Please help me with placement in Heart of Dakota or Sonlight

[Euromom]

I have an almost 7 year old boy (in Oct. ) and a 5 1/2 year old girl . The boy has some speech delay and does not seem to comprehend longer books without pictures , although the specialist said this comprehension issue is due to his language delay and he does not have any auditory processing processing problems.

 

Both of them are reading one-two syllable words , some digraphs , long vowels , but still need their phonics for more fluency in reading. The boy is a little more advanced --he reads more complicated words but slower , the girl reads faster but cannot yet read harder words .

 

Both of them are able to write and spell short vowel words .

 

If I'd use Sonlight, I'd add FLL & WWE for both because I like the narration aspect and it seems it improves my son's speech.

 

My understanding is that with HOD , I do not need these as narration is incorporated throughout the program. Is that correct ?

 

I have many books from Little hearts ( History for little pilgrims) Beyond ( American pioneers, Boys and girls in colonial days, Pilgrims ) . I haven't used them but my impression is that they will be bored with these , they seem uninteresting at least at first sight... I also have Abeka 1st grade history and they beg me to read from it , porobably because the bright pictures and short passages ...

 

So which program is the right one for us :

-Little Hearts

-Beyond Little hearts

- Sonlight pre-k or k

-textbook program ( Abeka?)

Please help! I appreciate any suggestion ! I am new to homeschooling and very nervous .

Thanks!

[Lightly Salted]

I don't know much about the other programs, but in Sonlight, both of your kids are in the age range for Core K. I did it this past year with 5 and 7 year olds, and we loved it! I would definitely do FLL and WWE as I wasn't overly impressed with SL LA alone, but the history/geography/read-aloud literature was great! Science K is also nice if you don't have other science plans.

[Dinsfamily]

Since you said that your ds has some language delays, I'd use SL's P4/5. It is a good transition between picture books and chapter books. Core K does not include picture books and he might miss a lot of the content. P4/5 should be perfect for your dd too. I used P4/5 for my advanced ds's Kindergarten year and it was great!

 

Science K does include nice picture books (beautiful really!) and is a nice complement to P4/5's awesome science selections.

 

BTW, some P3/4 selections might also be a good addition for your dc. My 6yo still loves many of the stories despite its designation and it might be a fun break for your ds. Flip-Flap Body Book, What Do People Do All Day, Mike Mulligan and More, The McCloskey Treasury, Hans Christain Anderson Treasury, and Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm are all books that I would highly recommend for 5yos and beyond. These are just what I thought of off the top of my head...there are so many other great books in that core that appeal to older dc.

 

ETA: I don't use SL LA (not our cup of tea), but are really liking WWE and can't wait to start FLL.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Dinsfamily

[Aludlam]

I have to agree with the pp about the SL LA. We used if for a few weeks, and then nicely put it away on the shelf and left it there. :001_smile:

 

Angela

[crl]

I'm not sure about Sonlight since I have limited experience with it. Though I'd probably lean toward P 4/5 as the core.

 

With HOD have you looked at the placement chart? http://heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

The most important section when placing a child is the first section.

I would think that you could use Little Hearts and maybe add some of the books in the appendix from the library. They tend to have more pictures in them if you need more visual books. Then by the end of the year, the kids would be ready to move onto the stories in Beyond.

 

You are right that HOD does include narration and copy work (or handwriting suggestions) in their manuals.

[Euromom]

BTW, some P3/4 selections might also be a good addition for your dc. My 6yo still loves many of the stories despite its designation and it might be a fun break for your ds. Flip-Flap Body Book, What Do People Do All Day, Mike Mulligan and More, The McCloskey Treasury, Hans Christain Anderson Treasury, and Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm are all books that I would highly recommend for 5yos and beyond. These are just what I thought of off the top of my head...there are so many other great books in that core that appeal to older dc.

 

ETA: I don't use SL LA (not our cup of tea), but are really liking WWE and can't wait to start FLL.

 

 

I have these books and they love it.

Flip-Flap Body Book, What Do People Do All Day . I have a few from Sl 3/4 and K too .

 

That's why I thought they would like SL . But I really like the discussion , Bible and story time in HOD . It seems that SL is just reading , reading and not much talking about what you read (correct me if I am wrong).

 

I wish there was something with Sonlight books but HOD Bible and discussion :001_smile: . I don't think we will like HOD books as I own a few and I am not excited about them but I love every SL book I own .

[Dinsfamily]

P4/5 doesn't include discussion or comprehension questions although the new 2010 IG (which I don't have) does include activities to go along with the reading. I didn't feel that discussion questions were necessary for that core, but YMMV.

 

Core K, however, does include comprehension questions for all of the read-alouds and discussion questions for history. The IG also lists vocabulary from the reading aloud to the kids. There are questions for the Core K Bible selection in the back of the book. I don't really use any of them. I read the notes and questions before reading and then just use them to guide our discussion. My oldest is a talker, so we don't need the helps. I have a feeling we'll need them more as we go along and the material gets more involved.

 

I wonder if WP or MFW would be the combo you're looking for? I haven't used them, but it seems like all of these programs have their strengths and weaknesses. I think that if SL weren't working so well for us, I'd take a serious look at MFW.

[Rebecca]

Hey there!

I just wanted to say -that I am using Core K with my six year old daughter right now- and I also started LA 1 to use with her. I love the LA!

I was so suprised.

So- I would really view samples before you make your decision.

 

Also- SL and HOD are very different approaches.

I would be sure to look at samples (and possibly print) samples from both programs to get a feel for their flow.

 

As far as Bible and SL- there is so much you can add in that area- from your own heart and preference...

 

Hope this helps,

Rebecca

[Euromom]

Hey there!

I just wanted to say -that I am using Core K with my six year old daughter right now- and I also started LA 1 to use with her. I love the LA!

I was so suprised.

So- I would really view samples before you make your decision.

 

Also- SL and HOD are very different approaches.

I would be sure to look at samples (and possibly print) samples from both programs to get a feel for their flow.

 

As far as Bible and SL- there is so much you can add in that area- from your own heart and preference...

 

Hope this helps,

Rebecca

 

 

That is what I am trying to do (print the samples ) and look over for many weeks , but stil cannot decide !

 

I think we will use HOD but add some books from SL , that way I will have both :)

[krismoose]

When I looked at the books alone, I had the same impression as the OP about some of them: Will we really enjoy these? The way the HOD guide schedules the readings, however, makes it very interesting. The readings are bite-size and arranged to show connections among the Bible, science and history selections. We tried SL P4/5, as well as a few P3/4 and K books and the schedule was too much...much happier doing HOD and picking up a few SL recommendations for fun.:)

[Mom0012]

Since you said that your ds has some language delays, I'd use SL's P4/5. It is a good transition between picture books and chapter books. Core K does not include picture books and he might miss a lot of the content. P4/5 should be perfect for your dd too. I used P4/5 for my advanced ds's Kindergarten year and it was great!

 

Science K does include nice picture books (beautiful really!) and is a nice complement to P4/5's awesome science selections.

 

BTW, some P3/4 selections might also be a good addition for your dc. My 6yo still loves many of the stories despite its designation and it might be a fun break for your ds. Flip-Flap Body Book, What Do People Do All Day, Mike Mulligan and More, The McCloskey Treasury, Hans Christain Anderson Treasury, and Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm are all books that I would highly recommend for 5yos and beyond. These are just what I thought of off the top of my head...there are so many other great books in that core that appeal to older dc.

 

ETA: I don't use SL LA (not our cup of tea), but are really liking WWE and can't wait to start FLL.

 

:iagree: I think using P4/5 and adding in some of the P3/4 books is a great idea. My son has a language disorder and while he has always loved books, he was not able to listen to even short books on tape or chapter books until he had therapy to help him with his listening comprehension (Lindamood Bell's Visualizing and Verbalizing). So, it depends on the extent of your son's issue. My son would whine and cry if I even put a short book on tape on while we were in the car until he did this program. We have always used SL. He did V/V when he was 5, so it was just in time for getting him ready for SL K.

 

I also think you are on the right track using FLL & WWE. I am thinking about going back and trying WWE with my son this summer.

 

Lisa

[Guest Cindie2dds]

Well, I have all of the programs you are interested in. At this level (Prek - 2nd) I believe it is easier to combine Sonlight since it is more of a cuddle up and read type of program than HOD. HOD Beyond, while a lovely program with an amazing book list, requires much more of your child than where you are with him. It is very complete and quite rigorous, much more so than I expected (which is why we aren't going to use it in the fall). There are spelling lists, multiple types of narration questions on the emerging readers as well as history, copy work, memory work, science, etc. If you did Beyond, your 5.5 year old would have a hard time combining. If you are wanting to put them together, I would probably do Sonlight P4/5 with some selections from P3/4 or HOD Little Hearts. That's just my .02 (and I have Beyond on the for sale list).

[ChemMommy]

I'd probably start with K and add books from the library that are more visual for your son.

 

I'd supplement or replace SL's LA program with ABeka or FLL/WWE depending on how much time you can spend on language arts. The FLL/WWE will take more mom-involvement every day and might be too much for your son (if so, take a break and come back to it in a couple of months). I never like or could implement SL LA program although I own 6 of them!! LOL

 

If you set as a goal to help your son improve his language skills, and then choose curriculum that helps you meet that goal, you'll be fine. That means that even if your choose SL, you may need to let parts of SL go by the wayside to fit in other, better activities that address your goals.

[Tidbits of Learning]

Last summer I did LHFHG with my dd7 and my ds6.5 during our trial run to see whether we wanted to homeschool. dd7 was doing the right side of BHFHG, but the left side LHFHG with ds6.5. These two children both had speech delays and had been through a year of speech each already. My ds6.5 did have trouble with learning to read. We took it nice and slow. We liked The Reading Lesson. The devotional was a bit lengthy and I quit using it rather quickly. The children's Bible is used for history for a lot of the year. History for Little Pilgrim's is really good and CLP sales a coloring book to go with it that is nice for the younger kids to color while listening to you read. Both of my kids really liked the Thornton Burgess books. He had never sat for chapter books before that.

It wasn't boring and there were lots of hands on activities.

I have never used Sonlight but have drooled over it. I have 4 kids though and there is no way that I can combine with it.

We didn't find Little Hearts for His Glory boring at all. We did add in FLL. We also read through the CLP science by chapter as well as doing the sporadic page readings in the science section.

My son was supposed to be 1st and had finished public school K as well as 2 years of Montessori. We were going through the guide quicker than intended and I think we should have started with Beyond. I am not sure what grade your 7 yr old is in and how much he has done already. With HOD it is easier to combine once your kids have the basic skills down to me. I had a hard time with my 3 kids that were each a year apart b/c they were all on different skill levels with just the basics like handwriting, reading, and such.

 

 

I have an almost 7 year old boy (in Oct. ) and a 5 1/2 year old girl . The boy has some speech delay and does not seem to comprehend longer books without pictures , although the specialist said this comprehension issue is due to his language delay and he does not have any auditory processing processing problems.

 

Both of them are reading one-two syllable words , some digraphs , long vowels , but still need their phonics for more fluency in reading. The boy is a little more advanced --he reads more complicated words but slower , the girl reads faster but cannot yet read harder words .

 

Both of them are able to write and spell short vowel words .

 

If I'd use Sonlight, I'd add FLL & WWE for both because I like the narration aspect and it seems it improves my son's speech.

 

My understanding is that with HOD , I do not need these as narration is incorporated throughout the program. Is that correct ?

 

I have many books from Little hearts ( History for little pilgrims) Beyond ( American pioneers, Boys and girls in colonial days, Pilgrims ) . I haven't used them but my impression is that they will be bored with these , they seem uninteresting at least at first sight... I also have Abeka 1st grade history and they beg me to read from it , porobably because the bright pictures and short passages ...

 

So which program is the right one for us :

-Little Hearts

-Beyond Little hearts

- Sonlight pre-k or k

-textbook program ( Abeka?)

Please help! I appreciate any suggestion ! I am new to homeschooling and very nervous .

Thanks!