My first post...a few questions....& THANKS

[LeahJoy]

Greetings and thank you for taking the time to read--

This year was my first year homeschooling and therefore my first year using HOD. I only homeschool 1 of our 3 children right now--she's a 6 y.o. 1st grader. She went to half-day Kindergarten last year in public school. I used the placement guides and decided to use Little Hearts for His Glory.

As far as reading/phonics goes, my daughter learned a great deal of phonics in public school. This made the choice of 'The Reading Lesson' a perfect one for her. She has learned to read and I got to teach her and watch her! What a gift. That alone was worth homeschooling My question is...

After she is done with phonics and has basically learned to read, what are your suggestions for beginning reading to encourage a love for reading?

As for Math, I chose Singapore 1A and she has done remarkably well with that. She says math is her favorite subject and loves the Singapore books! I was somewhat disappointed that the suggested math activities are aimed at the Kindergarten books and not toward 1st grade. I have done some of the math activities in the manual with her but they are too simple and she always tells me that she already did most of them in Kindergarten. My question is....

For Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory, are the daily/weekly math activities aimed toward the Singapore 1 books or Singapore 2 books? This is important to me because I value and treasure math activities and so does my child. That is an important part of the curriculum to me. If they are only geared toward Singapore 1, do you have suggestions for activities more appropriate for Singapore 2?

As for History--I think it's perfect for her age level and I love what she's learning. We have had a problem with the page #'s listed in the manual not matching up to the page #'s in the history book. Sometimes we are not able to find the history story in the book at all because of this. The book is 'History Stories for Children' 2nd Edition. Perhaps we were sent the wrong edition to correspond with the manual?

Devotional--I would like to thank you for choosing the book that you did for this. As a result one of the lesson's helped lead my daughter into a discussion about what it means to put your trust in Jesus for eternal life and accept Him as your savior! A couple nights after the devotional, my beautiful daughter asked us if she could trust in Jesus as her savior!! THE JOY!!!! When I think about homeschooling curriculum aiding my daughter to make a decision for Christ, oh how thankful I am on so many levels!!! That the Lord would lead me to homeschool and bring us to this curriculum.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to meeting you at an upcoming convention.

Leah Burns

[dawntx]

Hi, Leah!
I also used the Reading Lesson with my dd. We loved it and found it quickly encouraged reading confidence and ability. We used the emerging readers right after we finished TRL! You can find the lists of these books here:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/emerging-reader.php

The Beyond TManual has an ER schedule that you can follow in the Appendix. Comprehension questions are listed in the back of the manual to help with the discussion of the books as well. This is also the guide that has the math activities for Singapore 1. Carrie has written math activities for Singapore 2 and those are in the Bigger Hearts manual. If you are thinking ahead for next year, you will need to purchase the next guide!

Also, the schedule in the Reading About History Box ...the page #s listed in my LHFHG manual are different than the page #s in the History Stories for Children book as well. There is a new edition to the book! There are updates to the schedule with the correct page#s. I understand how this could be frustrating! I couldn't find the updates listed anymore on the website for the new replacement schedule because there was a reprint of the TManual last year. I'm sure if you contacted HOD they could give you a replacement schedule-- they are incredibly helpful. Or... maybe one of these amazing ladies know where to find it!

Very exciting about your daughter trusting Jesus as her savior!!
I LOVE HOD and how it is Christ centered!!

HTH!
Dawn

[LeahJoy]

Wow, Dawn! Thanks so much for your help!! I only wish I had posted sooner. What a blessing!

[Heather4Him]

Hi, Leah!

Very exciting about your daughter trusting Jesus as her savior!!
I LOVE HOD and how it is Christ centered!!

Dawn

Hi Leah, and welcome to the HOD boards!

I just wanted to echo Dawn's statement above! How wonderful, and praise the LORD!

[Carrie]

Leah,

The ladies have done a terrific job of helping you. I'm not sure how far you are into the LHFHG guide, but if your child has finished phonics she will be ready for the Emerging Reader's Set which is scheduled in Beyond. As already mentioned, you will also find the math activities for 1A/1B in the Beyond guide. So, you may wish to purchase the Beyond guide now to have these needed additions to your schedule. Often, when families begin using the Emerging Reader's Set, they also begin using Spelling List 1 in the Beyond guide. So, you may wish to consider that at this point too, simply following the plans in the Language Arts Box of Beyond each day with the spelling. There is also a List 2 in Beyond, so you can move onto that when you complete the plans using List 1.

As already mentioned if you desired the hands-on math plans for 2A/2B, you'd need to purchase the Bigger Hearts guide only. 2A/2B is the last year of hands-on math plans, so this would be the last year you'd need to purchase the next guide up. When it comes time to purchase the rest of your Bigger Hearts items the following year, if you call or email us we will be glad to still give you the savings of the package purchase price if you just let us know you had to purchase the guide ahead by itself for the math plans.

Last, it is possible that the adjusted schedule you need for History Stories for Children is in the front of your LHFHG guide, so you may want to check your pages before the plans begin to see if one of them has the adjusted schedule of page numbers for the new edition of History Stories for Children. We had the adjusted schedule bound within the guide's pages. If not, give us a call.

Blessings,
Carrie

[my3sons]

Hi LeahJoy! I just wanted to welcome you the board, and I think you are going to enjoy Beyond as much as you enjoyed LHFHG! We too loved the hands-on math activities, and the HOD 2A/2B activities were important as they were the last year of hands-on before dc make the switch in 3A/3B to more mental math and paper/pencil strategies. We enjoyed the Emerging Reader's Set with both of our older dc, and I am looking forward to doing it soon again with my youngest. The questions HOD has written in the Appendix for the ERS helped each of our dc to comprehend well, to answer questions that don't just have one right answer, and to begin to develop oral narration skills. The Bible and devotional times - yes -they are an incredible part of HOD. I can vouch that they continue to be integral at the upper levels, and they have helped me teach to my dc's hearts and not just their heads. It's nice to meet you, and I hope you have a terrific year with Beyond!

In Christ,
Julie