HI! - Intro + questions

[kerby]

Hello, all!

I am considering HOD and have been prompted to come here. I am thinking about what to use and even have a tentative plan but would love some input.

I have 4 dc, the 2 oldest are beyond HOD at this point so I am not focused on them for here. The younger 2 are 4.5 + 6.5, they have July b-days. I waited a yr for dd to start K so she will be going into 1rst this fall. Ds will wait a yr to start K as well (at least techinically) so I am focusing on doing a K4-type program w/ him.

I have looked at LHTH but ds knows all his letters and their sounds. I also won't be surprised if he's startng some blending by fall so I think he will be beyond it. So, my thought was to use Little...Glory for 2 yrs w/ ds. I like the CLP materials that are used so I thought I would use their K material for science and history the first yr and then the 1rst gr material (that's in the manual) for his K5 yr. If I do this, is there a plan for using their K material?

Then I think I will use Beyond... for dd. I don't mind using 2 programs. I had tried to combine my olders this yr and am struggling w/ it. I had wanted this to work and am not sure if it's me or just not good for us. (I don't know if this info helps or not.)

Any thoughts?
K

[water2wine]

Any thoughts?
K

Well ya! Just one. Yeah! You are here! I know you will get great answers from these ladies! Welcome future fellow HODie Ok still deciding....I know, hehehe!

[kerby]

I was wondering when you would "see" me!

[Tansy]

Welcome Kerby,
I can't be much help I only have one kid at home at the moment.
I did want to say Welcome!

[beandip71]

I think you could use Little Hearts for 2 years. I think there is another thread about this on the board. Also, I just wanted to say Hi and welcome. I'm glad the gals on HSR got you to come over here.

Gina

[MamaMary]

Hi Kerby! How did I miss your post!? I am so excited to see your face. I'm no help at all, just a newbie, but had to run over and cyber smooch your cheek

[marypoppins]

Hi Kerby! Just another HSR friend waving hello!

((Ladies, we are starting to sound like HOD "groupies", especially water2wine, LOL!! ))

[Melanie]

W2W....too funny! I went to college with a wonderful guy whose nickname was Hodie! (His real name was Ho Don, he was adopted as an infant from Korea.)

Kerby...Hi and welcome! This is a really great place to be with lots of great ladies with one thing in common...we all love HOD!

Your plan sounds just fine. All the schedules for using the first grade materials are in the appendix. I'm using Little Hearts with a k'er and two 1st gr's this year and it's working great. With yours being 2 years or more apart, it would probably work out to seperate them. My three are only 15 mo. apart and "Katie-bar-the-door" if we try to leave one out of anything!

HOD materials are written in such a way that they work for all family styles...seperating or combining.

Welcome and we hope you will give HOD at try!

[water2wine]

Hey I did not see you were asking the same thing I posted about using LHFG. We are on the same path! I have been looking at that heavily for the past couple of days. She has a whole section of optional Reading and History linked by unit in the appendix. It has a lot of History and Biblical History in it. I have been going through and looking at the books and they look awesome. I am surprised to find many at my library.

So now I hope Carrie does chime in. But here are the two options I am thinking.
1 Do it the way it is one year. And do a second year with the higher level Science, The Ergermeier's Story Bible and some of the other things that are in the appendix listed by unit.

2. Do one long time through doing the same but going through just one time and letting it take us the entire 1 1/2 - 2 years. That way I would do 1 page as written but add some of the Appendix material and the next day do the other side the same way.

I am leaning toward option 2 and for us we would just back track a little to get on track with that. My reason is I am thinking it will give them deeper learning and still be easy for them. Then that get's my littlest on track to where Beyond will probably be on target for her capabilities yet not too easy for my now almost 6 year old. We school year round so it works out for us.

Disclaimer is I am looking at it now as we speak and deciding. I was going one page one day and the other the next and only doing both when they begged. But now they are begging to do both. So...

But that really is what I guess others do is left side of the page day one and then the right side the other day, And that is I think most peoples first option.

I do hope Carrie steps in here though.

[Carrie]

Hi Kerby! Welcome to the boards. From what you've shared, it does sound like your 4.5 year old would be beyond the skills covered in "Little Hands..." which means "Little Hearts.." is the best placement for him.

For your 6.5 year old it sounds like "Little Hearts..." or "Beyond..." would be a good fit. Choosing between the two really depends on how well she is reading and writing and on whether she will be using the Singpapore Math scheduled in our guides. If you haven't had a chance to check out our placement chart, here is the link:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

The chart is really helpful in pinning down correct program placement.

If you do your little guy in "Little Hearts..." and your dd in "Beyond...", it is a great idea to stretch "Little Hearts..." out over 2 years, taking it at a steady pace. As water2wine mentioned, we are currently doing this with our young 5 year old by doing the left side of the plans for LHFHG one day (along with phonics) and the right side the next.

As to the other option you mentioned...It would be tough to go through the LHFHG program once and then redo the program again the next year with the first grade options, because all of the activities and Bible memory work would all be the same. So, that wouldn't be very exciting. So, from my perspective it is easier to stretch LHFHG than it is to redo it.

LHFHG takes approximately 90 minutes a day (45 or less when doing half each day). "Beyond..." takes about 2 hours or so each day including everything. So, that will help give you an idea of how long our programs take.

I hope this helps. Feel free to post other questions. The ladies on this board are so helpful and encouraging!

Blessings,
Carrie

[water2wine]

Hey Kerby now you got me straightened out too.

[my3sons]

Hi Kerby! So glad you are here! I think you could easily do Little Hearts... spaced out over two years, doing the left side of the plans one day, the right side of plans the next day. We did that this school year with my son until just this week, which now we began to do both sides each day. This is an easy transition, so if you begin to feel your ds is ready for this at any point, you can certainly just begin doing both sides. We'll take 1 1/2 years to go through LHFHG then. I think it would be better to just begin doing more of LHFHG when he's ready, then to do it over twice.

As far as Beyond..., we did that last year, and as Carrie said, it takes about 2 hours. I think you will easily be able to do both LHFHG and BLHFHG at the same time. We've always found the placement chart to be right on for placing our children correctly, so if you look that over, and feel ds places in LHFHG and dd places in BLHFHG - go for it!

I think you will totally enjoy these programs. We love doing school, and have been so happy with each year of doing HOD. We're doing Bigger... right now (as well as LHFHG and DITHOR), and Bigger... is a super follow-up to Beyond..., so you've got that to look forward to. Hope that helps! These ladies gave some great encouragement here. Let us all know what's going on! Love to hear your thoughts on all this - have a super day!

[kerby]

I guess I will just have to look it over when I get it. I don't think he will mind redoing some things as it will be a yr later. Also, I have other Bible things I can use. I will keep doing it in 2 yrs in mind as that might be good, too. I honestly don't know if ds will let me slow it down.

K

[Candice]

kerby,

Hello and welcome!

Candice