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My 3 and 5 year olds are currently going through LHTH. My 5yo is also using ETC for phonics (he's flying through the primers currently, and will start Book 1 in a couple of weeks). Originally, I thought I'd repeat LHTH for them next year (when they are in PreK and K), but I'm thinking my 5yo will need/want more than that. I'm already going to use the right side of LHFHG for him.

I know it's still early to be making decisions, but I try to plan ahead so I can accumulate the needed books (I might find a way to get some of what we need for Christmas, or with money we receive). So, here are the options; which would you pick? In 2012-13, ds will be in Kindergarten (he just turned 5 the other day, so he'll be a fairly old K'er) and my dd will be in PreK (she has a September birthday, so she'll be young for her grade. But, she is super smart. Yes, I know everyone says that about their child. But she really is. )

Option 1: Repeat LHTH, using a different Bible and devotional. ds does LHFHG right side K options.
Option 2: Use LHFHG- left side half-speed, right side full-speed with K options for ds. The following year, 1st grade options for ds and K options for dd. (So, it will take 2 years to do the left side of LHFHG.)

Regardless of which option we pick, I do want to keep these two children combined.

Hi there,

I'm not sure how old your 5 year old is (just turned 5, 5.5, almost 6, etc.). From my observation of my own child who just turned 6 and, like your child, is beginning book one of ETC (tomorrow), I would venture to say just go ahead full speed. Of course, you know your own child the best. But I feel like my son is doing very well with LHFHG, and I cannot imagine going half speed with him since our school time is about 1.5 hours. Of course, you have to prayerfully consider the challenge of working with your other children, and your time being used to school them as well. I don't have other children to school, so my day might be a bit less challenging than yours! HTH!

Shannon

And I just re-read what you wrote and saw you wanted to combine the 3 & 5 year old...so you may want to disregard what I wrote! Sorry about that! But just thinking it over, you could still use LHTH with the 3 year old and let the 3 year old participate in Bible, Science, and Burgess books while 5 year old does LHFHG. Just a thought!

I'm only slightly ahead of you, so I'll share what I'm doing. My oldest just turned 6 in October, so he's an "older" K-er. My youngest is a "young" pre-K-er and will turn 5 in May. We are doing LHTH with both right now, and the older is doing the K options from LHFHG. He will finish the K options and start the 1st grade options in January, continuing full speed. We will be finishing up LHTH in March/April. At that point, we will begin LHFHG at a slower pace, to give my nearly-5-year-old a chance to build into it, and he will begin the K options at that same slower pace. I will pick up the pace when he is ready. My older, however, will continue the 1st grade options at full speed, then switch to the BLHFHG right-side when he gets there. They will continue to stay together on the left side of the book, but my older will be a guide ahead on the right. Don't know if that helps, but it gives one perspective!

You're smart to think ahead on this. For me, I started LHFHG when my now 6.5YO was 5.5 and her 3.5 YO sister (both of whom were fresh out of LHTH) tagged along. However, LHFHG starts into things like listening comprehension with stories that have very few pictures and a higher vocabulary. I think my (now) 4.5 YO is a smart kid too, but she did not comprehend the read-aloud history or storytime selections. Also think of fine-motor skills for your younger one. It seems like you are probably not expecting her to do the same math or handwriting, so you will be doing separate things for that anyway. But LHTH really has great activities for fine-motor development for those younger kids. I think I'm understanding right that your younger one will barely be 4 when you are thinking of starting LHFHG. I suppose since you are planning to take 2 years to do the L side she might grow into all of it by the time she is almost 6. But the getting into it might be tough for her, or she might do what my 2nd DD does and just sit and listen but not really get it. I will say too, it actually seems more difficult to draw answers out of two children with different personalities and make sure both of them have comprehended what they have heard. I'm now beginning to understand that it might be faster, and less distracting, if I did separate things with each one of my DDs. This will be the case next fall anyway because I plan to do LHFHG with my 2nd and continue Beyond with my 1st born.

I'm now at a point where my oldest has progressed into Beyond LHFHG and is doing well with it, and I would have to seriously slow her down to let her sister catch up in the areas of being able to listen, comprehend, and narrate (after a fashion) what has been read. Of course, my 4.5 YO is now learning how to read too, and doing beginning handwriting. Trying to combine them in a guide would be a disservice to both of them. I believe what the general advice given on this board is, if you are going to combine, you use the guide that fits your younger child the best, and add on things for the older child to make sure they are being challenged. As bright as she is, again, if you finish LHFHG when she is not yet 6, start Beyond LHFHG when she is 6, she might still have a harder time working into doing copywork, grammar, and spelling. Or she might not.

I hope some of these thoughts are helpful to you.

I think your older child will be ready for LHFHG and it would be better to move on than to repeat LHTH again. My kids are two years apart as well, but I can't combine mine (they're newly-5 and soon-to-be-3). I would think that if your older has mastered the skills and is ready to listen to short chapter stories, it would be to his benefit to move him along to LHFHG. Your younger child may listen in and tag along, but won't necessarily get the age-appropriate skills development if some of it goes over her head. You did say she's advanced though, so maybe it won't be an issue for you. One thing though, I thought I was going to go half speed with LHFHG but it goes by so quickly that it just worked better for us at full speed. It's still over in about an hour.

ETA: I didn't notice your sig or other kids in your post! Was only thinking about two kids. I can see how dividing them up would be much more difficult when you have more than 2 kids! I was only thinking that older child would be bored doing LHTH again but didn't take into account all the other kids you are working with during the day.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

My 5yo will definitely be ready for LHFHG in Kindergarten (which will start next summer some time). He already listens to me read long books aloud (without pictures) and does fine. The 3yo (almost 4yo when we start) would definitely need to grow into it; I guess I'm trying to figure out if it'd be doing the 5yo a disservice by going half-speed in order to keep those two children together. He'll go full-speed with the 3R's though. I actually tried LHFHG half-speed with my now 1st grader back when he was approaching 5yo, and I remember it seemed like things were disjointed from having to spread it out. So, even though I'm considering half-speed LHFHG as an option, I don't know that I'm all that thrilled about it.

So, if I put my ds in LHFHG for K, and then have dd do LHTH again for preK, what would we do the following year, when ds is in 1st and dd is in K? I would love to be able to combine them in Beyond the year they are in 1st and 2nd grade. So, that means either repeating a guide or going half-speed somewhere.

I would lean toward repeating LHTH next year with both children, doing the RH page from LHFHG with your oldest. This would save the LHFHG guide for the K/1st grade year and make Beyond your guide for 1st/2nd grade. If your older one needs something more maybe could get the suggested book list and pick some read alouds to do with your K-er. (I haven't looked at this list, it's on my current "to buy when we have money" list, so maybe it wouldn't be helpful at this level...) I really don't think I'd push your youngest into LHFHG too early, that sounds like trouble down the road. You'd be more likely to end up having to split them up in a later guide when your older one could manage it, but your younger one really couldn't.

Such great thoughts here already! I just responded to your other thread about starting PHFHG with your 2 oldest, and I know you are doing Beyond with your next child. You are a busy mama of 6 dc, and that is an important consideration in placement too. If you want to keep your 3 and 5 yo together, I'd definitely go with Option 1 that you shared in your original post.

I think the 3 yo needs to be combined with someone. There are 2 years between her and each of her siblings above and below her, so she can be combined with someone. If you think she'd be better combined with younger 1 yo down the road, than I'd look at combining those 2 dc somehow in the future, and I'd have your 5 yo ds do LHFHG. However, if your 3 yo dd is a quick learner and closer (and it sounds like she is) in ability to her 5 yo brother, I'd do Option 1, and I think that would be just fine for both of them!

HTH!
In Christ,
Julie

Thanks, Julie!

I'm thinking my 3yo will combine best with the 5yo (as opposed to eventually combining her with my youngest). Even though they are almost 2 years apart, because of where their birthdays fall, they will only be 1 year apart in school. And like I said, my 3yo is very smart. So, she will combine well with her older brother. They already spend a lot of time together while the other dc are doing schoolwork.

I think I will take your advice and repeat LHTH, using the right side of LHFHG for my 5yo. I will get the other Bible option for LHTH, and plan on adding some extra read-alouds. I think I'll add some fun science activities too; I have some books here that will give me some ideas. Even though I think my 5yo could handle LHFHG when he's in Kindergarten, I'm thinking I'd rather wait and run it full-speed once they can both go through it together. (And by then, the older dc will be much more independent, so I'll have more time!)

Thanks again for helping me think through this.