Is he ready for LHFHG?

[hs.mama07]

Hi everyone. My DS will be 5 this fall and we planned on starting LHFHG sometime after his birthday. He is very smart and places well in LHFHG, except that he doesn’t seem mature enough for formal handwriting yet (and he really doesn’t like it). He’s all boy--squirrely and active--and I’m wondering if I’m setting myself up for a huge battle and setting him up to hate handwriting by starting so young. But, if I delay starting LHFHG I’m not sure what I’ll do since we’ll be done with LHTH this fall. Any thoughts?

[countrymom]

You could start him at 1/2 speed and just work him into handwriting very slowly. That would give him extra time to mature while you continue schooling. I agree not to push it with the handwriting. We are doing 1/2 speed in LHFHG with our little guy and right now I have him doing some simple pre-handwriting stuff and we are not even in the regular handwriting book yet.

[amysue277]

I honestly think you'll be fine, even with the handwriting. It's not scheduled every day, and when it is I think that it is very gentle. It's not a lot to do at one sitting and generally takes my son no more than 10 minutes to do. If he places there with everything else, I say go for it. Worst case scenario...if he couldn't handle it, just take it out or print off alternative handwriting or pre-writing exercises from the Internet.

[hs.mama07]

Thanks! That's encouraging. Do you think math will be a problem--is there lots of writing numbers involved?

[raindrops]

It is an extremely gentle approach ti math and writing numbers. It has been perfect for us.

You'll be doing all sorts of cute activities... like one he will write numbers on a ziplock bag filled with colored dishsoap. Brilliant! My son loved this, begged for more, cost nothing, and I would never had thought of it myself. So it is not always pen and paper.

We do math with edible manipulatives. So before he can eat his chocolate chips or teddy grahams he writes his number. LOL. This is great incentive.

My son isn't crazy about writing either but LHFHG is "just right".

Get the K options for math and writing. They're not "too easy" I have been super pleased.

[hs.mama07]

Oh, lol, that's brilliant. My son will do anything for special treats like that, especially m&m's! That's really good to know about it being so gentle...now I'm getting excited again!! Thanks everyone!!

[amysue277]

There is writing with math, but never a ton. It is a very relaxed way to do math, and I never feel like it is too much. My 4 year old also does math with us, although his skills are definitely that of a young 4 year old. I modify for him when I can, and if I can't, then I let him choose if he wants to do it. Today we played a cute math game with the white boards. I said "do 6 jumping jacks". They had to write the number 6, and then ask "may I"? If they wrote it correctly, then I answered yes and they did the jumping jacks. It was cute. My 4 year old can not write the bigger numbers so while it was supposed to be 6-10, I threw in some 1's and 3's so that he could feel successful.

So yes, there is some writing but it's all very gentle. HTH!

[raindrops]

Oh yeah! The Mother May I game. Haha. That was another hit. I would have never come up with that on my own either. Carrie is quite creative! DS thinks *I* am so smart. *snicker*

But we used a dry erase book that had the numbers to trace.

What is cuter than a 5 year old (trying) to do jumping jacks?! We did wall pushups, hip circles, flapped our arms like chickens, knees to elbows... crab walked..!

Your son likes m&m's? He'll like HOD then. ANYtime we use a manipulative, it is something to eat.

Sometimes I will hide some baking chocolate chips on a hotwheels playset and he will drive a pickup around and find them, load them into the pickup and "drive" them back to the singapore workbook to unload, count and write his answer. We have one playset that is like indiana jones... crocodiles and stuff... tries to guard the chips.

*I* never had so much fun in kindergarten.

[hs.mama07]

That sounds like so much fun! So glad we found HOD!!!

[raindrops]

Here is another idea for "sneaking in" some writing practice for your boy. Mine totally thought we were playing: we did tic-tac-toe but instead of x and o, we used various letters or numbers. I would be ´E' and he lowercase 'e'. Or 7 (he just started writing those backwards) and 4's. By the end of a few games his writing was much improved and he still could have done a few more rounds. No complaining.

[pjdobro]

Here is another idea for "sneaking in" some writing practice for your boy. Mine totally thought we were playing: we did tic-tac-toe but instead of x and o, we used various letters or numbers. I would be ´E' and he lowercase 'e'. Or 7 (he just started writing those backwards) and 4's. By the end of a few games his writing was much improved and he still could have done a few more rounds. No complaining.

That's brilliant! You are one sneaky Mom!

[raindrops]

It works really well for "b" and "d" too... since children get those mixed up a lot. He was "b" (stick first, then circle!) And I was d.

You could also say the phonics sound of the letter each time writes it. My boy keeps wanting to say "a" like the o in octupus... hmm.

Oh, and I am one of "those" people who write in books... so my teacher guide is full of checkmarks, dates, what he liked and ideas... so I don't forget to do the tic tac toe by the time dd is in K. Just write a note to self at the bottom of the page. LOL