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Hello all. I am 100% new to homeschooling but have fallen in love with HOD, after strongly considering Timberdoodle. I made the choice to homeschool (one I never ever considered until a few months ago) after realizing that I wanted to keep a Christ-centered focus in her schooling as long as I can.
We are planning to start homeschooling in the coming fall and I need some help from you more seasoned homeschoolers. I really don't know where to begin but the HOD message boards come extremely highly recommended!

My daughter is currently 5 and in parochial Pre-K. Her birthday is in November, and so she missed the VA Public Schools cut off date for K by a month and a half, making her one of the older students in her Pre-K class. She also attended a preschool class last year that was specifically geared towards "in-between students," and combined elements of preschool with elements of Pre-K. She'll be on the cusp of 6 when we start K in the Fall.
She writes well in D'Nealian style, upper/lowercases, can identify all her letters by shape and phonetically. Knows colors, shapes, numbers. Can count to 100, and skip count by twos, fives, and tens. She can do simple addition and is currently working on subtraction with me at home, after asking for it. Creative, social but slow to warm up, likes to survey a situation or group before diving in. Very much enjoys art projects, dramatic play, and problem solving. She completes her schoolwork quickly now and often assists other children in her class with theirs (per her teacher).

She is ready to read, but hesitant. I feel like she hasn't been motivated the right way yet. I am looking for help with a reading and/or phonics program/ideas for her. I know the world will open up to her when she tackles this hurdle, but I am struggling with how to get her there.
She loves math. We work on it almost daily, at her request. I am trying to figure out where she fits best in this area. I fear the K curriculums may be below her and not hold her interest. Being that she is already motivated in this area, I'd like to keep it going.
She learns Spanish at her school and I'd like to continue it. Any recommendations on a Spanish program that worked well for your 5/6yo?

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but these are it for now. I am leaning towards LHFHG, but am unsure whether to go the K route or jump to first grade. I don't want her to get bored with the material(as that will undoubtedly cause the most battles in our two like-minded personalities).

TIA! - Ally

I think LHFHG well be perfect. I think it is great for older 5yos and 6yos. I think you will love it. Since you said her handwriting is good, I would do the first grade options for fine motor skills. I would also look at the Singapore website to decide on the math, as it sounds like she might be ready for the second K book.

StephanieU wrote:I think LHFHG well be perfect. I think it is great for older 5yos and 6yos. I think you will love it. Since you said her handwriting is good, I would do the first grade options for fine motor skills. I would also look at the Singapore website to decide on the math, as it sounds like she might be ready for the second K book.

Thanks for the response! I wasn;t sure if I could skip that first math book, but I will look into it more now. I do think we will do the handwriting for first grade, but I am still stumped on helping her reading.

I would try The Reading Lesson HOD suggests. You can pace it as she needs. She might be able to go fast in the beginning and then slow down when it is really new things. It is a solid program, and great for starting with a little phonics knowledge.

I would give the Singapore 1A placement test and see how she does. I would probably skip the K math books with your description of her math skills. I bet she tests into 1a with Singapore.http://www.singaporemath.com/Placement_s/12.htm
The Reading Lesson is what I have used with both my boys to teach reading and it worked great. We did do some computer learning for fun as well and Reading Eggs is what we used as it has free printable phonics sheets and uses d'naelien handwriting. So we got handwriting and phonics worksheets along with the fun phonics online with Reading Eggs. The combo worked well and got my son into learning to read b/c he wanted to take his baby chick egg and win things to dress it up with the online phonics learning. That may be a boy thing though. The combo of The Reading Lesson and the online game variety of Reading Eggs worked well for us. The free printable sheets were perfect too.

Since I have 4 kiddos, I often used Reading Eggs when I needed my youngest ds working independently while I was working with olders. It also just made reading fun and I don't think he even realized he was learning so much. I think he saw the computer learning as play time but it did help him to enjoy reading from books more and he enjoyed The Reading Lesson b/c he was reading from the very beginning with it. With your description, I would test for 1st grade math and use 1st grade materials except the science. I just like the k science book better for the readings that go with the science box.
Song school Spanish is fun at this age. Just google Reading Eggs and Song School Spanish if you are interested in learning more about them. There is also a Spanish for kids from Seton, but I have never used it. It is called Learn Spanish with Grace. Song school spanish is rhymes and songs to learn spanish and it has a neat workbook to go with it.

Tidbits of Learning wrote:I would give the Singapore 1A placement test and see how she does. I would probably skip the K math books with your description of her math skills. I bet she tests into 1a with Singapore.http://www.singaporemath.com/Placement_s/12.htm
The Reading Lesson is what I have used with both my boys to teach reading and it worked great. We did do some computer learning for fun as well and Reading Eggs is what we used as it has free printable phonics sheets and uses d'naelien handwriting. So we got handwriting and phonics worksheets along with the fun phonics online with Reading Eggs. The combo worked well and got my son into learning to read b/c he wanted to take his baby chick egg and win things to dress it up with the online phonics learning. That may be a boy thing though. The combo of The Reading Lesson and the online game variety of Reading Eggs worked well for us. The free printable sheets were perfect too.

Since I have 4 kiddos, I often used Reading Eggs when I needed my youngest ds working independently while I was working with olders. It also just made reading fun and I don't think he even realized he was learning so much. I think he saw the computer learning as play time but it did help him to enjoy reading from books more and he enjoyed The Reading Lesson b/c he was reading from the very beginning with it. With your description, I would test for 1st grade math and use 1st grade materials except the science. I just like the k science book better for the readings that go with the science box.
Song school Spanish is fun at this age. Just google Reading Eggs and Song School Spanish if you are interested in learning more about them. There is also a Spanish for kids from Seton, but I have never used it. It is called Learn Spanish with Grace. Song school spanish is rhymes and songs to learn spanish and it has a neat workbook to go with it.

Thank you so much! We are working through the placement test from Singapore tomorrow. I will check into the Reading Eggs! It sounds like something she would enjoy as well, and may take some of the pressure off of her. Sing School Spanish was recommended to me as well. I'll do more research. THANK YOU!