Beyond or Bigger for my 2nd grader?

[ruby2273]

Hi. I'm new to the message boards. I'm planning on using HOD next year with my 2nd grader and can't figure out where to place him. I've read the placement charts many times, but am still unsure. He has been in public school for two years and in a "good" district. They are whipping along in reading with the Trophies reading program, which seems like "phony phonics" to me and going slowly in math with Everyday Math. He is in the highest reading group in school and is advanced in math. I know he should be in Singapore 1B next fall. We are going through the 1A workbook to supplement what he's getting in school but I can't figure out if I should put him in Beyond or Bigger for language arts and history. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[my3sons]

Hi ruby2273, and welcome to the board! How exciting you are on the brink of homeschooling your ds! It was just about 9 years ago that I made that same decision, and we have not looked back since. We love using HOD in our home. I would be glad to help with placement for your ds.

Having taught Beyond... and Bigger each several times, I'd say one of the biggest differences is the amount of writing. Bigger Hearts has much more than Beyond does. Carrie had these comments about choosing between Beyond and Bigger in another thread...

As far as choosing between "Beyond.." and "Bigger..." goes, the amount of writing varies quite a bit between Beyond and Bigger. Bigger requires more writing in the areas of a once a week history notebooking assignment, a once a week science experiment sheet and a once a week science notebooking entry, along with once a week copywork of a Bible verse, 1-3 vocabulary cards each week, cursive handwriting practice daily, and daily grammar instruction with written practice. It also provides a choice of spelling or dictation passages. If your child sounds like that would be fine for her, she belongs in Bigger. If not, then Beyond would be best.

Beyond has much less writing doing copywork daily from the poetry, using a gentle once a week introduction to grammar, and writing daily for very short spelling lessons.

You would also want to look at the emerging reader set to see if your child should do all or at least the last half of that set. The schedule for that set is included in both Beyond and Bigger, so you'd have it either way. I would for sure have her to the last half of the set. Here's the link to it: Then, I would move her onto DITHR.
http://www.heartofdakota.com/emerging-reader.php

You can choose whatever level of math or reading you need regardless of whether you use Beyond or Bigger Hearts for your core program, so I'd make the decision on how ready your ds is for the written work noted above. Does that help? Keep asking questions, and we'll keep helping! This board is full of encouraging ladies.

In Christ,
Julie

[tnahid]

I personally would say for the first year of homeschooling and with his being second grade, I would go with Beyond. We had a wonderful year at home last year with Beyond after being in school for 2 years. It was a gentle and relaxed approach and I wouldn't have wanted to miss that. So, that's my two cents!

[raceNzanesmom]

Welcome! I agree with Julie and Tina. Bigger has a lot more writing. Beyond is a bit more relaxed and nice intro to HOD (esp coming out of ps). We're using Beyond for 2nd this year and LOVE it.

[Larissa]

Great replies already about which one to choose. My oldest is in Preparing right now, and started with Beyond when he was in 2nd grade. (I have always home schooled, but I completely changed approaches when he was in 2nd grade to the Charlotte Mason HOD curriculum.
These are my observations:
1. You are taking him out of public school and homeschooling him, so you are completely changing the approach of schooling for him. Not only will he be schooling at home, you are going to be giving him a Charlotte Mason education. (you are going to love this and so will he!) Just because of those things, I would go with Beyond. Beyond is a fantastic program and will thoroughly prepare your son in foundational Charlotte Mason principals of education - especially in the area of narration! Beyond is so much fun and will provide a great transitional year for you as he gets used to being schooled at home. There is not nearly the amount of writing in Beyond as there is in Bigger, and if your boy is like any of mine ... writing can be a CHORE! If he is already reading on a level higher than the emerging readers, then you can order level 2 or 3 Dithor book packs for him to read. You can also add English Rod and Staff 2, if you think he's ready for it. I currently have a very advanced 2nd grader in Beyond and I added Dithor and English 2 for him.
2. Another thought that I have that I would consider more important than the previous thought is about the guide following Bigger, Preparing. I am taking my 4th grader through Preparing right now. I cannot say enough wonderful things about it. It is absolutely amazing! One of the things that has struck me about Preparing is that there are some concepts that we are covering that I am not sure my son would have grasped if he had gone through it as a 3rd grader. We are reading through a book right now for history read a-louds called "Fountain of Life" and we are enjoying it so much. It has really been an eye opener for me and made me think about things not only differently but it has made me think about things that I'd never considered before. It is deep, rich, and incredibly thought provoking. My son will be 10 in May - and I find myself wondering if he is really grasping these deep and weighty concepts. I know how my children are ... and I know that they will read these books again and again. So, I know when he reads the book again one day just for pleasure, he will grasp it differently than he is right now. I guess I am sharing this with you because I have wondered many times if my child would gain us much going through Preparing as a 3rd grader. There have been times that I have wondered if he would gain even more by going through Preparing as a 5th grader! It's just so rich, thorough, and wonderful!

I suppose I am suggesting that you consider the guides that are coming in the future, when making a decision on where to place him right now. The wonderful thing about HOD is that you can slow the guides down if necessary or even beef them like I am doing with Beyond. It is such a flexible program. I have no doubt that my older two sons could have handled Beyond as a 1st grader, and could have probably handled Bigger as a 2nd grader ... for me, it is not really about what they can handle at what age/grade ... it is about what I want them to grasp as we go through the guides - and I have found that I prefer for them going through the guides at the mid-later age range of the guides. This is only my opinion, though. I know without a doubt that a child will have much to gain from each guide even if they are hitting them during the lower end of the age range.

I wish you the best as you try to figure all of this out!

[mom23]

I'd say Beyond, too.