Switching from Sonlight

[Mwisnasky]

Hello forum people! This is my first post so forgive me if I am doing something wrong! I am still new to homeschooling. I have four children ages 5, 3, 1, and a newborn. I just recently learned about Heart of Dakota from a friend. I did a lot of research comparing HOD with Sonlight which was the curriculum I was using. I decided to make the switch based on the philosophies, ease of use, and PRICE! Right now I am having difficulty deciding where to place my five year old daughter.

We did Sonlight 4/5 preschool and K reading. I am most concerned about placing her in the appropriate reading program. She can read words that "follow the rules" and can write sentences. Sonlight doesn't teach many sight words in K nor do they teach any of the phonics rules beyond the very basic. When I look at the program placement chart, she is more in the BLHFHG than LHFHG, but either way she would still be one of the phonics programs so I feel I should keep her in the LHFHG--I'm not trying to raise little geniuses. I am leaning toward The Reading Lesson to be our phonics program.

I have two main questions. One, is there anyone else who has made a transition from Sonlight to HOD who might have some insight on how the programs compare. Secondly (and more importantly), does the Reading Lesson go beyond what she knows now, and in your opinion will this program work for us?

Thanks so much for your help!

Blessings,
Mary

[lucsch]

I can answer part of your question.

We used yet another program for K4 (Ann Ward's Learning at Home), then SL 4/5 for K and SL K for 1st before switching permanently to HOD at the Beyond level. One exception is we used LA/Readers 1 for K and LA/Readers 2 for 1st. When we started Beyond, my dd was past the emergent reader level. In fact the readers in LA2 were very similar to HOD's emerging reader set. So, we started with DITHOR and the reader pack 2. It was an extremely smooth transition, other than I found my dd was spelling far ahead the spelling in Beyond, so I supplemented that.

If you have only done the K level phonics, your child probably can only read CVC words and still needs a phonics program. SL had a reading program that really worked well with my dd, including sight words and phonics, along with the ETC books 1, 2, and 3 for LA/Readers 1 (beginning readers) and 4, 5, and 6 for LA/Readers 2 (emergent readers). Basically, you are at the beginning, so I'd go with the phonics program recommended by HOD leading into the emergent readers. I think Beyond would be the right level after all of that SL BUT Little Hearts would also work. Bigger also schedules emergent readers, so you will be on track to do those the following year.

HOD is a lot LESS reading aloud. It schedules more activities than SL. Please do not skip any of them, as they develop skills in ways I never thought of! I think your day will be much shorter, leaving more time to learn through play or through other activities and field trips.

ETA: I missed the part about your student only being 5yo! Yikes. I would hesitate doing Little Hearts with 5yo. I like it better for 6yo kids.

[Motherjoy]

I switched from SL to HOD when my oldest was in fourth. I tried making Sonlight work for us for three years. Really did. But I got sick of having to draw black boxes on all the half naked, or fully naked, pictures in the history books.i got tired of trying to find hands on activities to add to SL. I couldn't function with this guide layout, and I thought it was because I was lazy. Turns out that I just work better with something like HOD.

We still use the SL readers along with ETC and The Reading Lesson. You can use any phonics program with HOD. Check the main site for the placement chart.

[bethelmommy]

We originally came to HOD to use LHFHG as a filler year between p4/5 and core K/A since my younger needed time to mature. We have enjoyed it so much that we are sticking with HOD long term. I would recommend LHFHG if your daughter is only 5. It is a great program with lots of fun skill building activities. TRL is great as well. My kids have transitioned to the ER's beautifully and my oldest will be starting DITHR this fall. While your dd may fit in Beyond skill wise, there is no reason to rush. There is plenty of meat in LHFHG. If your dd is already writing sentences, you can use the 1st grade handwriting book instead of the K. You could also use the 1st grade FMS books if you feel those are a better fit. There are a lot of things we like about SL, but the longer we use HOD, the less we miss about SL. HOD has been a wonderful fit for our family.

ETA: Regarding TRL, it takes your child to a second grade reading level so it will teach more than what your dd learned with SL K LA. We have several levels of the SL readers and use them as filler during school breaks. About half to three quarters of the way through TRL, my kids were easily able read the SL 1st grade readers. When we started HOD ER's, we also used SL 2nd and some 3rd grade readers. My ds is finishing miscellaneous 2nd and 3rd grade readers this summer for free reading. HTH.

[agstefko]

I came from SL also. My dd did P4/5 and SL LA K and we went into LHFHG and TRL. We have used SL Core P3/4-Core C and I love the Christian values that are in HOD and how they use a wide variety of types of literature and not just fiction. SL has some great selections, but I did have to do a lot of editing especially the higher we went. As for reading, TRL will pick up nicely from SL Readers K and will get you ready nicely for the emerging readers.

[StillJulie]

I also would recommend LHFHG. We use that successfully after Sonlight P4/5.

[StephanieU]

Although we aren't coming from Sl, my daughter is someone in the same shoes as yours. We are using Horizons for phonics and math (since I bought grade 1 before finding HOD). She can read level 1 readers, but she is only 5. I don't want to push her ahead and then have problems later simply because she isn't mature enough. I looked at the sequence, and realized LHFHG is really a 1st grade curriculum if you do 1 each year (there will be 11 after it). So, I am placing her there (just waiting on the new edition to come out). I am also going to purchase the BLHFHG guide because I think she will be ready for the emerging reader books before we are done with LHFHG. The nice thing about HOD is that you can customize the phonics and math to fit your kids, which i love. We will probably stick with Horizons for math but not phonics after this year, going instead to DITHOR when I think my daughter is ready.

[MelInKansas]

The placement chart is really your best guide as to where your daughter will place in HOD. She is still so young I wouldn't expect there to be any transition problems. HOD is customizable so that you will place her in appropriate math and reading levels no matter which guide she ends up in, and the math and reading are mostly separate - it is scheduled in the guide so you know when to do it but it doesn't tie in with the activities that go with the history/science/LA portions. So, you can do TRL (which is the level it sounds like your daughter is at) with LHFHG, Beyond, or even Bigger hearts.

I think another key thing to look at since your daughter is only 5 years old, is how much work and how long of a school day you want to have at this point. There is a significant jump in the work level from LHFHG to Beyond, adding at least an hour of work each day. Handwriting is a big one - from doing letter formation workbooks to copying a poem (or at least part of a poem) each week. So if she is not writing all of her letters well and fairly easily, she should be in LHFHG. You can add in handwriting challenge to LHFHG but you would want her to be able to do most of Beyond if that is where you are starting. Beyond also starts spelling words. The history readings in Beyond are higher comprehension level. LHFHG starts an easy introduction to narration with short storytime readings with activities that help the child begin to gain skills helpful in doing narration. In Beyond the child should be able to narrate back parts of what is read to them.

If you did start with Beyond, I would suggest not doing full-speed, as in not finishing a week's worth of plans in a week. Not finishing the whole guide in a year. I don't think you would want to put a 6YO into Bigger Hearts, again the workload and expectations go up significantly from Beyond. I would think you would want to give her some time to mature into that. I have seen many people on here give good advice basically stating that even though your child might be capable of doing certain things at a very young age, you don't need to push them because they are not necessarily mature enough to persevere or to do the higher workload expected of higher grades. Nor do they need to be capable of that at that young age. They've got plenty of time. Just some thoughts for you I hope it helps.

[Mwisnasky]

Wow! Thanks so much for all the great advice! I had no idea how active the message boards were. I need to brush up on my abbreviations though! We decided to go with LHFHG and the Reading Lesson! I'm excited to get started!

[MelInKansas]

That sounds like a great place to start! Sorry if my abbreviations were confusing to you.

HOD - Heart of Dakota
LHFHG - Little Hearts for His Glory
LA - Language Arts
TRL - The Reading Lesson
Beyond - Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory
Bigger - Bigger Hearts for His Glory

I just have a hunch, I don't know SL very well but have some friends that have used it (Sonlight), your school day will be shorter with HOD. In later grades that may not be the case, but for earlier grades it is.

[my3sons]

Hi Mwisnasky, and welcome to the HOD Board! The ladies on this board are so helpful and encouraging to one another. It is one of my favorite places to be, and by far my favorite 'group of women' to be a part of! MelInKansas gave some great abbreviations for you to be in the know about - if you have any more that come up, just ask what we are talking about! For the longest time everyone used 'dc' and I was stumped! (It stands for 'dear children' by the way. ) Just ask - no one will think you're nuts! We've all been there.

That brings me to this part of your post...

...We decided to go with LHFHG and the Reading Lesson! I'm excited to get started!

You SHOULD be excited to start because you picked HOD and you picked the best placement for your dd! I agree 100% with your placement here and can't wait to hear about your year!

In Christ,
Julie