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Hi! I'm new to the board and new to Homeschooling. I'm not even sure if I'm going to Homeschool. I want to use this year as a trial run to see if I can "cut it". Homeschooling scares me. I really like the HOD layout and from what I've seen it looks like it might be the best fit for us. We had been doing "letter of the week" but I couldn't stay on track. I need it all laid out for me. Letter of the week was also too easy for her. I am trying to decide whether I should do Little Hearts or Little Hands. I looked over the previews and little hands looks too easy. I think she could do little hearts. I was thinking of doing it and scale it back a little and then repeating it more intensively next year. Is this a bad plan? I really just don't want to bore her. When we were doing LOTW 40 minutes just wasn't enough for her. Anyways, any advice or input would be appreciated. Thanks!

You'll get a wide variety of opinions on this

We used Little Hearts as a K-4 program for my oldest daughter. Everything except the history and handwriting was a perfect fit. We read the history, but I don't feel like she retained much. She wasn't ready for formal handwriting so I just had her trace a lot. However, all of the math, Rod and staff, science, Read-Alouds, reading, etc. were great. My middle girl just turned 5 and we have started Little Hearts for K-5 program. It is all around perfect!

A better option for us, which did for K-4 last year with my daughter, is doing some of the Kindergarten options in Little Hearts. We used the Rod and Staff books (the others in the series are good too), she completed a phonics program, and used Earlybird Singapore. It was a perfect fit for her and I still felt I was keeping with the feel of HOD. We had already completed Little Hands I didn't think about doing it a second time, but I think you could add those things to Little Hands so you could have a themed week with everything fitting together and feel like you have a really solid K-4 program. I'm using Little Hearts with my 3 year old right now and we may repeat it at 4 because she is loving the activities so very much. We'll see

I didn't intend to homeschool EVER, but we chose to keep our girls home for pre-K. Long story to say we brought our oldest home last year in 1st grade and we are blessed to be on the homeschool path. I felt so much like you did with homeschooling be intimidating. HOD took away the intimidation factor. Because of Carrie's own teaching background, education, and homeschool experience I felt so confident in trusting her choices for the curriculum. If you have any other homeschool questions I'd be happy to answer from our limited experience

Melissa

We did LHTH with my DD3 last year as a K-4 program by adding in the K level fine motor skills workbooks from the dollar store.

When we finished that we did 8 units of LHFHG half speed except the fine motor skills books (do it carefully, finding the answers, K handwriting) full speed. Now I just can't keep her going half speed any more, so we are going full speed with everything. When she finishes those workbooks, I'll move her up to the first grade motor skills books (Thinking skills, 1st handwriting)... some of it will carry over to when we are in Beyond, but she'll be going half speed for a while in Beyond, so my plan is to go half speed until she finishes those workbooks (doing the workbooks full speed)... we'll go half speed longer if necessary.

For my 3 year old. We are going through LHTH right now, just telling the Bible story and doing some of the activities (because she just is little). Basically right now I do one day each day, but stop when she gets bored whether we are finished or not. Then I move on to the next day the next day. When she turns 4 we are going to do LHTH with the K level FMS books from LHFHG... I'm planning that because I fully expect her motor skills to be ready for the amount of work involved and ready for the 1st grade level by the time she's 5.

I keep the math with the guide it's planned in. First of all it's easier to do the hands on stuff that way, and second of all, I think Earlybird K is a great K-1st grade level math. I like to keep it where they are starting Singapore 1A when they start Beyond because I feel they're mature enough for it then. And we do a lot of math in general life!

I like the K level science book better than the 1st grade book (no real reason, just preference) so I like it to go with LHFHG too. I'm not planning on adding in a science with LHTH for my 4 year old next year.

And btw, I totally understand having a 4 year old who has outgrown LHTH. If we didn't add workbooks we couldn't use it. Well, we could, but it wouldn't be enough. However, I do say that even though she's still wanting more after 40 minutes of work, that that want should be filled by reading and playing/exploring outside/doing hands on stuff. Rather than more school work. My 7 year old is just this fall going to be starting more than 45 minutes of work, and she'll be almost 8. I cannot imagine my almost 6 year old doing that much work for a LONG time even though she's perfectly capable. She just doesn't need that much work to progress rapidly.

Okay I am by no means a HOD expert, but since I have both guides you are considering, I will just give you my simple opinion.

I think LHTH would be perfect for most 4 year olds! She is going to learn a lot of bible, lay a lot of firm foundations, things you might have already studied with her, but now you'll do them again with cute crafts and rhymes and things to boost her confidence.

I have a 2 year old and I think LHTH is a little beyond what she is capable of... so we'll got about it very slowly and then redo the guide "as written" when she is 4 or 4.5. Right now she likes the bible (when she isn't trying to nurse JUST because she's on my lap) and she looooves the crafts. It is actually pretty cool that we'll get to do Carrie's ideas again when she is 4. The guide is fantastic.

I like the idea of, at 4, doing LHTH and adding the singapore math and rod and staff workbooks that "come before" what is scheduled in Little Hearts. I have fallen in love with rod and staffs "do it carefully" it has super ideas and darling woodland scenes. (I feel like a kid again, hehe, so cool to be a HOD homeschool mom, I love doing all the neat things too.)

Okay, my other thought was that at 4... well the history in LHFHG is pretty straightforward. It might be too much facts-of-life for a 4 year old. Brief mention of martyrdom and stuff.

The other thought is if you do LHFHG now, at 4, then you'll be moving her to the next guide at 5 and so on... it might be too much writing before her little hands can handle it..?

I am no expert on the other guides though.

Basically, my advice is do LHTH, add rod and staff and singapore if need be and let her mature a bit mentally and physically.

Hi and welcome to HOD!!!

I also have a 4 yr old who is very bright and ready for Little Hearts, but we decided to do Little Hands and I am SO glad we did. Even though he already knows most of what we're doing (letters, numbers, stories, etc), he just loves it. He seems to enjoy reviewing things he's already learned and it's been good to just get used to doing school without the pressure of difficult concepts. We've been very relaxed with the guide--sometimes we'll go on and do a second page because he wants to hear the rest of the story, other days we won't do school at all if we're very busy (though most days he begs to do it . He turns 5 in Nov. and I'm hoping to start little hearts sometime after the holidays (though I'm not exactly sure how it will fall since we're being so flexible and are taking breaks whenever needed for my husband's vacation time and such--I love homeschooling!!!).

He does ask for more school so I've just added things on according to his interests. He likes stories, science, and math best, so we do lots of library books and simple science experiments/cooking, and he's learned a lot of phonics/math from starfall.com. Whatever you decide, I hope you guys have a lot of fun!

HI.

Just a quick question, does your daughter know the sounds of the letters as well as the names of the letters? If she knows both, I would probably look at doing LHFHG with her at half pace to ease her into it. If she doesn't know the sounds, I suggest going through LHTH maybe at a slightly quicker pace, maybe doing two days worth in a day, just to help her cement those sounds. It is the one thing my almost 7yr old didn't get that consistently or that well, and now is still struggling with learning to read. Anyway, all the best in choosing what is best for your family, and may God bless you through HOD as He has blessed our family.

Thank you all so much for your input! I'm going to look closer at the LHTH. To answer the pp question, yes, she does know her letters, how to write them (though not perfectly) and most of the sounds. She is starting to string the sounds together to sound out words. But she is just 4, she turned 4 in June. I don't want to push her too far ahead iykwim. Big decisions, its blowing my mind and its just our first curriculum! Thanks again!

If she is showing an interest in reading and wants to learn I think it's fine to teach reading young. I've taught my older two girls early (One starting at 4, the other at 3 1/2) because they knew their letters, some sounds, and were begging to learn how to read. Short lessons are a big key at this age. I agree you shouldn't push too fast if they're not ready, but don't hold back teaching her just because of age. That is one of the best things about homeschooling for me. I can teach my girls at what level they are at without the pressure of age/grade level.

It sounds like LHTH with phonics (like maybe "The Reading Lesson") may be a super fit for your dd! We have done LHTH 3 times, and all 3 times our dc knew all of their letters and most their sounds at the start of it. LHTH is about so much more than just knowing letters and sounds. It teaches dc how to do a nutshell version of a balance of subject areas of school consistently each day! LHTH gave our dc a super start to homeschooling. They loved their homeschool days with me, felt we could do it and enjoy it together, and they had a great year of learning more about the Bible with me as their teacher. I think you would really enjoy it. Just keep asking questions here, and we will all help you get off to a good start!

In Christ,
Julie