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Kyle,

I do think you sound like you have a good plan if you go with Beyond and the ancients guide that will work better for you in the long haul. Combining your two kiddos with Beyond should be a good fit for them. Having your older daughter in the new ancients program should work well too. You may have to help your older daughter learn to read directions from the guide at first and help her understand how to do the various assignments in the first few weeks, but after that I think you'll be surprised at how well she'll do fairly independently.

Here's a link to a break-down on the teacher time for the new ancients guide that I gave in a previous thread:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2858

As far as Beyond goes, it typically takes 2 to 2 and 1/2 hours a day, including phonics, math, and handwriting time. To begin with, I'd recommend doing Beyond at half-speed (doing the left side of the plans one day and the right the next) until you've been able to "train" your older daughter with her new skills in the ancients guide. Once you feel that she has hit her stride a bit, then you can bump Beyond up to full-speed with your next pair as you won't have so much time taken up with your oldest.

With the younger age range of your 5 year old (in Beyond), you may also wish to consider doing Beyond 4 days a week instead of 5. That way you'll give the 5 year old a bit of time to grow into Beyond and will have a 4 day plan for both Beyond and the ancients guide (leaving the 5th day free to use as you choose). If you do Beyond on a 4 day plan, you'll go 9 weeks into the next school year to finish it though, so you'll have to weigh how you'd feel about that. In the long-run, I think it would be a good idea, as it would put both your second and third kiddos at the target age ranges within our guides for future years to come.

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie,

I can't say thank you enough! I love receiving practical advice. I think doing "half" the beyond will be perfect while I get Hannah started on the more "independent" guide. It won't matter if it puts them a little behind because I actually plan on ordering the programs within the next week or so and starting them as soon as I get them. Since technically the programs will be for "next" year we will be early (for once in my hsing career ). The nine week difference won't matter! Does that make any sense?

My hubby just told me this morning (randomly I might add) that he supported my choice to do "splankna of Dakota". (I know I didn't spell that right ). It is some greek word (or Latin, I don't know) meaning heart! It took me a second to figure out what in the world he was talking about and then I started laughing. He's so goofy. You know those "preacherly" types, always tryin' to be funny. Anyway it meant alot. He really thinks it will be a good fit for our family. Now to just send back all of this Sonlight stuff. I just can't even look at those teacher guides anymore.

Here is yet another question for you. I noticed that there wasn't a handwriting program recommended for Beyond. I was thinking I would do either the Reason for Handwriting A for my 1st grader or the Italic book ( I thinh she might like the Italic because they are always trying to make their letters look "fancy"). Then I was thinking of doing the Cheerful Cursive with my 2nd grader, because she is about to DIE to learn cursive. They are both very good drawers and can write very neatly when they take their time and don't rush. What do you think?

Again, I can't wait to "restart" my homeschooling journey with you!

Blessings,
Kyle

Kyle,

I had to smile at your hubby's humor! It's wonderful to have their support, isn't it!

I know what you mean about boxing up the Sonlight materials. I had a similar experience with Sonlight when my oldest was in third grade, and I knew it wasn't for us anymore.

As far as handwriting goes, Beyond schedules copywork from the poetry instead of using a separate handwriting program. You can choose how many lines you'd like each child to copy each day to best suit their needs. Younger kiddos obviously would copy less. Older kiddos could copy a stanza or so a day to finish the entire poem by Day 5. This results in a beautiful poetry notebook of copied poems by year end.

I'd encourage you to give copywork a try. It is a wonderful Charlotte-Mason type exercise that is a good training tool on so many levels (correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, etc.). Plus, it's an extension of the poetry study.

You can certainly use a handwriting book if you prefer, but if your kiddos have never done copywork, I'd encourage you to give that a try first. It is a slow-burn, but it reaps big rewards.

Blessings,
Carrie