Younger and Older Child Question

[betjte]

I'm thinking of using LHFHG with my daughter for 1st grade in the fall. She will be turning 6 in September and I have another daughter who will be turning 4 in October. The younger one likes to do the things her big sister does. I was wondering how it would work if my 4-year-old participated in the activities in LHFHG with my 6-year-old. Two years later when it came time to start LHFHG with the younger one would she not be as excited about the program because she would have done a lot of it already? Does this make sense? Have any of you had a similar experience? I don't want to exclude the younger from doing the older one's guide, but I just don't know how to work it so that the interest level will stay high when it is time for her to do the whole guide herself!

Bethany

[MelInKansas]

What you are describing is exactly what I have done. My 2nd DD has tagged along with her older sister in LHFHG and now a little bit in Beyond, listening to the read-alouds, doing the crafts and science activities, and memorizing the Bible verses (which by the way I would not necessarily recommend having them do the verses too unless your younger is really good at memorizing like mine is, because in Beyond these verses are getting long and complicated!)

She will start LHFHG on her own in summer or fall of 2012 when she is 5 1/2. I highly doubt that she even remembers what we did, let alone would be bored by it (it is not boring, plus 2 years between the times of doing it is enough for it to be new again). Plus she is very excited right now whenever we do something that is just for her, and I see her growing and thriving in it.

The only way I would not necessarily recommend doing the "tag along" thing like I have is if your children are very competitive with one another. I think its fairly clear to my children that this is the older one's "school" but the younger one listens too. I don't expect the younger one to answer the comprehension questions or do the assignments that go along with the reading, unless she wants to. This year in Beyond has lots of drawing too, and I don't expect my almost 5YO to do as much with those things as her sister. We have had fun using the large maps I bought and the younger one is becoming more aware of geography than her sister was at the same age. Anyway, if either of your children is very competitive and feels bad if they can't do what the other one is doing (or the older tends to gloat over the younger with accomplishments) then maybe its better to find something that's just for the 4YO while you do it with the 6YO. I will say that doing it with just one child would make it go really fast, so it wouldn't be hard to have activities for the other one to do independently.

[KristinBeth]

I haven't yet done it, but I will. I have a 5 year old in LHFHG and an almost 3 year old who participates. I'm not worried about my younger repeating it two years from now. She'll get so much more out of it when she's the right age. Right now she's just having fun, learning Bible verses like crazy, listening to stories, but not doing the seatwork. I'm more worried about my older wanting to do her younger sister's projects when the time comes.

[countrymom]

We do exactly that. Younger is free to come and go and can choose to do the activity if he wishes (he always does). I am not worried because like the other poster said, the younger will not remember everything and "owning" it and doing it in full will still be much different than being the observer.