heartofdakota.com

I am doing LHTH with my son this year & we LOOOOVE it. I am looking forward to many more years with HOD. But I recently heard on facebook that there is a gap year so to speak, & that if you do a guide each year starting with LHTH as preschool you won't have a guide for 12th grade. I am wondering WHY it was written this way & what Carrie intended for us to do about this. I know that many use LHTH as preschool & then do MFW K & then come back & do LHFHG as 1st grade & go onward from there. But I REALLY don't like the look of MFW, I don't want to do that. I am just wondering if I screwed up......was I supposed to do LHTH as K rather than preschool??? Can someone please explain this to me?? Should I spread LHFHG over 2 years to make up for this???

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it all. I will say that life often gets in the way despite all our best laid plans, so having that extra time up your sleeve could be a blessing somewhere along the line. You may have a death in the family, a new babe, or sickness or something else. You may also find that your child starts struggling in a guide and you need to slow down. Go with the flow, homeschooling is such a blessing that everything can be adjusted to the child, or to the family situation.

If you do get to Grade 12 and you have been through all the guides, I would suggest you could look at doing online classes, local community classes, work experience for a year. There are so many options available and I would imagine that in 10 years the options will be even greater.

I think the easy fix is to do one or two guides at a slower speed. Often, that is needed if you start LHFHG at 5yo anyways. Basically, you would have to do a total of 17-18 units (plus possibly the first unit of each guide) half speed over the 12 years, which I don't think would be an issue at all. Often, families find that by Bigger or Preparing, they need to slow down because of the writing and maturity needed anyways.

I totally agree with Molly. If everything goes smoothly and your child is able to do a guide a year then they will be very prepared to do community college or take some online classes or do CLEP testing to get a head start on college. There are many options. However I think for most people they end up having to slow down at some point due to either life or the fact that your dc will be on the young end of the guides and when they get up to the older guides they may need a little more time to mature, say into the writing component, or they struggle with the amount of work required. I think you are fortunate to have the extra year to play with.

Thank you all so much, it sort of worried me when I learned of the gap, but you all make excellent points. Thanks again!!

I know Carrie has mentioned that her family does school only 4 days a week. So the first 3 guides take approximately 4 years to complete. You don't have to complete a guide a year either. Many have mentioned that your kids might get to point that you will want to slow down. I also wouldn't worry about it. It takes the stress off if you are a little bit ahead for when a time comes that you will need to slow down a little bit. I know for the younger years, those seem to be the years that are so unpredictable. Once they get a little bit older, it seems like the skill building is different and might go a little bit smoother. But who knows. I also am loving this program immensely and so are my dc! Once they finish the last level, they will be more than prepared for whatever life has in store for them.

You can always do LHTH, LHFHG, Beyond, and Bigger Hearts all 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week, and this will naturally spread those 4 guides over 5 years. That being said, having a little wiggle room like an extra year to work with is a good thing, as we never know what the Lord may have planned for us or for our loved ones. Sometimes, some years just end up having life challenges one didn't expect. As things stand, my oldest ds is set to graduate a year early. I'm comfortable with that, and thankful for the wiggle room it gives us - wiggle room for now or next year or next year if needed, or wiggle room for figuring out what he'll do after high school. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie