Where to start

[mommy0908]

I know there is plenty of examples on here which program to start your child in but I wanted to get some experienced opinions. My son just turned 5 in November and I just started homeschooling him this past August. In our state, you wouldn't start Kindergarten if your birthday is after September 1st. I have just pretended he's in Kindergarten this year because I felt like he was ready for most of the material. We're in Classical Conversations this year, but as I've stated in other posts, I'm having a baby number 3 come August. I'm planning to start HOD then to simplify my life and make school fun!! My question is which program would I start him in. I don't want to be over his head but I also don't want to underestimate him. When we start he'll be 3 months shy of turning 6. Right now, he is able to sounds out all his letters and is just starting to blend. He may or may not be reading by August. This is a subject he's not real fond of doing! It requires too much sitting I guess! He will also have a younger brother who will be 3 1/2 in August that I'm considering getting the preschool program for. So my next question is which would be best: Buying the LHTH for my 3 yr old and LHFHG or BLHFHG for my 6 yr old OR do I combine both boys with LHFHG??? Oh and if we do LHFHG would it be K or 1st grade? All opinions are welcome!

[Jessi]

Just my opinion here but your 5 year old should probably be in LHFHG. For one thing you said he can't sit still for long periods of time and he isn't too fond of reading. This will give him a slower phonics approach to reading already built into the guide. Plus the shorter Thornton Burgess stories would be a good start to get him used to storytime. There is also less writing required. It should be plenty. If for some reason, your son is more advanced when you start and you feel like he could do more, you could also double up days and finish faster and move him directly into BLHFHG if necessary.

As for your 3 1/2 year old....you could do LHTH as it only takes about 1/2 hour. It isn't hard to prepare either. But with the new baby, you wouldn't necessarily have to do LHTH. You'll already be busy enough, which is part of the reason your scaling away from CC. You could just let your 3 1/2 year old tag along with older brother on the left side of the book. Just modify what he has to do during your older son's phonics time by giving him letter recognition practice (if he doesn't already know them). Then they'd be doing the same Bible time, same drama, finger plays, science, etc. Less stress on you.

With LHFHG it should take you about 1 1/2 hours every day to accomplish your lessons.

Hope this helps.

[Emilylou]

My son is 5 1/2 and my dd is 3 1/5. I just do LHFHG with them both. I don't expect dd to do the same things as ds, but she likes all the stories and can participate in all the activities.
Since September DD3.5 has learned to write all the letters and her name, just from sitting in when we are doing school.

I also started with the lower level Singapore Math recommended, and most of that so far my DD can participate in. She keep "tally" when we were doing all our measuring last week. She has learned to write all the numbers and match up 4 - with 4 beans ect... Again this is all just from being around when we are doing school. I don't actually try to "teach" her anything.
And if she gets bored and goes off to play... great! I want her to also learn to play a little better on her own.

Hope this is of some help.

[inHistiming]

In my opinion, LHFHG would probably be a good fit...but you should check out the placement chart at this link to be sure: http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

I will be using LHFHG next fall with my then 6 yo (he'll be 6 in June). We have been treating this year as Kindergarten...learning to write numbers and letters, reading bible stories, and doing some work on fun web sites (like http://www.starfall.com). However, he often wants to be included in my olders' lessons...particularly science and any art projects. I never make him sit in, as they are doing Bigger and it is not on his level, but I am amazed by the things he picks up and remembers just from sitting in occasionally. SO, you could allow your younger child to do the activities he is interested in doing, and let him just play when he's not interested. He will still pick up A LOT that way. If it were me, I would wait on using anything formal with the 3 yo, but LHTH is also an option if you think you'll have the time. It takes about 30 minutes to do LHTH, and my ds has enjoyed it immensely. We are right now trying to set a schedule so that we get to it on a more regular basis with him. We've had a lot of changes in our family lately..moving, hubby traveling, mommy is pregnant, traveled for Thanksgiving, etc....so we've been thrown off schedule a bit by all of these things. But this week we are working on getting back on track and into each of our curricula. Anyway...just wanted to encourage you that LHFHG is a great program...and if you needed to you could add a phonics program or use the emergent reader's schedule (found in BLHFHG) if he is already reading or of course use your own reading schedule. I will be using LHFHG as a 1st grade program...others have used it for Kindergarten. That's one of the wonderful things about HOD, it's flexibility!

[mommy0908]

Thanks everyone....makes complete sense now!