Little or Beyond?

[3beezmama]

My ds, who will be 6 in July, is on the last leg of his K year in public school. According to standard, he is on-target. Not ahead or behind. Since we will be homeschooling next, I'm still agonizing over where to place him.
According to the placement chart, he is technically suited for Beyond. He is pretty good with single-letter phonics, but not good with blended phonics at all. He still sounds out most of what he reads (other than a list of 20 sight words) and just doesn't grasp chunking words together. He doesn't see the word 'at' in cat or the words 'an' and 'other' in another.
He is learning to write a simple sentence, but must be coached the entire time to spell out the words. He does know some punctuation (. ! ?) and to capital letters for names and at the beginning of a sentence.
He is simply not a confident reader. He >thinks< he is "not good at school".
He is pretty good with numbers, comfortably counts to 40, to 25 by 5s, to 100 by 10s, and backward from 10. He is just in the last few days grasping the concepts of ordinality and addition.
But I'm not worried about math. I'm worried about reading. I'm just not sure he's ready for Emerging Readers. I don't want to push him too hard, but at the same time, I don't want to stifle him with things he already knows.So, I guess I'm saying he's somewhere between Little and Beyond. Wondering if I should do LHFHG with extensions for 1st grade. What about reading in LHFHG...and phonics/spelling? How does it compare to BLHFHG? Is there any copywork in BLHFHG? He really needs the practice. Help a Mama out with her middle child!! :
(I also have a ds-8 in April- who will be doing Bigger DITHOR with some 4th grade extension books. He is advanced in every subject with a beautiful photographic memory! And a dd-3 in July- with a remarkable vocabulary!)

[StephanieU]

Since you have on in Bigger already, I would put the 1st grader in LHFHG. We are using LHFHG for 1st this year, and it is great. The book choices are great for a 1st grader on the history, devotion, and storytime. And you can do math and phonics at this level. The big advantage of doing LHFHG with Bigger is that you won't be doing Bigger and Preparing together the next year. You will have a year off between guides, which is ideal.

As for phonics, you can just start The Reading Lesson (one of HOD's recommendations for phonics) and go from there. It doesn't sound like he is ready for Emerging Readers at all, so that is a great place to start.
As for handwriting, you can have him copy the week's memory verse if he is past letter formation. I would consider the Rod and Staff books though, as they are fun ways to practice other than just writing (coloring, cutting, etc). And the science, manners, and other "bonus" learning in them is great.
And until he has mastered reading to the ER level, I don't think spelling is necessary. Focus on phonics and reading, and then do spelling next year. There is a little bit of writing each week with storytime, and that is more than enough "creative" writing for this age group.

[MelInKansas]

Really phonics shouldn't be the biggest factor in deciding placement. Stephanie's point is a good one, you generally don't want to set yourself up to do Bigger and Preparing together because those are the most teacher-intensive. The other reason to avoid doing back-to-back guides is that it can be a bit tiresome for you as the teacher to not have a break in the material before you start it over again. Also Bigger is a lot of writing, and I just would not be in a rush to get there. I was in a "rush" with my oldest or at least pushing to keep us "on track" of one guide a year and when we got to Bigger she had to slow WAY down because it was too much. Now she is on track again after taking 1 1/2 years to do Bigger and Preparing will take more than a year also. The most important thing is placing them where they belong. If you think Beyond is really it (which it does sound like your son might be ready for Beyond) then maybe you could do Beyond 1/2 speed for a little while, at least 10 weeks, and then you would not end up as much in back-to-back guides. Or take LHFHG, as adjusting to this style of learning might be difficult and so pick something a little "easier" to start off with. Handwriting, math, and phonics are done at the child's level. You could skip ahead and do Singapore 1A/1B, because it sounds like your son might be ready for that instead. BUT there are hands-on activities to go along with 1A/1B in the Beyond guide so you may want that guide in order to have those. If your son was ready for spelling you could then also start spelling lists from Beyond following the plans in Beyond.

[3beezmama]

This makes me feel so much better! I truly feel this is where God is leading me. I flip-flopped between HOD and MFW (which my sister-in-law uses, but I just can't get away from HOD. I am so incredibly drawn to it.
The guides seem so simplistic, yet yhe curriculum solid. I cannot wait until I get things oredered and delivered. This public school year cannot end fast enough--and it may never as many snow days as we've had here in KY! Ugh.

[agstefko]

Truthfully, your DC sounds like little hearts would be a great fit for him. In Beyond he would be copying sentences and also working on 10 spelling words a week. Sometimes this can be a lot of writing in first grade. We're using little hearts for first grade with the first grade options. We're also using Singapore math 1 and TRL and it has been a great year.

[amysconfections]

If he fits in Little Hearts then that would be better when you have one in Bigger. At those ages it's really better to have a guide between your kids. Bigger is the most teacher intensive guide. From the sound of it Little hearts would fit him perfectly and allow him a fun first year at home. Remember, when you pull your kids out of school there is an adjustment time too.