Question from a newbie to HOD

[jewel7123]

I have Little Hands to Heaven on its way to me now, and I plan on starting it asap with my 3 1/2 year old daughter. (My younger daughter will be 2 in Feb, and I plan on including her in as much of the activities and reading as I can, as she wants to do whatever big sister does!) So I'm wondering how I should space this program out, and if I plan on using Little Hearts for His Glory and just keep moving up, I'm a bit confused as to how I would do that. My oldest will be 5 in June of 2010, so I guess that would mean she would be starting kindergarten in the fall of 2010. So I've basically got two years until then.....should I stretch Little Hands to Heaven out for a two year period and if so, how do I do that? If I did that and started LHFHG in the fall of 2010 with my oldest as kindergarten, then what about my youngest, who will be 3, almost 4 at that time? I wouldn't start Little Hands to Heaven over again with her, or would I? I guess I just figure she would be tired of it by then, having gone through it for the past two years. Just wondering how those of you who have children close in age are working all of that out as you move up in the program. Thanks!

[crlacey]

You could do LHTH 2-3 days a week which would help you spread it out over 2 years. I would think your youngest wouldn't really benefit much from the first year of it. (Though I could be wrong.) You could also add in some activities from www.letteroftheweek.com to go along with LHTH that would fill in your off days if you felt like you wanted more.

[Samuel'sMommy]

I started LHTH with my 3 year old this summer. He will be 5 in March 2010 and starting Kindergarten that fall. What we've been doing is taking 2 weeks to do 1 Unit. Sometimes we do 2 days a week, sometimes we do 3, but we always spread each unit out over 2 weeks. That will take you 66 weeks to finish. Add in the weeks you take off for holidays, vacations, or when you just need a break, and it could easily stretch 1 1/2 to 2 years. Because Samuel loves doing LHTH so much and we are plannig on schooling year round, we plan on finishing LHTH in December 2009. We started in July 2008 so it will have taken us 1 1/2 years. Then, we are going to do the same with Little Hearts... so it will take us the spring of 2010 (which would be the end of PreK) and then all of his Kindergarten year. Does that make sense? From what I've read on the boards, Carrie gives lots of suggestions in the appendix of Little Hearts for extra reading so I think it will be easy to spread out. Then, if things go according to plan, we would start Beyond in 1st grade and do 1 guide a year until we're done. Hope that helps!

[Kathleen]

I started LHTH with my 3 yo dd last year. We were really hit-and-miss with it and only did 8 units. (I could tell that it was going to be perfect for her this year, so I was holding off a little on purpose.) Anyway, she hasn't minded repeating those 8 units at all, and now we're past that and on to new things. I'm guessing you would be more tired of LHTH than your little one will be. It's truly a lot of fun...but 4 years in a row may be a bit much.

We're going through all of LHTH this year - with my 4 yo and a tag-along 2 yo. The 2 yo gets in on the finger plays, Bible story, dramatic play - anything active, the letter activities. THe only things he really doesn't do are the cutting and pasting and "writing" things. (He will sometimes "cut" things but doesn't actually cut things out to glue on his # page, and will use markers to "mark" but not circle all the "D's".) We're planning to start LHFHG in the fall with my then 5 yo dd, and I plan to let him (then 3) tag-along for some of it. (Once again anything active, and he can listen to the reading if he's quiet. ) The following year when he's 4, I plan to go through LHTH with him "for real". This plan is totally subject to change, but I can see it working well.

I love that HOD's programs are so easy to flex to fit your family.

Kathleen

[jewel7123]

Kathleen,

It sounds like you're in the same situation as I am with your two youngest. How far apart are they? My two are 19 months apart. (We also have our third baby girl due next March.)

[jewel7123]

I started LHTH with my 3 year old this summer. He will be 5 in March 2010 and starting Kindergarten that fall. What we've been doing is taking 2 weeks to do 1 Unit. Sometimes we do 2 days a week, sometimes we do 3, but we always spread each unit out over 2 weeks. That will take you 66 weeks to finish. Add in the weeks you take off for holidays, vacations, or when you just need a break, and it could easily stretch 1 1/2 to 2 years. Because Samuel loves doing LHTH so much and we are plannig on schooling year round, we plan on finishing LHTH in December 2009. We started in July 2008 so it will have taken us 1 1/2 years. Then, we are going to do the same with Little Hearts... so it will take us the spring of 2010 (which would be the end of PreK) and then all of his Kindergarten year. Does that make sense? From what I've read on the boards, Carrie gives lots of suggestions in the appendix of Little Hearts for extra reading so I think it will be easy to spread out. Then, if things go according to plan, we would start Beyond in 1st grade and do 1 guide a year until we're done. Hope that helps!

This sounds like what I'm going to do, most likely. I guess that means she would be starting each program at the entry level age. Little Hearts at 5, Beyond at 6, Bigger at 7, etc. As for my youngest, I guess she will always be one program behind her sister. I'd love to have them in the same program so they could continue to do the activities together, but I don't see how that will be possible.

Just curious, has anyone here put a 4 year old in LHFHG? Not the add-on math, phonics or handwriting, but just doing the activities like the Bible study, history reading, science discovery, storytime, etc. Would these activities just be way over the head of a just turned 4 year old?

[Kathleen]

Alli and Garret are 23 months apart and have spring b-days. They'll be 5 and 3 this spring.

I know I saw the idea here sometime for moms where it won't work to combine right from the get-go, that it may work to get them together at some point. For example, if it worked for the older of the 2 to go more slowly through some of the beginning years and you could move the younger of the 2 along at a lesson-a-day pace, they could catch each other maybe by the time you did Preparing. That would totally depend on your individual kids...and may be more work than it's worth to just keep them moving along comfortably where they are.

My sister used LHFHG with her oldest and started it about 2 months before he turned 5. It went really well and they enjoyed it. I haven't used LHFHG yet, but in my mind I'm thinking that not quite 4 would be a little young to get it all. (I'm planning on letting my 3 yo tag-along for active things.) You could sure try it and make a new plan if it didn't work. I know that water2wine started LHFHG with a 4 and 6 yo - so it has been done.

OK, I've got to get off the computer. I'm not sure if any of that will help you at all, but it'll be fun sharing the LHTH journey with you!
Kathleen

[crlacey]

I started DD with LHFHG 2 months before her 5th birthday. It was a good fit at that point. But I'm not sure she would have been ok if we had started 6 or 7 months earlier. The Bible and activity portion would have been ok. But the entire left side of the page would have been over her head at that point. You'd have to look at the placement chart to see if your kiddo could start LHFHG earlier than normal.