Combining ?'s, FLL ?'s

[WigglesMom]

I am still trying to figure out some of my selections for my middle dd. I am not sure who I am going to combine her with my son or my daughter. I flip flop back and forth. She is 7 years old finishing 2nd grade at ps. She has had no real history or science just the 3 r's. They do some projects around holidays or earth day or such but no constant study in those subjects. No real introducation to english yet either. They have a few worksheets here and there but not meaty and not explained well.
I really want to put her with my son who will be finishing LHFHG around Dec. (going to home school year round) give or take any stops along the way. So here comes my question about FLL 1&2. Has anyone used it? What do you think of it? Would this be a good age appropriate substitution for Language Arts for her and my 6 yr old son? I would do it with her and my son through LHFHG and BLHFHG and then switch to R&S English 2 in BHFHG.
Both girls would be doing DITHOR starting as soon as public school gets out (probably take a week break before starting homeschool). My son will be doing the Reading Lesson.
I plan to do LHFHG now-Dec, BLHFHG from Jan-July/August with my son/possibly my daughter. So Fall 2010 starting BHFHG my son would be 8 and my daughter would be 9 (in target age ranges for the program). My oldest dd-8 would start in BHFHG now -Dec/Jan, PHFHG Jan-July/Aug, then Fall 2010 starting CTC at 10 years old (target age for the program).
I would really appreciate anyone's experience, likes/dislikes, or general opinion of FLL.
Thanks,
Val

[dale1088]

Hi Val,

I have perused FLL, but because I had already purchased R&S, I didn't look into it too fully. I do have friend who has switched and really likes it. Her kids seem to like it. I think it's still a toss-up for her between R&S or FLL. She switched because her oldest is going to a local classical part-time school and she wanted exposure to that style before sending her next year.

I will say that if you do FLL 1 and 2, you wouldn't start in R&S 2, I would put you in 3. I just think there would be WAY too much overlap there that would create boredom.

Just my $.02!

[WigglesMom]

Thanks. I just don't want to use nothing with her until Bigger and I don't want to start R&S now and be way ahead in that by the time we get to bigger. I had thought about just doing English with the girls together, but they are horrible together (very competitive and very different styles of learning). I didn't know anything about FLL, but saw that it used to be offered on HOD and then I started searching about it (HOD sold out of their clearance copies).
I had also thought about just getting her age appropriate Abeka or BJU. I have picked up a Learn at Home Grade 4 and Learn at Home Grade 1. They have language arts, spelling, and reading in them. It is kind of like one of those big books you can pick up at the store with all the curriculum for one grade in them but it has a 36 week schedule to go with the subjects. My idea was that I could pick them up and just use their spelling and language arts and some of the reading with my ds (dd would have DITHOR) until I got to BHFHG and use R&S with the kids.
So right now I am either going to use the Learn at Home books I have already purchased for Language Arts, Spelling, and Reading (for ds only) or I will purchase the FLL. I really looked at the FLL b/c it was recommended by HOD at one time. Does anyone think using one of the all in one curriculum books for just the Language Arts, Spelling, and Reading would be an ok substitution until they got to R&S. I am thinking more of dd7 falling behind in language arts.
If I finished both curriculums before next fall, I would still be doing the placement that Carrie and Julie recommended for all the kids this year.
Any advise or ideas on what to do about Language Arts or whether you think just using the Learn at Home megabook for those would be alright in the short term?
Thanks,
Val

[DHT1999]

I love FLL. We have used levels 1, 2 and 3. I've decided to continue with FLL for my youngest son who will be doing Little Hearts but my older son will use R&S 4 next year, instead of FLL 4. My oldest son used FLL 1 & 2 and then we tried R&S 2. R&S is harder than FLL at those levels. It requires more of the student. FLL can be done orally and I like that for a first/second grader. My oldest son has loved FLL 3 this year. The reason I'm switching him to R&S instead of using FLL 4 is because R&S includes writing instruction and FLL does not. If FLL did include writing instruction, we would use it instead. FLL 1 and 2 has some writing as the child does some copywork, but there's no real writing instruction. I wish I knew of something that teaches writing as simply and systematically as R&S does. If I had something of that nature, we would stick with FLL 4 just because my son does love it and he doesn't like changes. I prefer to wait until 3rd grade to start R&S. FLL 1 & 2 is very, very gentle and very Charlotte Mason friendly.

[WigglesMom]

Great! I am excited now and plan to get it this week. I wish the sample pages link on their site worked though. I tried several times but no luck.
Thanks again,
Val