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I am wanting to start Lhfhg with my daughter who is half-way through kindergarten, an emerging reader. My son who is in pre-k, 4 years old and is just starting phonics. Do I need to get the first and kindergarten Basic and Economy packages? My son would only be doing the program 2 days a week b/c he's in Mother's Day Out. So he would be moving slower through the program. Is it really possible to keep them together or would i eventually be moving my daughter up to the BLH next year while my son stays with the LHFHG. Should I get the emerging readers set for my daughter now while she is doing Little Hearts or wait until she starts the Bigger Hearts? Thanks for you help!

Everyone on the board loves to help....we want everyone to love HOD as much as we all do! Your first step would be to study the placement chart on the HOD website.

A little more info. would be really helpful in placing your children in the correct programs...

How old is your dd? Has your dd done a complete phonics program and reading fluently? Where is she with her math skills? Will she be doing the program everyday? (and please give any other infor. you can think of..)

If your son is using the program only 2 days a week then it would probably take him about 2 years to finish Little Hearts. Have you considered placing him in Little Hands? Each of your children would need their own math, but I think you could easily use just one of the science texts...probably Our Father's World would work best.

The board is a little slow over the wked. but Carrie checks in very regularly and she will be able to give you the most help. It's been said on this board many times....the hardest part of the program is getting your child placed! It's easy breezy from there!

Hi! It's true, we all love to help
My first instinct would be to say they both would fit fine in Little Hearts, but I also agree more info would help. What do you mean when you say your daughter is an emerging reader? Is she reading books like those listed in the emerging reader package, or just short-vowel words? If she has not completed phonics, I would suggest she do that before tackling the emerging reader books. They range from mid 2nd to mid 3rd grade reading level. You could pick one of the phonics programs offered by Heart of Dakota and start wherever she seems to be ready for, then follow with the emerging readers after that is completed. You should probably use the Singapore Math placement test to determine the correct starting level for that, if you plan to use it.
For your son, if he is ready to be a bit formal, he could do Little Hearts with her, starting at the beginning of whatever phonics program you choose. Singapore Earlybird Math would probably be fine for him.
However, if you want to go more slowly with him, Little Hands to Heaven would be an option, too. It only takes 30 minutes a day or less, and includes a gentle introduction to letter sounds and early math skills. There are samples of both programs on the website.
Take a good look at the placement chart on the website http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
It is really helpful! If your daughters language and math skills are higher, you might even consider using Beyond Little Hearts just for her. I hope that helps, but let us know what you think after reviewing the placement chart. I have to say, I wish I had younger kids so they could get to use all the programs! My youngest two and I are loving Bigger Hearts

ccharley,

I'm just popping in here to say, "Welcome to the boards!" Melanie and blessedmomof4 gave you great advice. Once you check out the placement chart and get a chance to give us a little more information to answer Melanie's questions, we'll all be glad to chime in with suggestions.

We like to have a little more information before guiding you in one direction or another, so we don't guide you the wrong way!

I'll check back in later.

Blessings,
Carrie

It's so nice to meet you! And I would love to help too! This is not going to be hard, just a bit of fine-tuning, and we'll have you skipping happily down the HOD road of learning. Right off the top of my head, I'd say if your kiddos are far apart ability-wise, and you think they're going to have to be separate anyway, just do LHTH with your youngest, and LHFHG with your oldest. If keeping them together is important, we can easily help you make a few simple choices to use LHFHG with both of them. I'll be watching for your post and be sure to get back to you!

Now that I have a little more time, I'll weigh in here with some advice.

Since your dd is in the middle of "K" right now, her best placement would be in "Little Hearts for His Glory". On the days that your ds is home, he can ride along with her study in as many areas as fit him. If, after starting Little Hearts..." you feel that your son needs a program more tailored to him, you could always add "Little Hands..." on the days that he is home.

I would wait with the Emerging Reader Set until you use "Beyond..." or at least until your dd is finished with her phonics instruction. After your dd is done with "Little Hearts...", I would just move her into "Beyond...".

As far as combining your kiddos as they get older, you may be able to do that depending on how well your son listens to read-alouds and how far he has come with his reading and writing. When you move your dd onto "Beyond...", you could always have ds listen in for the history side of the plans and then use the "Little Hearts.." guide to teach him his language arts and math (since you'd have the guide already). So, it is possible to combine them depending on how they mature. But, you can't know that all now!

When you order "Little Hearts... ", you will need to order either the Kindergarten or the First Grade Economy and Basic packages. You will not need both kindergarten and first grade.

You will also need to make sure you have a handwriting, a phonics, and a Bible choice of some kind. We have those listed under "choices" on the right side of our packages page linked here (yellow box): http://www.heartofdakota.com/little-hearts-packages.php

If your dd is going to be using Singapore for math, it's best to begin with Earlybird Kindergarten Math 2A/2B (which has lessons in "Little Hearts..."). If you feel your dd is beyond those concepts, you can give her the placement test for Primary Math 1A and see if she's ready for it. 1A/1B is scheduled in the Appendix of "Little Hearts....". Here is that link for the Singapore placement test:
http://www.singaporemath.com/Placement_Test_s/86.htm

If you have any questions or would like help ordering, feel free to give me a call and I'll be glad to walk you through it. Blessedly ordering is the most difficult part, but it does help you customize the program to meet your kiddo's needs best. Once you've gotten the guide, the teaching is the easy and fun part!

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks so much for all of your help. Most of all for the encouragement of knowing that I will not be alone in all of this. This will be my daughters last week of public school and it has been an emotional rollercoaster making the decision to homeschool, as well as making some decisions to cut back my responsibilities with my part-time job. It's a BIG leap of faith, but I'm finally ready.
With all that being said, I think after your advice and going over the placement charts I can make a better decision. Here's more information:
My son who is four, his birthday is in July, and could start kindergarten in the fall. We have been leaning towards letting him wait a year before he's officially a kindergartner. But I guess with homeschooling that won't matter. I intend on having him do a K program. We are still undecided-- suggestions?
His handwriting-- his fine motor skills are yet developed. He still needs to do pre-handwriting activities. He really does try to concentrate to stay on lines, its just hard for him.

Phonics-he knows all of letter sounds and is starting to blend sounds. We just started dabbling in hooked on phonics K which he loves already. He asks me to do it, and is thrilled when he knows the words.

math- I haven't done any teaching in this, but he already recognizes numbers 1-100 written. This wasn't something I taught, he just caught onto. I think he will do really well in math once we start a formal program.

My daughter:
Handwriting/phonics- she loves to draw and write notes, cards, etc. She sounds out and writes easy words well. She has finished her sight words for kindergarten at school and completed hooked on phonics K a few months ago. I'm about to start another phonics program that is more in
depth. In school her teacher started her on books with "emergent reader level" books, whatever that means.

Math- she is right on the K level. Confuses 6 and 9 at times, but is chugging along.

So with that being said, here's what I'm thinking.
to do LHFHG with my daughter, and get books from the library to help her with reading. Wait until she gets through this next phonics program (Blumefield's, I think). I think I'll start with the K math.
With my son, I may get the Little Hands for him and let him join in with dh whenever he wants. I really would prefer to keep them together, but if my ds doesn't complain his way out of MDO once he's sees that his sister is staying home, that could work. Is this going to be hard to do with them in different programs? I think they could do math together. I also have a very active 15 month son, so I am nervous
Thanks again for your help! Let me know if I'm on track.

I just wanted to say welcome. I have six so usually I am all for combining. I have two using LHFG and 4 older kids using Bigger. One of my four using Bigger has special needs and is reading delayed so she is using the Emrging reader program. We just started Bigger and love it. We have been using LHFG and love it also.

My girls in LHFG are 4 in a few months and 6 next month. The older reads Bob's Books short vowel level. She does copy work on her own is very self motivated and would do school 24/7 if I would. My younger is very school oriented as well. She is using The Reading Lesson Carrie has on her site and it is perfect for her. My other is on a different track and uses something else. So separate Math and LA are key for me. The rest combines well. BUT having said all that I would not be combining them if they were not on the same I love school and want to do it every waking hour of the day when we are not finding something else to get into path. I think my youngest is sort of unusually motivated maybe because she is part of a big family and does not want to be left out. So what I am saying is for me it is phonics level and motivation/ attention span level. My older of the two is the one that has the shortest attention span so it works well to keep them together and move slow. It also is really very easy to run two programs with HOD and I am doing that and also have a different level in there as well. I really would not hesitate to at this point go with where they are at. We are using the Emerging reading set with my child that is learning delayed. Even though my other child is doing great I would not be using that until she is really solidly ready for Beyond so we are moving slowly through LHFG to make sure that is the case.

Last a little disclaimer. I am not sure I followed everything completely. I am not the most experienced mom here with HOD. My biggest experience is I guess with juggling things. So if what I said goes against anything Carrie said know that I am just flat out wrong But I did want to just offer what I have found from my own that are young.

The best experience for your child will be the best experience for you. So combine if it is best for them and I would not at this point if you feel in your gut that it is not the best for them. What ever you decide you will love HOD!

ccharley,

I think your plan below sounds just great:

to do LHFHG with my daughter, and get books from the library to help her with reading. Wait until she gets through this next phonics program (Blumefield's, I think). I think I'll start with the K math.
With my son, I may get the Little Hands for him and let him join in with dh whenever he wants.

I agree that they could do math together. You may want to order 2 sets of the Earlybird Kindergarten Math if your son is going to do the writing too. If not, you'll only need one set. It's not hard to do 2 of our programs. Quite a few of us do that and Drawn into the Heart of Reading too!

Little Hands only takes 30 minutes or less each day. Little Hearts .. only takes 90 min. or less each day (including time spent on phonics). So, even with both programs, you'd be at 2 hours of school each day at the most!

I think you'll be surprised how quickly you'll be done even with a little one running around.

The moms on the board are so good about uplifting and encouraging one another. So, they'll be glad to help with any advice!

Blessings,
Carrie

Hi Ccharley!

You can totally do LHTH and LHFHG at the same time, even with a toddler! I've done LHTH twice now, and it truly only took me 20-30 minutes a day. I'm doing LHFHG for the second time around now, and it takes me maybe a the most 1 1/2 hours a day. I think you will find doing both of these programs very easy. They may not take long, but rest assured they are complete programs. Carrie just has a great way of managing time and activities well. The guides also make teaching very simple. They don't have to be read beforehand, just open them up each morning and start teaching.

Also, whenever your daughter is done with phonics and ready for the HOD Emerging Reader Set, I would just get the Beyond... guide and start her on the Emerging Reader Set schedule and questions. That is what we did. We just did the Emerging Reader's Set in the middle of our LHFHG year, doing all the rest of the LHFHG guide as it is written, along with the Emerging Reader's part in Beyond... It was an effortless transition! Does that help you out at all?

Thank-you for all of your help. It's so wonderful to know you have support! I'm going to order and I'll let you know how things go. Friday is my daughter's official last day of school!! I'm excited to know she will be starting with such a great curriculum, and that I have friends to help me through
Blessings,
Christina