new... looking for advice.

[meg|momof4]

New here... referred through a friend, and loving what I have seen so far in HOD.
I am very interested in using the program for my two oldest next year --- son entering 3rd (will be eight) and daughter entering 1st grade (will be 5/6).

A little background... we have gone the classical approach thus far. i have done the WTM track with my son (SOTW 1 and 2, Ordinary Parents Guide, WWE, FLL, as well as HWT, spelling workout and apologia astronomy for science. we used noeo bio 1 last year). My daughter is a young kindergardener, but was def. ready. i didn't want to hold her back, in hopes of being able to combine the two of them in the future. i used MFW K for her this year, which has been ok but not my fav.

Which leads me to the coming year... i'm very excited at the prospect of being able to combine the two of them using HOD. my question is how to best do so. as far as the future, i would love to start into the new ANCIENTS course when my son hits 5th grade (my daughter would then be in 3rd, and 8 yrs old).

so i guess my questions are these:
- is it feasible to do Beyond, then Bigger, and go from there right to ANCIENTS? is PREPARING a key step in between?
- if Preparing is a key step, would it make sense to do a combination of Beyond/Bigger for the two of them, and then a modified Preparing the year after next?
- my initial leaning is getting Beyond, and modifying the basics for my son (using R&S English 2 and Cursive). my thought was that then, if I did Bigger the next year i could just have him do English 3.)
- OR would is be better to just have him do the basic side for Bigger completely?
i would say his biggest weakness right now is reading. it is appealing to start at Beyond, which may be right around his level reading-wise. but after FLL and WWE, i feel like he would need more on the english/grammar side than Beyond offers.
- as far as science... would you go with Beyond or Bigger? i do like the idea of having the science correspond with the history. maybe i could supplement Beyond science for my son? would i need to?
- given my son's weakness in reading, would he be challenged or overwhelmed at the prospect of Drawn into the Heart of Reading? (i would def. place him in the emerging reader category.) should i wait and save that for the following year (assuming i do Bigger then)?

ok, well... those are my current thoughts/questions as of now. thanks in advance for your opinions. looking forward to hearing what you think.

megan
ds (7), dd (5), dd (3), ds (1)

[Carrie]

Megan,

I just wanted to pop-in and welcome you to the boards. It's nice to have you here!

If you haven't already had a chance to check out our placement chart, then I'll link it here for you:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

The placement chart is a wonderful tool for helping you figure out where your kiddos would place best right now (all combining scenarios aside). Once you see where they actually place, then you can start thinking about possible combinations that will serve their needs best.

If your son seems to be in the Emerging Reader's category, then I would definitely start him there. The Emerging Reader's Set is a year-long schedule in the Appendix of both Beyond and Bigger, which moves in little bite-sized pieces in order to incrementally move your son from an emerging reader to an independent reader by year-end. Then, the following year, he'd move on to Drawn into the Heart of Reading.

I agree that your son would be ready for a bit more in the language arts department than is scheduled in Beyond. As you mentioned, you could easily up those areas by utilizing the plans from the right side of the Bigger Hearts guide to do Rod and Staff English 2, the cursive, and the studied dictation scheduled in the Appendix of Bigger Hearts. Depending on what you're doing for math, you could also use the 2A/2B hands-on activities in Bigger, along with Singapore math if needed.

There is actually not a need to supplement the science in Beyond, as it meets state standards for science for the listed ages. We do choose to keep science lighter in the first few of our guides (doing it twice a week in Beyond), in order to leave more time to devote to getting the 3R's solidly in place. Once we move to Bigger, Science becomes a daily subject. However, given the fact that you've done some heavier science in the early years already, you may wish to supplement the science in Beyond to meet your family's goals. You could do that by adding on additional readings or adding on an additional Apologia text, if you desire.

Typically kiddos move from one HOD guide to the next. However, there are exceptions to that, depending on the ages of your kiddos and your family's goals. In the early years, it's pretty important to systematically move from one guide to the next if at all possible. When you got to the point where you were ready for Preparing Hearts, you could always re-evaluate to see what would be the best for your kiddos at that point in their lives.

If you get a chance to pop back-in with your thoughts on the placement chart, I'd love to hear them.

Blessings,
Carrie

[meg|momof4]

Thanks for the lengthy reply. It answered many of my questions.
I did have a chance to look at the placement chart, and would say my daughter would fall into Beyond - finishing phonics, able to read simple short stories, spell 3-4 letter words, and knows upper and lowercase letters. My son would fall into more of the Bigger category, being an emerging reader, able to do 1-2 sentence copywork, familiar with basic parts of speech (from FLL), and able to compose 2-3 sentence paragraphs with minimal assistance. Given your advice, I am leaning towards going with Beyond and doing the right side of Bigger for my son. I may or may not supplement the science... we'll see how the year is going. Thanks again for your help, and if you have any additional thoughts, please do share. Thanks!

[my3sons]

Welcome to the HOD board, Meg! I like your plan - it sounds like a great fit for your dc. The Emerging Reader's Set schedule and questions are in the Appendix of Bigger Hearts, and your ds could start that first. Then, whenever your dd finished her phonics, she could start it. This will be great - you will get double use out of those great books, and your dc will be at different places using them so there won't be a need to share. For math, hands-on activities for 1A/1B are part of the Beyond plans, and hands-on math for the 2A/2B are part of the Bigger plans. You will have both - lucky girl - so you could do whatever you need to there. As far as the Storytime, either the Beyond or Bigger titles would work well. Those were just a few thoughts I had. You are going to have a wonderful year with HOD - be sure to share with us what's going on - it is nice to meet you!

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Megan,

I think that your plan sounds like a good one! We pray you'll enjoy HOD and that you'll have a wonderful year with your kiddos. We'll look forward to getting to know you better on the board and to hearing about your homeschooling journey.

Blessings,
Carrie