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I need some opinions as I consider making the move from Little Hands over to Little Hearts...with a 4-year old (Melanie, be gentle! ).

Let me preface by saying that I do not necessarily think that my daughter is beyond the activities/lessons in LHTH, she very much enjoys them. I will say however, that she is a beginning reader, she can very often be found practicing the formation of letters during her quiet time, she is so curious about the world around her, and she enjoys doing her math workbook. I am beginning to think that beginning LHFHG sooner, rather than later, might not be a bad idea.
As I flip through the Little Hearts guide, I can't help but think how much she would enjoy the activities/lesssons as they seem to reflect her current interests and growing abilities.
So, am I crazy to think about beginning with Little Hearts in the near future with a 4 year old?

Okay, let the opinions roll! I appreciate them!

Candice

I guess if your DD is ready for it than why not? It may or may not work. I won't be starting it until my 4 year old is 5, closer to 6. Though his little sister, 13 months younger, seems to be right up there with him. She is sometimes more ready for more stuff than him. I could see her doing Little Hearts around 4 age but I am going to wait until she's 5.

We did LHFHG around age 4 1/2 but did it slowly at half-speed to begin with. We did this mainly because I'd finished LHTH and wanted to move into the next HOD program. It worked fine, but he wasn't ready for the whole LHFHG day until about 4-5 months into it. You could prepare her for LHFHG by doing one page of plans of LHTH in the morning, and one page of LHTH plans in the afternoon - essentially covering 2 days of LHTH in one day. Or, you could just start LHFHG and see how it goes. The LHTH activities are so great though - you may not want to miss them!

In Christ,
Julie

I am really eager to hear what everyone has to say as I see Hannah progressing beyond Lil Hands soon. For the record I have heard of others doing Lil Hearts with 4 yos (I hound every Lil Hearts user I run across! ) I mean last night while I was falling asleep she was going through her Alphabet animal book calling out all of the letters and sounds. She would repeat each one till I finally come to my senses enough to tell her how good she is doing. Right now she is drawing her Os, Hs and smiley faces while counting to 10 and telling me what color the pencils are. My main concern is her being mature enough to answer questions from the reading, Bible, history, and science.

Oh, I love Julie's advice! I'm glad the computer ate my first post. That's a great idea to double up the Little Hands, and then move into Little Hearts one page at a time. Love that idea!!

This is my soapbox! But, time for true confessions....I fell of this box with a big thump with my youngest dd, Ellen. She did do MFW K with us when she was 4. I do still stand firm in my belief that 4 yo should not be doing formal school work, but she just kinda tagged along and next thing I knew, she was reading better than my twins. She didn't DO any of the pages, she just sat in my lap and listened in. (I could tell you so many stories about my Ellen. I do truly believe she has a gifted IQ.) I am a super organized planner, and she totally threw me off my game!

Go with what Julie said....that's a great plan!

My girls are 4.5, and 5.5. I would recommend staying the course with LHTH for a little while longer and just skipping the letter activities. There are so many great active exploration, art, bible, and math activities. My girls still enjoy gluing cheerios on an outline of a letter (every once in awhile) even though they have known their letters and sounds for over a year.

Waiting would allow your daughter to mature a little emotionally and be ready for some of the higher level reading and concepts. If it were me I would read great picture books, play lots of games, spend lots of time outside and treasure this time that flies by. I have been tempted so many times to jump ahead, but I have the benefit of having raised 17 year old and know how quickly it's gone.

Well I started Little Heart when my ds was 4.5. My plan was not to start anything this formal until he was 5.5 however just before he turned 4 he started requesting to do school. I struggled for 6 months trying to put things together myself. I wish I had done Little Hands but thought he was beyond it. He still enjoys the activities now when I do them with his little brother. Some suggestions if you want to continue with Little Hands, start a phonics program with her. If she gets frustrated or stuck stop and review what you have done. With my son, I did the ETC Primer books and he learned to write his letters and also cemented his ablity to hear the sounds in words. We also did Earlybird 1A and 1B. I would think if you add these things to Little Hands your dd would be very content and still get to enjoy all of the activities in Little Hands. Just remember that if it gets to be to much back off.

Candice,

You've already got some great advice here. It sounds to me like you may already be doing what Karen suggested and adding in a little phonics and math for her. I have to say that I like Julie's suggestion, too.

From what I know about you through "meeting" you here, I'm sure that you'll proceed prayerfully. And, hey, none of us have actually got to meet you daughter. You are her parent and get to choose what you think is best. Whatever you decide, I'm sure that you'll enjoy it!

Kathleen

My 4 yr old daughter is doing LHFHG now. We started last month because like you, that seems to be where she is at skills wise. She says she enjoys it. Sometimes we take a day or two off for a break to be a kid. So yes, it can be done.

Hi Beautiful Candice, (((Waving)))

I say..., GO FOR IT! If you get it and for any reason it doesn't work. You can go back to Little Hands and use Little hearts later. BUt I bet you'll do just fine!

I wanted to start off saying that YOU know your daughter best, so I'm not going give "advice", I just wanted share our experience with Little Hands. My ds is almost 4.5 and we're still doing LHTH. I, too, questioned at one point whether he needed more because he is way ahead in phonics and math. He can read pretty much any "straight-forward" words (meaning no special phonics rules) and he's even starting to pick up on the "weird rules" as he calls them. He's just recently started writing 4-5 word sentences on his own - and he does this stuff for fun when he's outside drawing with sidewalk chalk. This is just from what he's picked up in life (and from Leap Frog and PBSKids). He can count to 100 by 1's, 5's, 10's and does simple addition and subtraction (not "worksheet" type stuff, just everyday observations like "Zoe is three years older than me" because he knows she's seven. Anyway, I wanted to share these example with you to let you know that he still LOVES LHTH. It is right at his level as far as the Bible and application of the stories to his life. He has learned so much this year. He loves the finger plays and the crafts. As a matter of fact, on days when there is no craft, I often have to come up with one! From my perspective, I just figured that he appears to be learning phonics and math as he goes through life, so I've chosen to let that continue the way it is and focus more on the Bible and crafts (and cutting - THAT was not one of his strong areas when we started and LHTH has greatly improved that skill!) As a matter of fact, about 4 months ago, I thought maybe I should "challenge" him more in phonics and math and purchased ETC primers and Singapore EB 1A/B. Well, after about three weeks of that (just casually) I started to hear "I don't want to do school". So we dropped it (actually took a couple of weeks off from everything) and just went back to LHTH. There are some things I do differently - like we don't use the flashcards b/c the letter sounds are just review for him. And I have been teaching him the sign language alphabet for the letter of the week. I also have a simple dollar store workbook that has two pages for each letter that he does each week when we're supposed to be practicing the letter with ice cubes, finger paint, etc. - just because he's ahead of that with his handwriting. But other than that, we do LHTH as written and he is thriving. That doesn't mean that this is the answer for your dd because she is her own little person. But I wanted to share our story in case it helps you.

Candice,
I totally understand what you're going through! At Christmas, Andy wanted to learn to read and seemed ready for more math. We started Reading Made Easy and a K math as well as continuing Little Hands. It went well for a few weeks and then the math started going too fast and the phonics was getting into 2-letter sounds (I think it was ch) and he just couldn't grasp it. We went back to just Little Hands and practicing the words that he learned and the math stuff he learned as little extras. It has been just right for him. Because we've started the math and phonics if we get stuck next year for a while, we should still be able to complete both next year.

I'm not an experienced homeschooler, but here are my 2 cents. Since phonics and math don't have to match up in Little Hearts (we're going to use the boxes as review), you could continue with Little Hands and slowly add phonics and/or math. When it appears to be moving too fast just stop and wait until she is ready.

Like alot of the prev posters have stated, you know your daughter the best. I'm sure you'll make the best decision for her!!

HTH
Laurie

Thank you everyone so much for your replies! What a great bunch of ladies!

As I have thought it over some more here is what I have concluded:

I "carry the curse" of a new, inexperienced homeschooler. "Must move ahead, must move ahead, must move ahead!" Well, I am going to ignore that craziness and just sit still for a while. Even though we could move ahead we are not going to.
I think another factor is that I have the guide for Little Hearts here at home so, I can look through it anytime and become so tempted to begin now, as everything looks so wonderful! I think I am going to have my husband hide it from me so I am not tempted!

I really like the ideas about supplementing, skipping or speeding up by doing 2 pages a day etc. so, I will implement some of those ideas.

Thank you everyone for your wisdom, I learned something valuable from each of your posts.

Candice

Candice,

I completely understand. I have the Beyond manual here and it is hard to wait to finish Little Hearts. I also have Little Hands but my 3 year old is not quite ready and I don't want him to finish to quickly. It is so hard to have new manuals sitting on the shell calling your name.

I am glad you have come to a desicion and have so new ideas to try. Enjoy this time as they do grow up so quickly.