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Hi, my name is Ana and I am a first time homeschooler. I need some advice concerning my kindergarten student and 2nd grade student. I plan on using BHFHG for my 7 yr old DD and having my 5 yr. old DS listen in on the following subjects: Read-a-loud, science, history, and bible. He will be using Phonics Pathways and Hooked on Phonics, which we already own, for phonics instruction and Saxon Math, which a friend gave me, for math. Is it o.k. to do this? My main goal for him this next year is to feel comfortable with reading. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Blessings and Thanks,
Ana Dawson

Hi Ana, and welcome to the HOD Board! It is very nice to have you here. I know you are thinking about doing Bigger Hearts with your 7, and then considering adding the things you mentioned of Bigger Hearts for your 5 yo. Are you also going to be doing LHFHG with your 5 yo? From the title of your post, I'm thinking that's the plan, but I wanted to make sure before commenting more - just in case I'm off-base here. Also, if you haven't had a chance to peek at the placement chart yet, that's super helpful with placing dc. If you get a bit to share a bit about your dc's 3 R's (which is covered on the first page of the placement chart), that would be super!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you so much for replying to my question. I realized once I posted that my title was a little misleading. I do not plan on using LHFHG with my five year old, just phonics,math, handwriting and possible listening in on the other subjects in BHFHG. My 7 yr. old dd is right on course with the BHFHG all the way through. My 5 yr. old ds is also right on course with LHFHG all the way through. He is reading short vowel words with relative proficiency; he is not reading fluently yet. Math concepts for him are easy for him to grasp and we are moving faster with math because he loves it and it is "easy" for him. Sorry about the confusing subject line.

Blessings and Thanks,

Ana Dawson

AnaDawson wrote:Thank you so much for replying to my question. I realized once I posted that my title was a little misleading. I do not plan on using LHFHG with my five year old, just phonics,math, handwriting and possible listening in on the other subjects in BHFHG. My 7 yr. old dd is right on course with the BHFHG all the way through. My 5 yr. old ds is also right on course with LHFHG all the way through. He is reading short vowel words with relative proficiency; he is not reading fluently yet. Math concepts for him are easy for him to grasp and we are moving faster with math because he loves it and it is "easy" for him. Sorry about the confusing subject line.

Blessings and Thanks,

Ana Dawson

Thanks for explaining that, Ana! I think it sounds like a great idea to do Bigger Hearts with your 7 yo. You will thoroughly enjoy Bigger Hearts, it is perfect for that age, and we learned so much about American heroes that year. As far as your 5 yo, it sounds like he's doing well with his reading and math too, so that's good. Rather than having him try to ride along with Bigger Hearts, I would really encourage you to consider doing LHFHG with your 5 yo since Bigger Hearts is quite difficult, he sounds ready for LHFHG, it would round out his learning so well, be very age appropriate for him, and LHFHG only takes 1 1/2 hours a day to do. Here are the very age appropriate areas I think he'd really miss out on if he didn't do LHFHG:
Bible Memory Work, Devotional Topics, Science Discovery, Art Projects, Dramatic Play, Thinking Games, Rhymes, Gross Motor Skills, Music, Handwriting Choice, Fine Motor Skills, and Language activities. It sounds like you already have his reading and math figured out, so you could just keep going with that, or you could use those boxes in the LHFHG guide otherwise (they are done very well). For Storytime, you could either do LHFHG with your 5 yo, and Bigger Hearts Storytime with your 7 yo - or, you could just do the Bigger Hearts Storytime with them both. I think that this would meet both of their needs very well! The year we did both Bigger Hearts and Little Hearts was one of our favorites. It was an easy year full of great memories. I think you might enjoy that too, but you will know best what your goals are for your dc.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks Julie! I really appreciate your thoughtful suggestions. I think you are right about everything, now I just have to have it all approved by my hubby and we are good to go.

Blessings and thanks,

Ana Dawson

Ana,

I just wanted to encourage you that we did the Bigger Hearts and LHFHG combination two years ago and found it worked very well! Both my boys enjoyed their school, and I enjoyed having the special time alone with each of them.

We pray you'll enjoy it as much as we did! You may want to begin at half-speed, doing the left side of the guide one day and the right side the next while you settle in.

Blessings,
Carrie