heartofdakota.com

Hello
just wanted to introduce myself. i have been using HOD for a couple year. Little Hands with my son and now my daughter. currently using Little hearts for my son.
i also am wondering how to combine my two older children. they would technically only be 1 yr apart if in school outside the home. i am trying to figure out where to start so that it is not too hard for my daughter, yet still challenging for my son. i look forward to exchanging thoughts about HOD experiences.


i have a 5 1/2yr old son
4 yr old daughter
15 month daughter

Just wanted to say Hi and welcome...Also are you thinking you want to maybe have your dd do Little Hearts with your son?

yes i was thinking of somehow keeping them together in Little Hearts. my son is taking it slowly thru Little Hearts, and we go a little bit more steady thru the little Hands with my daughter. i was thinking when i got to the little hearts book with her i could start on the left page and not worry so much of right side of the page and just come back to that later.
my daughter will usually do the Rhyme Time with my son, has done the science and other discovery type stuff, and even practiced memorizing the verse. it is a little harder for her to listen to the Bible/History portion. she can't listen for that long. i do do feel silly at times reading two separate Bible excerpts when they are so close in age. i am wondering if when she finshes the Little Hands , just jump into where my son is at. i guess i felt like she would be "missing out" on something if i did that, yet as long as she was doing something, how can she be missing out? i just don't want to get things too over her head . that would not be right.

She is halfway thru the little hands , and my son is on Unit 13 in little hearts.i thought maybe even i will just work on the side of the page wtih phonics, math, etc. with him, that way when his sister catches up she won't be missing so much of the history portion. My son even wants to do some of my daughter's stuff even though he has done is already.

Wow , i think the more i am writing about this , i think i am figuring out how it might work. if i can just get them on the history,science ,together.,.. the other things they will be at their own level phonics, math, writing.and that won't matter..

we will see.. in Fall i would think daughter would definately be done with Little Hands.

I like your idea...just do the right side with your son and let him be part of LHTH with sister, since he is enjoying it. Do you mean lay down Little hearts until dd & ds are done with LHTH? I think that would be fine. Then you would be able to group them in Little Hearts and your daugther would probably be able to sit and listen better. Just keep moving your son along with his math, phonics and writing. You would be able to combine forever with this plan This is how my two oldest work. They are only 18 months apart and back to back grades. We group for everything but math, phonics, and reading. I pray this plan works for you. It is nice to be able to combine dc especially when they are sooo close in age and ablility I am already trying to figure out how to combine my last two who are two years apart in age and school....Hopefully since youngest is a girl she will be ready to keep up with her brother....

I wanted to say hi and welcome. I'm going to be doing LHFHG with my dd this Fall. We tried it last year but kind of didn't work. Hopefully it will this coming year.

Jenntracy - Welcome to the HOD Board! It sounds like you and your dc are having a great start to homeschooling with HOD. Little Hands to Heaven gave such a happy beginning to homeschooling our dc too. I'm thinking over your questions and would love to help you with this decision, but it would be great if you could please check out the placement chart. That chart has been very accurate in placing our own dc, and I think if we all knew a bit about each of your dc's 3 R's that would help us advise you better. When you look at the chart, pay closest attention to age and the very first page of the chart. Then, if you could share about those areas here for each of your dc, and where each of your dc place individually right now, we'll all find a nice setup for combining them. Here is a link to the chart:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

In Christ,
Julie

ok here goes... i think i already said this but

i am using LHTH for my dd who is 4 . we are halfway thru.
i using LHFHG for my ds who is 5 1/2 . we are on Unit 13.

my daughter places in the LHTH for all categories except for the writing. she is more in the LHFHG for that.

my son would be placed in LHFHG in the grammar and math areas. for the Reading and Writing he could be placed in the BLHFHG.

i hope this is what you meant. i am really debating whether to keep them seperate or somehow combine them at some point. they love doing so many things together . they are only 16 1/2 months apart.

jenntracy wrote:ok here goes... i think i already said this but

i am using LHTH for my dd who is 4 . we are halfway thru.
i using LHFHG for my ds who is 5 1/2 . we are on Unit 13.

my daughter places in the LHTH for all categories except for the writing. she is more in the LHFHG for that.

my son would be placed in LHFHG in the grammar and math areas. for the Reading and Writing he could be placed in the BLHFHG.

i hope this is what you meant. i am really debating whether to keep them seperate or somehow combine them at some point. they love doing so many things together . they are only 16 1/2 months apart.

Thanks, Jen! That does help so much. I think I'd keep going with LHTH full-speed with your daughter. It fits her well, she's young, and she's not ready for LHFHG in any area except writing. I do think I'd get her either A Reason for Handwriting K or Italic A since she must be writing fairly well, and that will keep her writing her letters and get her ready to join her brother when she's done with LHTH. I'd slow down your ds, doing LHFHG 4 days a week. My thinking here is that when your dd finished LHTH (which will be before your ds finishes LHFHG), she can join him for the left side of LHFHG at that point. She can also just listen in on the Storytime plans of LHFHG. But instead of doing the right side of LHFHG with your ds, she could then just finish up her handwriting book and work on phonics to strengthen those skills to get ready to join her brother.

If this is going well, when you finish LHFHG, you could combine your ds and dd in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory for the left side of the plans. Then, your ds would do the right side of Beyond for his LA and math, and your dd would do the right side of LHFHG for her LA and math (she would just use the next level of handwriting then). You could choose to either do separate Storytime read-alouds for them, or you could combine them for the Beyond Storytime read-alouds if your dd can listen attentively to chapter books at that point.

That's what I'm thinking so far. Others may have more ideas. I'm trying to come up with a plan where the 2 can meet in the middle happily, and then be on a nice pace to combine for all but LA and math. After you've thought this over and read more posts, be sure to pop back in and share what you are thinking. We love to help each other out until a plan forms you can get excited about!

In Christ,
Julie

i was thinking along those lines. i sat down last night and tried to figure out something that might work.

i had also thought that maybe i would skip the left side of LHFHG with dd and do something like Explorer's Bible Study (for 2-5) while i just continue on with the left side for ds. then when ds is ready for the BLHFHG left side we will join them together. only thing is that she would miss out on all those good stories in the history part starting at units 19, but at this point i don't think she is ready to listen that long for a story and in another year she probably would be and would be fine with goingto BLHFHG's left side. she really wouldn't be missing out too much, just doing something different andmaybe it would be more on her level by doing Explore bible study at that age instead of LHFHG.... i am not sure. Either way may work.

thanks so much for your input. it takes a lot of thinking on my part. and i am very visual. so i am writing it down in sort of a time-line fashion so i can "see" what we could possibly do.

Jenn

jenntracey,

The ladies are doing a great job of helping you sort through possible options. I agree that your daughter should finish LHTH based on the information that you shared. It will really help set up a strong foundation for skill readiness in all areas.

Once your daughter finishes LHTH, I'd love to have you post again, so we can see where she's at and also where her brother is at in LHFHG. That will really help us see best what the next step would be. I do like my3son's option of slowing down LHFHG to 4 days a week (to allow your daughter a bit of time to potentially catch up with your son).

Blessings,
Carrie