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I have been racking my brain too much trying to figure out the best placement for my dc. I say too hard because I am pretty comfortable with my older dd's will be 10 in Sept and will be 8 in Jan doing Beyond together, with me adding some supplemental reading for the older, as well as doing individual math and grammar. I spent way to much time trying to figure out how to get my twins who will be 5 in Jan (so in our state not considered Kindergarten yet)- my will be 3 in Nov little man, and my unborn baby due in Aug into the mix. I have finally accepted that there is no easily acceptable way to combine all of them (yes I was even looking at, go through with my olders, then cycle back and redo with extensions to pick up the little guys....craziness! LOL)

So, I think I am at peace with my littles- twins age 4 will be 5 in Jan, and my little man who will be 3 in Nov- starting Little Hands. My plan is to hopefully do Little Hands for 1 1/2 yrs, and then Little Hearts for 1 1/2 yrs (so theys all start this summer fall, then next mid winter- when the twins are 6 and little man is 4 they switch to Little Hearts and finish that the year the twins turn 7 and little man turns 5. THe following year, little man will turn 6 shortly after starting, and the twins will turn 8 half way through. (this is of course if they all do well, and I will add extra phonics/reading for the twins as they are able. Currently none of them has had any letter instruction) Does that sound doable?

Ok, so the question is, How many boxes do I do a day to cover Little Hands in 1 1/2 yrs instead of 1 yr- or should I simply just do it a certain number of days instead of doing it 5 days-- like if I do it 3 days a week does that stretch it to 1 1/2 yrs? (nope I couldn't make it easy and say do it for 2 yrs that would be too easy) Would it possibly be better to cycle through it twice- once with one set of books, and once with the other set? I do have supplemental materials that I could use on in between days if that works better (do HOD 3 days a week, and do building little characters 2 days....) I do also own leap frog videos and plenty of 'educational' toys- so it could be some number of instructional days/ some number of video or educational toys days?

Thanks for any input.

This is just me, but I would opt for the M,W,F schedule of doing LHTH and adding in any extras for the olders on T,Th while letting the little man watch letter factory and maybe do some coloring or some of R&S's workbooks for 3's. That way you would stretch LHTH from 34 weeks to 55-56 weeks. If you plan to do year round, a good schedule and one that is used by schools where I live is 9 weeks on, 2 weeks off, and then 6 weeks in between switching grades (or in our case guides).
Val

Val had a great idea that would work well. We've done it that way ourselves!

One other idea would be to do each day of LHTH over 2 days. A way to do that is to read the Bible story and do the rhyme with one other box from the plans on one day. And then the next day, read the same Bible story (possibly do the rhyme again) and then do the remaining couple of boxes. In this way, LHTH takes about 15 minutes a day and the guide stretches over 2 years. Just another way some moms have stretched it.

Blessings,
Carrie