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We love HOD curriculum. PHFHG was such a wonderful experience with my oldest. We are now using CTC with her. However it's a totally different experinece with my son. We just started using Beyond with him. He's almost 8. He likes to start but without books full of tons of pictures he is all over the place. I wouldn't mind some of the wiggles if he could answer the ?s but he usually can't. My youngest is also part of all of this adding a very interesting and distracting element to it all. I am using this for her to so she needs to be part of it. I need some practical suggestions for this. I want it to be delightful for them but instead it's quite a chore. The books are so good and I know they would love it if I can just find a way to help them "hear" them. I've thought aobut drawing more pictures as I go along. I don't think I could do that all the time but I know it would keep their attention now and then.

Helppppp please!

ckemonster,

I'll just move this post over to the Main Board so that more moms will see it. As far as your two younger kiddos go who are using Beyond, I'll toss out a couple of things for you to ponder.

If you haven't already done any history or chapter book style read alouds that have kiddos listening to longer books without pictures, then it will be a transition for them to do this in Beyond. The readings on Beyond are still short, meaning 10 minutes or less. However, if your kiddos are still needing the pictures, and depending on the age of your younger daughter who you are combining within Beyond, it may be wise to consider moving your two younger kiddos back to LHFGH and using that for history and storytime instead. You would beef it up for your son by adding in some of the Appendix readings in LHFHG and adding a bit more reading for science. Your son would also then use the right side of Beyond along with the left side of LHFHG and the Storytime in order to transition him to listening to longer books with few to no pictures. LHFHG does a wonderful job in preparing kiddos for the higher level of listening that comes in Beyond.

If you get a chance to pop back in and share the age of your younger daughter who is listening in to Beyond and also to share whether you have already used LHFHG with both of them that would really help us advise you better.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks for responding )

My youngest will be 5 soon. We did use LHFHG last year but very low key as I had to really focus on helping my son learn to read. It was a difficult year but he is doing much better now. He enjoyed the storytime books the best but still struggled to stay focused. I actually sold the LHFHG (to help buy the 2 new sets) so I don't think I could get that again. I do still have some of the books. I also know I just do not have time to do 3 separate levels with the extra time we spend daily to help my son in reading. I could just let my daughter go play while I read to him--that may help with the distractions and incorporate some more picture books (or some from last year again) that they all can sit through (allowing my oldest to do some of the story reading to them--they love it when she reads to them) what do you think?? )

This will take a bit of prep work for you to do each day, but I would suggest that you take a look at the day's reading and google a coloring page that relates to the topic. Some topics will be easy to find, but you may have to get creative with the others. I recall a story about a boy trying to get his cow boarded for passage to the New World. You could just print out a simple cow coloring page.

I would set up the story time like this....Introduce the coloring page and crayons and have you dc guess what the story might be about today. Then show them a picture from the story. Have them add to their predictions. Then say something like, "Wow, those sound like neat ideas! Let's see if you are right. Color quietly and listen carefully to see what happens in our story today."

To me, it sounds as though your dc need a bit of a "motivation" to listen carefully. The coloring is allowing them to focus their attention and the predictions at the start give them a reason to listen closely. If they narrate well or answer questions correctly, you could reward their coloring pages with a sticker. Keep the pages in a little binder and make a project out of it. As your ds learns how to listen and "see" the story in his mind's eye, he'll be less dependent on an external, like a coloring page. He may even quite it halfway through the year.

hth,
Laura

Welcome to the HOD Board! It is nice to meet you! We did CTC last year, and I'm sure your oldest will love it. We also did Beyond and half-speed LHTH last year. I see your dc are similar in the age spans as my dc. Each of my dc are 3-4 years apart, with very different abilities. For me it has honestly just been easier to do separate guides. I know that is not the case for everyone, but it may be worth considering. My teaching time for CTC was around an hour to an hour and a half, so if your oldest is fairly independent and if you are using the LA and Math HOD suggests or using different LA and math that still fits in the time allotments, your teaching time should be similar to mine, and your child's time is probably around a total of 4 hours or 4 1/2 hours.

Beyond... takes about 2 1/2 hours to do, so that is quite doable. I am wondering if you did all of the history, science, and storytime readings from LHFHG last year? I can totally understand having to spend some key time on reading skills with your ds, I was just thinking that the history, science, storytime readings from LHFHG were what really helped my ds be able to listen better to the longer readings in Beyond. If you didn't do those, you may want to go back to LHFHG and do the left side along with the storytime, but then add in the right side LA and math from Beyond. I know you sold it and I truly can empathize with that, but it would be worth getting again to have ds placed well in those areas. The kind of listening ability you are describing in regard to your ds definitely fit the listening ability of my dc when they did LHFHG, so I am thinking that may really help him out to do LHFHG for those subject areas.

It would take a pretty advanced 5 yo to do Beyond Little Hearts. I almost would never suggest that, as it sets that little one up to always be on the too young side for the skills expected within the guides. When you look at the placement chart, where would your 5 yo fit? I am thinking it would be wise to either do LHTH with her, or to do LHFHG with the 8 yo.

Whatever you choose to do, I think that the biggest thing you could do for your ds is to just read through the readings without stopping. CM believed that you should not stop in the middle of readings to clarify, to explain further, or even to define an unknown word. This was a tough idea for me to embrace, but over the years I have found it is a very good rule of thumb to follow. I've noticed my dc lose the flow of the reading when I stop, and they are also frustrated by my "drawing it out" for them. Just reading the material straight through and then clipping along with the follow-up really helped them begin to listen and comprehend better. CM was a big fan of the "short lesson", and I was unfortunately sometimes a fan of turning the short lesson into a long lesson. You may totally not be doing that, but in case you may be at times, I thought I'd share how much changing that one little thing has done for my dc's attention span and attitude. Knowing the alloted time increments was helpful for me too, so in case you may find that beneficial, here are a few links:
Beyond, time it takes:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4390&p=32417
CTC time it takes:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3765

The short lesson idea was also helpful in teaching our dc to read. I set the timer, and after 15 minutes, we stopped. As they grew older, the time lengthened out to 20 minutes or a tad more, but after that we stopped. Your ds may appreciate knowing if he gives you his best attention for 15-20 minutes, he will get to be done with that until the next day. Is the phonics program you are using going well for him overall? If not, sometimes just changing to a different program can do wonders, as there are many excellent phonics programs out there, and some click better than others with different dc. I hope something here helps, but prayer is always the best deciding factor! So, I will pray for you as consider proper placement, and I will also try to help you however possible as you consider ideas for your dc.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for the replies. I will try reading through without stopping to explain. I never thought about it like that and I can see where keeping a constant pace would help him.

We switched to a specialized program called Barton Reading and Spelling. It has made a huge difference and at the end of last year, he said "I love Barton" which from a child that really struggled and threw fits to work on reading was a HUGE blessing. We did start setting a timer which even helped me--I knew there would be an end too! LOL We also started using BJ 1st grade (even though he could be consdiered 2nd) phonics online (since they finally offer the subjects individually and happen to package the first grade with handwriting and reading) It's very visual and he enjoys it so far. It's just time consuming. We don't dare do both every day. )

I love the idea of the coloring sheets--I think it would motivate him. I'm not sure having him do it while I read would work for him-he really can shut out the world when he is coloring. I think I could use that for the youngest though so she is not distracting him. I'll try it both ways and experiment! )

I'm encouraged already )

You'll have to experiment to find out if he truly is "shutting out" or its just SEEMS like he is. You'll know when you have him narrate or answer some comprehension questions. One thing you could do to start is just ask him if his prediction was right or whether the author thought of something else. That may be just what he needs to activate his memory. Glad I could help a bit.
Laura

ckemonster,

I'm late to the thread and the ladies have already given you great ideas to ponder, so I'll just pop-in and mention a few things to consider as you're pondering. I'm thinking from what you've shared that the main push for you last year with your son was to get him reading and addressing that key area. It sounds like your little guy is really progressing and your hard work paid off! I'm also thinking that in focusing so much on the reading, you ended up being somewhat sporadic on the rest of your LHFHG coverage. It also sounds like it is your deep desire to combine your 5 year old little girl with your 6 year old little guy for the long haul (which I think is a great idea). From the thoughts you've shared on Beyond, it would also appear that your little guy is struggling a bit with Beyond. Typically, kiddos who struggle with Beyond, find themselves in over their head in Bigger Hearts the following year.

So, with those things in mind it would make the most sense to step back and combine your 5 year old daughter and your son in LHFHG and do it all as written. This will really prepare your son for the work with Beyond the next year, and it will allow you to combine your kiddos for the long haul. It will fit your daughter better, so she isn't always too young for the guides, and it will remove the frustration you're having with your son. You can easily keep going with whatever parts of the right side of Beyond you think fit your son best in the areas of language arts and math. But for the rest, I would switch him to LHFHG. You can tell him that now that he is doing so well with his reading, he'll really be able to enjoy LHFHG so much more and that you want him to have the experience of getting to do it all.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

Blessings,
Carrie