I had some ideas of trying to spread the program over two years, but he will have none of that... the day we begun he was disappointed it was all done so quickly, begging "can't we do more?" Now he has gotten used to the schedule, and the anticipation, when it is done for the day, of waiting for more fun tomorrow...
Little brother, four years old, is in Little Hands to Heaven. It has been a real blessing for him to have something of his own to do. In the past I've tried to group the two of them together when making up school, and it often ended up in frustration. Although there isn't much of an age gap between them, there is a fairly large maturity gap, and a big difference in academic ability. He is also quite competitive, and a perfectionist who will get very upset if he can't make something work out the way he would wish.
Little Hands is ideal for him--- a book of his own 'school' he can be proud of, with fun things he can do and that can be shown to daddy, and nothing he can fail at. I add a little handwriting practice (tracing) for him, to go with his letter for the week, because his hand coordination is really quite good.
We have a two year old too, but he is not quite ready for anything yet--- which is good, because 4yr old needs LHTH for his "very own" right now. But the little one loves to sit in on little bits when invited, in a spirit of generosity, by his older brother, and just being able to make someone else happy by sharing adds to the importance my middle one feels.
I love the variety in the boxes, and the way they combine active times and seatwork. The activities are always fun; the sort of thing I had been wishing I could do, but never had quite enough imagination for on a regular basis. I also love the "open and go" aspect of both programs; knowing that everything is ready for the next day frees up so much thinking time in the evenings.
We're looking forward to so many more wonderful weeks with these books... thank you so much, Carrie, for all the work which I know went into writing and pulling materials together for them, and for giving up your own time to make ours so much more productive.
