Little Hearts or Beyond Little Hearts?

[TNBabyRN]

Hello! Next year will be our first year homeschooling and I think HOD will be a great fit for us. I looked at it last year when I was considering homeschooling but I chickened out and sent my daughter to kindergarten at the public school. We will start homeschooling next year for first grade. I keep returning to look at HOD so now I am trying to decide between Little Hearts or Beyond.

She is only 5 now , but will be 6 on August 30. I plan on starting our "year" in late July/early August. She is doing great with her reading, but is not an independent reader by any means. I'm a little scared not to do any phonics with her though. Could I mix some phonics in with the emergent readers without making our day too long? She also has terrible handwriting so I thought about doing Handwriting Without Tears with her. She can form all the words and I can read what she writes but she doesn't really know how to use the lines on the writing paper. Would the copywork in Beyond be enough ? I think she is ready for Singapore Math 1A/1B.

I am leaning toward Beyond but she is barely into the age range for it which makes me worry it might be too hard for her and she'll get frustrated. She is a pretty smart girl but she is still a little girl and loves to play better than anything else. Oh, and I also have a DS at home who will be 3 this summer - he'll be around alot too and I would love for him to do the read alouds with us.

Any suggestions?? Thank you so much in advance!

[Kathleen]

I think I'd lean towards starting in LHFHG with her. My daughter will be turning 6 in May...and we'll be picking up LHFHG in about Unit 14 and spending most of her "1st grade" year on it. It is wonderful!! (Which I know is true of all the HOD programs. ) But I just love the way that the hands-on & active things are just perfect for this age. And the reading challenges them to listen and think without being too long that they wiggle away.

You could definitely let your 3 yo listen in & participate in school if you want to. I would just let him know that if he wants to listen he should sit quietly...or he's free to go play. We've done that with Garret at our house. Sometimes he listens...and sometimes he goes off to play. It does go faster when I just have Allison and we go through the boxes in the guide!

Just so you know, whichever HOD program you choose, the reading level of your child isn't tied to it. I would do phonics with your daughter no matter what guide you start with. If it's one of the ones HOD reccommends, you'd be ready to start the emerging readers whenever you finish the phonics. They don't need to be started and finished within a school year. You start them when you're ready and finish when you finish. THEN...you move on to Drawn Into The Heart of Reading, which is also something that you don't "finish" in a year but just keep progressing through. Clear as mud?

If you decide to go with LHFHG, I'd get the Beyond guide to use for math. Carrie has written hands-on activities to go with the Singapore 1A & 1B in that guide. I love her hands-on activities with Singapore!

Kathleen

[krismoose]

I'd say start with LHFHG. We're just finishing it up now, at 5.5, and it's really perfect for his level right now. I'm going to wait until the next dc is almost 6 before starting it next time, just to get the most enjoyment out of it. And ds' 3 yo sister loved listening to the read-alouds and joining in on the activities. And she's memorized the bible verses just as well as he did! You'll enjoy it...we've had a great year!

[SoaringEagle]

I also think LHFHG would be a better fit. That's what I ended up doing with my 6 yr old daughter and I used the grade 1 materials. This was a much better year than the previous one when I tried LHFHG when she was 5. She wasn't ready for most of the activities at that time.

[gmhaynes]

I would second what everyone else is saying. My dd6 will be 7 in September and we just completed LHFHG and she found it very challenging at times. And definitely don't skip the phonics! And like a previous post said, if she gets done with phonics mid way through the year, then move on the Emerging Readers. No big deal.

Good luck!
Mary

[creativemommy]

Like everyone else above - I'd go with LHFHG for your daughter. You won't be disappointed.

My ds (6) used LHFHG this school year with all the first grade options. He has thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Burgess books, all the history stories/activities, devotionals, Singapore 1A (we made a switch halfway through the year) and even the rhymes for each unit (though it took him a few months to warm up to them). )

For Phonics, he finished 100 Easy Lesson the first month of the school year and after that we worked through the emerging readers and spent 3-4 days a week reading through a Phonics rule(s) in the book Phonics Pathways. It has worked really well for him. We're not through Phonics Pathways so we'll continue it next year with Beyond.

[TNBabyRN]

Thank you all so much for your replies! I think LHFHG is the winner! We may end up moving through the phonics quickly (or not) and then I'll go to the readers. One question, Kathleen mentioned the Singapore 1A/B guide with hands on activities is in the Beyond guide. The website says LHFHG has a 1A/B guide in the back. Are they different? Does the Beyond have hands on activities and the LHFHG not have them??? Just checking before I order! Thank you all!

[happy@home]

There are activities in the LHFHG manual that go with Earlybird Kindergarten Math 2A & 2B. In the appendix of LHFHG there is a schedule for Primary Math 1A & 1B. The activities that go with the Primary Math 1A & 1B are included in the Beyond Manual!

[pjdobro]

I would recommend starting with LHFHG. We did that for first grade and my twins had turned 6 a few months prior to starting. It's really great to get the overview of history that Little Hearts has before delving further into the American History of Beyond. The storytime with the Thorton Burgess books in Little Hearts is so wonderful and not to be missed. We did Singapore 1A and 1B with LHFHG and the language arts from Beyond. Wherever you decide to start, I'm sure you will enjoy the program, but our year with LHFHG was such a joyous year that I think it is a great place to start.

[Kathleen]

One question, Kathleen mentioned the Singapore 1A/B guide with hands on activities is in the Beyond guide. The website says LHFHG has a 1A/B guide in the back. Are they different? Does the Beyond have hands on activities and the LHFHG not have them??? Just checking before I order! Thank you all!

The schedule in LHFHG for Singapore 1A&B will tell you which pages in the workbooks & textbooks to do. It will not have the hands-on activities for that level though. Carrie has written hands-on activities to go with:
Earlybird 2A&B - in LHFHG
1A&B - in Beyond
2A&B - in Bigger

I think the hands-on activities for the Singapore Math are wonderful! So if I were you, I'd get the Beyond guide for the math. If you do this, you won't need the textbooks. I'd put that $18 towards the Beyond guide that you'll need the next year anyway. If you do this, you won't always have to be buying a guide ahead for math. You'd do the same thing the following year if you wanted to hands-on activities for 2A&B. (You'd need to get the Bigger manual to use for math while you were doing Beyond.) And then you'd be just in one guide. The appendix of Bigger has a schedule for 3A&B in it that uses the textbook & workbooks. Does that make sense?

I think that using the hands-on activities really help the kids get what's going on in math. They're great for the younger ages, and then HOD moves to having the kids use the pictorial examples in the textbooks after that. It's a great pregression! But, I wouldn't want to miss the hands-on at the beginning.

Kathleen

[my3sons]

I'm late to this thread, so I just get to celebrate your great plan with you! LHFHG is such a fun program to teach. I'd second getting the Beyond manual for the 1A/1B hands-on Singapore math plans. They are wonderful and make the mental part of Singapore easy to teach.

In Christ,
Julie

[TNBabyRN]

We are so excited to start this journey!!! I can't wait to get my stuff. Thank you all so much!!