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Hello!

My son just turned three. He *LOVES* doing "school." We color and draw lines and play with educational toys and games and read stories... He can outsit me when it comes to reading. I'll go half an hour and my throat is sore and he begs for more. He knows his letters and sounds and is beginning to figure out blending (mostly on his own from watching Super Why when I had morning sickness last year).

SO. I'm going to do Little Hands to Heaven this year with my 3 year old (and kinda-sorta with my 1 year old... she'll look on). I want to do My Father's World Kindergarten, and I want to do Little Hearts. Which one is more advanced?? Which should I use for PK4 and which for PK5??

Is Little Hearts appropriate for a 4 year old?

(We're not doing school b/c I want a child genius or am trying to push him... mostly we just get really bored b/c my husband works looooong hours and we're stuck at home all day.

Ooh someone said we're not supposed to talk about other programs??? I'm sorry for missing that if that's so... Let me edit my question:

Is LHFHG appropriate for an advanced 4 year old, or is it better to wait until he is 5??

I don't know if you saw this discussion thread viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12328 or not? Maybe there's something there that would be helpful to you .

I guess I think LHFHG would be tough at 4 yrs old...I'd probably slow LHTH down and take a couple of years to enjoy it and look at LHFHG by age 5.

We just finished Little Hearts for my sons K year. He has a June birthday so he was 5 when we did it. He did totally fine, but there is no way he would have been ready at 4. As it was it was stretching his abilities to understand the History readings. Everything else he was doing at a first grade level (or higher in Reading).

Sounds like you may have an advanced reader on your hands for K, so you can just add the Emerging readers from Beyond when you do Little Hearts if that's the case. DS finished phonics while we were doing Little Hands so we moved on to the Emeging readers and did them for the year with Little Hearts. We just started Beyond yesterday and he will finish the Readers up mid year and we will just add in some other books since I don't think he is ready for DITHOR yet.

As for MFW, I've never used it, but I have seen it (owned it even and I think it is easier than LIttle Hearts. I would think Little Hearts is a K/1 program while MFW is more of a Pre-K/ K program. You could always get through Little Hands and then start Little Hearts half speed until you feel he is ready for full speed.

Now, keep in mind I've never used MFW. Also keep in mind that when I looked at it prior to DD1 starting school it confused me greatly

If you average 3 days per week with LHTH it'll give you a bit of extra time. And it's also a program that is fine to repeat (at least I think so). What I'm doing right now with my 3 year old is going through LHTH, except I'm just telling the story instead of reading it (because it takes less time, not anything to do with her really) When she turns 4 I'm going to start it over... I'm going to add in some picture books from the library or that we have that go with the letter theme for the week, then when she shows me she's ready I'm going to add in some Fine Motor Skills books (probably the K level ones from LHFHG). I have no idea at this point if she'll be ready for the workbooks at 4 or if it'll be closer to 4.5.

Then when she starts LHFHG I'm going to do it half speed until either she starts reading or it's obvious she's ready for a full days work. For my current 5yo those two things have coincided. She's not to Emerging Readers yet, but we are checking out Biscuit books and other earlier levels than the Emerging Readers. I have a feeling she'll be ready for the Emerging Readers around the time she turns 6, but we'll start them after Christmas. We are already going full speed. She'll have time to do the Beginners Bible probably before she starts Beyond.

But anyway, if you do LHTH 3 days a week, interspersing other books on the letters or Bible stories on the same topic, that'll stretch it out to 55 weeks instead of 33 (if my math is right). Then if you do LHFHG half speed for half of the guide you'll have it stretched out to 51 weeks. So basically with those two guides you'll have used up the time that would generally be in 3 guides, and he'll be perfect for Beyond. If you wanted to get him in the middle age range you could even do some of Beyond half speed.

Hi!

LHTH you can do twice. Order HODs catalog if you haven't already. It is great and seeing it all in print made the guides easier to understand.

So... there are 2 packages for little hands. You could do the 3 yr old options now, which your child will love and then next year do the 4-5 yr old options. It is the same manual and music, but different devotionals and bibles.

This way the comprehension level is right. Simpler stories, simpler ideas the first year.

Then when your child is 5 or 5.5 you'll be ready for LHFHG.

You could add in the Reading Lesson book too, for the 2nd time round in little hands.

This would be more economical than ordering LHTH and then a completely different curriculum for the 4 year old year. (4k?)

I, myself, am thinking of putting LHTH off until my daughter turns 3. She just... heh... I don't know how much she is listening to my reading. She gets some... but I think another 6 months and she'll understand much more. She is still very "babyish" though she likes to talk about the pictures she doesn't really get the point of it all. Like: "oooo girraffe, ooo bear..." pointing out animals but not "getting the ark idea. LOL. Well, 3 is a good age for this program, and I went ahead and ordered the 4-5 options too so we can do it again.

Hope all that made sense.

Personally I wouldn't want to re-do a program. I would do LHTH at 3. I think it would not be appropriate for a 4yo who knows letters/sounds. At 5 I would do LHFHG. I would fill in that gap year with something else. That's my plan as well with my next set of little ones.

I think there is way way more to LHTH than teaching letters and sounds. My kids who have done LHTH all have known letters and sounds way before actually doing the program. I did it once through with DD2, twice through with DD3, and am starting with DD4. Letters and sounds is like the least of what they really really learn.

My oldest went through LHTH twice and loved it both times! The first year we did it as is using the younger options in the guide and the younger bible/devotional. The second year, she used all the older options and the older bible and devotional and I added in supplemental workbooks in place of the letter and number activities and phonics. The only reason my DS didn't do it twice is because I didn't want to teach it three years in a row.