heartofdakota.com

Hi everyone! I want to ask a question about how to run three guides at once. I am wanting to start looking at next years guides for my 7 year old, in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory, 5 and 3 year old in Little Hands to Heaven. My 5 year old has enjoyed listening to my oldest lessons in history as well as science. Next year if I use a separate guide for all three I am wondering if I will be able to get it all in. I am not so worried about my son's since he will still be in Little Hands to Heaven. Do you all use separate guides for all of your children or combine them? My 7 year old is reading really well and My 5 year old is just starting to sound out 3 letter words. Thank you all for your thoughts!

Bumping you up ...

How far are you through LHTH? It seems like your best chance for combining would be continuing to combine the younger two. You can add phonics & math from the LHFHG guide, doing just the right side of that guide along with LHTH for your five year-old. Also is your three-year-old on the younger or older side of 3? If you can stretch LHTH out so that the 3 year-old is starting LHFHG when he is about 4 1/2, I think combining those could work well.

If you wanted to combine your girls, I think you'd have to go with LHFHG with beef-ups for your oldest. That's what I did with my girls. My kids are the same genders and about the same age differences as yours. By the end of summer they will be 9,7, and 5. My oldest ended up repeating some of LHFHG to combine with her younger sister, which I don't regret. They are both now finishing up Beyond. My older one has beef-ups from Bigger/Preparing in language arts and math. Combining has worked really well for us. I don't think I would be able to fit it all in if I didn't combine, and plus my girls really enjoy being together. Has your oldest already done Little Hearts for His Glory? How far are you in Beyond? I think probably combining the younger two may be easier for you to do. Honestly, my middle child could just as easily be combined with her little brother in Little Hearts (with beef-ups in the 3Rs) at this point. In my opinion, when kids place only one guide apart it is easier to combine in the lower guide (with appropriate beef-ups from the older guide for the more advanced child) than to run two back-to-back guides. Personality-wise combining my girls works better for us than combining my younger two.
HTH

I was supposed to be doing Beyond, then Bigger, LHFHG, and LHTH this year but 1/2 speed on the LHTH. LHTH is easy, and LHFHG goes really quickly too when just the 6YO is in on it. I could complete both of those in the time it took my oldest to do her independent work and practice her piano. Sometimes she has a short break to play with the 1YO while I finish up with the 6YO. So, it can be done, and you can even get it all done before lunch. As the kids get older and are doing more independently I hope it works out to have them working, and/or playing with a younger sib, and then check in with me before lunch or something so I can look over their work. But combining is good too, especially from the perspective of reading aloud for you. If you can work it to give your middle one something more challenging to do while still going through LHTH again, that would be ideal.

I'm running three guides now, it can be done. I also have 4 and 1 yo's. My oldest 2 are pretty independent by now (11 and so they really only need me to get them started on certain subjects, check work, and sometimes I will read History/Science for my 8yo. I do all the lessons with my 6yo but it only takes about an hour. He can do his Fine Motor and Math on his own sometimes too after I explain what needs to be done. Just remember, the older they get, the more independent they get as well. Thinking back, I kind of wish I would have combined my oldest two (my 8 yo is pretty advanced and catches on quickly), using extensions for my oldest, but we are too far into all the guides to do that now. My oldest would be backtracking a lot.