LHTH or LHFHG for almost 5 yr old (bday in Oct)

[jennb]

My daughter will be turning 5 years old in October, so she is technically pre-k age. I am trying to decide between the first two curriculums. She knows her letters and most of her letter sounds (she struggles with the vowel sounds mostly), and she knows her #'s 1-10, and can count to 20. Even though she's starting to sound words out, I am not planning to teach her reading this year as I want her to enjoy being a child for just one more year. She is very interested in handwriting, and this is something she does on her own on just a plain piece of paper (with no lines) in her own way with no formal instruction. I don't want her to miss out on the Biblical content of LHTH, and I want her to have fun just doing crafts for this first homeschool year, but I'm not sure which curriculum to choose since she counts well and knows most of her letter sounds. Should I buy both guides and just use the LHFHG guide for the fine motor skills and math? If I buy both guides, what would everyone recommend I also buy with the LHFHG guide? Thanks!!!

[Heidi in AK]

I would consider just doing the LHTH guide as written. Have you consulted the placement guide? I do agree that your DD sounds better placed for LHTH, and I would, if I were you, just do LHTH, all boxes. You'll cover letter and number formation in it, and I would say wait till you are doing LHFHG for the ARFH K or fine motor skills workbooks. Just enjoy her pre-K year, and let her play.

That said, there might be something to considering the K option handwriting (ARFH K) and fine motor skills if she will just not wait. Then she will be able to work better on formation of letters. I just don't know what you would do once you get to LHFHG. Based on what I've seen here, I don't know if you'd just progress up a year (to grade 1) fine motor and handwriting? Probably. You'd always just be up a year in those subjects.

I hope that helps, a little bit! Maybe someone else wants to chime in? That's what I would do!

(we were faced with this with my daughter. She was in the same place with math. I just started her on Singapore Earlybird K, while we were doing LHTH, and just substituted that for the "Math Exploration" in the LHTH guide. We're a little off with LHFHG, but we just progress systematically through that workbook, and we'll fix it sometime. Or not! LOL!)

[jenntracy]

I did LHFHG at half-speed for my son who has an October b-day.
we did the right side and added our own bible and science as we went. the next year we just moved on with math, reading, did our own storytime and did ther left side of LHFHG then. it was like a 2yr K program and he was just advanced in the reading and math basically.

Jenn d

[mamabeavabjo]

I have a dd who will be 5 in Sept. She also know letter sounds, reads CVC words, knows her numbers and counts to 100. Like your dd, she writes all the letters because she's learned from older siblings. I purchased and planned to use LHFHG with her. However, after a week, I have put it on the shelf until next year. We will continue to use the K math and phonics program as well as the Rod and Staff books(Doing It Carefully and ???) and also some handwriting. But, she was unable to understand the History, not really interested in the Rhymes (they were too long for her) and was not comprehending the Burgess books.
I truly thought LHTH was too babyish for her, but I am going to use it to supplement other things I will be doing because I think she'll just enjoy "school" more that way.
Hope this helps and have fun!
Steph

[jennb]

Thanks everyone! This has been very helpful! I've never even seen the Earlybird K workbook. Should I purchase the LHFHG guide to go along with the Earlybird K workbook just for the math portion or does the workbook supplement fine on its own? I prefer hands on teaching versus workbooks (though she does enjoy workbooks). I am thinking I'll use the K math, fine motor skills workbook for K and the Handwriting for K to supplement the LHTH guide. Based on those thoughts, is the LHFHG guide a needed purchase at this time.

[MelInKansas]

The LHFHG guide supplements the math workbook with hands-on activities so if you are going to start earlybird math, I would definitely buy the LHFHG guide. However, there are some hard concepts covered in that math book (and in the activities). Just counting to 20 is about the first 3-4 weeks of it, so of course she's already got that. But after that it's things like measuring, addition and subtraction, and toward the end money (which was very hard for my DD last year and by the time we got there she was 6). I guess you could do some of it and wait on the rest. But I think it would also be very easy to just do activities with her that encourage and reinforce what she knows. It seems like LHTH has at least a little bit of that. Have fun and enjoy LHTH. I have a friend who tried to start LHFHG with a girl turning 5 in October and they were stalled out by fine-motor skills. She had a LOT of difficulty writing the numbers, which the workbook wants them to do. Especially the workbook just gives them little boxes to write it in. My DD was 5.5 when we started LHFHG and this was hard for her too. So I would really recommend waiting on those. Just my 2 cents.

You wouldn't need the LHFHG guide for handwriting or Do It Carefully/Finding the Answers because all that's in there are a schedule for when to do them, no additional activities or information about them. Math on the other hand, I would buy the guide in order to have activities to do with your workbook pages. And IMO Do It Carefully/Finding the Answers wouldn't be as difficult for a kid your DD's age as the math would be.

[mamabeavabjo]

I have a friend who tried to start LHFHG with a girl turning 5 in October and they were stalled out by fine-motor skills. She had a LOT of difficulty writing the numbers, which the workbook wants them to do. Especially the workbook just gives them little boxes to write it in. My DD was 5.5 when we started LHFHG and this was hard for her too. So I would really recommend waiting on those. Just my 2 cents.

This is where we are...we have spent two weeks just writing numbers (and my dd counts and adds already). After days of tears because she couldn't write a 2, 4 or 5 we are taking a break from writing numbers and plan to just do hands on activities to reinforce math concepts. I do like the ideas in LHFHG and we will use them when we pick back up with our "formal" math. I might consider purchasing the manual especially if you plan to use it next year.
Hope that helps!
Steph

[Dustybug]

My DD is 5 now (won't be 6 until Feb.). We are about to complete our last week in LHTH and this is her second trip through the guide. I will be starting LHFHG with her at the end of next month. What I did in LHTH is I did it one year through as written for her, using the younger options. The next year(the one we are about to complete), we did everything as written using the older options and the older set of Bible/devotional EXCEPT for the numbers and letters portions. There I substituted in another workbook that helped her practice her numbers and letters more (writing them) and I started Abeka K5 phonics with her because she was asking to learn to read.

[Larissa]

My 3rd son has an Oct birthday - will be 5 this year. I am doing a modified LHFHG. I am doing my own Science/History/Bible/and read alouds. (I've already scheduled those for the entire year) I am doing right side LHFHG as written and I am doing the rhymes in motion as they correspond with Bible and History that I have scheduled.

I will do LHFHG as written next year with first grade options. (However, we won't do the rhymes in motion)

I have 2 older sons - one who is 4th grade and doing Preparing, the other is 2nd grade doing Beyond with some right side Bigger. I have found that doing K like this gets us where we need to be for the older guides.

That said, my almost 5 year old has very good fine motor skills. He is completely ready to be doing the K skills.

[christina101902]

I began my 4.5 yr on LHFHG at half speed with kindergarten wrkbks (Science, Handwriting, and Math). We used the Bible for Little Eyes and the ABC Bible verses again from LHTH and a different storytime series. At 5.5 we are planning to do LHFHG at full speed with the 1st options for workbooks, the Family Time Bible, and the Devotions for Children. As the other ladies have said, tweak the curriculum to fit your childs needs. What I love is that no matter what you choose, your child will grow in the Knowledge of God as well as all of the RRRs that they need. Although I also have planned out her entire college career already lol, I have learned to enjoy the moments that the Lord gives us each day to share together

[KristinBeth]

It could go either way, but the most important thing is that you said you are not planning on teaching reading and just want her to be a child one more year, so I'd vote for LHTH.

I just finished LHTH with my daughter who will turn 5 in September. I added some fine motor, thinking skills, nature study, and The Reading Lesson. If you want to wait on "official" school you'll probably prefer LHTH. I was just telling a friend that the crafts and bible stories go nicely together, and they're fun and easy. If your daughter knows her letters and sounds you can just briefly review that part in LHTH and add in math or handwriting workbooks. My daughter is a workbook lover though, and will go to town and do the Costco ones on her own for fun. If your daughter isn't into them then you could just wait.

[MomtoJGJE]

I would say that if your dd is fine with what she's doing, then just do LHTH and let her go

But I say that with having a DD who will be 5 at the end of Oct. She is finishing up LHTH, or will be this fall anyway, and we'll start her in LHFHG in January. It has been SUPER hard to slow my dd down to not have her start LHFHG until later. She can sit and listen, already is doing K-level workbooks from the dollar store, and is beginning to read (we don't do phonics). If you think your dd could do everything except the reading or handwriting, you could just wait on those things and do LHFHG without them. You could add in the 1st grade handwriting with Beyond, or K whenever she's ready during LHFHG. And you can do phonics with Beyond if you go that route.

Or another thought is that you could do half speed LHFHG with just the left side every other day. Then when you are about halfway in you could add in the right side every day to "catch up" and then once you get caught up with the right side and left side you can just do regular half speed or even full speed if you think she's ready for it then.