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Hi! I'm new..I've been reading the boards for a few days and have been drawn to this curriculum. I always pictured myself as a textbook homeschooler, but I am very interested in HOD. It seems like a great way to really get involved with your children. My children are still too young for school but I'm always looking and pondering what I'm going to use w/ them. I have a DD and DS and they are 15 months apart. I would like to keep them together in EVERY subject if that is possible. After reading some of the posts it seems to me most people use LHTH for preschool and Little Hearts for Kindergarten. Is it possible to use LHTH for K and LIttle Hearts for first? I thought by doing this I could do K when my DS was 4 and DS was 5. That way they would be 5 and 6 for 1st and my DS wouldn't be so young. Has anyone done something simlar to this? Sorry for the rambling post...since it was my first post I thought I should give a little introduction.

Thanks so much,
Tiffany

Hi Tiffany,

I have two kids that are 2 dc that are 13 months apart, and a ds that is 3.5 years old. I am kind of in the same situation that you are. I did LHFHG when my two oldest were 4.5 and 5.5, and it worked out great. But, when they move on to Beyond this fall, I will have to slow down a little bit, so the younger can catch up, skill wise. We plan on doing 4 days a week. That way, we will finish school with about 7 weeks left of Beyond. The following year, we will start with the rest of Beyond and then move on to Bigger. Hope I didn't confuse you there.
I totally think that you could do them in LHTH when they are 4 and 5 for K. It might make the progression through out each level easier--- In my opinion, it's easier to teach when they are close in their skills. To make it more of a K curriculum, you could add in the LHFHG K Thinking Skills,(Finding the Answers and Do It Carefully), Earlybird 2A and 2B, and K handwriting. You could add the LHFHG K science too if you wanted. Then, when you actually got to the LHFHG for 1st Grade you could do all the first grade options. Does that make sense?
I am trying to decide what to do with my ds too. His birthday is in August, so I could go either way for K... put him in LHTH when he's 5, and do the K part of LHFHG. Or, wait and start him in LHFHG, when he just turns 6 for his K year.
It's kind of hard to decide, I know. You will have to let me know what you go with. It helps to know someone else who has kids so close together!

LeAnna

You could absolutely do that! My youngest 2 are 16 months apart and plan to keep them together (although they will likely be a year apart in math... I may keep them together for reading, but that will depend on whether the older one is ready to take off with reading earlier or not). My tenative plan is to start LHTH with them when they are 3 and 4, but stretch it out over two years. Then they will be 5 and 6 (or maybe late 4 and just turning 6) when we do LHFHG.

LeAnna wrote:Hi Tiffany,

I have two kids that are 2 dc that are 13 months apart, and a ds that is 3.5 years old. I am kind of in the same situation that you are. I did LHFHG when my two oldest were 4.5 and 5.5, and it worked out great. But, when they move on to Beyond this fall, I will have to slow down a little bit, so the younger can catch up, skill wise. We plan on doing 4 days a week. That way, we will finish school with about 7 weeks left of Beyond. The following year, we will start with the rest of Beyond and then move on to Bigger. Hope I didn't confuse you there.
I totally think that you could do them in LHTH when they are 4 and 5 for K. It might make the progression through out each level easier--- In my opinion, it's easier to teach when they are close in their skills. To make it more of a K curriculum, you could add in the LHFHG K Thinking Skills,(Finding the Answers and Do It Carefully), Earlybird 2A and 2B, and K handwriting. You could add the LHFHG K science too if you wanted. Then, when you actually got to the LHFHG for 1st Grade you could do all the first grade options. Does that make sense?
I am trying to decide what to do with my ds too. His birthday is in August, so I could go either way for K... put him in LHTH when he's 5, and do the K part of LHFHG. Or, wait and start him in LHFHG, when he just turns 6 for his K year.
It's kind of hard to decide, I know. You will have to let me know what you go with. It helps to know someone else who has kids so close together!

LeAnna

LeAnna,
Yes, that makes perfect since to put the K workbooks w/ LHTH and then do the first grade option with LHFHG. Hopefully, Lord willingly, I will have more children so I wanted to keep these two together to make it easy, so when the others start school I wouldn't have to have so many grades going at once. I know what you mean..I don't know many people in real life that have kids as close in age as mine. Most people think I'm crazy!

Yes you can do this.
I'm going to be doing LHFHG for grade 1. Tried this year for K but most of it was over my dd's head. I'm planning on doing LHTH with my son for K, in 2 years though, along with The World God Made for science, The Reading Lesson, and maybe the 2 Rod & Staff workbooks.

My son is finishing K this year and we are making the switch to HOD next year. I plan to use LHFHG with the first grade option books for science and math and we will figure out where he falls in phonics and probably use RME with ETC worksheets or RME worksheets if it looks like they will work for us. Probably around Dec we will start with the emerging readers as well...probably at a slower pace.

My kids are 3 1/2 yrs apart...I wish they were closer so I could put them together. When she's ready for LHTH my ds will probably be able to work on WS independently when I work with her. For now she is content to sit on the floor and look at books or color alongside us when we are doing his school...

Welcome
Kirstin

Welcome to HOD, Tiffany!
I have a similar situation to yours. I'm using LHTH plus the right side of LHFHG for kindergarten with my 5yr old. We just started in Jan, and we are LOVING it! I love the quality time that I share with him thru these programs. I also have an almost 4yr old. My boys are 19 months apart but I wanted them in the same guide since they seem quite compatable. I plan on using LHFHG fully next year for both of them. My 5yr old will at that point be 6 and using the 1st grade options in Math and R&S and Science. We do the story time from LHFHG now, so next year I plan to use the boy story time option from Beyond. (The classical option from Beyond requires a little more of the listener from what I recall). HOD has afforded us such a rich experience, I am so grateful to have found it and to be using it from the very beginning with my little ones. I am sure you will love it when the time comes!!

Blessings!!
Victoria

Tiffany - Welcome to the HOD board! I agree that you could do LHTH with the 2 of them for K, adding in the extra K options from LHFHG (like Do It Carefully/Finding the Answers and the Earlybird Math). You could also begin phonics with your older child, which might eliminate comparisons if they're not learning to read at the same pace. I guess I don't know if it would be easier to do phonics with 2 dc at once, or with 1 at a time doing the oldest the first year and the youngest the next year. You'll probably be able to tell which would work best as you go along. Then, for first grade you can do LHFHG with the first grade options.

In Christ,
Julie

Tiffany,

It sounds like the ladies have helped you talk through a great plan, so I'll just pop-in to say, "Welcome"! We're glad you're here!

Blessings,
Carrie

I just wanted to add that I used LHTH for my ds5 for Kindergarten and we did not add anything. Just the LHTH as written. It was plenty. He is active and busy and slow with fine motor skills and it was our first year homeschooling, so it was right on target for us at his age. We're moving right into LHFHG for first grade this Spring with only a 2-3 week break between programs. I plan to school year-round at this early age. I will also use the K add on books like handwriting and math, because that is his level even though I'm reporting 1st grade to the state. Really, what grade they're in fades away in importance it's more about what level they can learn at.

I think it depends a lot on if your children are boys or girls and how they perform academically. I have twin girls that are not at the same place with interests and abilities but are much farther ahead of my ds at their age (almost 3). So for them, I will probably start LHTH at age 4. My ds does not like bookwork while the girls are showing much interest in things such as coloring that he still does not enjoy.

Hope this helps,