experienced hs'er wanting your input

[jewell]

I have been hsing for 15 years, since my oldest dd was 3. At the beginning I used a curriculum for pre-school, then drifted off and did my own thing.
But with our large family and our little guy having some medical challenges, I'm looking for an easier way. When I saw this curriculum at a conference a few years ago, I was impressed...this is what I like to do, only planned for me.
The challenge is that I have two interesting preschoolers. My little guy that will be 5 in April, knows all his letters, their sounds and is beginning to read. He can order numbers from 1-10. His hand strength and upper body strength is poor, so that, while he likes to write, he doesn't have great endurance.
The other is even more interesting. This little guy just turned 3 on christmas and knows all his letters and their sounds, whether he sees them or hears them. He is beginning to read 3-letter words. he likes to scribble, but I think he is barely ready for pre-writing.
Of course, it would be easier to have them both in the same program. But is that appropriate? And which one would you recommend. Or is this program the best fit for them?
thanks for your input.
jewell

[kayrenee]

I would offer that those preschool years have a lot more to do with developing character, learning about Jesus, loving mommy, daddy and siblings, and learning about the immediate world around him than academics. The fact that your 3yo already knows his letter sounds, etc. doesn't mean he's ready for a program designed for 5yo's. There's much to be said for physical and mental maturity and waiting for the right time. I would highly recommend "Little Hands..." for this guy.

Your 5yo, however, may be ready for "Little Hearts..." You don't necessarily need to do a handwriting curriculum with him at this point. In fact, he could participate in some of the physical activities with your 3yo for developing large and small motor skills while he's beginning to learn how to read. Of course, you'll find some physical activities in Little Hearts that both your guys can do together, too. You might look at lesson plans from both each day to see what activities to do with just one, and what can be combined. You may see a lot of overlap... yet with specific activities designed for each guy in their own program. Does that make sense?

See my post in the "Reading Made Easy" thread for more ideas on how to proceed without using paper and pencil with your 5yo. He can begin learning how to read and continuing to develop fine motor skills without formal "writing". I'd wait on that. The math in Little Hearts is very hands-on, too.

[MamaMary]

Hi Jewell,

Welcome to the boards. It's so nice to "meet" you

I loved what Donna wrote I think you have two options available.

1- Do little Hearts with your 5 year old and let the 3 year old sit in and participate when he wants, when he can.

The only downfall to this option is that you would either need to go BACK and do Little "hands" or repeat Little hearts because he probably will not be ready for "Beyond little hearts" the following year. (though your 6 year old will)

So with that said I would opt for:

2- Do Little Hearts with your 5 year old and Little Hands w/ your 3 year old. You could even do Little hands over a two year period if you wanted to follow rabbit trails and take your time.

I do think with a large family you will find HOD a PERFECT fit. I found trying to do lots of different activities outside of math/la/science and hx, I often floundered around with well meaning intentions. Carrie has done an excellent job helping us eat the elephant, but breaking it up into doable, bite size pieces.

[blessedmomof4]

Hi! The previous 2 ladies have given you marvelous advice. Just here to add-my oldest son, who is now 15, was an early reader. He taught himself to read at age 3 and a half I made the huge mistake of thinking I ought to then teach him like an older kid, and almost destroyed his love of learning in the process. Thankfully, I backed off in time and began a more relaxed approach (I wish there was Heart of Dakota back then, but I used something kind of similar). His joy was restored, and I schooled him through grade 8. He is currently a high school sophomore and an excellent student, because he loves to learn, and more importantly, had a good foundation at home in the Word of God and character training.
In your place, I would definitely use Little Hands to Heaven with your 3 year old, and if he happens to figure out reading on his own along the way, that's fine

[jewell]

I appreciat e your recommendations. Like I've said, I've hs'ed a long time, and I'm quite sensative to trying to restrain myself from pushing my early learners. I've also learned it's a BIG mistake not to jump in when they are excited about it or otherwise ready.
I guess I was hoping I could do the same thing with them since my time is so scarce now.
That means next year I'll have a graduated senior who may or may not be at an internship, a senior who at some point in the year will be going to China, God willing, a freshman (w/ learning issues/syndrome), an 8th grader, a 7th grader who is barely independent and ADD, a 5th grader who is borderline dyslexic, a 2nd grader, a K, a preschooler and a 1.5 year old w/ microcephaly(small brain...right now his biggest concerns are feeding and communication). So you can see why I was wishing I could combine them. But the Lord is faithful and HE will show us a way.
jewell

[Melanie]

Oh Jewell....I am feeling overwhelmed just reading your post, and you're living it! My heart goes out to you.

Here's a thought for you to ponder and I'm sure with your experience you may have already considered this....just do Little Hands with both of them and begin to slowly add in a reading program such as Reading Made Easy with each at their own speed. K is not a required year at school for almost all states, so it wouldn't be a big deal. Then you could work on Little Hearts with them next year, together. I am using it as a first grade program this year, and it has been absolutely enough!

I'm sure you'll come up with a great plan...we're all behind you to cheer you on! Good luck!

[blessedmomof4]

Dear Jewell,
You do have a lot going on!
There are other moms of large families on here that will reassure you also, that two HOD programs at a time is very doable. Little Hands is designed to take 30 minutes of less per day, and Little Hearts an hour and a half at most. I also second the motion that, whatever program/programs you decide on, you could move at a slower pace, if that amount of time is still too difficult to squeeze from your days. I think I read someone on here say that they had tried "doing school" only 3 times a week, and it worked for them.
Hugs to you, and you'll be in my prayers.

[Carrie]

jewell,

We're glad to have you here! You are a busy momma. The ladies have done such a good job of welcoming you and giving you advice. As the ladies suggested, you could easily do "Little Hearts..." and have your 3 year old ride along on the parts that work for that. If you found your 3 year old wanted or needed his/her own school time, you could always add "Little Hands...", doing it as you have time.

Other ways to maximize time would be to stretch "Little Hearts..." out over 2 years, doing the left side of the plans one day and the right side the next. We are doing that this year with our newly turned 5 year old. This reduces teaching time to around 30-40 minutes each day for "Little Hearts...", as opposed to 80-90 min. for the whole program daily.

If you did add "Little Hands..." you could also do it only several days each week as you had time. We stretched "Little Hands..." out too for my third son, and it worked great. It gave me something special to do with him as time allowed, but I also only did it on the days it worked well in my schedule.

A last option to consider would be to possibly have one of your older kiddos do "Little Hands..." with your 3 year old instead of you teaching it. My older sister has 7 children. She had her 8th grade daughter do "Little Hands.." with her 3 year old daughter daily. They did it completely on their own and needed no help from my sister.

Anyway, just some options to consider to help make HOD slide into your already busy day.

Blessings,
Carrie

[jewell]

Carrie;
thank you for your suggestions.
I have one question. When you suggested doing Little Hearts over 2 years, are you suggesting it for both children?
I must admit, I'm a bit jealous over school time. I want that one on one with them, otherwise I feel like his siblings are raising him. I'm sure your sister had some good mommy time with your nephew, but if I don't make it a point, it doesn't happen. He just has too many loving sibs!
thanks
jewell

[Melanie]

Well, if you're wanting to do everything one-on-one, then why not just do two programs....Little hands and Little Hearts?? Unless, I'm missing something....I'm really good at misunderstanding, it's one of my specialities!!

[Carrie]

jewell,

When suggesting that you could do "Little Hearts..." over 2 years, I did mean that you could do it either with your 5 year old primarily, with your 3 year old riding along OR you could do it with just your 5 year old and then do "Little Hands.." at a slower pace with your 3 year old.

Both options would work on different levels. If you're wanting one-on-one time, which I definitely understand, then you could just stretch both "Little Hearts..." and "Little Hands..." out until you were finished (since both your kiddos are on the younger age of the spectrum for those programs). Hope that helps!

Blessings,
Carrie

[jewell]

Melanie
Well...in a family with 10 children, 2 on 1 counts !
it's still momy time in a smaller group. if you read above, my time is really stretched, so while I want to consolidate some, I don't want to give it up completely
what I really need is a servant! yes, my kids help alot.
jewell

[Carrie]

jewell,

It may work to just try out "Little Hearts..." with your 5 and 3 at half-speed and see how your 3 year old hangs in there. If you stretched it out over 2 years, your 3 year old may also have a chance of riding along with "Beyond...". It just depends how "Little Hearts..." goes.

If you found "Little Hearts..." to be too much for your 3 year old to get anything out of.... you could always add in "Little Hands.." at half-speed and not really be adding much teacher time to your day.

With bigger families, I always advise trying out the combining and then re-adjusting if it doesn't work. Since you'd still need "Little Hearts..." anyway with your 5 year old, there's really nothing to lose with trying the 3 year old in there too!

Blessings,
Carrie

[Melanie]

LOL...yes, 2-on-1 would count!!

Your situation has been on my mind most of the day today. I'm sure whatever you do will work out, and I'm sure they "listen in" on all the "educational stuff" going on at your house.

I'm still thinking (if you're going to keep them together) I would start with Little Hands and move up from there. Your little one will quickly get "lost" in the older programs if you start at a level that is too high. But, if you start with Little Hands (and you could still go slowly), there is a better chance of her being ready when you do move up. Those books in LIttle Hearts are NOT easy, baby stuff. The history is deep, and the Burgess books require some acute listening skills. There have been many moms with 5 year olds that were not ready for it, yet.

I really like Carrie's ideas, too. You'll just have to pray and spend some quiet time really comtemplating this. Keep us in the know about what you decide, cause I, for one, will still be worried over this - one of my bad Olive characteristics!

And...Yes...you do need one of those Merry Maids!!

[water2wine]

jewell,

It may work to just try out "Little Hearts..." with your 5 and 3 at half-speed and see how your 3 year old hangs in there. If you stretched it out over 2 years, your 3 year old may also have a chance of riding along with "Beyond...". It just depends how "Little Hearts..." goes.

If you found "Little Hearts..." to be too much for your 3 year old to get anything out of.... you could always add in "Little Hands.." at half-speed and not really be adding much teacher time to your day.

With bigger families, I always advise trying out the combining and then re-adjusting if it doesn't work. Since you'd still need "Little Hearts..." anyway with your 5 year old, there's really nothing to lose with trying the 3 year old in there too!

Blessings,
Carrie

Having a big family myself I would go with this option. I feel like there is very little to mess up on this end of the equation for my little ones except push them too hard and not seeing any signs of that. So for the younger years I am all for keeping them together. There is so much flexibility in LHFG in that you could use it with a child on any range of the phonics plus the appendix gives you a large amount of extra for stretching it out and still being on your older child's level. As long as you do math and phonics at each child's individual level it works really well.

My plan is to to just feel it out as we go but for now we are doing one side a day and adding appendix extras. It actually makes for a very deep program. So one has time to get older and not be over whelmed and the other has the chance to still do more if you want. I probably will even do the same with Beyond if I need to in order to ultimately have them together, just by adding a bit to it and taking a bit longer. I see how easy it is to do and how fun it is to have them together. Now there I know there will be people that will not agree with that. But I can imagine lots of ways to have that work just fine. I think after the fifth kid or so you get a good imagination And ultimately I want for them the experience of being together sharing the same school as well. So it is for me and my sanity and for them and their memories. Both are important to me. I think there are lots of ways to make it "ideal" at this age for both kids and still keep them together with a two year gap. After they are a bit older and reading, writing and basic math are established the gap becomes not as wide as it is now. I have seen that with my kids that are in Bigger and have a two year gap in age. In fact I even have one that is a year older than the range of bigger but with the extension pack that does not even seem to be an issue. I see when they are older way at the end of HOD some will have to jump off earlier than others but we are then talking older independent kids and it starts to make sense.

Now if my younger child becomes stressed I would separate them, and I am prepared to do that if need be, but I don't see that happening. The other way I would have split them apart would be if my youngest was slower in phonics than she is and also in math and that LHTH really looked like a good spot for her but it is not. She is already beyond the LHTH scope as it is so that does not make sense to me. And on the flip side, I think if neither one was actually blending or doing any beginning reading I may opt for putting them both together in LHTH and then doing that at it's pace maybe using the book The Reading Lesson with the CD for the oldest child and run the program at regular speed then do the same thing with LHFG running it slower so the younger guy can catch up. By then you should be on track for keeping them together and if not you can then get a plan B but at least one should be reading at that point.

Also agreeing with you that I want to do all the teaching. I am selfish I guess. I will turn over math drilling or spelling to the older kids but I am doing all the lovie, bonding fun stuff myself. And this younger year stuff is just something I am not giving up for anything in the world. So this is just another view from a mom of many. I hope it does not confuse things but just wanted to put it out there. I also have a child with special needs and I know that adds really an extra program in and of itself. So I lean toward easiest for you because I know how much extra that can add to your load.

Having said all this you have way more experience homeschooling and whatever your gut it telling you is going to be the best answer for you. Ultimately I promise you, your choice here with HOD is between great and super great so you really can't go wrong. You just have to find what feels best for you, the mom and work with in that what is best for your children. Hopefully my rambling did not confuse things farther for you.

Also just adding the disclaimer that I am not the most experienced homeschooler, just on three years and I am certainly not the most experienced person using HOD. So factor that into my advice.