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I will be starting to HS in the fall. My two younger children will be doing LHTH together...they will be age 5 (ds) and 3 (dd). I would like to keep them together through school if possible. Next year I am also planning to add phonics (The Reading Lesson), Earlybird math, K Science, R&S workbooks and K Handwriting from Little Hearts for my ds. Then the following year I am planning to do Little Hearts at half speed, with my son using the first grade options and my dd using Kindergarten. It would take 2 years, and then they would be the correct ages to move on through the rest of the programs together.

My main question is what to do instead of phonics for my ds during the 2 years they are in Little Hearts. I doubt he would need 3 years of phonics...well, I hope not anyway! Would we just do some easy readers together, or gradually move into the emerging readers in Beyond? I don't know why I am worrying about this now! I guess I'm a planner.

Thanks for your wisdom!

Hi
I am certain that there will be lots of great answers to your question.

I was in a similar situation. I am doing LHFHG with my 6 year old, with my 4 year old sort of tagging along . When I started I had already done up to program 2 with hooked on phonics, so my 6 y/old had done quiet a bit of Phonics (was a bit too far along to go back to another phonics program, but still not reading really well). So now I have started a collection of emerging readers (ones I have picked up 2nd hand on the classified websites etc). I usually do one reader with her until she can read it without too many mistakes (we normally read it once a day, for a few days) I find this helpful because she is reading lots of simple little readers, getting lots of practise and growing in confidence. I still review her "sight words" regularly using games etc so they become more and more familar to her as they are often in the readers, I am finding that using these readers, she is getting more and more confident all the time with her reading. I am not exactly sure what I will do after this, but I am hoping to use this type of method for a while, then perhaps do some fun English workbooks until we are ready to on with Beyond next year.

Anyway, I have no idea if i am doing the "right"thing, (whatever that is!!) But it was what I felt was a good idea as my daughter seemed to line up with all the other areas of the placement chart for LHFHG except for the phonics. We are loving LHFHG and it works really well with my 4 and 6 year old to do it together, so much fun!!!!

Anyway, I look forward to hearing other peoples responses too : -)

I hope this helps

Love Deb

My best advice is to move into the Emerging Readers from Beyond. If you were not already aware, the Beyond manual has comprehension questions to go along with the Emerging Readers. I was quite unsure about the purpose of the Emerging Readers until I read about the follow-up questions and then it clivked. The Emerging Readers are designed to move your child gently from an Emerging Reader to an independant reader, which is really cool as far as I am concerned. The more i read about what Heart of Dakota has to offer, the less I want to look elsewhere for curriculum.

Blessings, Nancy

Tammy,

The ladies are so wise in their advice, aren't they! I would recommend using the right side of the plans from Beyond with your older child, when you get to LHFHG. So, you would be doing the Emerging Reader's Set from the Appendix of Beyond with your older child (which is a year-long schedule of readings with questions), the spelling lists in the Appendix of Beyond, and the math 1A/1B hands-on lessons in Beyond. You would still be combining your kiddos for the left side of LHFHG and for Storytime from the right side of LHFHG, but you'd be giving your older child what is needed in the areas of language arts and math. Your younger child would do all of LHFHG as written.

Clear as mud?

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you all so much for the great advice!! I have the Beyond Manual for my oldest dd to start in the fall and I looked at the emerging readers section in the appendix...I didn't even know it was there!

Thanks again!