LHFHG and LHTH together

[mommyofgirls]

Has anyone used these together? (I am going to call these PK and K during this post for the sake of time...typing out those abbreviations takes more effort than i want to put forth this late at night LOL)

okay, i have looked through these to try and find out how i am going to teach them together. my girls are 5 and 3 (plus i have one turning 1 in june). my 5 yo is definitely k ready, while my 3 yo is definitely pk ready. i do not feel as though i need to keep them separate during much of these activities (nor would i attempt to do such...i can hardly keep them apart for 5 min - they are always playing together and doing the same things). i plan on separating them for math and phonics for obvious reasons. now, for the rest: i want to do the all of pk with my 3 yo with my 5 yo playing with us during the fingerplays, etc. and i also want to do all of k with my 5 yo and allow my 3 yo to tag along for the art projects, the rhymes, etc. so...has anyone done this? i don't know whether to do all of one and then move on to the other book...or incorpoate all of the rhyming/finger play things into one section of our day (like a circle time or something)...but with the latter idea, i am picking up and putting down both books all morning...which seems a little haphazard to me.

so far i know this: in the morning first thing, we will read the pk Bible. the k bible is integrated with the history, so i'll wait and read that during "history time" (not that i know when this will be yet). i want my 3 yo to memorize the verses in the devotional...but do i have my 5 yo memorize her verse and my 3 a different verse? do i have have them do the same verse? if so, which do i choose? i guess i could have them have different verses for which they are responsible...it just seems easier if it's the same one.

oh my gosh, now my head is spinning. help!! i am aware that my 3 yo doesn't "need" school yet, but she wants to be like her sister and have her "own thing", so i'm willing to make it work...i just need help organizing it all! and somewhere in there, i have to find something for each of them to do while the other person is doing phonics and math. and i was also thinking my 1 yo would play around with us during the songs/rhymes and her and i would have storytime with her at some point throughout the day. you know, i might have to talk this "24 hour" thing over with God...obviously i need more hours in my day! LOL

[gratefulmama]

mommyofgirls,

Welcome to HOD! You are going to love it! We do!!

I have 3dc similar in age to yours. First a couple of ?'s:

Will your 3 & 5yr olds be one or two years apart in school? Does your 3yr old nap (or have a quiet time) daily?

I am using a hybrid of K and PK with my 3 & 5yr old boys right now. Basically, in the mornings we do Little Hands/ PK with the 3 & 5 yr olds while my baby naps. Over lunch I read from the storytime box (K) to all of them. (mouths are full - ears and minds are open ) Then in the afternoons I do the rest of the right side of Little Hearts/ K with my 5yr old (the 3 'R's) while my younger two nap. I do love this set up; I do plan to combine my two boys in LHFHG for K/1st starting 01/10. They're only 1 yr apart in school, so I am holding off on the left side of LHFHG/K for my 5yr old this year and basically covering his Bible, rhymes, history, with the PK material. We have also all "taken off" with a love for the solar system, by direction of my 5yr old ds, including more details than I ever knew before, so I'm counting this for science for K this semester.

I would say you could certainly have your girls on the same memory verse. - I am always looking to simplify-
I use the "older" devotional for Little Hands/PK and my 5yr old loves it.

I'm guessing you'll want to continue to combine your girls in the years ahead. It sounds like you'll do well to keep them together for the left side of your guides at least. We've only been at it for 4+ months now, but HOD has been a wonderful tool and blessing for our family!!

I hope this helps and I look forward to hearing more from you on the boards!

In Him,
Victoria

[jenntracy]

i am using both of these right now. currently my children are 5 1/2 and 4yr olds (with a 15month tagging along). i had done pk with my son from about age 3 1/2 to 4 1/2. then we seemed to do nothing for 6months after i had our 3rd child.

then we started the K.(he was about 5.his b-day is in October so technically he wouldn't be in kindergarten if in public school til this fall anyway) we are basically taking 2yrs to do it. i started my daughter on pk around the same time as he started the K. she was around 3 1/2yrs. there are days i get one kid done and days where both kids get done. we just do it all year long. we could get both done if "I" didn't get distracted. son is on unit 14 in K and my daugher is on unit 17 in PK.

it really is doable. i usually do one kid at a time and the child who isn't doing a lesson (thats what we call it) will sometimes join in for parts of the other kids lesson.
i wouldn't worry too much about having Bible verses memorized for the 3 yr old. in my experience, my children were never good at it at that age. if your younger gets it great! if she doesn't , don't fret. i have to remind myself that they are still so young and just like to play and have fun. it is amazing how much they learn from playing and how much learning is snuck into play .

it is hard to do some of my son's K with the 15 month old. she is a climber and wants HER books read at the same time. we usually have to do some of his while she naps. she does like fingerplays and the rhymetime and is good for those. we can usually get the PK done with her up. you do have to be creative at times. i have to say that we don't do the suggested music parts . we do listen to other great kid music biblical and preschool type stuff and they just weren't ever interested in the suggested music ( i did try it).

i am eventtually going to have the two doing thelearning thru history sid e together in the same book and seperate learning thru basics. i wrote earlier about that in a post "finally decided...."
i hope this helps.... feel free to ask any more questions about what i do so far.
blessings
Jennifer

[mommyofgirls]

my girls would be 2 years apart in school. they are 26 months apart.

so basically, neither one of you do all of both curriculums with two kids? while your suggestions sound like they would definitely work if my kids were a little closer in age, i was hoping to fit it all in with my two dd next year. maybe i'll need to re-evaluate exactly what i am capable of accomplishing...hmmm...

[mommyofgirls]

oh, i forgot to say thanks for your thoughts! i really appreciate your input. i need to go look at my books again and see exactly what i think i need to do with each girl this year...

i do have to say i LOVE the looks of both of these curriculums! i am so glad i found HOD - it seems to be EXACTLY what i was looking for seeing as i had my mind made up about phonics and math already.

[erdrmom]

I am currently doing both of them together now. My dc are 2.5 yrs apart, and would be 3 yrs in school. My oldest is almost 6 and using LHFHG for K, and my youngest is 3.5 and using LHTH for PK. I started LHFHG in Sept. and LHTH in Jan.

This is how we do our day. We do the Fingerplay/Rhyme in Motion and music sections together. I don't do everything in the same order, but I use those to break up our seat time. We do the bible parts together, taking turns as to which level goes first. My oldest does really well with math, so I give her the overview, and then let her do the workbook on her own, while I work with the younger on the remainder of the days boxes that apply only to him. Then we do the Art/Thinking Games/Science together. (I will most likely need to do the Gr 1 science with my ds, when he gets to LHFHG) I read storytime at lunch or on the couch. When the youngest takes his rest, we do the reading/phonics lesson, then my oldest takes a rest. For the memory verses, we just do both. Some weeks, we use the memory verse from church and skip the one from HOD. It just depends on if one of them pertains more to what we are dealing with at the time.

I wish I would have started the two programs at the same time. There are so many similarities that I could have used to make my life easier. But, it works even if you aren't on the same schedule. I just find it hard to keep my oldest from answering the questions before the youngest has a chance!

Our schedule varies, and the time of day varies, and the location even varies. Today we did school early, and prepared to go camping. Tomorrow we will be doing school at our campsite! Just one more reason I love homeschooling!!!

[mommyofgirls]

This is how we do our day. We do the Fingerplay/Rhyme in Motion and music sections together. I don't do everything in the same order, but I use those to break up our seat time. We do the bible parts together, taking turns as to which level goes first. My oldest does really well with math, so I give her the overview, and then let her do the workbook on her own, while I work with the younger on the remainder of the days boxes that apply only to him. Then we do the Art/Thinking Games/Science together. (I will most likely need to do the Gr 1 science with my ds, when he gets to LHFHG) I read storytime at lunch or on the couch. When the youngest takes his rest, we do the reading/phonics lesson, then my oldest takes a rest. For the memory verses, we just do both. Some weeks, we use the memory verse from church and skip the one from HOD. It just depends on if one of them pertains more to what we are dealing with at the time.

i am thinking through this...when do you do your history - is your 3 yo listening in on that part or do you do it during rest time?

[erdrmom]

Oops...I left that out. Most of the time we try to do that in our together time, but if the younger one is fussy, or has a lower tolerence for listening that day, it would be one of the things we do either when I do story time (since it's mostly me reading to them), or when he's napping. I try to keep the younger in on the more "active" hands/on things, and do the sitting work together when we can. Does that make sense?

Another thought that came to my mind is about what I keep of their "projects." I only keep the "projects" for their level, i.e., I don't put the K's activities that are completed with the PK's plan, and I don't keep the PK's work that is done with the K's plan. So they may both do a LHFHG art project, but I only keep the K's work in her file. If my PK wants to keep his, then he can, but I don't put it in my official school file.

[Carrie]

The ladies are doing a good job of helping you sort through the options for using LHTH and LHFHG. You can easily run these two programs at the same time as LHTH only takes 30 min. a day and LHFHG takes 90 min. a day.

So, even with running two programs, you'd be at 2 hours of school a day. We've been running two or more HOD programs ourselves for years and actually find it refreshing to have each kiddo on his own level (making for less tweaking for me)!

I wouldn't worry about coordinating the 2 programs but would just recommend teaching through them as written at the pace the best suits each child. You could also slow LHTH down if desired, so it takes 2 years instead of 1, by doing half of the lesson one day and half the next or by doing it 3 times a week instead. Just some food for thought.

Blessings,
Carrie

[spidermansmum]

I Have done LHFHG this year and am planning on running LHTH and Beyond next fall.I have no practical experience of doing two HOD yet,so far we have just had the little on e tagging along with his big brother.I have a plan for Next Year if thats any help
I plan on getting the older up and running first.Because he has a few challenges of his own and he needs a firm routine,far more than the younger one.I will get his school day established first.I plan on getting going at half speed with Beyond for the first few weeks after we start back on schooling.Then once I feel we are managing that part of our routine I will add in LHTH.-As its been said LHTH is only a 30 minute day and I feel that is absolutely do able I might get started earlierI currently try and grab some time with my toddler -about 30 minutes when he gets my time un divided to play.So I am hoping that we can rise to the challenge of increasing the older ones school day to beyond and add incorporate LHTH in the youngers day.

[mommyofgirls]

The ladies are doing a good job of helping you sort through the options for using LHTH and LHFHG. You can easily run these two programs at the same time as LHTH only takes 30 min. a day and LHFHG takes 90 min. a day.

So, even with running two programs, you'd be at 2 hours of school a day. We've been running two or more HOD programs ourselves for years and actually find it refreshing to have each kiddo on his own level (making for less tweaking for me)!

I wouldn't worry about coordinating the 2 programs but would just recommend teaching through them as written at the pace the best suits each child.
You could also slow LHTH down if desired, so it took 2 years instead of 1, by doing half of the lesson one day and half the next or by doing it 3 times a week instead. Just some food for thought.

You make a great point! Just running them simultaneously is actually probably LESS stressful than trying to rework the plans! I don't know why I didn't think of that! I was afraid of them "doubling up" on work...but that would still be better than stressing out about how to avoid it!

[my3sons]

You make a great point! Just running them simultaneously is actually probably LESS stressful than trying to rework the plans! I don't know why I didn't think of that! I was afraid of them "doubling up" on work...but that would still be better than stressing out about how to avoid it!

This is exactly what I've found - it has been easier on me to run 2 HOD programs at the same time and have them be the right fit for my dc, than it would have been doing 1 HOD program that didn't fit their needs well. Even at the older ages (right now we're finishing our school year with PHFHG and BLHFHG), it's worked out so well. You'll be just fine doing LHTH and LHFHG, and I think you'll enjoy the individual attention you can give your little gals!

In Christ,
Julie