Beyond and 1st grade resources

[faroutback]

Ds finished Little Hearts in the spring and we will be starting Beyond Little Hearts. I considered doing Little Hearts a second time but he was doing two days at a time near the end and I didn't feel it would offer enough challenge. Plus, I wasn't sure about repeating the same history resources. We are still doing phonics work and I do not feel he is ready just yet for the emerging readers. I think by mid year he will move into that but I was wondering about using the first grade resources that are listed for Little Hearts with Beyond, namely the handwriting and science. If we do those with Beyond, are we going to get into the same question about the history resources again as with Little Hearts and trying to move into Bigger. I feel there is a simple answer that I am not able to see because I've gotten in so far. Thanks for your help.

[raindrops]

Is finishing phonics first the only reason you do not want to go into Beyond yet?

We have 2 units left of LHFHG yet we're only half way through The Reading Lesson. We're going to begin Beyond and just continue with phonics. It may be towards the end of Beyond or even when we begin Bigger before he starts the Emerging Readers. This is okay though, notice in the HOD cataloge that Beyond has either phonics OR emerging readers scheduled and Bigger has emerging readers OR drawn into the heart of reading.

If you're doing 2 days worth of LHFHG now, in one day, your child definitely sounds ready to move onto Beyond. Did I understand your question? Or was there something other than phonics?

[faroutback]

You understood well thank you for the encouragement. We were only halfway through phonics as well.

[MelInKansas]

I don't think there is any problem with him not yet finished with phonics and moving on to Beyond. Emerging Readers is also included in the Bigger guide, and the reading program is always separate from the rest (History, Science, etc). If he is ready for a higher level of comprehension and learning in History, Science, Bible, Geography, Grammar then Beyond will be good for him.

How is his writing? Is he doing well with writing (letter formation) or does that still need some work? Beyond will add in poetry copywork and spelling. If he is not yet reading well, spelling might not be a good thing to start, although the spelling lists do start with short, easy words that he can probably already read. I found that my Emerging Readers that start Beyond have been able to jump over a lot of the spelling lists because they are too easy so maybe they are just right for your son.

Copywork you would want to just have him do small amounts, not so much that it will overwhelm him.

I hope this helps.