heartofdakota.com

Hello Everyone! I have spent hours upon hours researching various homeschool curriculums, etc. & feel very blessed to have found HOD! It seems wonderful, exciting, fun & just what I was looking for. As a former Preschool teacher with an Early Childhood and Elementary degree- and now being the mom to 4 (soon to be 5) young children, I feel confident that HOD is the direction God is leading us in the years to come. I do have a few questions for you, so I will tell you a little bit about my family to see if you can help me out...

*Twin 4 1/2 year-old daughters (5 in October)- both know their letter names and sounds & are beginning to read very basic words- they are practicing writing both upper & lower case letters (usually in "letters" to their friends)- they are not ready for formal grammar study yet- & they know some basic math concepts...
*3 year-old daughter- learning letter names & sounds & excited to try to write her name
*1 year-old son- likes watching his big sisters
*Daughter due early September

With the ages & stages that my children are at, I am hoping to combine as much as possible without someone getting too bored or someone falling behind, so here are my thoughts for the next few years...

2009-2010- Use LHTH with my 3 and 4 1/2 year olds- using the younger children options- as well as encouraging the 4 1/2 year olds to continue in their phonics instruction according to their interests & maybe some handwriting
2010-2011- Use LHTH with my then 5 1/2, 4 & 2 year olds (although the 2-year old will mostly listen in, as I would like to do it again with him & his little sister when they are older)- this time using the older children options & adding on the Language Arts & Math from LHFHG & more advanced phonics for the 2 oldest.
2011-2012- Use LHFHG with my then 6 1/2 & 5 year olds- adding on the Language Arts & Math from Beyond for the 2 oldest.

I have also thought of doing just 1 year with LHTH and them taking 2 years to do LHFHG, but I don't think my then 4 year-old will be ready for it yet (even though my then 5 1/2 year-olds I feel would be ready). With 2 more coming up quickly behind them, I would like to do my best to combine the older few & the younger couple to make everything go a little bit more smoothly.

So, I guess my main question is if this seems like it would work? Or are there any other options I am not thinking of?
I was also wondering how much of the fine arts, health & phy. ed. are included in LHFHG and the other programs?

Thank-you for reading through this long message; I am sure I will have many more questions along the way, but I look forward to many exciting days with HOD!

Welcome to the boards. You'll find the ladies here are friendly and helpful. I don't see anything wrong with doing LHTH this year with the olders, but you'll need to reevaluate them next year to see if you could really just do LHTH again with them. Kids grow so much in a year, I would suspect that at least the twins would be ready for LHFHG by then. The manuals do a really good job of preparing the kids for the next level.

You really have been digging into HOD haven't you!? You sound like an HOD pro already with your planning.

I think that you could do either plan as long as your oldest two are getting the basics from the right guide. (phonics, math, handwriting...)
I also think, b/c of the age of the oldest, for the second year I might do LHFHG over two years instead of LHTH again....but really, I do think you have a great plan either way. I think the choice would have to be made once you know how the younger child is doing with the olders and if she is ready to move on. I know how you feel about wanting to combine as much as possible. I'm expecting our 4th and my kids are so spaced in age/ability, I'm going to be running 4 guides at once! I've got 2 guides to do now and once I "recover" from all the recent chaos (moving, morning sickness, etc.), it won't be hard to do at all! In another year or two, I'll be doing 3 guides and I don't think it will be all that hard to do either. You know your kids best, and you have some great ideas already, but don't be afraid to seperate them if need be unless that's just near and dear to your heart. I bet you'll get some more ideas soon from the great ladies on this board.

Welcome to the HOD Board! You are going to love HOD - it is simply wonderful! Doing LHTH with your oldest 3 will be great this coming year. I think your dc sound like they are doing so well with their 3 R's, so for this reason, I think you'll want to do LHFHG the following year with your twins for sure. Then, your would be then 4 yo dd could do one of two things - she could listen in on the left side of LHFHG and do what she could of the right side of it, or she could do LHTH again with younger brother. I think you'd know where she'd fit better at that point. I think it would be ideal to eventually do 2 HOD programs, with your olders in one and your youngers in another. Even more ideal would be to have a year between guides through the years - i.e. doing LHTH and Beyond at the same time, LHFHG and Bigger at the same time, Beyond and PHFHG at the same time, etc. We are on this pace and LOVE it! It meets everyone's needs and is easy on me because as one guide becomes more teacher-focused the older dc become more independent. You will know best what you want to do to though - whatever you decide, HOD is going to become your best friend. It makes homeschooling academically solid and fun a the same time.

In Christ,
Julie

Mom4Him,

The ladies are doing such a wonderful job of helping you talk through possible options. I agree completely with what they are sharing as potential thoughts for the road ahead of you. So, I'll just pop-in to welcome you and to let you know we're glad you're here!

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank-you for your kind thoughts for our family! You are all so wonderful!
Yet I wish I could see down the road a year from now, as I would like to know what to purchase for this coming year & have it all ready before baby arrives early September.
I am really hoping to combine my oldest three (and eventually younger two) so that I will not be doing the same program each year for four years and will have a break between programs (as you mentioned Julie)- yet I'm not sure how that would work. LHTH seems perfect for my girls right now, & LHFHG seems like it would work wonderfully for all of them in two years... I'm just not sure of what to do with the year in between. My twins could start LHFHG that year, but I don't know how I would get my younger dd caught up.Maybe I could do each program at half pace, although I think they could handle (& we all would really enjoy) doing more than that. Or maybe I could just supplement during the in between year, so that they are all ready and able to use LHFHG the next year.
Please share your thoughts. I appreciate your help so much!

Mom4Him wrote:Thank-you for your kind thoughts for our family! You are all so wonderful!
Yet I wish I could see down the road a year from now, as I would like to know what to purchase for this coming year & have it all ready before baby arrives early September.
I am really hoping to combine my oldest three (and eventually younger two) so that I will not be doing the same program each year for four years and will have a break between programs (as you mentioned Julie)- yet I'm not sure how that would work. LHTH seems perfect for my girls right now, & LHFHG seems like it would work wonderfully for all of them in two years... I'm just not sure of what to do with the year in between. My twins could start LHFHG that year, but I don't know how I would get my younger dd caught up.Maybe I could do each program at half pace, although I think they could handle (& we all would really enjoy) doing more than that. Or maybe I could just supplement during the in between year, so that they are all ready and able to use LHFHG the next year.
Please share your thoughts. I appreciate your help so much!

Looking down the road...
You could do LHFHG full-speed with the twins, have your now 4 yo do the left side of LHFHG, and also LHTH again with your youngers (and use whichever Bible and devotional you didn't use the last time). Then, the next year, you could have your twins do Beyond (either half-speed or not) and have your now 4 yo do left side of Beyond and right side of LHFHG. Your youngers could then do LHTH again (with whichever Bible and devotional you didn't use with them the last time). You'd then be on the pace to have your olders in Beyond and youngers in LHTH, which would set up that nice rotation. Just a thought - you'll know best!

In Christ,
Julie

I agree that it would be good to just move through LHTH at full-speed this coming year to prepare the twins for LHFHG. If the twins were ready you could also add phonics and handwriting, the Rod and Staff workbooks, and even possibly the K math to LHTH this year.

Then, after you've finished LHTH, you could move the twins and your next child in line into LHFHG at half-speed to begin and then move up to full-speed at 4 days a week. This would stretch the guide a bit without getting your twins behind. It would also allow the next child in line to grow up a bit as you go through LHFHG. And, if that didn't go as well, you could always bump the next child back to LHTH for one more round with your little ones coming up, giving you a good back-up plan.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks so much for letting me know your thoughts Carrie & Julie! Now I have lots to think & pray about!!
For now I think we will use this next year to go through LHTH at full-speed. Would you recommend getting the books for the younger age group or older or both??

I'm not sure if I will add on the K activities this year, for two reasons- their K year isn't technically until 2010/2011 and because of their little sister due at the very beginning of the school year. I am just not sure how much I will be able to handle (especially at first) Yet, at the same time, they seem so ready for it- already doing some phonics, handwriting etc. (although we have LOTS to perfect). How do you balance between pushing your children academically in a healthy way and overwhelming them (and maybe myself) & just letting them be kids... as so much will come as they get older???

I do think my twins will be ready for LHFHG the following year, (although moving to Beyond the year after that seems a bit overwhelming) yet I would really like their then 4-year old sister to join in (as she is closer in age & abilities to them than the youngers), but I really think it will be a bit over her head & will enjoy it & learn form it more when she is a little older. If I wait until the year after that to do LHFHG, the twins will be 6 1/2 & starting first grade & Kayla (my other daughter) will be 5 & starting Kindergarten. Doing LHFHG half-speed for a while seems like it could work rather well also.

I think I am getting hung up on wanting to do it all- (because it all seems so wonderful!) and not wanting to push too hard too fast & get stuck.

If I do wait a couple years until LHFHG, are there things I can be doing during the in between year (between LHTH and LHFHG)?
Thanks again for your help!! I am so amazed at all the work you do & how kind & helpful everyone is!!
Jessica

I'm kinda' where you are in thinking ahead. I'm trying to stop. My dd also will be 5 in Oct. I'm planning on doing LHTH with her. As she only knows half her alphabet and I do not think she is ready for writing.

I also was thinking ahead though that she'd do LHFHG for kinergarten then that would put her in Beyond for 1st but ds is in Beyond now for 2nd. I'm going to just not think ahead right now and do LHTH where she fits well now.

It's nice to know others are thinking/planning the next couple years too.

katherine

Jessica,

I just wanted to pop in here and welcome you to HOD! All your planning and thinking is leading you to making a great plan for your kids. (Reading through it, I think I'd love to sit down and chat with you because we think alike. ) I love to try to figure out the long range plan...but then my kids or circumstances go and surprise me...and I get to replan.

I think in looking at your descriptions of your girls I agree with the other ladies here that most likely LHFHG will be a good fit after one time through LHTH. I'm just now finishing LHTH with my little 2. They both had birthdays this month and are newly 5 and 3. When we started in August last year, I wasn't even "planning" on letting Garret (then 2) sit in with us. But, it just happened to work well for all of us, so there he was. He has grown SOO much over the year! I'm going to be starting LHFHG with Allison in the fall...and now I'm actually thinking that I'll let Garret join us. I would really like to combine them, and just going slowly over 2 years with LHFHG and maybe Beyond is just going to be so much easier for me than the other "filler year" options that I was kicking around. I plan to do phonics, math, and probably handwriting with Allison every day. We'll cut everything else in half. Garret will NOT start phonics or math or handwriting at all this year, but I think he'll love everything else. I'll just start him on those when I think he's ready. My backup plan is just to not include him on LHFHG if it doesn't go well when we try it. If they don't end up combining, fine. If it works and they do, GREAT! In my mind, if it works to combine them, I would like them to be 8 and 10 when we get to Preparing. So, we'll take 5 years to go through 3 guides. I know that the retention on the history may not be as great going slower, but as I've thought about it I know that we'll be having a great time, we'll be having important spiritually significant discussions around God's Word, it will be easy for me to pull off since HOD is so user-friendly, and they'll both be challenged appropriately in core areas of reading and math.

Hopefully some of my thoughts can help you a little...
I say, enjoy LHTH fully this year. (My kids have grown in their knowledge of who God is and how they should respond to Him - and we've just had a blast with all of the activities! And in only 20-30 min per day, to boot. ) Then, reevaluate next year and feel free to go with whatever fits then.

Kathleen

Thank-you, thank-you Katherine & Kathleen for kindly reminding me that I don't need to worry about the future, but just cherish today & leave the rest in God's hands! (I would love to sit down & chat with you too! )
So, for now I am going to go with LHTH for next year- which I know we will enjoy. My only other decision (until next year ) is whether or not to add the K material from LHFHG for my oldest two onto what we will be doing with LHTH. We are already working on a little phonics, so that will already be added- so the rest would be the handwriting, math and Rod & Staff books- right? If anyone has any more thoughts, that would be wonderful, but otherwise I am content to pray lots- make a decision- & enjoy it fully!!
Jessica

Jessica,

The ladies are giving you such tried and true advice! I fully agree with them. I think as you go you'll find that one guide really helps prepare kiddos for the next guide in line, and so it honestly ends up to be easier to just go from one to next rather than trying to come up with a plan to fill-in. Often working through a guide at half-speed or on a 4 day plan gives you the needed breathing room for kiddos to grow into a guide. We've not needed to fill with anything else here either, even though my boys have come into the various HOD guides at different ages. It has still worked well for us! My second son was on the middle to upper age ranges of our guides and my third son has been on the youngest age range of our guides. Yet, I've been able to speed up or slow down the guides to fit their needs perfectly.

As far as LHTH goes, I would lean toward getting the upper level Bible and the lower level devotional. So, I'd use The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes and Big Thoughts for Little People. You'll also want the music CD's for LHTH.

For your twins, I would lean toward continuing on with phonics as you have been doing and possibly adding the handwriting workbook. I'd probably wait on the math and the Rod and Staff for now.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank-you, Carrie!! I appreciate your help & suggestions soooo much!
Jessica