when to start LHTH?

[kmplaza]

I only have an 18 month old daughter. When should I start LHTH?
I'm thinking 2 might be too young? If that's the case, should I start at 3 and do it again at 4? Or start at 3 and find something else to do at 4? Or just wait until she's 4?
I'm a little confused about this... What are your thoughts on this!!
Thank you

[mom23]

I think 2 is too young; I'd wait until she's 3 and then evaluate where she's at; and where life takes you by then . You may want to start at 3 and take 2 yrs to do the guide, or go full speed and run it again at 4, or just wait until she's 4 to begin.

[kmplaza]

Thanks for your reply. How do you do a guide in 2 years instead of 1?

[mom23]

Umm, I don't necessarily recommend the way that I did it-trying to get to school atleast 2 days a week . It was hard for him to retain letter sounds that far apart, but we were adjusting into running 3 guides and a new baby, and that's how it happened! When we got to school 3 days per week he did very well with that speed. That stretches your guide out a little longer, and you can just begin LHFHG whenever you get done-even in the middle of the year! Alternatively, you could do a couple of boxes each day-you might read his Bible stories and do the activity to reinforce it the next day; reviewing letter sounds every day, and spacing out the writing activities every other day as well.

[kmplaza]

Thank you for your suggestions! =)

[younglove03]

Hi! I just wanted to let you know what we are doing. We just started using LHTH this year (first year doing anything besides reading and playing) - this is our third week. Daughter is 3, she will be 4 in November. My goal is to go full speed (I think that is how they word it) everyday. However we break it up through out the day. We do 5-10 minutes of school then play for a while. I usually read the Bible story while DD and my one year old son are eating breakfast, or we read it during cuddle time (special mommy/daughter reading time while baby is taking a nap). I also do the same for the devotional. We treat the rotating activites as play time (they are really fun and she feels like she is playing). We usually listen to our music during lunch, and do the fingerplay and any Bible activites that require acting after daddy gets home, so he can participate and be involved as well.

With all that being said - if there is a day that she does not feel like doing school - we don't. She is three, and has the attention span of a ... three year old! (Imagine that, LOL!) I don't want to push her and make her not enjoy school. My husband is a teacher and returned to work last week. She didn't handle it well, so instead of school we went and helped him in his class room. This week she understands that daddy is back to work, and she has been doing great with school again. My goal for this year is to just get started with structure and routine while making school fun.

My plan is to just go with the flow. If we get through it in one year, great! We will move on to LHFHG, if it takes us longer that is ok, too. If we finish it and I don't feel she is ready to go on to LHFHG, then we will go through LHTH again, and as she matures we will decide when to move on.

As a side note - I think we could have started this at 2 and 1/2 or right at 3, but she would not have retained as much. We would definetly have had to go through it a second time. Not that that is a bad thing, I think it would be a possitive thing, and a great reinforcement of the truths they are learning at this early age.

I guess my main point is this, no one knows your child like you do. You will know when your child is ready, and how to proceed.

[Bramble]

I used it with my daughter when she was newly 3. It worked very well, but I didn't want to repeat the program the next year. (Personal problem of mine, nothing to do with the program!) My son is now newly 3 and I'm thinking I'd like to hold off until next year. I think it depends on the individual child.

[lissiejo]

I've used it at 2 and 3. It was good for my girls at 2, but there was a lot they couldn't do. This time around my daughter was 2 1/2 and she loves it. For pre-K I started phonics because my daughters asked to learn to read and I added in the Rod and Staff options from Little Hearts as well as letter tracing, not actual handwriting, and Singapore's Earlybird 1A and 1B, which are now out of print. This worked well for us, because I didn't want to repeat the guide either. Just like the pp, it had nothing to do with the guide, I just didn't want to repeat it

[hs.mama07]

I had planned on starting LHTH when my son was 3 (seemed so old when I was holding him as a baby , but when the time came we were both enjoying our unstructured play-day so much, we just decided to put it off. Instead, we started when he was 4 and have been doing it at a very relaxed pace. Some days we get busy and don't do school, other days he wants to keep doing school and we'll go on and do another day. I think he would have gotten a little bored having to repeat the whole thing again and he is retaining a lot this year, so I'm glad we waited until he was four. That being said, every kid is different. You can plan on starting at 2 or 3 and doing it twice or at half speed, but don't feel bad if you change your mind...you'll know what's best when the time comes

[Shimmer]

I really like it at 3 for learning the letter sounds. I also really like it at 5 for the Bible applications. My kids are getting it twice at those ages because of the way my kids are spaced out and it works great. Another good option is doing it at 4 and just going slowly and then doing LHFHG slowly. Really you can't do it wrong. Just do what seems right at the time and adjust as you go. Enjoy!

[netpea]

It depends on the child! I did it with my oldest when he was 4 and my middle child was tagging along at age 2. I loved it! The next year my son did LHFHG and my middle tagged along when she was interested, she was 3. When she turned 4 we back through LHTH. She got much more out of it then.

Now my youngest is much younger than the others and tries to keep up with them. She is 2 1/2 and knows a lot of her letters and their sounds not because I worked with her but because she wants to learn. She uses her leapfrog toy on the refrigerator and watches word world. So I just started LHTH with her. She is ready. I don't know how many days we'll do it each week. Depends on her, yesterday we only did a half of a day and she was done, so we will do it over again the next time. There's no pressure on her, I only pull it out if she asks for her school books. I also just use some of the activities from it while I'm teaching her older sister.

[KristinBeth]

My younger did it at 2 with her older sister, who was then 4. She had fun, but didn't retain it (and I didn't expect her to) so we're going to do it again in a few months when she turns 4!

[my3sons]

You can do LHTH at 2 yo with the younger Bible and devotional, and it would be great fun! You could just do it 3-4 days a week, or spread 3-4 days of plans out over 5 days, and then, when your 2 yo finished, she would be around 3 1/2 yo. However, I'd then do it again, using the older Bible and devotional, and I'd look at that trip through as the one to make sure the skills 'stick' (i.e. letter recognition, sounds for each letter, number recognition, etc.). It is totally fine to do LHTH at 2 yo - the target age range is 2-5 yo, so that is the age range it was written for. It is just good to know the purpose for each trip through. LHTH at 2 yo fills a great void for fun, hands-on, young readings, with a first exposure to skills. LHTH for 3 1/2 to 5 yo fills the need for academic skills to be taught, with the purpose of preparing for dc to be ready for LHFHG. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie