New to HOD (and homeschooling!) Any advice?

[Tmisek]

Hi! I am planning to homeschool next fall for the first time. I will have a 7 yo dd, 5 yo ds, and 3 yo dd. I am really drawn to the HOD curriculum.

I think for my oldest dd, who is in 1st grade in public school right now, I will choose Beyond with the DITHR program. She is very "academically inclined", so I debated using Bigger, but she will be a young 7 in the fall, so I think Beyond may be a little better fit. That program looks great, and I am very excited about it...she's excited, too!

It's my other 2 I am not sure about. My 5 yo ds should be in Kindergarten next year. I was going to go ahead and send him to public school for Kindergarten, and then bring him home the following year and start LHFHG when he is 6. And possibly have my then 4 yo dd tag along with him.

Now I am debating whether to do LHTH next year with him and have my preschooler tag along also? (He will be a young 5, she will be a young 3). As of right now, he has pretty much learned all his letter sounds and capital letters...lower case letters are another story. He can write most of his capital letters, but they tend to be facing any direction! His attention span isn't always the best, but he seems to enjoy learning. I think he is ready for phonics and basic math. He can count and knows all his numbers. Would LHTH be too "easy"? Could I just do it and add a beginning math and phonics program?

I guess my main hang-up is keeping the younger 2 together in some way so I won't be doing 3 different programs. There would be no way I could combine my ds with my older dd...she is way too far "ahead" of him. But I don't want to pull my younger dd too fast, either.

Just wondering what the PROs think!!

One more thing. When is the best time to buy the curriculum? Does it change a little bit each school year? Should I wait until the spring or summer to purchase anything?

Thank you so much!
Tammy

[inHistiming]

I think your plan right now looks good. With your younger dd, I say just let her do what she wants to as far as LHTH goes...she's got plenty of time for formal learning later. She'll pick up a lot just from tagging along.

Beyond...for your 7 yo sounds great too, though you'll want to check out the placement chart to be sure. Here's that link: http://heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php We used Beyond...and loved it! If after looking at the chart you think she's not ready for DITHOR, there is an emergent reader's schedule, with questions, in the back of the Beyond...manual. We were very happy with our progress using it.

I am using LHTH with my ds 5 and he loves it. He's enjoys the finger plays, Bible stories, and all the activities...and it only takes about 30 minutes to do. He also joins in our Bigger...experiments. He always says, "Mommy, don't do the experiment without me!" So he's learning a lot, on his own level, from that too. We are using the K math and handwriting, and will begin using Reading Made Easy for phonics instruction in January when we start back to school.

I hope some of this was helpful. I'm sure others will be along to offer suggestions, too.

[Tmisek]

Thank you for your reply!

I think doing LHTH with both of my youngest will work...adding some K curriculum for my ds since he will definitely be ready for that. Your idea of having him sit in on science with my oldest should work out great, too!

[Candice]

Tammy,

I just wanted to welcome you to HOD and homeschooling! It is so nice to have you here.

I am not very experienced with placement so I won't add anything there. So for now, you just get a warm welcome from me!

Candice

[my3sons]

Hi Tammy! Welcome to the HOD Board! I think you could do LHTH with your younger dc, and possibly just add one of the phonics programs and math for your son. You could also have him do A Reason for Handwriting K, just a page a day would work. All of these are available from HOD.

As far as your older child doing Beyond..., for reading, you could either do DITHOR Level 2/3, OR, you could start her in the Emerging Reader's Set. The Emerging Reader's Set progresses from simpler books to harder books, so you could start her in the middle or wherever you thought she fit. It's a good idea to start with a bit simpler of a reading level so she can build her comprehension skills by doing the discussion questions with you (they're in Beyond's... Appendix). To be able to do DITHOR, she'd need good comprehension skills and writing skills (unless you choose to do the writing for her for a bit). You can see examples of the DITHOR workbook here:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/d2.pdf

As far as purchasing, you save the most money by buying packages. Savings are built into the packages. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Tmisek]

Thank you all for your warm welcome and insight! I still have 8 months before I start homeschooling, so I probably should use patience and wait and see where my children stand then...but when I am looking at the programs I get a little too excited!!

I think my oldest daughter should be ready for DITHOR by next fall. Reading and writing are her "thing". She is currently reading about a 4th grade level according to a couple reading assessments (she is in first grade). Her comprehension and vocabulary are good, and I hope will just get better by next school year. She also is good at writing. I am sure she will need some extra help in the beginning. She likes to be challenged, but is also a perfectionist so gets frustrated easily...so there is a fine line there!

I will continue to read the boards and reassess as time goes on...and thanks again for the welcome!!

Tammy

[Kathleen]

Tammy,

I wanted to say hi and welcome to you, too! I know you're going to love HOD when you dive in next fall!

It sounds to me like your daughter is a good fit for Beyond and DITHOR based on what you said.

I also think you'll love LHTH! Here's a previous post where I gave a glimpse into what we're loving about it. It'll give a feel for what kinds of things you'll be doing every week. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2055&st=0&sk=t&sd=a I'm having a wonderful time with HOD homeschooling my kids! I'm just as excited now as last year when I "stumbled" unto the website after finding LHTH somewhere else!

Kathleen

[Samuel'sMommy]

Hi Tammy and welcome to the boards! You will love HOD!

[Carrie]

Tammy,

I just wanted to pop-in and welcome you too! The ladies have done such a good job of helping you talk through your options. I think your plan sounds like a good one for now, however things can change so much in 8 months, so I agree with you that a re-evaluation in a half a year or so is a good idea.

We pray you'll enjoy HOD as much as we do with our own kiddos. We're glad to have you here!

Blessings,
Carrie