A Snapshot of History

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory introduces you to the pioneers, pilgrims, puritans, patriots, and presidents who worked tirelessly and fearlessly to gain the freedom America still enjoys today. With a unique blend of living books, engaging activities, and a biblical perspective, Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory tells American history from 1565-1865 through the stories of those who lived it.

• See how God’s gifts of faith, courage, and determination transformed pioneers into patriots in American Pioneers and Patriots. This living book is full of exciting stories about the growth of the United States, charmingly told from the perspective of young Americans.
• Follow the Pilgrims from England to Holland to the New World as you read Stories of the Pilgrims. Learn how God raised up a tiny band of faithful Christians to triumph over persecution, hunger, and numerous hardships to ultimately establish Christianity in the New World.
• Hear appealing stories from the 1700’s in Boys and Girls of Colonial Days. As students learn about children who lived during colonial times, they will begin to understand and value the struggle for liberty and the blessing of freedom.
• Wrap up each week with readings and activities from insightful Bible passages focused on examples of Godly character that correspond with the history stories.
• Keep a basic timeline of early American events studied throughout the year, and see the big picture of how these events fit together.
• Bring history to life with fun activities like building (and fixing) a clay dike, constructing a miniature house frame, following a marked trail along the Wilderness Road, baking simple cornbread, singing “Yankee Doodle”, and more!
• Build artistic skills with history-themed art projects like painting a picture of the Mayflower, creating oiled paper windows, weaving an Indian blanket from strips of paper, building a small canoe from clay, making an edible American flag, and more! 

A Picture of the Past

Picture the past with Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory’s “Visual History” set! The “Visual History” section includes engaging books that provide a gorgeous visualization of the people, places, and events students are learning about!

• Enjoy beautiful read-alouds matched week by week to Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory’s history themes. As you to share these picturesque living books with your children, you’ll get to see American history come to life like never before!
• Sail to America on the Mayflower, bargain with tulips in Holland, settle in Jamestown with Captain Newport, plant apple trees across the nation with Johnny Appleseed, become a spy during the revolutionary war, build inventions with Benjamin Franklin, and live out on the prairie with Laura Ingalls Wilder – all just a sampling of what awaits you and your children!
• Bring history vividly to life! This set works alongside the history spines to give children a view of history that will be remembered as a cherished learning time together for parents and children alike.

A Collection of Read-Alouds

Experience stirring historical fiction, eye-opening realistic fiction, thought-provoking biographies, inspiring nonfiction, witty works of humor, thrilling adventures, captivating mysteries, tantalizing fantasy, and wise folk tales as read-alouds. Enjoy reading to your child each day as you make connections with nine different genres in a heartfelt way.

• Take a trip through nine different genres with one of our three exciting book sets: Boy, Girl or Classic Interest. No matter which set you choose, you can rest assured knowing all three sets use living books that have stood the test of time.
• Ride across the frontier with William Henry Harrison, seek an audience in King Arthur’s court, befriend a concert-giving cricket in Times Square, adjust to life with Antarctic penguins, survive being lost in a forest with the help of a bear, follow clues to locate a stolen book, and hear the legend of William Tell – all just a sampling of the stories that await you in our Boy Interest Set!
• Sail for Jamestown to find your father, hear tales from Grandma’s attic, learn about pioneer life on the prairie, solve the mystery of missing dog Ginger Pye, creatively trumpet true love with Louis the swan, and meet a bear called Paddington with hilarious consequences – all just a sampling of the stories that await you in our Girl Interest Set!
• Meet Benjamin West through his cat Grimalkin, witness King of the Wind’s legendary racing speed, grow up in the Big Woods with Laura Ingalls Wilder, enjoy the humor of the house at Pooh Corner, save Wilbur along with Charlotte and her amazing webs, and search for a new home with the hermit crab Pagoo – all just a sampling of the stories that await you in our Classic Interest Set!
• Become familiar with different types of literature, foster comprehension with guided oral narrations, identify story elements from each genre, weigh examples of “Godly character traits” in each story, and set personal goals based on Scripture.

A Trek Through Geography

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory includes weekly hands-on activities that explore geography concepts stemming from the history stories. As students complete these activities, they will learn how geography impacted early American history.

• Complete short activities to build basic geography skills, become familiar with geographical terms, read maps, follow directions, and draw simple maps.
• Learn about the continents and oceans, the curvature of the earth and its effect on the horizon line, cardinal directions, the Equator, and more!
• Discover the routes of famous explorers, locate historic battle sites, trace famous trails like the Wilderness Road, and follow the Transcontinental Railroad. 
• Explore why cities are built near water; learn about rivers, harbors, and canals; and discuss divisions of countries into colonies, states, provinces or regions. 
• Learn about islands, deserts, forests, fields, rivers, mountains, lakes, channels, and bays. 

A Foundation of Scripture

The Bible study in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory is meant to instill Biblical values in children by training them to read God’s Word and reflect upon it.  In coordination with the history stories, students will read and discuss key Bible verses, learn Godly character traits, complete active Scripture memorization exercises, listen to heartfelt devotionals, sing catchy songs, and take Scripture to heart.

• Study new Bible verses each week and discuss their meaning using provided questions with your child. Each memory verse has a practical meaning for young students and also reinforces God’s plan throughout history. 
• Memorize verses using repetition, hand motions, exercises, fun activities, and catchy songs from Hide ‘Em in Your Heart Volume II by Steve Green.  Students are also encouraged to personally apply the verses in their daily life.
• Enjoy gentle, time-honored devotions from Morning Bells by Frances Ridley Havergal. Each devotion is linked to the history theme and also emphasizes biblical lessons and Godly character in a conversational way. A related narrative, corresponding Scripture verse, and a quote from a poem or hymn are part of every devotion.
• Explore weekly Bible passages that focus on Godly living and correspond with themes from the history stories. These passages identify Godly traits from Scripture, highlight these traits in biblical figures, and encourage students to apply these traits in daily life.

A Journey into Reading

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory offers a choice of three options for reading, based on the ability and reading level of your child. You can choose one of our hand-picked phonics programs to introduce your child to reading, or use either Emerging Reader’s Set 1 or Set 2 to systematically build your child’s emerging reading skills.

Phonics Programs for Beginning Readers

• Cement core concepts with Real Phonics, a no-prep beginning phonics program designed around full-color, vibrantly illustrated stories! Children ages 4-7 (who know their alphabet) read stories that slowly increase in complexity as new letter sounds are added. Lessons are only one page a day, with a new 4-panel colorful story on each page. Flash cards sets, writing practices, and short teacher directions round out this delightful program! After Real Phonics, students can jump into Lesson 9 of The Reading Lesson.
• Curl up with your child and enjoy short, clear phonics lessons in an open-and-go format with The Reading Lesson. This user-friendly program includes 20 simple lessons that are approximately 20 pages each. For children 5 and under, cover two pages per day. For children 6 and over, cover three or more pages a day. No more than 5-7 minutes should be spent on a page, and lessons are under fifteen minutes in length.
• Teach the basics of phonics through 108 fully-scripted lessons in Reading Made Easy.  Author Valerie Bendt recommends covering three 30-minute lessons each week with review between lessons. This allows your child to finish this program in a typical school year; however, the author firmly emphasizes pacing the program as needed to help your child be successful.  Coordinating workbooks add a written component to the lessons.
• Help young children take joy in successfully reading right from the start! Miss Rhonda’s Readers provide 16 colorful short stories and 2 delightful chapter books for beginning readers! Written by a certified, Montessori teacher, Miss Rhonda’s Readers feature phonetically correct words and fun, child-friendly plots. Children find joy and see themselves as ‘readers’ by reading first one book, and then another, and another! You can add Miss Rhonda’s Readers onto any phonics program. We’ve scheduled Miss Rhonda’s Readers for use with both Real Phonics and The Reading Lesson. These sets even come with lovely full-color progress charts – made right here at Heart of Dakota!

Rescue Phonics Programs

• Help kids ages 6-9 begin to overcome dyslexia with Learn to Read for Kids with Dyslexia, a program stuffed with fun-filled games and activities that build skills and confidence! Learn to Read for Kids with Dyslexia: Volumes 1-2 uses a targeted approach to skill development with exercises focused on phonemic awareness, dysgraphia, and auditory processing disorder. 6 different learning methods give kids a chance to see what works for them, while phonics games, mazes, and word association, matching, coloring, and listening activities make reading fun! Add these books to any reading program – just do 1 short activity a day!
• Teach your child to read with Blast Off to Reading, a revolutionary workbook program that systematically takes students from basic sounds to multi-syllable, complex words in just 50 lessons! This multisensory, Orton-Gillingham-based program is for kids ages 8-13 who are reading below grade level. Designed for children with dyslexia, speech delays, auditory processing disorder, and other learning difficulties, this colorful, large-text book systematically teaches your child to read! Be sure to check out the additional teaching tools and activities available at the “Blast Off to Learning” website!
• Reinforce phonics skills with Sound Bytes Reading. This program works best for students ages 7-11 who need continued phonics instruction (after beginning with another phonics program), or for those who are struggling readers. Students review letter sounds, blending, and letter combinations, and begin reading decodable stories right away. This makes the program well-suited for those who need additional phonics instruction, but not for beginning readers.

Emerging Readers

• Build reading skills with our options for “Emerging Readers.” Our Emerging Reader’s Set 1 is recommended if you have completed most of your phonics instruction and feel that your child needs a year to strengthen his/her reading ability. Our Emerging Reader’s Set 2 is recommended if your child is reading beginning chapter books.
• Introduce your child to a wide variety of fun and engaging stories with our Emerging Reader’s Set 1! Hear classic Bible stories, laugh at the adventures of Frog and Toad, witness the chaos of misunderstood directions with Amelia Bedelia, stow away in a hot-air balloon, discover insects and animals in God’s Creation, live on the prairie with Laura Wilder, dig deep inside to find courage with Sarah Noble – and more!
• Enjoy a host of engaging stories with our Emerging Reader’s Set 2! Meet Buddy the first seeing eye dog, race against time to rescue a baby dolphin, solve the mystery of a runaway racehorse, fight a prairie fire with Cora Frear, deliver a secret message to Paul Revere, and pull together to save the family farm – all just a sampling of what awaits you!
• Discuss brief questions to check comprehension and get your child thinking about the day’s reading, as well as using short narration prompts to retell the story. As students discuss and engage with each reading, they will build retelling skills and make meaningful connections with the text.
• Encourage students to track their progress with our vibrantly-colored progress charts! After finishing each book, children get to place a provided sticker on the matching pathway space. Book by book, children will fill out the trail on their chart, adding stickers one by one until they triumphantly reach the end!
• Supplement your reading schedule with additional book recommendations that your child will enjoy reading again and again. Each week of plans for the Emerging Reader’s Set 1 includes one extra library title your child can read in addition to the core books. These titles are considered optional, but fit seamlessly into the reading level progression provided in the main study.

A Look at Grammar,
Handwriting, and Spelling

Heart of Dakota teaches foundational language arts skills through a unique combination of Charlotte Mason-style grammar, spelling, and handwriting exercises. You can use your own resources, or use our time-tested language arts selections as planned in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.

• Introduce your child to basic grammar, mechanics, and usage concepts using the weekly “Language Arts” lessons in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.  Each lesson uses guided conversation to focus on one rule or concept, exposing children to a variety of needed language skills in a low-key way. 
• Learn about sentences and fragments, run-on sentences, subjects and predicates, types of sentences, basic punctuation, common and proper nouns, capitalization, writing dates, forming plurals by adding -s and -es, commas in a series, action verbs, helping verbs, contractions, alphabetical order, and the structure of friendly letters.  Lessons are provided within the “Language Arts” section of Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.
• Practice handwriting skills through daily copywork exercises from classic poems studied in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory! Our beautifully-designed, full-color Copy the Classics notebook contains 34 weekly units, each with 4 days of copywork. Each unit introduces a different classic poem, and highlighted text shows which lines to copy. By copying from a correctly written model, students gain practice in handwriting, spelling, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and vocabulary – which all help students eventually write their own compositions.
• Practice spelling with Charlotte Mason’s methods using one of the weekly spelling list options provided in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.  Through weekly word lists grouped according to spelling patterns, students will learn high-frequency words necessary for writing and daily use. “List 1” words are typical for first grade spellers, and “List 2” words are typical for second grade spellers. Both spelling list options uses a multisensory approach that emphasizes picturing words mentally. 

A Peek at Poetry

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory introduces students to a new classic poem each week, representing a host of famous poets. Through shared poetry readings, discussions, and rotating activities, students will begin to understand and appreciate what makes each poem timeless.

• Read and enjoy classic poems that reinforce the history theme. Become familiar with poetic structure, gain exposure to unfamiliar vocabulary, and discover the meaning beneath the text as you discuss each poem.
• Practice choral reading skills by reading the poem aloud, and build handwriting skills by copying excerpts from each poem.
• Connect with each poem by drawing illustrations, adding actions, cutting out and arranging the verses, and guessing the title based on the text.
• Appreciate poetry by choosing favorite poems from past lessons to read again for enjoyment.

A Structure for Mathematics

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory allows you to choose a level from the well-known Singapore Primary Math Series, use Math with Confidence, or pick Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Mathematics. Or, you can use your own math. For your convenience, daily schedules for Singapore Math are available. Math with Confidence and Apologia Math each have their own daily schedule, four-days a week, in their instructor guides.

Singapore Primary Math Series

• A choice of two Singapore levels is recommended in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory: Level 1A/1B or Level 2A/2B. Each level provides a full year of math, with the ‘A’ and ‘B’ books each equaling a semester.
• Utilize Singapore’s concise math texts to build problem-solving and critical thinking skills. By featuring an approach that moves from concrete to pictorial to abstract, Singapore math teaches advanced concepts in a way that leaves children feeling math can be understood.
• Enjoy our easy hands-on activities that coordinate with the lessons in Singapore Level 1A/1B. These activities use concrete objects to illustrate mathematical concepts. The daily plans with activities are available for purchase along with Level 1A/1B. A daily schedule for Singapore Level 2A/2B is provided in the Appendix of Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.  Note:  If you have a student in Singapore Level 2A/2B who would benefit from hand-on activities, you can purchase the Bigger Hearts for His Glory guide which includes hands-on activities for Level 2A/2B.
• Visualize and solve problems quickly and efficiently by following the methods modeled in the text. Speech and thought bubbles appear throughout the text to demonstrate the thought process of problem solving, making even the most challenging problems accessible.
• Learn new mathematical concepts through a spiral progression that builds on concepts already taught.  If a child doesn’t get a concept the first time around, rest easy knowing the concept will come around again in later levels.
• Use the placement tests available at www.singaporemath.com/placement-tests to find the right placement for your child.  Be sure to select the Primary Mathematics edition of the placement test to match the Primary Math U.S. edition used in the Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory guide. It helps to note that Singapore Math is considered advanced as children move through the program.

Math with Confidence Series

• Enjoy Math with Confidence! This easy-to-use program features short, daily lessons 4 days each week. Scripted, open-and-go lessons are both friendly and approachable with hands-on games, activities, real-life context, and helpful tips. Straightforward, colorful worksheets help students practice new concepts and review previously-learned material.
• Focus on one concept at a time for several weeks to build deep, connected knowledge (known as the mastery approach). Math with Confidence also provides continual, ongoing review so your child fully grasps core grade-level skills by the end of the year (known as the spiral approach). Optional enrichment lessons are included along with suggestions for math picture books to enjoy together.
• Teach each level of Math with Confidence using an Instructor Guide, a Student Workbook, and common household materials (like coins, a ruler, crayons, a clock, small toys/stuffed animals, etc). Math with Confidence is currently available for grades K-4 with a new level planned to release each year through grade 6.

Apologia Math Series

• Enjoy Apologia’s hands-on, interactive approach to math, filled with activities, projects, and games that help students comprehend new concepts. See connections between math, our world, and our Creator as students dive deep into the beauty of mathematics.
• Introduce concepts through a similar format as each lesson is presented in a 4-step progression: hands-on activity, pictorial presentation, abstract presentation, and application. Practice sections reinforce learning, while hands-on projects make learning stick! Mastery is encouraged with built-in review.
• Follow a weekly schedule, 4 days a week, that reflects a systematic progression from one skill to the next. Each level requires the Teaching Guide and an All-in-One Student Text (as well as a selection of household objects). Colorful and age-appropriate lesson layouts make learning exciting!
• Use the placement tests available at www.apologia.com to find the right placement for your child.

An Exploration of Science

Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory features a unique, hands-on approach to science that integrates a Bible-based science text with topics from the history stories. As students delve into life science, physical science, and earth science, they will complete fun activities and discover what they learn matches up with the Bible.

• Explore the creation of the physical world, energy, plants, heavenly bodies, animals, and human beings in God’s Wonderful Works. As students learn about the exciting world around them, they will become familiar with science-related vocabulary and make biblical connections.
• Conduct quick, hands-on activities related to the science readings. Create currents to move a boat, imitate blubber with shortening, pretend to be bees pollinating flowers, test reflections with a flashlight, and experiment with water tension by seeing how many drops of water fit on a coin.
• Simulate light waves in space, listen to your heartbeat, replicate the water cycle inside a plastic bag, test sea level by sailing a foil boat into a bay, act out earth orbiting the sun, use camouflage to hide a paper fish, model cloud-types with shaving cream, and more!
• Draw connections between science and history as topics overlap between the two subjects. As students read about the Pilgrims loading supplies onto the Mayflower, they will use a ramp to move soup cans. When they read about settlers splitting wood for campfires, they will learn about wedges. As students read about George Washington surveying land, they will survey their own backyard.