heartofdakota.com

Some background ~

I have two girls and we've been home schooling for two years. I have used Sonlight and Oak Meadow. I love Oak Meadow for the art, nature study, and drawing mostly; but I need to add literature. There's not enough until 3rd grade, and since we are all voracious readers here I turned to Ambleside Online. My oldest is 6.5 and we are finishing up Oak Meadow K with extra literature selections from Ambleside Year 0, but when I tried to read some Year 1, she's completely lost. She's a strong reader on her own, but I think we need a change; hence this post. There are a lot of similarities between HOD and Ambleside, some of the same selections. I am very pleasantly surprised and actually excited.

I bought Little and Beyond used last week and from the looks of the guide, I think we will enjoy most of it. Placement questions. What should I do? My oldest has just finished 1st grade Pathway Readers (we have up through 3rd grade, so we can continue with those), but I think she would love the animal stories in Little. We would use Singapore along with Miquon probably, and maybe Queen's Language Lessons, not sure. We've already read Beatrix Potter with Oak Meadow, but we can substitute that fairly easily, maybe even do the activities for those lessons. Anyway, should I combine my girls and do Little or just do Beyond with my oldest?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Welcome to the HOD Board! I think you will find that HOD takes CM quite seriously and embraces much of her philosophy in a way that makes teaching delightful, yet doable. Have you had a chance to check out the placement chart? It is a good way to properly place dc in HOD. We have 3 sons we use HOD with, and it has been accurate each year in placing them. The first page of the placement chart is the most important to consider. If you could check out the chart and share a bit about each of your dc in regard to the first page of the chart and where you think they place, we'll all chime in and help you fine tune your placement:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

In Christ,
Julie

Welcome! I know from what I've read on the board that it's usually suggested to go with the guide that fits your youngest and then add some extras for your oldest. The placement chart will really help! It's what I used to place my kids for this school year, too.

What is the age of your youngest dd? If she's 3 or 4 she may really enjoy LHTH and it's easy to do while your oldest does LHFHG or Beyond. We did two guides this year LHTH with my dd (3yo) & LHFHG with my ds (6yo). Our year went really well!

My ds could have done Beyond this year as he fit several categories on the placement chart, but I'm so glad I opted to do LHFHG with 1st grade options even though sometimes it was "basic" for him. He's LOVED it. I am impressed how well he learned the overview of history (Creation - present and looking ahead to Christ's return). He really enjoyed the Thornton Burgess animal books for Storytime. You can easily swap out something for the book of Beatrix Potter stories because it's just read over the final 11 days (2 units & 1 day) of the guide. He really loved the Thinking Skills book (grade 1 option) but if that's too easy for your oldest dd you could think about getting the grade 2 level instead.

I noticed that about Ambleside and HOD ,too. The pleasant thing about HOD is that the lesson plans are already done for you.

I will be doing Beyond with my now 6.5 yr old son (October b-day) for "1st grade" starting in August.
I will also be doing LHFHG with my now 5 yr old(March b-day).

It is just a better fit for our family to do them separately for now. My son is already reading at 2nd grade level. He is in the middle of Emerger Readers from the Beyond guide which sounds like that might be the placement for your oldest. My 1st daughter just knows her letters and letter sounds.LHFHG is perfect for her.

I think if you look at the placement chart and your daughter seems to fit "well" in Beyond that is what i would do. She can always listen in on the animal stories with younger sis.

Welcome to HOD!

jenntracy wrote:I noticed that about Ambleside and HOD ,too. The pleasant thing about HOD is that the lesson plans are already done for you.

I will be doing Beyond with my now 6.5 yr old son (October b-day) for "1st grade" starting in August.
I will also be doing LHFHG with my now 5 yr old(March b-day).

It is just a better fit for our family to do them separately for now. My son is already reading at 2nd grade level. He is in the middle of Emerger Readers from the Beyond guide which sounds like that might be the placement for your oldest. My 1st daughter just knows her letters and letter sounds.LHFHG is perfect for her.

I think if you look at the placement chart and your daughter seems to fit "well" in Beyond that is what i would do. She can always listen in on the animal stories with younger sis.

Welcome to HOD!

Ladies ~ Thank you for your encouragement! I was wondering which one to do. It's a hard choice. I have both guides, and if it were just my oldest, I would do Beyond for sure since she is such a good reader and her math is strong too. However, I want to continue with the art and science (nature study) we are currently doing with Oak Meadow. Can you tell I'm thinking out loud? I don't want Little to be too lite for her, but if we are doing another lite 1st grade program, I think it might be a good fit. She can always read the emerging readers next year for easy practice to her sister. I'm not sure. Jordan is not ready for Little by herself, but it might be good for them together. Hmmm.....

I guess my question would be the Burgess books. I just ordered them and was wondering if they were "enough" for a 1st grader since the literature, narration, copywork, etc., is what I am attracted about in HOD; but I also don't want them to be too over-the-head of my younger daughter. We do rhymes and songs now, so I was so excited to see that in the guide as well!

One more question is the extra history readings, do you need these to complete the program or are these just "extra" books to dig deeper if needed or wanted?

Thank you all! Any placement recommendations are gladly accepted!
Cindie

How old is your younger?

She'll be 4 in July. She knows her ABCs, but not the individual sounds. She can count to 15, knows colors shapes and listens in to big sister's stuff sometimes.

I think it sounds like your almost 4 yr old would really enjoy LHTH and if you find she needs more just add a little math or wkbk from LHFHG.
My now 5 yr old (March) had a great time with it and it was just enough school for her. She would do some of the rhymes and fun art with her brother at times in LHFHG, but not all the time. i should add that my duaghter (and son) knew the things your daughter does now and LHTH was not too boring. they jsut wanted to play at that age anyway.
It worked great for us.

If you did that you would have plenty of time for Beyond with your older.

Thanks, Jenn. The more I think about it, the more I think my dd would like Beyond better. I think with them being two grades apart and my oldest being a little advanced for her age, it would be harder to combine them.

Decisions, decisions.

HOD and Ambleside do share a love of CM methods, but I too have enjoyed the structure HOD provides. I agree that from what you've shared, LHTH would be a good fit for your younger, while Beyond would be a good fit for your older. We did both of those HOD guides last year (along with CTC for my oldest as well), and enjoyed our year so much. The ability levels of each of our dc are too far apart to combine comfortably for us. I enjoy having each of our dc doing what it is that seems to fit them best, and I also like having the younger dc finish school earlier than my older ds, as the shorter amounts of times and the shorter length of lessons fits them better and gives them time to just play and be kids.

LHTH only takes abut 20-30 minutes a day to do and is such a wonderful way to start little ones out with homeschooling. It is steeped in God's Word, and centers all around timeless Bible stories read chronologically. What a neat way to introduce little ones to living books! The fingerplays, letter sounds and activities, etc. teach needed beginning skills while keeping school fun and doable. I think your dd would enjoy the older Bible option of "The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes"; the other Bible may be too young for her. You could choose either devotional - they are both excellent. We have enjoyed "Big Thoughts for Little People", but then we are partial to anything Kenneth Taylor authors. We are currently doing LHTH for the third time with our third son and still loving it.

Beyond only takes about 2 1/2 hours to complete. It is a heart-stirring way to teach American history. The books are very narrative, and the way the Lord is woven into it all within the HOD guide is memorable. CM skills are taught in such a way that dc can truly feel successful with them. The oral narration guidance was especially helpful to our dc and has helped my older 2 dc to love oral narration and to thrive with it. We also enjoyed the copywork of classical poetry and the lessons that accompanied them. All of my sons enjoy poetry, and I know it's because of the manner in which it is done within HOD, which of course took CM's lead on this. The spelling lessons were an excellent stepping stone for the dictation to follow in the next guides as well. The Bible study gave us some heartfelt discussions, helped my dc memorize some good Bible verses, and taught my dc the habit of seeking the Bible when in need of direction. We've done Beyond twice and found it to be a delightful program to teach. Bigger Hearts as a follow-up to Beyond finishes out American history with a biographical slant that is very living and full of American heroes to appreciate.

Doing 2 (or even 3) HOD programs, especially when one of them is LHTH, is not hard to do, but instead a very enjoyable way to spend our days homeschooling. I think you are well on your way to fine tuning an excellent plan for your dc. Please don't hesitate to ask more questions, as we love to help one another here on the HOD Board.

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you, Julie! I'm very excited now. . I will try to find a used copy of LHTH.

Cindie2dds,

The ladies have already done a terrific job of talking through your possible options, so I'll just pop-in to welcome you to the HOD Board! We're glad to have you here. The LHTH for your younger and Beyond for your older child is the route I'd recommend as well.

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie wrote:Cindie2dds,

The ladies have already done a terrific job of talking through your possible options, so I'll just pop-in to welcome you to the HOD Board! We're glad to have you here. The LHTH for your younger and Beyond for your older child is the route I'd recommend as well.

Blessings,
Carrie

I am very excited and really love the choices you have picked for the Emerging Readers. I can't wait to get all my stuff in and look through the books. I do think it will be best to put them in two different guides. Plus, since I'm going to write in my "planner" they will have their own to record little nuggets along the way.