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I am just wondering how you did it. I plan on doing LHFHG with my 51/2 old and going at half speed due to his slow learning ability. We are in the process of having him tested, but still don't know anything for sure yet. Anyways I was wondering how you do it? You do one page per day instead of the two? Do you still do phonics daily and math? If any of you could just give me what you did as an schedule I would apperciate it so much!! I know I will just have to sit down and see how it goes, but just would like some input on others who have already done it. Thanks so much!

Sheila mom to five great kids, one angel and one on the way in April!

I'm certainly no expert, but for my kid who is not having any learning issues, I think I would do handwriting, phonics, and math daily. Then the 2nd year we would do the next handwriting book, continue phonics or start emerging readers, and start Singapore Math 1A/B and do those daily.

If my child was slower to learn, I may do handwriting daily and do phonics and math "daily"...as in, do it each day but without jumping to the next lesson... Possibly, do the lesson from the guide and review it the following day maybe?? If he's slower to learn, I think some extra time to learn the phonics and math lessons would be needed as well, unless one or both of those areas seem to be a strength for him. With those two subjects being such an important foundation, they need they're own pace sometimes.

Hi Sheila,

I really don't know much about the Little Hearts book, as we never used it, but I can tell you how we're doing Bigger Hearts. We just started yesterday, so maybe you can take what I'm saying with a grain of salt...

Yes, we are doing one side/page a day. We started with Learning Through History day one yesterday, and today we're working on Learning The Basics. We will do dictation and spelling, though the manual gives the choice to do one or the other. I think the extra work won't hurt us. We are also doing a math lesson a day, so we really won't be on the same schedule, but that's okay as I'm not using Singapore, so we'd be doing different page numbers anyway. I do use the math activities though, as they go along very nicely with the Singapore-like math I use.

The way it will work out for us is, we will do Science on Tuesday and Thursday the first week, then on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the second week. We will be doing Grammar every other day, with a review (if possible) on the in-between days. Vocabulary works out to be on Fridays, and our timeline work will probably be on Thursday, unless I switch the last two days of the unit. We will play our hymn each day, giving us time to really learn the words.

Now, to all of this I am adding in a once-a-week art study and music study (art prints and American folk songs),and a nature study time. If I want to add in anything else, there's plenty of time to do so. I don't want to add in much, as Bigger Hearts as written is plenty enough. The art, music, and nature study are things I would add in anyway, whether or not we were going half speed.

So...is all of this clear as mud?? Hope it makes some semblance of sense to you, and is of some kind of help. I have a wiggly guy too, and he has a few behavior/concentration/frustration issues. I realized over this past year that it's not important to try to run the race, but to slow down and savor the moments. I think it will work well for us this year, and if we ever really do take off and get up to speed, well, that's okay too. I can see a difference in my little guy from the age of five to now at the age of eight, so as Carrie has said before--sometimes they just mature right before your eyes. Praise the Lord for that!! In the meantime, pray for patience daily. It will go a long way with helping you get through the difficult days. Sometimes you have to just put it all aside anyway, and drag some games out and just play. That's the beauty of homeschooling! Oh, and another things my little guy loves---doing his work in colored pencils. I don't mind, and it's usually a treat for him---think better handwriting, a better attitude with work, and a smile on the face. Priceless!!

Oh, I should have added...at the age of your child, I would definitely do phonics and math work every day. Those two things are very important, and shouldn't be skipped. Maybe on the second day you could work on reinforcing the phonics lesson from the day before.

One more thing I wanted to add...

At that age, I would check out lots of library books (picture books) and just read, read, read. I don't know which phonics program you use, but I would also make up some simple flashcards or type some simple words and sentences in large font, then work on these daily. You can also find some more supplemental math activities at Cathy Duffy's website. I think it's called "First Grade math without a textbook" -- lots of fun things to do in your spare time or for some extra fun. That, in addition to Carrie's activities should really give a good foundation to math.

we just do a page a day. If she feels like reading and it's a non reading Day I let her.
My dd1 is one that must be taught repeatedly, Her father has taken over math with her and he does MUS 3 times a week.
I want her to love learning, and yet with her teaching her it is so hard. She doesn't' take correction well at all.
I find going at a slower pace and being more relaxed really helps her know I love her.

In the early years my kid had speech therapy 3x a week and that added to the burden of school work required as I had up to 45 min of Speech work to do with her as well. So I took it really easy with the reading program and only did as much as she could get done in 15 min. I did Try in the beginning to do a lesson a day but I found she responded better to 15 min. Any thing over that 15 min she did not retain, and she would become very very obstinate.

I just wanted to speak to the one question about do you do Math and Phonics when you are going half speed. I have a child with special needs and I have learned when they are weak in one area that is the one you never skip. They can lose information so quickly even if all you do is go over what you did the day before I would at least do that in any subject that is core that they struggle. I guess I am really talking about phonics and Math. Also I find with my two little ones that do not have special needs they retain math well but when they are just getting going with phonics skipping so many days did not give us the retention we needed so we tended to do math at 1/2 pace but always did phonics when we were working HOD at half pace. Hope that makes sense and it is helpful!

we are using LHFHG and we started out doing the left hand page one day and the right hand page the next.That way we were balanced out.We did this just as we got up to running speed.we gradually increased more and more into our school day.

Sheila,

When we did LHFHG at half-speed, we also just did the left side of the page one day and the right side the next. We did do our phonics 4 days a week, however. For us, it worked fine to only do the handwriting and math every other day. It didn't seem to mess up the learning or cause any gaps, but we found the phonics needed more consistency.

Blessings,
Carrie