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I have a 5 year old (turned 5 in Feb) who is ready to start K this fall, she's not ready for 1st grade and we intentionally are not pushing for that. But what I did go ahead and teach her over the past year was phonics and reading, and she caught on fast. She likes to read and tries to read lots of things independently, even some of the books on the emerging readers list in Beyond like Frog and Toad and Amelia Bedelia. She's not fluent at them yet, but she finds them more interesting than the more basic ones like BOB books. Anyway, my original thought when I found out about HOD was that we would do LHFHG, continue our own phonics program, and just read whatever we wanted, but then I looked ahead at Beyond and realized there's an emerging reader list that might suit her for this fall. Has anyone else been in this situation? Am I painting myself in a corner by letting her go on too fast? I mean, will I get to 1st grade and not have anything left for her to read that's appropriate for her understanding, even if she can read the words? Should I try to do the emerging readers this year? If so, how do I combine the readers with LHFHG? Do I have to get Beyond? Does it have a schedule and guided questions/discussion for the emerging readers? OR should I stick with my original plan and just read, read, read from the library whatever she's interested in for this Kindergarten year?

I appreciate any advice moms who have been there may want to share!

Hi Jennifer!

Welcome to HOD! I think your daughter sounds like she would fit perfectly in the Emerging Readers along with LHFHG. That's where I was with Allison. She was still doing phonics when we started LHFHG, but I did LHFHG at a slower pace last year to keep Garret with us. It worked well for our family as it gave him some "school" (without extra work for me), and there was really no need to blaze ahead. Anyway, I know that's not what you're asking about...but it's why we ended up with needing to move ahead with reading. Allison did the phonics, math and fine motor skills daily while the rest of LHFHG was slower. Sooo, we were ready for the Emerging Readers with the 2nd half of LHFHG.

I would definitely get the Beyond guide to go along with the Emerging Reader's set. It sets the pace for you and the comprehension questions are so necessary as the kids grow from being able to read the words to really understanding what they're reading. They're questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy (higher level thinking)...so much better than anything I could come up with on the fly. If I were you I would start right at the beginning of the set. You could order the Early Reader's Bible (which is the easier of the 2). I would order this right along with your LHFHG order. Your daughter sounds like she is reading exactly like mine was when we began the ERS (Emerging Reader Set). Now, if you do this, you could put off ordering the Beyond guide and the rest of the ERS for 9 weeks. Just read a story per day and use the questions right in the Bible. That's what the guide schedules for the Early Reader's Bible. When it gets toward the end of the Bible, I think the guide has you double up and read 2 stories a day. But, going at your own pace will hurt nothing here!

Then, I would get the ERS (with the other Bible) and the Beyond guide. (Unless finances allow and you wanted to order it all at one time - which would save on shipping.) I was planning on using the other Bible and just starting the schedule in the back over again. We did some of it that way, and then I just gave Allison the Bible to read on her own and moved on with the rest of the set. We have stretched out the set by getting most of the extra titles that are listed weekly in hte ER schedule. We'll do one that's scheduled and then do a couple extras. Sometimes I come up with questions and sometimes I just listen to her read them. THis is something you could do to have some other great books to read while giving her plenty of time to build her reading skills.

When she's totally done with the set, she really should be ready for DITHOR. The reading level of the books in the level 2 book pack are right there (some even easier) than the end of the ERS. Julie (my3sons) shared a plan that she used when starting DITHOR with her son. She doubled the time that it took to get through a genre by having her child read from his book daily, but only using the follow-up lessons every other day. I think this would work well with a young child that's through the ERS. Maybe she can link it for you so you can see what would be "next".

Kathleen

Kathleen wrote:Hi Jennifer!

You could order the Early Reader's Bible (which is the easier of the 2). I would order this right along with your LHFHG order. Now, if you do this, you could put off ordering the Beyond guide and the rest of the ERS for 9 weeks. Just read a story per day and use the questions right in the Bible.

When she's totally done with the set, she really should be ready for DITHOR. The reading level of the books in the level 2 book pack are right there (some even easier) than the end of the ERS. Julie (my3sons) shared a plan that she used when starting DITHOR with her son. She doubled the time that it took to get through a genre by having her child read from his book daily, but only using the follow-up lessons every other day. I think this would work well with a young child that's through the ERS. Maybe she can link it for you so you can see what would be "next".

This is what I would do too.

I would do LHFHG along with the emergent readers. You can also stretch them out by doing the supplemental titles(there is one supplemental titled suggested for each unit of the emergent readers). You will need to buy the Beyond guide to get the schedule though.

I like what everyone else said. Here's what we've been doing, similar situation:

We have been using LHFHG for my 5-year-old with the Emerging Readers from Beyond this year. Because he was already a fluent reader, we began with the Beginner's Bible (which we already owned), but in the beginning, we started out slowly, only doing half of the pages (usually one of the two Bible stories scheduled for the day). Even though he was capable, he wasn't confident or comfortable reading a new text out loud to me (doesn't like me to correct him). It took several weeks for him to build up confidence, and at some point, we transitioned to him reading the whole assignment as scheduled per day.

I definitely think it is worth purchasing Beyond. The questions are already there... I wouldn't be able to think of those on the spot! The suggested supplemental books are great, too. I haven't required my ds to read them aloud to me, but I keep them easily accessible so that he can read them for fun. I was able to get most of them from the library... and some of his very favorite books have come from that list.

When we are finished with the ERs, we will begin DITHOR, going at a pace that fits us.

HTH

Wow, Jennifer, you've received some pretty great advice, so far! I'll just pop in to welcome you to HOD and the message board. This is a GREAT curriculum that is so much more than just curriculum! Christ-centered, Bible-based, Charlotte Mason style learning at its finest!!! You'll also find some pretty great ladies on this board that are always willing and ready to help answer any questions you might have, or even to just pray for you as well! Welcome!

About the plan you mentioned for your daughter. . . . .what a great problem to have! Your little one sounds like she's really doing well with reading. Good job! Doing LHFHG will be a great plan especially coupled with the ER set and follow up questions from Beyond. We're doing the ER in our home, along with the schedule and follow-ups from Beyond, and it's working out so well. They are such great books! Next year, our next little one will be joining the group and starting kindergarten! We'll be using LHFHG, although she'll need a year of phonics instruction before she's ready for the ER.

Welcome to the HOD family!

Thank you everyone! It's great to have virtual advisors who have been there! I was wondering about the history part of the emerging readers though - won't we want to read that as scheduled in Beyond? Don't those books go along with the history read-alouds? Some of the ideas for stretching out the readers sound good, and we may end up starting the readers a little late and stretching them out, so we don't get through all of them in the K year anyway. One of the reasons I am planning to use LHFHG is the idea that my older daughter and I can do K in 90 minutes broken up throughout the day, because my 1 year old twins make it hard to concentrate sometimes! So maybe we start the year continuing our Phonics (and of course, reading for fun as she likes!) and then transition to the ER set.

For those of you using the ER set with LHFHG - will you use DITHOR with Beyond then? It seems a little advanced for 1st grade, I'd rather just keep reading. So did I see people say there are alternate books suggested in Beyond? Are there questions and schedules for them too?

This is a great forum, thank you for sharing your ideas!

The alternate books are in the emergent reader schedule in the back of Beyond. There are no questions or schedules for them. The emergent readers do not exactly line up with the history in Beyond, although many of them are about US history. The emergent reader set is to be used whenever your child needs it even as old as the Bigger guide. Many people have their kids just read the DITHOR level 2 readers after the emergent readers, and then jump into the full DITHOR program with the level 3 books. HTH

Jennifer,

The Emerging Readers won't add time to LHFHG for you. You will do them in place of phonics for 15 min. So, it's planned in. They're really not made to go with the history in Beyond either. I know my daughter has learned from them, but the schedule is just in the appendix of Beyond, and you start it and use it whenever your child is ready. The Beyond guide will tell you to either do phonics with your child or read from the Emerging Readers. They're still an option in Bigger, too. So, the box in the daily plans for reading just tells you to do it. Make sense?

Whenever you do begin the Emerging Readers, I know one great piece of advice I got was to let my daughter "practice" the reading for the day on her own. This gave her time to look at ALL the pictures and sound out any words that were more difficult. So, when she read it to me we could just read right through it and I could ask the follow-up questions. This works so well for us and streamlines my time with her while still giving her the time to really look at all the pictures.

Kathleen

We used the ERs along with Bigger (it's scheduled there as well) and it definitely wasn't tied to the history at all! I think that's part of what makes the ERs s great - you can use them whenever your child is ready. And like it's already been mentioned, the time for doing this or phonics is built into the schedule already, so you don't have to worry about adding time to your day.