Beyond or Bigger?

[meganlabouff]

Looking for some advice…I am looking into HOD for my 7 yr old son for 2nd grade beginning late summer. We are currently using A beka for 1st grade. I don't have any real complaints about it, he has learned and progressed well, it just isn't a great fit for us. I have a 2 year old and 4 month old at home as well. The 2 year old "participates" in his own way, so really my oldest is the only one the guide would apply to. With all that being said, I am not sure where I should place him within HOD, he looks like he could do Bigger, but would that be too advanced. He's right on track with A beka, not ahead, not behind. He will do Singapore 2a/2b regardless as he placed for that per their website. Just looking for some input from other families who were in the same situation.


Thanks in advance,
Meg

[StephanieU]

If you are wavering between two guides, it is normally best to go with the lower guide. My daughter COULD have done Beyond this year, but I am glad we are doing Beyond. I can still push her in math and reading, but the history and Bible devotions are a better fit based on her age. So, I would go with Beyond in your case. If you stay with HOD and do one guide a year, it will work out perfectly (if you count backwards from high school, Beyond is 2nd grade). If you want to do the hands'on activities Carrie has for Singapore, you will need the Bigger guide though (or you can just use the textbook or home instructors guide). Singapore activities only go through 2B though, so it would be the only year you would need 2 guides.

We are going to start Beyond in May. I do plan to "beef" it up a tiny bit for my daughter though. She really wants to learn cursive, so we will start Cheerful Cursive with Beyond. She also is advanced in grammar because we have done Horizons, so I am going to by Preparing to Build (Rod and Staff English that is planned in Bigger). We will probably do the Beyond activities first and then add in Preparing to Build once those are done (doing 2-3 Beyond grammar activities a week instead of just 1). The only other change to the Beyond guide we will be doing is using Horizons math still, as I don't see a need for us to change (the spiral approach is working well for my daughter).

[Nealewill]

I actually started out with Abeka when I first started homeschooling. My oldest did all the way up through 2nd grade and then we switched. I would say that if your child has done 1st grade, I would put them in Beyond. As for phonics though, if your oldest is doing well in the phonics area, I personally would probably finish out their 2nd grade readers along with the letters & sounds workbook. I would not buy the teacher's manual though. And if you prefer to not do the readers, I would at least do the workbook. Abeka does not finish out phonics instruction until the end of 2nd grade so you will need to finish mastering those phonics blends and words. Now, if you child is doing terribly with the phonics, then I would just pick one of the reading programs HOD recommends. As for Signapore, you may find that you might want to review the placement. Singapore is not "grade level" so 2A is not 2nd grade. A lot of kids do 2A in 3rd grade and 6A & B are actually prealgebra. So you may find that would want to be a level lower than the grade. If you feel passionately about being at level 2A when you start 2nd grade, I would probably not finish the Abeka math this year and switch to Singapore 1 now. This way you can review their method of thinking in 1A & B before starting math next year. Some will be review and you can probably skip over some of the lessons. But at least your child would learn how they are thinking. But that is just me and how I would do it.

As for Bigger, Bigger is a lot more writing than Beyond. And there is a lot of meat in Beyond even if it doesn't seem like it. My kids are loving history and each daily activity. I am sure that my 7 year old boy could probably do more formal writing but I actually love that he isn't. He has embraced the copy work and building his muscles and focusing on copying the words (by spelling them correctly) and working on that. Even with Abeka, my oldest dd wasn't really ready for a ton of "writing" words out and such until the end of 2nd grade or beginning of 3rd. I find that by then, writing more is pretty easy. Also - the reading selections are much longer than what Abeka would have had you read out loud to your child. And in Beyond they are doing a weekly grammar lesson. Abeka didn't start grammar until 3rd grade if memory serves me right.

[meganlabouff]

Thanks for the input. I think we will go with Beyond most likely. I had him complete the placement test on Singapore's website and he flew through the test for 1A/1B, I may just order 1B and have him finish out the year with that. We do usually do several lessons with A beka math each because he enjoys math and their format is such that several lessons can be combined with the spiral method.

Thank you again! We are excited about HOD!

[Nealewill]

I think you are really going to love Beyond. We are absolutely loving it this year!

[my3sons]

Hi Meg! The ladies gave some good thoughts here already. I wanted to mention that Bigger Hearts for His Glory has awesome hands-on math plans for 2A/2B, while Beyond Little Hearts just schedules the 2A/2B Math Textbook/Workbook. Many people get the Bigger Hearts manual for the hands-on math activities. I am wondering when your 7 yo will turn 8 yo, and if you had a chance to look closely at the placement chart? Here is a link to the placement chart...
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

The first page of the placement chart regarding reading, writing, math, and grammar is most important in selecting a solid placement. A difference between Beyond and Bigger Hearts is the amount of writing. Bigger Hearts has a fair share more of writing - here is a copy of dear Kathleen's post about the writing in Bigger Hearts...

Bible - Once per week copy the memory verse
History - Timeline entries once per week (name, dates, and small picture)
Once per week notebooking page that may be a map drawing, list of facts about a person or event, pictures to go with it...
1-3 Vocabulary cards per week (definition, sentence using word, and illustration on the back)
Science - Once per week notebooking page including Bible verse and a labeled drawing
Once per week experiment page (Parent writes question on it, child records a guess, draws the procedure, and writes a conclusion)
Dictation - Study and write short passage 3 times a week (2 sentences)
DITHOR - 2 (?) student pages per week (The teacher guide actually reccommends writing these for your child if writing is an issue starting out.)
Cheerful Cursive - if you're opting to do that (The lessons are very short! I have my child write the words once, even though it says twice on some of the pages, as long as it's GOOD writing.)
R&S2 - Usually about 5 sentences a day (on a white board)
Poetry - OPTIONAL to copy from the poem of the week. We started out without it, and have added in copying 2 lines 4 days a week.

These are spread throughout the week in the plans so that there's not too much on any one day. Cursive and R&S are daily, but the "big" ones are split up.
Day 2 - Science notebooking
Day 3 - vocabulary and science experiment page
Day 4 - Bible verse
Day 5 - History timeline entry and notebooking

Abeka is, in general, quite rigorous, and your ds does already soundly place in Singapore Math 2A/2B. Typically, 7 yo dc do Beyond Little Hearts. However, if your ds is close to turning 8 yo, if the placement chart for Bigger Hearts' reading/writing/math/grammar seems to fit your ds well, if the above writing skills are skills that fit his abilities well, if ds is reading quite well already, and if ds prefers more of a challenge, Bigger Hearts may be the better placement. Otherwise, Beyond Little Hearts would be the better placement. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie