Should we do one or two programs?

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krystab
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Should we do one or two programs?

Post by krystab » Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:42 pm

Ok, I have been trying to decide this for months. We are starting our new year in January and I need to make a decision ASAP. I am doing LHTH with my 4 yo and we love it, so I am sure we will love this for my 6yo boy and my 8yo girl.
But.....would it be better to do Beyond with both, and continue to combine through the years with the extension packs? Or do Beyond with the 6yo and Preparing with the 8yo, then start combining next year with the extension packs (or maybe always leave separate)?
My thought was if we go ahead and combine the 8yo would be able to read some of the stories to the 6yo, which 8yo would like. Plus, they are always butting into each others studies because they hear something interesting. This can drag out school. But 8yo also loves to be independent and Preparing is more independent and I know she would love doing some World History, because she has only studied American History (although limited).
I am quite busy with having a 2yo too and a home based business. I need to keep it as easy & quick for me as possible. But I don't want to sacrifice the kids getting what they need either.
TIA,
Krysta
Krysta

WHAM to 4 (almost 5) little blessings: DS 2, DS 5, DS 7, DD 9, ??? Due in Oct.
Using LHTH, Beyond, & Bigger.

8arrows
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by 8arrows » Sat Dec 13, 2008 8:15 am

I am doing Beyond with my 6 and 8 year old boys this year. We are having a great time. They love doing the stuff together. I vote for combining.
Melissa, wife to Jim for 28 years
3 graduated, 2 using US 2, 8th grade dd using Missions to Marvels
Isaiah 40:11 ...He gently leads those that have young.

krystab
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by krystab » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:11 am

I think they would enjoy very much doing school together.....8yo keeps telling me she wants to do it on her own, but I think that is just because she doesn't want to wait on Mom to be done with 6yo sometimes. She just wants to get it done. But....if we are all doing mostly the same.....then she is not waiting on me.
Krysta

WHAM to 4 (almost 5) little blessings: DS 2, DS 5, DS 7, DD 9, ??? Due in Oct.
Using LHTH, Beyond, & Bigger.

water2wine
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by water2wine » Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:11 pm

I vote for combining too with a two year span if possible. :wink: It does make the day shorter and having had a home based business myself I know how consuming it can be. I would simplify. Another option would be perhaps Bigger with both and use Beyond for the younger one only for LA and Math but the rest being Bigger for both. I mention that option only if you think Beyond is not enough for your 8 year old. That might be a way to get past this one year then next year they may combine more smoothly together. If beyond is a fairly good fit for both that is certainly a good option as well. But I would try first to combine with those ages. I think you will find with extension packs that there is a lot of flexibility.

Hope I have not confused you. :D
All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. Isaiah 54:13
~Six lovies from God~4 by blessing of adoption
-MTMM (HS), Rev to Rev, CTC, DITHR
We LOVED LHFHG/Beyond/Bigger/Preparing/CTC/RTR/Rev to Rev (HS)

mansmom
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by mansmom » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:02 pm

We do Beyong with my 6 and 8 year old daughter and we all love it. I have an 18 month old son (and a 4 year old)...so we are usually hopping trying to stay ahead of what the baby is destroying in the house. They love doing it together. My oldest really enjoys science and history. So if we get to something that is really interesting to her (which everything has been so far!) we trek to the library and get additional books on it.

Another added bonus to doing it together is their minds at work together!! One day I had the Mayflower setting sail in my basement....they gathered supplies...packed...gave each other assignments...including my youngest...who played the adorable roll of Baby Oceanus...it was awesome and I'm sure it helped that they had been studying that together!!

HTH!
Joy

Mary '00 Preparing w/ LLATL orange & Horizons math
Alison '02 some LHFHG and a collection of other things
Nathan '04 LHFHG, RME, and Horizons math
Samuel '07 Constantly talking....

krystab
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by krystab » Sat Dec 13, 2008 10:07 pm

Joy....Our children were all born the same years! My youngest is 22 months though....born in Feb 07.
I really think we will just do Beyond and beef it up a little for the 8yo. I am just sure they will both enjoy it.
Thanks so much everyone for the great advice.
Krysta

WHAM to 4 (almost 5) little blessings: DS 2, DS 5, DS 7, DD 9, ??? Due in Oct.
Using LHTH, Beyond, & Bigger.

Carrie
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by Carrie » Sat Dec 13, 2008 10:39 pm

Krysta,

The ladies are doing such a good job of helping you talk through options. I agree that it's a good idea to try combining and see how it goes. If you haven't had a chance to check out the placement chart, then I'll post the link here:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

I'd love to hear a few more details about your kiddos in the areas of reading, writing, and math once you've gotten a chance to look at the chart. Depending on how your 8 year old places on the chart, you may need to add just the right side of Bigger Hearts for your 8 year old to get the correct level in the 3 R's. :D

Then, you could still combine the kiddos for the left side of Beyond and the storytime on the right side of Beyond, but you would have your 8 year old do the right side of Bigger for the dictation, Rod and Staff English 2, the higher level of math 2A/2B or 3A/3B, and either the emerging reader set or Drawn into the Heart of Reading (depending on how well your 8 year old is reading/writing). Your 6 year old would do Beyond as written. :wink:

If you get a chance to pop back in and let me know your thoughts that would be great! :D

Blessings,
Carrie

krystab
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by krystab » Sun Dec 14, 2008 2:37 pm

Carrie,

Thanks for the help. I have looked over the placement chart a lot.

My 6yo boy looks to me like he is in Beyond. He is right on the cusp of reading at a first grade level. We finished up to lesson 60 in 100 ez lessons just over a month ago and since then are doing a program that you may not be familiar with called Little Angel Readers. This transition was suggested by another curriculum and it has worked well, other than he is distracted by the illustrations in the Readers. We have about 5 more lessons to go until he would be in the 1st grade portion of the reader program.
He knows his letters, has copied sentences and has done spelling practice. The Readers program has already introduced some grammar, and he has done well with it. Math is super easy for him....he just gets it, and is very ready for Singapore 1A.

My 8yo Girl fits mostly with Prepared I think. She is ready for Drawn Into and is an avid reader. She has a tendency to guess instead of sound out unfamiliar words, and will leave out words when reading aloud to me. She mostly knows her cursive and prefers to use it, but has to refer to a chart for some of the capital letters. She really struggles with creative writing, and doesn't like writing in general....even copy work. She presses too hard with her pencil and it wears her out. I switched her to a mechanical pencil with the thicker of the leads, which has helped when she remembers to use it.
The grammar I am not sure of. She is doing a 3rd grade grammar program now that is a workbook and she is getting most of the answers right. I have a feeling she wouldn't be able to apply most of it. I am leaning to the Bigger program for Grammar and also Math. If she did Singapore she would start at 2A. I am not sure Singapore would work for her though. I have heard that it is difficult for those that struggle with math and she does. She can follow the steps to figure it out but is not able to understand why or how it works. I was thinking of trying MUS to give her that understanding, but if you think Singapore will do the job I am willing to try. Right now she is doing Developmental Math, and is progressing nicely, passes the tests and such.....but still no real understanding of it.

Hope I didn't overwhelm with information! BTW....DS is 7 in March and DD is 9 in May
Krysta

WHAM to 4 (almost 5) little blessings: DS 2, DS 5, DS 7, DD 9, ??? Due in Oct.
Using LHTH, Beyond, & Bigger.

my3sons
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by my3sons » Sun Dec 14, 2008 3:06 pm

krystab wrote:Carrie,

Thanks for the help. I have looked over the placement chart a lot.

My 6yo boy looks to me like he is in Beyond. He is right on the cusp of reading at a first grade level. We finished up to lesson 60 in 100 ez lessons just over a month ago and since then are doing a program that you may not be familiar with called Little Angel Readers. This transition was suggested by another curriculum and it has worked well, other than he is distracted by the illustrations in the Readers. We have about 5 more lessons to go until he would be in the 1st grade portion of the reader program.
He knows his letters, has copied sentences and has done spelling practice. The Readers program has already introduced some grammar, and he has done well with it. Math is super easy for him....he just gets it, and is very ready for Singapore 1A.

My 8yo Girl fits mostly with Prepared I think. She is ready for Drawn Into and is an avid reader. She has a tendency to guess instead of sound out unfamiliar words, and will leave out words when reading aloud to me. She mostly knows her cursive and prefers to use it, but has to refer to a chart for some of the capital letters. She really struggles with creative writing, and doesn't like writing in general....even copy work. She presses too hard with her pencil and it wears her out. I switched her to a mechanical pencil with the thicker of the leads, which has helped when she remembers to use it.
The grammar I am not sure of. She is doing a 3rd grade grammar program now that is a workbook and she is getting most of the answers right. I have a feeling she wouldn't be able to apply most of it. I am leaning to the Bigger program for Grammar and also Math. If she did Singapore she would start at 2A. I am not sure Singapore would work for her though. I have heard that it is difficult for those that struggle with math and she does. She can follow the steps to figure it out but is not able to understand why or how it works. I was thinking of trying MUS to give her that understanding, but if you think Singapore will do the job I am willing to try. Right now she is doing Developmental Math, and is progressing nicely, passes the tests and such.....but still no real understanding of it.

Hope I didn't overwhelm with information! BTW....DS is 7 in March and DD is 9 in May
Thanks for sharing this information - it really does help so much! I agree with your assessment - I think your 6 yo should do Beyond as is, and your dd should do the left side of Beyond with the 6 yo, but should do the right side of Bigger for LA and Math (though you can just read either Beyond's or Bigger's Storytime read-aloud books to both of them). I'd give Singapore math a shot. The hands-on math activities in Bigger are written to coordinate with Singapore Math 2A/2B. You could even just order the 2A workbook (which runs around $17 or so, I think), and try it out first. At the worst, you'd be out $17 and could switch to MUS then. I think the hands-on activities Carrie wrote to go with Singapore math are the key to making it all click together. However, if you decide to go with MUS, it is easy to sub that in, just skip that math box in the plans. I'd love to hear back more from you! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie :D
Enjoyed LHTH to USII
Currently using USI
Wife to Rich for 28 years
Mother to 3 sons, ages 23, 20, and 16
Sister to Carrie

krystab
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by krystab » Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:05 pm

Julie,
Thanks....I had forgotten about Carrie's hands on activities for Singapore. Yes, I think that will make Singapore work for DD (I sure hope because MUS is so much $$$).
Just writing out the description of DC abilities helped me see where they were. Just reading the chart and thinking about it wasn't making it click.
Krysta

WHAM to 4 (almost 5) little blessings: DS 2, DS 5, DS 7, DD 9, ??? Due in Oct.
Using LHTH, Beyond, & Bigger.

inHistiming
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by inHistiming » Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:12 pm

I agree with the others...using Beyond... with your 6yo and Bigger... (right side )for your 8yo with readings from either Beyond... or Bigger... with both of them would seem to work best. Bothe manuals cover American history, just in different ways, so it shouldn't matter which you choose for the readings, experiments, etc. I would not go right into Preparing...if your dd does not enjoy writing. She may need Bigger's... assignments to get her ready for Preparing...next year, and the increased writing and independent work that comes with it. :wink:

Carrie
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by Carrie » Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:58 pm

Krysta,

I'd agree that doing the left side of Beyond and the storytime from the right side of Beyond with both would be a good fit. I would have your older daughter also do the poetry copywork, a little each day, as scheduled in Beyond. You can weigh whether your 6 year old is ready for the copywork in Beyond, doing just a line or two a day, or whether you'd rather do a handwriting workbook (we would recommend A Reason for Writing 'A' which is in the LHFHG section of our website if you go that route).

I also agree that adding in the right side of Bigger for dictation, Rod and Staff English 2 (which is advanced) and Singapore 2A/2B would be good for your older daughter. If math isn't your daughter's thing, then you'll most likely need to be near her helping her daily in that area. The good part of Singapore is that it is short, and that helps me stay with the kiddos better since there aren't so many problems to "get through". While your daughter may not get all of the higher level thinking in Singapore, she will be thinking, which is what we want her to be doing with math. :wink:

It sounds like DITHR is also where your older child needs to be literature-wise. I'd just have her do it with you 3 days a week, getting through half of the units this year and the other half the next.

On the off-days (with DITHR), I'd have your daughter read a science-related book to "up" the level of science in Beyond. Biographies of scientists are wonderful to do, but any science book she finds interesting will work. Have her share a couple of pages with her little sister, telling her about what she's read. You could also have her do a nature journal entry one time each week, sketching a plant or animal or a diagram from any of her science books she's reading. :D

The rest of the activities and readings in Beyond will be just right for both your kiddos and will still be challenging enough for your older one. 8)

Blessings,
Carrie

krystab
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Re: Should we do one or two programs?

Post by krystab » Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:45 am

Thanks Carrie for the further suggestions.....Now I can order....
Krysta

WHAM to 4 (almost 5) little blessings: DS 2, DS 5, DS 7, DD 9, ??? Due in Oct.
Using LHTH, Beyond, & Bigger.

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