Little Hearts over two years?

[mommy3]

I was wondering a couple of things. Has anyone started Little Hearts with 4 year olds? I was thinking about doing Little Hearts when my twins are 4 and then spread it out over two years so they'd be using it during both their PREK/K year. This way they'd be able to do it with my older daughter. Of course my older daughter would be doing her own math and lanuage arts each day at her level but we'd spread the other activities out over two years for all of them. Would that be feasible or would it be way over their (the 4 y.o) heads?

[Mommamo]

I think that would work. It's pretty much what I have planned for combining my two little ones eventually. I did LHFHG when my dd was 4.5. It was a great fit. The only problem we have encountered is getting to Beyond a little early, but you could always rememdy that by doing it at half speed for a bit until everyone is ready for full speed. I'm sure some others will chime in with their ideas too!

[Kathleen]

We're doing this. We're doing HOD 4 days a week to match my ds doing Preparing. My dd does phonics, fine motor skills, and math daily on those 4 days. Every day both of them are doing the Rhymes in Motion and Music boxes. Then, on Mon & Wed we're doing the Reading About History box and the one on the bottom left side that goes with it, and on Tues & Thurs we're doing the Bible Study and Storytime boxes. It's splitting it up nicely. Next year, I'm guessing that we'll do a day's worth of plans every day 4 days a week. And, this plan should have stretched LHFHG out for 2 years for us!

The only thing you'd have to consider is the age of the older sibling you're wanting to combine with. You wouldn't probably want to go this slowly if you also have a child at the top end of the age range of the guide. My goal (as long as I think they're combining well - I reserve the right t change my mind as many times as I see God leading differently and I feel it's necessary ) is to have them be 8 and 10 by the time we get to Preparing.

Kathleen

[MamaBear23Cubs]

I have started Little Hearts with my 4.5 year old but have stopped. I just do Little Hearts with my 5.5 year old and she tags along when she wants to. She is ready for some of it but not for all of it. She just isn't ready to sit and do offical schooling. Next year she will be ready for all of Little Hearts work.

[krismoose]

We started LHFHG when ds was 4.5 half-speed. He'll be 5 next week and we've been going full-speed for awhile now. It's a great fit for now. Many posters have cautioned about not getting to the older guides too fast, so we're prepared to pause or go half-speed when LHFHG is over...we'll see when we get there.

[my3sons]

We started LHFHG when my ds was 4.5 yo and went half-speed for quite awhile (we did phonics daily, but did the left side one day, and the right side the next day otherwise). Then, we went full speed. This took us about a year and a half to do. We started Beyond half-speed but after a bit could tell he was ready for it full speed. This has worked great for my ds. I think if your twins have just very recently turned 4 that may be too young, and you may just want to consider doing LHTH with them, since it only takes 20-30 minutes a day to do and would teach them letters, a sound for each, numbers, etc. and is a great program. However, if you'd enjoy combining them all and they seem ready to begin LHFHG, you could start half-speed and do letter recognition/phonics daily and see how that goes. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[jenntracy]

i am about to start my 4.5 yr old with LHFHG so that she can be with her brother for the History and story-time portions. He started LHFHG a few months before his 5th b-day (october b-day) last year, so this year he is "officially" registered homeschooler (about to turn 6 in a few weeks). He did the "basics" portion first. when i start my daughter we will do any phonics, math, etc . only as she wants. this would be her pre-k year if you had to label it. she is so excited to start LHFHG soon. i actually read a chapter from Reddy Fox yesterday to see how it would go and she loved it. she drew a picture while i read.

Jenn D.

[hopefulmom]

I have actually had a question about this. If my son completes the K version of LHFHG this year (he's just turned 5), where are we going to go next? Would we repeat it but use the 1st grade supplemental materials or would we move on to the next book? Lisa

[Kathleen]

Lisa,

All the HOD guides are designed so that you move into the next one when you finish the previous one. So, after LHFHG you'd be ready to move into Beyond. Depending on what age you begin the guide, your child may be ready for the K or 1st grade options for math and fine motor skills. You won't be "missing" anything though moving into Beyond from LHFHG and doing the "K" options.

Kathleen

[mommy3]

Thanks everyone! That really helps!