LHFHG 1/2 speed - Story time?

[rgrindle]

Planning ahead, here. In a few months, I'll be starting LHFHG with my 6.5-year-old ODS and my very-nearly 5-year-old YDS. My older is already doing the k-level math, phonics, and fine motor while we finish LHTH. I'm planning on taking LHFHG 1/2 speed (except for 3Rs) to allow YDS a chance to mature before moving them on up to BLHFHG. But I am confused about the story time. If you do story time half speed, don't they forget what was going on in the story? Especially if it's over a weekend! There isn't another storytime set or an alternate set for the K/1 age-range that I can do if I go full-speed on the storytime and finish that early. I KNOW several of you have BTDT, so... What are my options?

[countrymom]

It will probably depend on your 5 yr old. Once you are through all the Burgess books you could begin one of the storytime lists from Beyond (there are 3 to choose from and you only use 1) if you think your ds would be able to handle that. My then 5 yr old did very well with those books, but my almost 5 yr old would not at this point. Here is a thread on half-speed Little Hearts and storytime that may be helpful as well.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10220&p=74352&hilit ... FHG#p74352

[rgrindle]

Thanks so much countrymom. Don't know how I missed that thread!

But I really like your idea of moving to the Beyond storytime books after we complete the LHFHG books. By then, YDS should be a little more mature at nearly 6. We'll have the Beyond book anyway for ODS's 3R's, so that won't be an issue. And, to tell you the truth, I remember looking over that Beyond storytime list and wondering HOW IN THE WORLD was I supposed to choose just one set! There are so many good books there, and this would give us a chance to read a few more!

[MelInKansas]

That's a pretty good idea, I find that my 4.5 year old is fully able to follow the storytime reading in Beyond so I'm sure your younger son probably will be able to by the time he is 6. I mean, she's not narrating yet, but she does remember the stories and loves them.

I only did LHFHG 4 days a week last year so even though there were often at least 1 day between when we read the Burgess books, we didn't really have problems remembering things. The chapters are short and there are always really striking things to remember in each chapter. If it had been 2-3 days we had been off I would go back and review what had happened in the previous chapter, kind of prompting them to tell me, or usually the older one would remember and could tell the younger one. So I wouldn't see a big problem with splitting up the Storytime and doing that 1/2 time if you wanted to. Of course, going through them and then doing a different set next year would be good too, you may want to have the Beyond guide then so you have the activities and narration that are suggested for those readings. You may have the Beyond guide anyway if your older one is doing anything from that.

[Heidi in AK]

I participated in the referenced thread, and I will tell you, that at reading the Burgess books 3-4 times a week, DD5 retains exactly what happens in the chapter before. I think this is a skill worth working on. We will increase as necessary, and also pick up the girl storytime set, as well as the classics, for Beyond. Then we'll get the boy set when DS2.5 is ready for Beyond too.

[Kathleen]

We went half-speed with the storytime and it was fine. I think they probably do remember the story better if they're hearing it 4 or 5 days per week rather than 2 or 3, but I didn't see it was a problem when we did it.

When I was going half-speed, I was doing LHFHG with a 3 and 5 yo. The 5 yo did fine motor skills, phonics, and math daily. We also did the rhyme and music daily. So, then we alternated this: Day 1 - Reading About History and Rotating Box (bottom left) with Day 2 - Bible Study and Storytime. The little guy didn't do any of the fine motor skills, math or phonics. He's doing them now in LHFHG on his own. It worked great for us!

Kathleen