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This upcoming year will be our first year homeschooling. Currently my school-age children are in third grade, second grade, and kindergarten at public school. Their ages at the start of the upcoming school year will be 10,8, and 7. We did the Singapore Math Placement test for the 2 older kids, and they both placed around level 1B. I was surprised how much they didn't know, they all have excellent grades at school, all A's. They are both EXCELLENT readers, and I would have them do DITHOR. My kindergartener is doing quite well with all of the paperwork in school, comprehension, math, etc. However, he struggles with reading, so I have extra phonics work with him. My thought is that I will place all 3 children in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. The youngest one fits the placement suggestion well with that program, and I noticed that some of the books that Beyond uses are also used in the Christian Liberty Press curriculum for 3rd and 4th graders, so I thought my older ones would be ok with that, as well. Am I asking too much for my youngest with Beyond, or too little from my older ones if they would do it? I have already changed my mind several times, and keep coming back to placing them all in Beyond and moving along together each year, doing extensions for the older ones. My oldest would always be doing extensions, then. Just wondered what your thoughts were. Thank you!

Hi, Miranda! Welcome to HOD and to homeschooling!!!

I would say it is key that you look at the placement chart, http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php if you haven't already done so and see where each child places before you go further, especially in basic skills (reading, writing, grammar, and math). You might be able to place the older two in the same program or the younger two in the same program, but the age range b/t your 10 yo and 7 yo is a bit more of a gap. My boys are 3 years apart right now and I couldn't imagine my youngest being able to do the same program as my older DS. Someone else may have some ideas of how to combine all three of your kids so that it will work, but I think it might cause you more stress to have to either stretch your youngest or not challenge your oldest enough instead of doing two programs. After you figure out where they place on the placement chart, let us know and we can help you further...

Also, your first year homeschooling is a huge adjustment, especially when your kids have been in formal school. You may find that you have to go really slow at the beginning of the year (do the guide(s) half-speed) and ease into it and that is totally okay!

Hope I helped a little--I know other will chime in--and I know you will find lots of support on this wonderful board so ask away any and all questions!!!

I think Beyond might be a good place to start with all of them, as you said the youngest fits in Beyond according to the placement suggestions. I would recommend using the Emerging Reader set for your youngest. I suggest DITHOR 2/3 for the older two, to ease them into the skills taught in DITHOR, but with higher grade level books since they are good readers. Lastly, I would suggest adding Rod & Staff Grammar 2 or 3, depending on how much formal grammar they have had. The author of HOD, Carrie, suggests that children finish Rod & Staff level 6 by the end of grade 8, because from level 3 up, Rod & Staff moves quickly each subsequent level, and is quite advanced by 6.
This plan would give you a chance to devote time to the olders in math, since they placed at Singapore 1B. Don't fret, however, they will likely pick up speed in math once they get the hang of the Singapore way of doing things, and advance to the average placement for a 3rd or 4th grader pretty soon, which in Singapore Math would be 2A or 3A. It is typical for children new to Singapore Math to place one or more levels below the "grade" of the book. In the meantime, you will also have fun hands-on activities for all your kids written into the Beyond guide. Once your olders get to 2A, you can buy the Bigger Hearts guide for hands-on activities for Singapore 2A and 2B.
Alternatively, you could split them into separate guides depending on where each child places on the placement chart. Please do take a look at that and let us know what it looks like for your older two.

I am using Beyond with my 1st grader who turned 7yrs in October. it fits him very well.
Someone else will have to answer for the older kids. i am not famiiar with doing extensions and my 7yr old is my oldest. Someone may suggest combining the older two in the next guide, Bigger.... depends on their abilities and which guide you think they place closer to, according to HODs placement chart.
Glad to have you on board.

Jenn D.

I'm doing Beyond with my 6 & 8 years old. Two suggestions Carrie had for my 8 year old were to add R & S English and to up the science. The science is fine for the youngers, but you'd probably definitely want more for your 10 year old and even year 8 year old. You could choose something from Apologia Elementary series (one that Carrie isn't incorporating). Just something to ponder for your family.

Thank you all for your suggestions and input. I had considered putting the older 2 in Bigger, and the younger in Beyond, but I thought they would all really enjoy Beyond together. My thoughts behind putting all three of them together were so they could go through all of the history/science together. I see that in Bigger they would go through part of the history again, but not as detailed. I think I would add more for the older kids, I see that there are workbooks or tests that I could add for the history/science if I chose to for the older ones. I also looked at Apologia Exploring Creation through Botany or Zoology for my older ones. Those look really fun!

For math, I was thinking of putting the youngest in Singapore Math 1A, and the older 2 kids starting in 1B and progressing along accordingly.

Reading/Language Arts/Grammar I would also add DITHOR 2/3 for the older 2, and explode the code for my youngest. I'm not quite sure that he's ready for the emerging readers, but he is making great progress and he may be ready for that once we start. The older ones I was thinking of putting in R&S 2, since I am not sure what it covers,and what they have already done in school. I would also use a cursive writing program for the older 2. My oldest has just started learning it in 3rd grade.

Again, I thank you for your advice. I really enjoy hearing your opinions and reading everything here on the message boards. I am so excited to start! I almost want to pull the kids out now just so we can start right away. But, they are doing well where they are, so they might as well finish out the year. That way I have time to change my mind about what to use at least half a dozen more times, too.

This is our first year back with homeschooling in 2 years and our first year with HOD. We are doing Beyond with my 2 sons, 7 and now 10. It has worked out very well for us. I have really enjoyed having them in the same guide, and like you, I plan to use extensions for my older one next year with Bigger and the rest of the time. For my oldest, he is in R&S3, and Math 4 (we use Teaching Textbooks for that). So is in higher LA and Math, and we have used a separate spelling program that is higher as well. He also did DITHOR 2/3 level. He really loved the boys interest set of books. My younger son was in Emerging Readers. Other than that, it has all been the same. It has been wonderful.

Science is one thing that probably hasn't been enough, although I did buy a R&S 3rd grade science book for him that we do together. He has liked it pretty good. Also, bought a box of science experiments that they do together. But next year with Bigger + extensions, I am sure that will be sufficient for him.

If you are leaning this way, I would say it will be very do-able for you. This is just my own experience! Blessings

Yes, I think you can do this, but you will need to up LA, math, and science for your 10 yo. I would use Bigger Hearts to do this, as this is an easy, balanced way to adequately meet your 10 yo's academic needs, while still combining your dc. So, you could use Beyond for your core program, and the right side of Beyond for your 7 and 8 yo dc. Then, for your 10 yo, you would do the cursive, grammar, math (when 2A/2B is needed), and dictation. You can do DITHOR 2/3 Student Book and plans, and choose either whichever HOD Book Pack best fits your 10 yo's reading level, or choose your own books. For writing, I'd do Igniting Your Writing, "start-up" level, one time a week. For science, you have several options. 1 - use a textbook for additional reading on the subject, 2 - read living books of any kind that are science-focused that your 10 yo is interested in, 3 - do Bigger Heart's science. Option 1 is my least favorite, because it is not CM like. Option 2 and 3 are both good options. If you choose option 3, then your 10 yo would always do the right side of the next guide, which would work. HTH! Enjoy homeschooling - HOD is such a breath of fresh air - such a blessing - I'm so excited for you to begin!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you so much! I am still playing with my options, and thought about it. I'm actually considering 3 options, just trying to decide which one would be best.

Option 1- All 3 kids in Beyond, with added LA, Math, Science for older 2. Then each year I would always add extensions as needed for the older 2.

Option 2- Maybe I will not combine all 3 together, but put my older daughter and son in Bigger and keep my youngest in Beyond. I think that they "fit" better into Bigger according to the placement chart, especially coming from ps, and my youngest would fit best into Beyond. I would then also add the extensions for my daughter, but my middle son would be right on track, as is.

Option 3- Youngest in Beyond, and older 2 kids in Preparing. I LOVE how this curriculum looks, and it would be at my older 2 kids' grade level, so they would not need the extensions, but are an option. Not sure if I want to throw them into Preparing without having been through Bigger, though. Middle son has not had any cursive handwriting yet, and they need some more prep. in math.

I guess I am just excited and want to do everything all at once, it all looks so fun! Can't wait to get started!

Miranda,

I would probably lean toward either Option 1 or 3, because otherwise you'd probably be doing back-to-back guides for years to come (which isn't my favorite option as it doesn't keep things as "new" for the teacher each year). The deciding factor between Option 1 and Option 3 is whether or not your older two could truly handle Preparing Hearts. The placement chart will be your best help when pondering that option, however if you'd be willing to share a bit more about your older two's feelings about written work, level of independence, how well they follow written directions, spelling/grammar, and their reading level/comprehension, then we could help you evaluate how ready they would be for Preparing Hearts. There is a big difference between Beyond and Preparing, so knowing more about your kiddos will help us advise you better on their best placement.

Blessings,
Carrie

Academically, I think the older 2 could handle Preparing. Even though they are 2 years apart in age, they are pretty much at the same level in academics. Both read very well at higher level books. Ds is an excellent speller, however he is terrible at handwriting. Dd has wonderful handwriting and does well in spelling. Dd loves writing and preparing reports, which she does on her own regularly, not as a school project, but just for fun because she gets interested in things and likes to give us written reports, lol. Ds likes everything to be kept to a minimum because he lacks motivation. They are both pretty independent, and can work well on their own, but ds has to have somewhat of a close watch on him, or he will do sloppy work because he wants to rush through it to get it done. I guess that the reason I wanted them to go through Beyond is for the Early American History, which they really have not studied in great detail. Will they cover it later on if I did start them in Preparing? Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Preparing is a wonderful overview of history from Creation to the present. The next four guides that follow are a 4-year history cycle-CTC (Creation to Christ), RtR (Resurrection to Reformation), RevtoRev (Revival to Revolution) and a modern times guide due out in 2012.
So the answer is yes, they will cover Early American History, in RevtoRev. Carrie is also planning guides for high school, which you can see in the scope and sequence here:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/scope.php in which history will be cycled through again.
Preparing is also a bit more independent, which means, if your older two can get into the groove of that, you will have ample time to work in Beyond with your youngest.

Miranda,

From what you've shared, it does sound like your older two could possibly do Preparing Hearts. Although, it takes an academically strong 8 year old in reading and writing and independence to thrive in Preparing Hearts. Often having kiddos placed correctly by skill level makes doing more than one program easier than trying to up the level or water down a program to stretch the fit instead. There is plenty of American history coming, so don't worry about coverage. Just try to ponder what the best fit would be and also what will be most manageable for you!

I'm also wondering as I reread this thread, whether your K turning first grader may actually fit better in LHFHG? Depending on how well he writes and reads, it is possible that LHFHG may be a better option. So, that is something to ponder as well. Sometimes if you take the combining thoughts out the mix, it is easier to see where each child places as an individual. This really helps in seeing whether combining is feasible and if so in which guide.

If you have more thoughts about your younger student's placement in LHFHG or Beyond, feel free to share. It is possible that your younger student may fit best in LHFHG and your older pair may fit better in Bigger Hearts. This would likely be the direction I'd lean as your kiddos will be coming home from school and this will be an adjustment year. I'm also thinking it would give them a solid start to homeschooling. You'll know where they fit better than me, but the LHFGH/Bigger Hearts placement is one to consider.

Blessings,
Carrie