definitely not a passage, unless it were a small bit at a time)

My concern is that my oldest will be doing a full program as well - I'm really not sure I could deal with 3 at once. She is very independent, but I like to do history/Bible/science and read alouds with her, and that takes some time.

Oh, one other monkey in the wrench - we are planning on TTC #4 this spring, so add potential pregnancy into all that above. LOL:-) *that* is another reason I'm not sure about even attempting 3 different programs.

Thanks!
Amanda

I would think that if you use Little Hearts it would work for your 7 year old wiggly boy. I would suggest using the emergent reader list, and I have my guy use the bible verses as copy work. They help him learn to copy longer passages and he has a huge melt down when ever he sees AReason for Handwriting. I would also try to add in some of the extension books listed in the appendix for him.

I was thinking about this. If you really want to combine another thought might be to use LHFHG and some of the books in the appendix. There are a lot of great books in the LHFHG appendix and many you can get at the library. Then since he is ready to do BLHFHG just have him do the Math and the LA only there but do everything else LHFHG. That way you get what he needs from the older program but the rest will be done together. Then next year you can evaluate if you want to do BLHFHG together but do separate LA for the middle child or move him up to Bigger. I am not sure where your middle child fits in terms of reading if he would maybe be ready for the 2/3 level or if the emerging reader place is where he would fall. I am thinking maybe more toward the 2/3 since he reads pathway level 1 although one of my dd reads R&S level 1 and the emerging readers are perfect for her. So I am kind of stuck there on what to say.

I am adding to BHFHG right now and we are loving it. I am on a different path though of trying to slow it down a bit. Your middle child is ahead of mine and your younger seems top be a year ahead of mine as well. So the great thing is the programs are very flexible enough to be able to mix and match or go at your own pace. HOD is kind of like the Geranimals of homeschool. It all goes together. Works great for a large family!

This is everything I am using for my children.

11 years old(12 in July)
Bigger Hearts with Extension
Mathusee
Rod and Staff English
Apples Spelling
DITHOR
We will be adding possibly Spanish, Drawing, and Nature.

8 Years old
Bigger Hearts
Mathusee
Rod and Staff English-2nd grade
Spelling from Bigger Hearts
DITHOR
We will be adding possibly Spanish, Drawing, and Nature.

7 years old
Bigger Hearts
Mathusee
Rod and Staff English-2nd grade
Spelling from Bigger Hearts
DITHOR
We will be adding possibly Spanish, Drawing, and Nature.

4 year old turns 5 this month
Little Hearts with Reading Made Easy

2 year old
Little Hands to Heaven

5 month old
Staying in mommy's lap


This is probaly what I would do...
Get Bigger hearts with Extension for the oldest. You can pick your own LA and math, but it won't be scheduled.
I think I would add my 7 year old to Bigger. My 7 year old is doing it with us. I think Bigger is fine for the oldest and the 7 year old, as long as you use the extension with the oldest. Rod and Staff English 2 is scheduled as well as handwriting plus the Emerging Readers are scheduled. Especially if he placed in Bigger by using the charts.
You can always add more books for the oldest, which is what I do. She reads a ton.

If you were going to get Bigger (for the oldest) and Little Hearts(for the youngest) then you could look through everything when you get it and see where he would fit better. If you use Bigger and it seems a little too hard ( I don't think it will), but you could then just be lighter on the work.

Hmm...this is a tricky one. I think *if* you're wanting to combine, I would put the 7 and 5 yr. old together...not the 7 and 12 yr.old. That's just too much of a gap.

I actually think Little Hearts would work for you. The first half would be a review of MFW 1, but the second half would be new material. The ryhmes and the memory verse activities would be good to help get the wiggles out. Your 5 yo. would be able to do all of Little Hearts as written. You would need to do a seperate math and reading/LA program for your 7 yo. either the emerging readers or Drawn.

You could keep them together like this for a long while using HOD, just keeping math and LA seperate.

If you do decide to go with 2 programs, there are many moms on this board doing just that and very successfully! Your 5 yo. would still probably be just right for Little Hearts, and your 7 yo. would probably fit nicely into Beyond.

I understand...it was difficult for me to decide where to place mine as well and I was wanting to keep them together. I opted for Little Hearts and it has been great....no regrets at all. Placing truly is the hardest part....the rest is easy breezy!

Thanks so much you all - this does help me! I'm going to keep considering, and probably won't make my *final*, final decision until the conference in May (and HOD is going to be here in NC, yay!). But it helps me to be able to give my husband some $$$ estimates and kind of an overview of the pros-cons.

Amanda

Amanda,

I just wanted to welcome you! We're glad to have you here! When deciding whether or not to combine there are alwasy several scenarios that would work, which is why you're getting such a mixture of responses!

It's great that you will be able to see our guides in North Carolina. I will be there too, so I'll be lucky enough to meet you and talk through your placement options with you personally!

I think you'll also have a better idea in a couple of months of where your kiddos will be best placed. Also, getting to see and compare the guides in person is a great bonus!

I wasn't sure from your original post if you were wanting to use Heart of Daktoa with your oldest child, or if you were already set on what you're using with that child, so I didn't factor your oldest into this.

Age-wise your 5 and 7 would both fit in "Little Hearts..." and you could always add the language arts (spelling lessons, gentle grammar, emerging reader schedule, and math) from "Beyond..." for your 7 year old if needed to stretch in those areas.

Blessings,
Carrie