heartofdakota.com

Well, I am pretty sure that I am going to get Beyond for my 7 yo and CTC for my 12 yo, and I thought I was going to do LHTH for my almost 4 yo, but I still have some reservations. The descriptions in the catalog and online don't really give me a feel for all that it covers. Does it just cover Bible with devotional readings and corresponding music and fingerplays to learn the alphabet with some art thrown in too? I love all that, but I really like literature based learning as well, like Five in a Row, but maybe more structured to tell me exactly what to do each day.

Also, does the guide include teaching math readiness, shapes, colors, etc.?

I have thought that if there was no literature study involved, maybe I could still get LHTH because I love the Bible content, and get Peak with Books or something like it to supplement. Or, I could still use my FIAR books, but I really want more lesson plans than what FIAR gives me.

Can I also just say that it would be really great if the sample pages of all the programs showed more than just Day one of Week one. It would be helpful for me to see some sample pages of later weeks to get a better feel of how the program progresses through the year, like a day from Week 13 and a day from Week 25 or something like that. KWIM?

Don't get me wrong, this curriculum really excites me and I love what I see so far. I can't wait to get enough of my old curriculum sold so I can buy HOD (over half way there, woo hoo!) I just still have more questions.

Thanks ladies for all the great posts, I am learning a lot!
Shelly

Just thought I'd pop in real quick and share a link that shows the entire 1st week of LHTH. http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/little ... t-week.pdf

If the link doesn't work, just go to the main HOD page, click on the LHTH book and once on the LHTH page, look below the picture of the book. There are two links and one shows you a week of lessons. Since all the weeks follow the same general schedule, you should get a decent feel for how the week goes. All the guides have a week of lessons to preview linked on their pages somewhere as far as I know.

There are math activities also scheduled in LHTH, some are for youngers and olders (i.e. on a counting page, youngers count by ones while olders count by 2's).

I can't think straight enough this late to remember back far enough to tell you more! I'm sure you'll get more answers tomorrow

"Does it just cover Bible with devotional readings and corresponding music and fingerplays to learn the alphabet with some art thrown in too?"

Yep it has all that!! I'm not sure if you are thinking it has JUST devotional for the Bible portion or not... it also has individual Bible readings daily along with a devotional reading once a week.

Also, does the guide include teaching math readiness, shapes, colors, etc.?

Yep, it has all this too!!

The one thing LHTH does NOT have is more in depth literature study. LHTH is a fantasitic program though, and I think you could easily add in more literature study such as FIAR in addition to it if you wanted too. LHTH usually takes around 30 minutes each day, so you could easily add to it later on the same day or even do LHTH 3 days a week and then add literature study on the days inbetween.

LHTH definitely covers everything you need for your preschooler to be ready for kindergarten. Here is a link to the introduction which goes into the scope and sequence. http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/little-hands-intro.pdf
Here is some excerpts from it about alphabet/prereading concepts and math concepts.
Letter Activity
Daily letter activities emphasize the same letter and letter sound as the
fingerplay. Each unit includes each of the following letter activities:
* letter flashcards with corresponding sounds and motions
* letter art which increases awareness of the letter shapes
* letter action with whole body movement to trace masking
tape letters
* letter slide which provides tactile activities for each letter
* letter hide and seek with practice in finding a letter in context
and in matching uppercase and lowercase letters
Math Activity
One day in each unit includes a math activity. These activities gently
introduce mathematical concepts through guided play. The activities
reinforce the Biblical theme. A brief scope and sequence of the math
concepts is listed by unit below (Number ‘1’ corresponds to unit 1,
number ‘2’ corresponds to unit 2, etc.):
1 - patterns and colors
2 - patterns and counting
3 - sequencing letters and numbers (names and phone numbers)
4 - general measurement: comparing distances
5 - money: coin recognition
6 - counting steps
7 - comparing: few/many, once/more than once, tall/short
8 - ordinal numbers: first, second, third
9 - counting to 10: one to one correspondance
10 - patterns, shapes, counting
11 - general weight measurement: light/heavy
12 - auditory patterns
13 - comparing sizes: smallest/largest
14 - general length measurement: ordering longest to shortest
15 - matching and ordering by size: smallest to largest
16 - sorting and classifying
17 - counting, early addition/subtraction, zero
18 - counting, spatial terms, inside/outside
19 - duplicating patterns, spatial terms: away from
20 - counting and making sets
21 - tracing or copying designs and finding shapes
22 - counting: one to one correspondance
23 - comparing numbers: more than/less than/equal to
24 - counting and addition combinations that equal 5
25 - general measurement: area
26 - nonstandard measurement: “feet”
27 - sorting, counting, and graphing sets
28 - money: coin recognition, value, counting
29 - general time: yesterday, today, tomorrow
30 - number sense: more than 1 and counting forward/backward
31 - counting forward/backward and early addition
32 - general fractions: whole vs. part
33 - sorting and classifying: color, size, and shape
As for the literature study, I am using Sonlight p3/p4's parent guide and checking the books out from the library. It really isn't lesson plans more a list of books broken into weeks to read them and some suggested activities to do with them. We just read through the books. You could do the same with FIAR books.
My 2.5 ds is also sitting in sometimes on our storytime in LHFHG. He will sometimes sit in my lap and listen to me read to the bigger kids. He loves CLP's Nature book from the emerging readers and will bring it to me to read about "bugs".
Hope this helps you.
Val

Thanks everyone for the great input and links, that helped a lot!

Now that I know a little better what it covers, it looks like I could easily add in some literature like FIAR or something like that.

Thanks again, you ladies are all so great!
Shelly

sonight also has preschool book lists in their core package that i think are good. the p 3/4 list would be good for your dc. you could get as many or as few on their list as you want.

I see that your question is already answered, but I wanted to encourage you, since your three children are almost the same ages as my youngest three. We are doing the same levels as you are planning. Our youngest two are really enjoying their school--when I do Beyond, the youngest follows along and when I do Little Hands, the second youngest follows along! The activities are just right for their ages.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we are!

Thank you Carol for your words of encouragement! I am a bit nervous doing 3 programs next year, so it is good to know someone else doing the same with positive results

My 7 yo dreads school everyday which saddens my heart, and it is my prayer that he will really enjoy Beyond. My almost 4 yo just wants so badly to "do school" like his older brother and sister, so I really think he will enjoy LHTH.

Thanks again, I love all the kind and encouraging input I get from this board!

Blessings,
Shelly

Shelly, I'm glad if I can be an encouragement. My youngest two enjoy school; it's my 11 yo daughter that dreads school. But she hasn't done HOD before, and I think that she will enjoy it. She is very artistic; HOD will satisfy the artist in her. I know that the Lord led us to HOD, so I trust that He will help her to enjoy it.

Hi!! I am so excited about HOD I can hardly stand it... Our family has used Ambleside for years with supplementation in their areas of interest. After graduating 2 and seeing them excel in college, I no longer feel the need for such a heavy school load but love CM style learning. My older 2 have shared extensively that the reading and discussions and writing were the elements of our school that really inspired them to learn and really the only place they internalized their learning. All else was busy work in their opinions. That being said, my oldest is in a music conservatory and the next in painting school. And yes, they have general ed courses too!! They are both on the deans list and the oldest is a junior.
Sharyn Kelly

Shelly,

The ladies have already done a great job of answering your questions. I'll just pop-in to say that LHTH is a kindergarten readiness program, so we're assuming you're reading great picture books aloud to your little sweetie along with LHTH. Since picture book reading is the easiest area to do on your own (and can also get very expensive if a certain set of picture books is required), we have left it to you to determine what you desire to read aloud to your kiddos at this stage.

Once your child gets to LHFHG, we schedule Storytime to be a transition to listening to chapter books. Storytime is scheduled daily in our guides from LHFHG on up with literature study being a regular, very important part of our daily plans. We are a very literature-rich company, formally teaching literature study using Drawn into the Heart of Reading throughout our guides as well.

I'm so glad you'll get a chance to use Beyond and CTC. We'll be using those same programs with our second and third sons in line this upcoming year (after having been through them before with older kiddos). We'll also be using LHTH this upcoming year with our fourth little guy, so if you do get a chance to use LHTH this year, we'll have much to compare!

Blessings,
Carrie