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We are new to HOD (and homeschooling) this year. We are doing LHFHG this year with my daughter who is 6. We are loving it. My 4 year old daughter loves to tag along and do all the activities (she does her own preschool time with the older does reading and math). She will be doing K next year and we'll be moving my older daughter up to 2nd. I really want to combine them as they love it and want to do the same things anyway. Is that even possible with HOD? From what I can see Beyond would be too advanced for my kindergartener and we're currently doing LHFHG, so I'm not sure what other options there would be. It breaks my heart to think of leaving HOD next year, but I need to find some way to keep them in the same guide. Any suggestions?

I would think so; if your daughter is ok hearing the history and Bible again, you could do skill-appropriate Language Arts, Math, Phonics (emerging reading), and Storytime. Is it an expense issue? If you can afford the TM, math workbooks, emerging readers, and a storytime pack from Beyond, you should be ok doing the left side of LHFHG together, then splitting to do age-appropriate work from the right side for each of your children.

Does that help, or open up a can of worms?

I'm in (or was in) roughly the same situation. My older 2 love doing things together and I love teaching them together, but the 2nd one has been a tag-along in LHFHG and this year in Beyond. Last year I was torn, thinking about trying to take a year off of HOD so I could then combine my kiddos in Beyond. But I think I made the right choice in going ahead with Beyond because my 7 YO is thriving in it. I am going to do 2 guides for a while but hope to combine them a little later down the road when their skill levels will be more similar. I hope the exposure my 4.5 YO has had will help her grow more quickly in areas of comprehension and narration so she can handle the later guides.

The short answer though, is that if you combine you want to use the guide that fits the younger/lower level student the best. You can add on extensions, extra reading, and of course you would do the math, and LA with each child that best fits their level (meaning those things are probably separate anyway). The guides are very rich as I'm sure you've noticed so it's not like an older student is "held back" by being in a lower guide, especially if you add on some of the enrichment readings that are included. I think LHFHG has them in the back.

What I'm trying to decide is whether there is any way my two daughters could move up together into Beyond next year. They are both fine in LHFHG for right now. As was mentioned, you want to find the guide that best suits the younger child, so I'm thinking that Beyond would be too advanced for my younger daughter next year (she'll be in K). I'm really wanting to keep them together, so don't really want to do Beyond AND LHFHG. So unless I can figure out a way to make Beyond work, I will have to take a year off from HOD until they are old enough to combine.

If you have already been through LHFHG with both, you can't combine for the LH side and do age-appropriate activities for the right side?

Yes, I could do that. I have never looked at Beyond, though, so I'm not sure what sort of activities are involved. I don't want it to be way over my younger daughter's head.

Maybe I wasn't clear. I was suggesting you do LHFHG as written for your younger DD, and do the LH of LHFHG for your older DD, then Beyond RH for your 2nd grader. I hope that's clear?

So, for your K-er, do all of LHFHG. For your 2nd grader, do LHFHG "Learning through History" with your younger, then use Beyond for her "Learning the Basics." HTH!

As Melissa said, you can always use the 2nd grade extensions/enrichment in the back of the LHFHG guide for your older DD for history/science. I think you could make it work!

Welcome to the board, and I'm glad you are enjoying LHFHG! It is a wonderful guide. I have a few quick questions for you before I try to help.

1. If you were to look at the placement chart, considering each of your dc, where does each place individually?
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

If you could please share the results of your findings for each of your dc, especially in regard to their reading, writing, and math - that would be so helpful to us as we try to consider your family's needs.

2. When will your 4 yo turn 5 yo?

I will gladly get back to you with some options then. Combining is a great option within HOD, and not combining is another great option within HOD. We have families doing both on this board, and all are enjoying HOD in their own way. We'll help you ponder options, and then the decision will be up to you, as you'll know best. I'll check back!

In Christ,
Julie

So you are already doing LHFHG? I was thinking you could do LHFHG for K and 2nd, that would seem to fit best, I agree with you that Beyond may be too much.

Could you slow down LHFHG to make it last at least halfway into the next school year? Full speed on math, reading, LA, but 1/2 speed on history, storytime, etc?

I agree though, check placement and that may give you a better idea of where you should be at.

According to the Placement chart, my oldest daughter will fit perfectly into Beyond for next year. My younger daughter (as of now) is somewhere between LHTH and LHFHG. She will be 5 in March and while she's been doing the left hand side of LHFHG along with her older sister, she's only now starting to do some of her own activities for the right side (age appropriate, different than the guide).

That's exactly where I was at when I looked at this current year last spring (placement wise). Even though I wanted to combine, my 2nd DD (who is not K this year, she's pre-K) was not ready for Beyond at all and my oldest was. Since my oldest had just done LHFHG I didn't want to take her through it again, even though I know you can do it and beef it up for the older one, I felt like I would be holding my oldest back. My oldest has done really really well and grown a lot in Beyond so I'm glad I went ahead. I let my 2nd listen in on the History, storytime, and do the activities with her older sister, and have been taking my 2nd through phonics and handwriting this year, and will be starting her on LHFHG this coming summer. (my 2nd had already done LHTH but if your younger one hasn't I would highly recommend that, it's quick and easy to do so it won't feel like you are adding a lot to your day but will give you time to work on skills with your younger one).

I'm sure others will chime in with good ideas also!