I'm back again with a question.

[StillJulie]

This year I did Preparing with my 4th grader, Beyond with my 2nd grader, and Little Hearts with my kindergartener. I didn't include my 4yo in Little Hearts.

Thinking about next year, my oldest two will move on to the next guides (CtoC) and Bigger.

I've had reservations about starting Beyond with my boy that finished kindergarten. I have considered doing it half speed, but... that was when I was still planning to wait another year before starting my 4yo in Little Hearts.

Right now it seems obvious to me that I should start her in Little Hearts this fall.

So, looking ahead, I'd like to put two of the kids together in Beyond starting August of 2011...

There are still two more kiddos after them, so the idea of having two kids combined is appealing, and these are the two that I think would pair off well as far as abilities (and personalities) go. Right now they like to both sit on my lap and take turns doing their pages in the Reading Lesson.

So, if I do stick with this idea, I will need something to do for my first grader. I can go ahead with singapore math at his level, same with phonics. He'll also do the Explode the Code workbooks and a handwriting book. I could read a Bible lesson/day with an illustrated Bible (we have no lack of them). I could also do spelling list 1 from beyond (with the related activities). I think I could follow Beyond's storytime plans. It wouldn't be a problem to do them two years in a row, just with different books. So that mostly takes care of the right side stuff. I have Steve Green's praise verses CD. Maybe I could do something with that in place of music... won't be integrated the way Carrie's stuff is, though... I have an abundance of children's devotionals that I like, so I could use one of those. As a family, we're doing apologia's astronomy this summer, with lapbooks, so I won't feel too badly if he doesn't get much science throughout the year. I had not yet realized that Carrie included that in her most recent guide when I made that decision. So, I think I'm mainly lacking history and art... maybe some sort of poetry or rhymes... Any thoughts or ideas?


Does this seem like a wokable plan? Anything I'm overlooking? Any red flags you see?

[my3sons]

Hi Julie - it's great to catch up with you! I can totally see what you are saying, and I think you already have come up with some good ideas here for your ds. I was wondering if you could just use whichever science and whichever Bible you didn't use last year for LHFHG this year with the 2 of them? Another year of Biblical history would be just fine. On the days the other history books are used, could you just use some of the Optional Literature Supplements for Reading about History that are listed in the LHFHG Appendix? They are listed by units, so that would be a great tie-in. For copywork, he could copy his Bible verses. You could either wait on poetry or choose a poetry book on one author to have him read/copy poetry from. Otherwise, he really could just do "A Reason for Handwriting A" (or something comparable) and Thinking Skills Grade 1 (unless he already did that in LHFHG). Those are just a few ideas I had - but I think you have a good year planned for him. It was so nice to hear from you, and I'm glad things are going well for you!!! We'll be doing RTR, BHFHG, and LHTH next year. We are looking forward to it!

In Christ,
Julie

[lovedtodeath]

Isn't it cool that you can use the same guide all over again and change up enough to keep it fresh? I was just looking at my catalog and thinking about how that would work.

[StillJulie]

Isn't it cool that you can use the same guide all over again and change up enough to keep it fresh? I was just looking at my catalog and thinking about how that would work.

Yes, it is!!! Especially since I have six children to do each guide with...

I love all the great reading I am being exposed to for the first time... I'd never read the Little House books as a child, or so many other classics...


Julie - thanks for the suggestions. I think this gives me a workable plan for next year. I am really SO thankful for HOD and how well it works into our family.