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Hello!

I just read this post by Carrie on another thread (Today was Long... Too Long) and of course it brings up questions from me.

"I also notice that you're doing Bigger and Preparing. This in itself is going to make for a lengthy school day each day for you, because we don't really intend for families to do both Bigger and Preparing at the same time."

The way that it looks as of now, my boys would be doing Bigger and Preparing at the same time. Why don't they "intend for families," to do these at the same time? And what do they intend for us to do instead?

I am a couple years away from these two guides, but I like to plan way ahead. Also, I thought I might need to be rethinking the current plan if future plan isn't going to work. We are suppose to start LHTH and LHFHG this fall.

Thanks for any input.

I am going to take a stab at the answer although I am not certain. I think it might be because the age ranges overlap (Bigger - 7-9 and Preparing - 8-10). So if you had 2 children that were close enough in age range to be in those guides, you would probably combine them into one guide. Just my thoughts. All of my kids are 2 years apart in age and school so they end up placing in every other guide.

Hope that helps!
Mary

Thanks for the relply Mary.

My boys are two years apart in age too, 22 months to the day, acutally. But as is right now the will be only a guide apart. So, what does one do with that?

I'm a bit worried myself as we will be doing Bigger and Preparing this year!

I am really concerned too, as I will be using Bigger and Preparing next year......

Ladies,

While there are always exceptions to this guideline, I'll paste a post below that explains a bit better why we typically don't plan for Bigger and Preparing to be used at full-speed at the same time. Mary did a great job of giving you the short answer, which is very helpful! Now, here's the longer version from a previous post of mine to another poster who had 3 children she was contemplating placing in 3 back-to-back guides:

I can completely understand your desire to consider separating all 3 of your oldest children in their own guides, as I can clearly remember when the idea that I could possibly separate my children and meet their needs better first came to me! It is an eye-opening experience and is something that you don't hear often in homeschool circles, as all I had ever heard in the past was that you "should" combine your children for history and science, and any other areas that work too!

I will also share though that combining children who fall within the target age range of our guide is something that is wise to ponder, as kiddos who are as close in age as 2 years are much more easily combined than those who are 3 or more years apart in age. With my own 4 boys, who are each 3 1/2 to 4 years apart in school, combining was not a good option for any of them due to their age spread. So, for us running 4 separate programs is easier than combining them. But, it's important to keep in mind that with the age spread of my boys, my older boys are able to be more independent, because they have had my teaching focused on them for years! So, my youngers are now able to have my focused time as my olders move toward doing more on their own.

This would not be the balance that you would have in the 3 programs you are considering, as each of those programs require the teacher to present almost everything. Even though your day would not be 6 hours long with LHFHG, Beyond, and Bigger, it would certainly move toward being that long as you head into Beyond, Bigger, and Preparing Hearts. I shudder to think of the length of your day at that juncture! We honestly don't intend for anyone to run three consecutive HOD programs at the same time. We do intend for you to run 3 HOD programs at one time, but it does matter which programs those 3 are! Some of the programs need to be either on the shorter end (such as LHTH or LHFHG) or some of them need to be moving toward the more independent end (such as CTC on up).

So, with this in mind, I would definitely lean toward 2 programs for now, with LHTH being added later. I would really ponder which programs those should be, but with what you've shared so far, I would let the older child head into Bigger Hearts and reap the benefits of a first-born child who is ready to fly on his own. I would then combine the younger two in LHFHG for the left side and the Storytime plans each day and add the 3 R's from Beyond for your older child.

I have had a child go through everything academically on the youngest age range with my oldest son, had a child go through on the middle age range of our guides with my middle son, and now have a child going through on the oldest target age range of our guides with my third son. Each child took something different from the material, based on his age at the time, but all are successful.

When combining your son with your daughter in LHFHG, you could use the 101 Favorite Stories from the Bible for your son and The Family-Time Bible for your daughter. You could read The Family-Time Bible to both, and then have your son read The 101 Favorite Stories on his own (if possible) or you could read it to him as an extension. The other two history books used in LHFHG are very interesting and may honestly be ones your son will take more from than your daughter. The Thornton Burgess books are wonderful for any age, and my older boys refuse to give them up from a place on their bookshelves in their room, as they continue to read and enjoy them even now. The devotional is wonderfully deep and will have your son thinking as well. I share this to show you that there is more meat in LHFHG than first meets the eye. With this scenario, you would also have a built in back-up plan. If you ever felt your son needed to be accelerated more, you could always bump him up to the next guide later.

I hope this helps you as you ponder, as you will certainly know best. I just wanted to give you a bit of our perspective too, so you can see how we designed the guides to work.

Keep in mind that the year you do Bigger and Preparing will be your toughest year, as both of these guides do require quite a bit of teacher presentation (which would make your day quite long). However, you could do back-to-back guides and make it work by just slowing one of the guides down to half-speed for a year or part of a year with whichever child that suits best. Or, you could entertain some combining scenarios or entertain slowing a guide down earlier or later as needed so that you don't end up with kiddos doing full-speed Bigger and full-speed Preparing at the same time. Often, the fix will present itself when you get there, as one child will be showing that he/she is not quite ready for what the guide is asking of him/her. So, don't think that you must have it all planned out now.

Blessings,

Thank you Carrie,

Thank for your time and response.

My guys are only 22 months apart. Any ideas on how to get them in the same guide? I was going to start LHTH and LHFHG this fall. I really think my 4 yo (will be 5 in Nov.) is kind of beyond LHTH but not ready for the 3 Rs in LHFHG. I would love to put them in the same guide and they would like it better too.

Also, if I don't start them in the same guide now but do later, do I just skip a guide with my youngest?

Thanks again for the help Carrie!

I am going to use Bigger at half speed this year. I think it is the better option rather than combining for us! Thanks for the info. I'm sure this might have saved me some initial stress!

glperky wrote:Thank you Carrie,

Thank for your time and response.

My guys are only 22 months apart. Any ideas on how to get them in the same guide? I was going to start LHTH and LHFHG this fall. I really think my 4 yo (will be 5 in Nov.) is kind of beyond LHTH but not ready for the 3 Rs in LHFHG. I would love to put them in the same guide and they would like it better too.

Also, if I don't start them in the same guide now but do later, do I just skip a guide with my youngest?

Thanks again for the help Carrie!

Does your 4, almost 5yo, have a good grasp on letter sounds? How about with sitting still to listen to longer stories with fewer pictures? If he seems ready for phonics instruction, already knowing the sounds of all the letters and is ready to begin putting them together into short words, then it might be possible to skip LHTH. The other consideration of listening skills and a little less physical activity would be another main difference I see with these two younger guides.

My middle son began LHTH when he was 4 and turning 5 in November. At the time I planned to make it his Kind. year, going full speed through LHTH because he seemed eager and ready to begin with letter sounds. As we began it I found he was not ready to sit still and listen much at all. He loved the activity in LHTH, but I could not imagine him ready to listen to LHFHG history or storytime in a years' time...so I made that year our K4 and we did LHTH about half speed-only a few days per week. Right now we're in Kind. finishing up LHTH full pace now, and he'll start LHFHG mid year (late Fall or early Winter.) So, I guess that may be another option for you if you don't feel they're able to combine. Slow down your younger one so that in the future your older one will be firmly established and late in the older guide (like Preparing), ready to take on more and more of his independence when your younger child is just ready to begin Bigger. Then, maybe, as Carrie suggested, you could even do Bigger at a slower pace.

Thanks mom23!

My 4 yr. will sit and listen to me read until the cows come home! He knows all the letter sounds but isn't ready for blending. He doesn't care about learning to read because he can listen to his brother read his one time and then he can go back and "read" them pretty much word for word.

Maybe I am a little slow at figuring this HOD thing out but I just don't see how to combined them or get a guide between them. Unless, I skip LHFHG for my 6yo (will be 7 in Dec.) but I am not sure he is ready for it. When I look at the placement charts he would fall right on the line inbetween LHFHG and Beyond. I just can't figure out what to do.

I don't know if this will help, but I can tell you what we do. My oldest two are 18 months apart. We started LHFHG in January when ds was not quite 6 and dd was 4 and a few months. We only do LHFHG 3-4 days a week in it's entirety. The other days, ds does math, reading and writing. Dd usually does a little reading and writing, but not always. This is allowing us to stretch out the guide so that dd can mature a bit. It has been going really well. We are now on week 11 in the guide. Ds however, is in the middle of SM 2b and has started the next Getty Dubay HW book. He is also almost finished with The Reading Lesson. As we move into this fall, we will continue with LHFHG at this pace, but ds will continue with the 3R's daily. So, he will be using the right side of the Beyond guide for math and spelling, as well as The Emerging Readers listed in the appendix. Dd will continue to follow LHFHG as written and continue with the reading lesson. This sets us up to do Beyond as written (though we may still do 4 days a week to continue to stretch it out a little). However, ds would do the second spelling list from Beyond, and move into part of Bigger for Math and Grammer. He would also start DITHOR once he finishes Emerging Readers. There are also extensions available starting with the Bigger guide, so if my oldest needs more by that time, it is available.

If your youngest is not ready to read, you could probably wait a few months and then start really short lessons. I believe it is OK to move into Beyond while continuing phonics instruction. I let ds wait until he was 5 and then insisted on short, daily reading lessons (5-10 min). He was fine with that and now looks forward to reading at almost 6 1/2.

You could always start LHFHG with both, each doing the 3 R's at their level and see how it goes. If you did the guide at 4 days a week but continued the 3R's for your oldest on the 5th day, that might give your youngest the time he needs to mature, while allowing your oldest to progress in those core areas.

Honestly, I was nervous trying to combine my two into the one guide. I was worried it wouldn't work. At some point I read a comment on this board that made me realize the best way to figure out what would work was to just start using the curriculum and see what happened. So, after making sure my kids were reasonably placed according to the placement chart, we just gave it a go. Combining has worked out great for us, but I know it doesn't work for everyone even when children are close in age. I'll be praying for peace in your decision making.

I think Bethelmommy's advice sounds excellent. You can set a timer for reading lessons for your younger one. I did that for my younger daughter, and even though she wasn't fond of reading I would ask her to try her best for fifteen minutes. Now she is ready for the emerging readers! It really will make things easier to combine your kids, I think. If your younger one knows his letter sounds and is almost 5 and can sit well for read-alouds I think it sounds fine to put him in LHFHG - especially if you slow it down a little as she suggested. My two that are combined are 22 months apart also. My older daughter is doing 3Rs from Bigger and is almost ready for dictation and grammar from Preparing, but the rest of her work is in Beyond with her sister and this suits us very well. I hope you find a great solution too!

Maybe what you could do, even with not combining (I can't combine any of mine even though they are close in age, which means I'll eventually be doing 5 guides!) you could still stretch them out to where they aren't completely back to back.

So like you could do LHFHG full speed, and LHTH 3 days a week. Then you'll have about half a year with your older doing Beyond while you finish up LHTH (adding in K choices from LHFHG if you'd like) and start LHFHG, maybe upping to 4 days a week. Then your older will be starting Bigger while your younger finishes up LHFHG and starts Beyond. And then you could easily do Beyond half speed for a little while. So then, while you might still be doign Preparing and Bigger at the same time, you wouldn't be starting them at the same time. By the time your younger one gets to Bigger, you'd already be well established in Preparing, probably half way through or more.

I'm actually going to be doing that this fall and next spring. My oldest is in Preparing, but is only 1/3 of the way through. My second is going to be finishing up Beyond in the next couple of months. We'll start Bigger half speed with her 4 days a week, and try to do as many 5 days a week in Preparing as possible. But DD1 in Preparing already is working on more independence than Preparing suggests. So by the time DD2 starts Bigger, Preparing will be no issue at all. Then DD2 will be well established in Bigger by the time DD1 starts CTC and we have to train what it means.

Basically, if you stagger them, even if they are in back to back guides technically, they won't be starting the guides at the same time, so it'll be easier.

Thanks for the suggestions ladies. Keep them coming, please.

MomtoJGJE wrote:Maybe what you could do, even with not combining (I can't combine any of mine even though they are close in age, which means I'll eventually be doing 5 guides!) you could still stretch them out to where they aren't completely back to back.

So like you could do LHFHG full speed, and LHTH 3 days a week. Then you'll have about half a year with your older doing Beyond while you finish up LHTH (adding in K choices from LHFHG if you'd like) and start LHFHG, maybe upping to 4 days a week. Then your older will be starting Bigger while your younger finishes up LHFHG and starts Beyond. And then you could easily do Beyond half speed for a little while. So then, while you might still be doign Preparing and Bigger at the same time, you wouldn't be starting them at the same time. By the time your younger one gets to Bigger, you'd already be well established in Preparing, probably half way through or more.

I'm actually going to be doing that this fall and next spring. My oldest is in Preparing, but is only 1/3 of the way through. My second is going to be finishing up Beyond in the next couple of months. We'll start Bigger half speed with her 4 days a week, and try to do as many 5 days a week in Preparing as possible. But DD1 in Preparing already is working on more independence than Preparing suggests. So by the time DD2 starts Bigger, Preparing will be no issue at all. Then DD2 will be well established in Bigger by the time DD1 starts CTC and we have to train what it means.

Basically, if you stagger them, even if they are in back to back guides technically, they won't be starting the guides at the same time, so it'll be easier.

This is a great idea!

I've found that after a while of doing a new guide, it flows much easier and takes less time. So not starting several new guides at a time could make a huge difference!

Thanks!!!