LHFHG half speed

[MomtoJGJE]

I know I've posted about this before, but I cannot find the thread or any others that address this.

Julianna is going to start LHFHG in the next few months. I'm trying to hold her off until January, but I"m not sure that's going to happen. We are having to add SO MUCH to LHTH at this point that it seems almost silly not just to go to LHFHG. But anyway. I want to spread her and Grace out some. Grace will be starting Beyond in January, or maybe a couple of units before Christmas. I would like to spread them out to where it's not just back to back guides. I like having the unused guide in between Jayden and Grace (Jayden is finising up Bigger and Grace is finishing up LHFHG right now) and would like to eventually get there with Grace and Julianna.

So, now to the point. Juli LOVES workbooks. She doesn't think she has done school for the day if she hasn't done workbook pages. How do you do half speed and still do workbook pages each day? I'm thinking maybe this... but tell me if it looks fairly even as far as reading and writing...

day 1 - History, Bible box, fine motor skills, RIM
day 2 - rotating box, Burgess book, math, RIM, Bible verse

I think that would fairly even out the amount of workbook stuff with reading to her stuff, but I'm not really sure.

Thinking outloud here.... I'm also not sure which level of handwriting to get for her. She's just turning 5 in October, but she's been doing handwriting in a little dollar store book once or twice a week since January. If I get the first grade book, I would have "leftover handwriting" in the book because I would only have her do one section per time instead of two (half a page instead of a whole page)... but that has been working great with Grace. She is on Unit 27 in LHFHG, but only on lesson 11 in handwriting. We just this week started doing two sections (a whole page) at a time with her. She'll finish up in the first part of Beyond and then start with the poetry copywork when she gets done. I'm just not sure where Julianna's abilities lie. She's worked REALLY REALLY hard this year on improving her fine motor skills, so I don't want to punish her by having her do another year of just letters necessarily, but I"m not sure she's ready for the A book. I guess I could have her do the review pages slower as well... hmmm...

[MelInKansas]

Hmmm.....

Seems to me like if your younger one goes quickly enough you could combine them. Which is what I really wish for my 6YO and 4YO but that's not happening for us! At least not yet.

I wouldn't push the handwriting, I would keep her in the letter formation book personally until she's done the whole thing. I don't know why she would see that as a punishment, maybe you can point out to her that moving up to LHFHG is actually an advancement but she needs to finish her other book first. Or is she almost finished with it? Fine motor is just something no matter how hard you try you can't make it develop any faster than it is going to develop. And if they get pushed ahead into doing some that they're not ready for, it causes all kinds of frustration for everyone.

Sometimes with the storytime there is a page for them to draw and write (or that you write) about the story, so that would feel like a workbook to her (well you probably already know this). Since she's so into workbooks, your plan looks like a pretty good one, I can't really think of a better way to do it off the top of my head.

[Mumkins]

Maybe you can get A and if it seems to hard, use some Donna Young print offs until she is ready.

[moedertje]

Has your dd4 already done ARFH K? If she has not, perhaps to get the program gap between her and her sister you can do LHFHG all the K-options (for fine motor, math and Phonics) this year at full pace, without all the history etc. Than next year do LHFHG full with all the first grade options. That way you can focus on her Three R's this year. ARFH-K is so adorable, my ds loved it and if you get the teachers book, it gives you a little story with each lesson usually about the animal they are doing with their letter. Carrie does not have this scheduled, because it does add some teaching time. My ds loved, loved, loved these! She will get her workbook fix daily for sure.
A friend of mine did this with her son who is on the younger end. It worked perfect for him
Success

[MomtoJGJE]

She is almost through with the book she's currently using. It is not ARFH-K but essentially is the same thing. I do not see them capable of combining ever. I can easily do 2 days of LHFHG in one day with Grace. She will have no trouble doing Beyond full speed. I would have to hold her back majorly to be able to combine them. But I just don't want to do back to back guides for YEARS, you know?

I think I will try ARFH-A and see how it goes. She is more than ready for the history though.

I had also thought about doing half speed with all except the fine motor skills stuff and doing that box daily, therefore doing both K and 1st grade with it.... the only issue is when she gets to the point she needs to go full speed (I see this happening around the end of spring/beginning of summer... so maybe 20 weeks into the school year... 10 ish units into LHFHG) so that's why I kinda dropped that idea.

I guess my biggest issue is that I don't want to hold anyone back for no reason. And to me, holding Grace back SO MUCH to get them combined seems like not a good reason, and holding Julianna back so that I'm not using the guides back to back really seems silly to me. But I just don't want to get bored with it.

I guess I could work it so that they are combined, but I just don't see it being the best thing for them. Grace is happy with not doing much work, so she'd be ok with half speed. But she's capable of doing Beyond full speed. She'd PROBABLY be capable of Bigger full speed with just a few modifications (like 1 vocab word instead of 3 type things) but I'm not going to skip Beyond! Julianna however is well past LHTH and loves school and I don't want her to STOP loving school just because I want to hold her back. I read the Bible story to her and go over the boxes, but her eyes light up when we do extra stuff (more books, workbooks, extra art/science/whatever) and I want to keep that love. So that's why I'm going ahead with LHFHG, but hoping that doing it half speed will be ok for a while.

[Mumkins]

Maybe start now and break early for summer with Grace? Or give her 1-2 days a week to play on Starfall or other educational websites?

[MomtoJGJE]

I'm not sure I"m understanding how that would get more separation?

But it's beside the point... we school year round We don't take summer break.

[Mumkins]

Hmmm, not sure. It made sense to my sleep deprived brain yesterday but not so much sense now, lol.

[Carrie]

LoraBeth,

As I'm trying to think through your situation, I'm wondering a couple of things. First, what unit of LHFHG is Grace currently doing?

Next, I wasn't sure if you were thinking that Juli was ready for half-speed or for full-speed LHFHG? Were you thinking to do half-speed LHFHG to slow her down a bit so she didn't go too quickly, or were you thinking that half-speed LHFHG would fit her better? Also, if you did go half-speed with LFHGH I likely wouldn't put the Bible verse and the rotating bottom left box of LHFHG on a different day from the history reading, as those activities won't make as much sense without the reading. So, I'd lean toward left side one day and right side the next if you're considering half-speeding LHFHG.

To even out the workbooks, I'd do handwriting workbook one day and fine motor skills workbook the next day. This will give her a workbook of some sort every day.

If Juli is ready for LHFHG, I would lean toward just starting her on LHFHG. Often young ones need to slow down when they get to Bigger Hearts, so it is likely you won't be doing back-to-back guides forever.

Blessings,
Carrie

[MomtoJGJE]

Grace is starting unit 28 this week... I think... maybe 29? It's been a long past two weeks here! haha

Well, I"m just not sure about if Julianna is ready for full speed or not. She probably is, but I won't really know that until we get started. I was actually looking at doing half speed for a while for two different reasons. One, I like the amount of time we currently use for school, and the other is to help spread them out. I also thought that if she were ready for full speed that I would just do half speed while Grace is finishing LHFHG (if that would be necessary, I can't remember what unit of LHTH Julianna is on....)

Thanks for the advice on the rotating box and BIble.... I haven't actually LOOKED at how to do it... was just thinking about spreading it out time wise while still allowing for workbooks every day.

But, Jayden will be in Preparing, so once we get started in it she'll be pretty well independent and I can probably get most of Grace and Julianna done while she's doing that.

I do wish that Grace and Julianna were closer in abilities. Or even Jayden and Grace... I wish I could combine somehow, but it's not because doing all the different guides is hard. I just would like to have it more streamlined!

[my3sons]

Really good thoughts here! I don't have anything to add other than when I have been going back and forth trying to decide whether to do a guide half-speed or full-speed (which I have done quite often over the years ), all doubt about which is better is often removed once I begin. Somehow, it just makes itself quite clear about a week or two (or for sure a month) into a guide. I've been certain half-speed will be best, and then a month in or less, I am contemplating how to beef it up realizing full-speed is the perfect beefing it up already. On the flip side, I've been certain full-speed will be best, and then a month in or less, I am realizing that it's too much somehow, and that my ds is not growing into it like I thought he would, and that I am going to have to stop thinking he's just "learning how to do the boxes" still. The great thing is, with HOD, it's easy to alter the pacing as needed - we just switch to whatever speed I realized after beginning would be better. I know this isn't all that helpful now , but I bet you will know what pacing is best for your little Julianna once you begin LHFHG. Starting half-speed is probably a wise idea, and then from there, I think you'll have a good idea whether half-speed or full-speed will fit best. I might add - sometimes I've done a guide half-speed for 6 months, and at that point, I realize full-speed is the better pacing. So, the speed that's best at the start, isn't always the speed that's best for the entire guide. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[MomtoJGJE]

Thanks

Yeah, I did school with all of them today (which is normal, but not for the last month really, ugh!) anyway, I noticed Grace is starting unit 28 and Julianna is starting 23. So if I start Grace right off in Beyond when she finishes, even if I do half speed for the first few units (I do NOT think she'll need it. LHFHG takes us very very little time to complete. Like less than an hour), then if I wait and start Julianna at half speed for a little bit after Christmas, they'll be a good 6-8 units apart. And I don't necessarily school Juli every day.

THanks for brainstorming with me!!

[Heidi in AK]

Sounds like you got a bit more clarity, and that's good!

[luv2homeschool]

I just thought I could add that if you wanted some more workbooks, you could get the other Rod & Staff ABC series books. My daughter did them all the way up through H (before I was published) and really enjoyed them.
Christine