heartofdakota.com

My friend told me about your curiculum and I LOVE it. My daughter is 5 and is just finishing up her Kindergarten work with me (which wasn't your curicullum) - but, we will be starting your material in the Fall. I am not sure what to get though. My daughter will be 6 in July and she already completed Horizon Phonics and their K Math program (which was extrememly intensive!). I also have a new baby due in Sept and have 4 and 3 year olds, as well. So, in total - in the fall, I will have a 6, 4, 3 and newborn.
I'm wondering - should I get your "Little Hearts for His Glory" book or the "Beyond" one? My daughter seems to place in the 2nd book (the "Beyond" one)- but I wanted to do it with the other kids, as well. Will the 'beyond' book be perfect for my 1st grader but too much for my 4 and 3 year olds? And, since the "little hearts for His glory" book is within her age group - I am not sure which one I should start her off with? I am just not sure ... ???
Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Generally, you'd want to use the placement chart to place her. http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
If you are looking to combine them, Little Hearts is the way to go since Beyond will be too much for the younger ones. Then depending on where your 6 yr old places, you may end up doing the LA and math sections (the right side of the page) out of the Beyond manual.

I spend several hours going over the placement charts, etc - and she does place in the "Beyond Little Hearts" - but I wasn't sure if the one before that would be okay to use too (since we didn't do it yet) and since I want my 3 and 4 year olds to participate, as well ??

You could always do Little Hands to Heaven with your 3 and 4 year old and do Beyond with your 6 year old. The guides are written so well that you don't have much to do to prepare.
Success with the baby.

I would probably go with Beyond since that is where she places. Then if you wanted to combine the 2 younger ones into Little Hands, they could continue to work together throughout the years. By placing them all in Little Hearts, your 6 yr old and 4 yr old would be ok this year, but your 4 yr old (then 5) might have a harder time with Beyond next year. So if it were me, I'd place the 2 younger ones together since they are closer in age and let the oldest do her own program.

Amy-
Looks like we are in the same boat. I am finishing K with my son, but used Saxon for Math and Phonics as well as another "unit" study and switching to HOD for first grade next year. I will send you the information that Carrie just sent me. It will probably answer a lot of your questions. I will try to get it out to you tonight either on this post or I will PM you...

Welcome!...though I'm not officially a HOD-e yet!!...I've fallen in love with it already.

I will tell you I went ahead and ordered the Early bird Singapore Math and Science (K level because I wanted to look over it to make sure we would transition to 1st grade ok) and I figured I wasn't out anything because I will use the material for my dd when she is ready for K.

Kirstin

If I were you I would do Beyond with your 6 year old if that is where she places best by looking at the placement chart. I have heard from people the doing more than one guide at a time... even 3 at a time is very doable with HOD. It's actually easier (from my understanding) to place all of your children correctly then it is to try and "tweak" a program when it is not a perfect fit. I currently just started my 4.5 year old in LHFHG, and I have a 2 and a 1 year old that I will later be combining. I am also hoping to have more children, so there is a definite possibility that at some point I could easily have 3 different guides going all at the same time. I have looked extensively at HOD though, and I'm convinced that it really will be doable. Each guide builds on previous guides and the children gradually get more independent. Also, LHTH would be such a great fit for your 3 and 4 year old this year!!! It will not take you long to do in addition to Beyond, just another 20 minutes or so each day, and your 6 year old would probably have fun joining in on that as well (it really is a LOT of fun). That would be my suggestion.

Oh, and welcome!!!

I agree with Crystal. I would place the younger 2 in Little Hands to Heaven, and your older child in Beyond, if that is where she places best. It is easier to do 2 programs. LHTH only takes about 30-45 minutes! And, like Crystal said, while combining them in Little Hands might work ok for your younger 2 if you water it down, as they move up in the levels, the younger 2 will be less likely to be able to "keep up" with the curriculum as it gets more difficult. I have not used Beyond yet, but Little Hearts takes us about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to complete, depending on how "distracted" they are! And, that includes doing seperate phonics with each of them and extra math for practice for the one who needs it.

I was going to go against what everyone else was saying because I did both my 1st and kindergartener this year in LHFHG (even though my 1st grader could have easily done BLHFHG) and they both thoroughly loved it and never felt like it was too "little" for him. This year we will all do BLHFHG together, and continue to keep on the same level together.

However, seeing that you have two little ones that are closer in age I too would recommend that you do your daughter seperate (allow them to listen in on whatever they wish) but would do LHTH for the little ones' curriculum. I don't think it wise to hold your oldest back so that your 3 year old can participate with her. If you kept on that path, then by the time your 3 year old was actually school age she would be doing Preparing in Kindergarden and wouldn't have anything to look forward to herself, not to mention the fact that THAT would be too much!!!

AS all the other ladies have said, I would go with Little Hands for your younger ones and Beyond for your 5 year-old. Because your youngest is only 3, you may want to us LHTH at half speed, that is inly do a page a day, you would only have to spend about 15 minutes a day, which would leave you plenty of time for your oldest. Alternatively, you could do LHFHG with the 4 and 6 year-old, depending on where your 4 year -old fits, the program is very rich and you dc would need to have the appropiate skills or it would be frustrating for both of you. If you combined the 4 & 6 year-olds, you could also purchase the Beyond guide and use the right side of the guide (learning the basics) with the 6 year-old. you have a lot tp think about, best wishes and Godspeed.

Nancy

Thanks so much for all of your help - I appreciate your thoughts - I didn't think of many things that you offered up. I am still not 100% for sure what I'm going to do - but I am much closer than I was before. The idea of doing the younger two (3&4 year old's) together and separate from my 1st grader is such a great idea - I just don't want my 1st grader to miss the 'history' from the LHFHG section. I probably won't do the younger two 'officially' until next year (when they are 4&5) ... so, that's having my 1st grader miss out on the history section for this year and next year (from LHFHG). Hmmm - so much to consider and decide ...

amyforhim,

It's wise to consider the many factors that the ladies have already mentioned. I also think it's good to consider whether you wish for your child to be on the youngest age range of our guides (which works well for a very academic, self-motivated early writer/reader/listener and verbal learner) or whether you'd rather have your child be on the middle age range of our guides (which works well in giving kiddos needed time to mature into the skills and is a good confidence booster) as you go through the years.

Our first two guide are meant to be gentler, focusing on the 3R's. However there is a jump in skills when you get to Bigger Hearts and Preparing Hearts and a jump in skills and independence when you get to CTC that you will want to consider when choosing the best placement for your child in the long-term.

I tend to err on the side of making sure kiddos have every chance for success, meaning I lean toward placing kiddos in the middle to upper range of our programs. However, with my own firstborn kiddo, I kept him on the early range for everything. He has done fine as well.

I agree that for the long-range combining your 3 and 4 year old together is a good plan. It would work well to combine them in LHTH for the upcoming year. So, most likely the best way to decide on placement for your almost 6 year old, would be to remove the 3 and 4 year olds from your plan for now and purely consider your almost 6 year old. Where does that child fit best for the long-range, all combining scenarios aside? I ask, because it sounds like your 6 year old could truly do LHFHG or Beyond this upcoming year.

Blessings,
Carrie