Finishing reading lesson - help, now what?

[nacmama]

Hello all,

thanks to an AWESOME program my 5 year old is almost done with the reading lesson. we should be done by the end of next month- Jan. We have been taking it kinda easy with the rest of our curriculum LHFHG so are by no means close to being done with that(more like june). He LOVES reading and can't stop him! anyway have been looking through the HOD stuff and I think I am going to do the following, but would LOVE some feedback as I really don't know what would be best.
English is my weakest area and i am not confident 'winging' it, or tweeking like i am with the other subjects.

anyway, here is what I am thinking:
Jan: Finish TRL

Feb-May(possibly June): Continue our own readers(we have a few abeka readers as well as other easy readers and based on their length and number of stories i am estimating they should last that long)

July or August(we won't take much of a summer break, my kids love 'school' too much, plus i need to keep a routine as we do take off throughout the year for medical reasons for our youngest) anyway, in July or August start the emerging readers with Beyond.

I am concerned that he will definately need more 'language' instruction, but it seems like that is covered in Bigger? (Preparing to build...)

Is it ok to just wait to do Preparing to Build English then? Or should I start that with Beyond?

he is too young to start it now right?

Thanks!

[jenntracy]

in Beyond there is one day a week for language arts and spelling 4 days a week. That is plenty for my son who is in first grade and turned 7 yrs in October. He excels in reading and we are in the middle of our first book for DITHOR 2/3.
I wouldn't worry too much more about language arts and just use Beyond as written. They will get more in Bigger

Jenn D.

[raceNzanesmom]

I wouldn't worry too much more about language arts and just use Beyond as written. They will get more in Bigger

I agree. Let him work on reading, reading, reading. He'll get the grammar skills as he needs them.

[my3sons]

Congrats on your little guy taking off with his reading! I agree with the pp's too - there's enough LA in Beyond already, and it did an excellent job of preparing my dc for Bigger Hearts. With my early reader, I did both Bibles of the Emerging Reader's Set, so that added another 9 weeks to the set, and it helped my ds have reading material that encouraged him to develop his reading comprehension. My ds also benefitted from doing another year of handwriting, so we had him do "A Reason for Handwriting A" during Beyond, as well as the copywork of the poem. The once a week grammar lessons, and the daily skills taught through the LA box for spelling and related LA skills worked well to challenge my early reader and prepare him for Bigger Hearts. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[tjswaine]

I would suggest your child jump right into the Emerging Readers when he completes the TRL. If you aren't able to purchase both of the Bibles, your library may provide you with many of the supplementary titles recommended for the Emerging Readers. I, personally, love the supplementary titles as much as the original choices. Carrie has chosen excellent books!

[nacmama]

THANKS everyone!! We are so excited to get to this milestone ( I am not a fan of reading so was a little worried that he would take after me, but with this great program he hasnt!) anyway, thanks!! We did check our library and they have several of the emerging readers so we will have some to start with!!

Thanks again all!

[Carrie]

nacmama,

I just wanted to mention that in the Appendix of Beyond there is a daily schedule for the Emerging Reader's Set telling your child which pages to read aloud to you each day and what questions for you to ask. The Emerging Reader's Set works best if you can follow the scheduled bite-sized readings and short question sessions included Beyond. If you don't want to purchase the Beyond guide quite yet, you could just get just The Early Reader's Bible and do one story per day, asking the included questions within that Bible at the end of each session for now. Then, when you reach the end of the Bible, you could purchase the Beyond guide and the Emerging Reader's Set and begin with The Beginner's Bible instead and follow the guide. In that way, you won't read through the Emerging Reader's and miss the focus on comprehension and reasoning.

Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie