heartofdakota.com

I would like opinions regarding starting my K5 with Little Hearts or Beyond Little Hearts. My daughter will be six in December. She attended preschool for five hours a week the past two years where she learned basics and did very well. I have also tried to work with her here at home since she was two.

She has been doing an online phonics program for the past year. She can read a bit but it depends on her mood :} She can count to thirty, writes her name, copies words, letters and numbers etc, and loves books!

Thank you so much.

Lisa D in Ohio

Hi and welcome!

The best thing to do first is check out the placement chart link and see where your dc falls. Let us know what you find, and more will chime in with recommendations. HTH

http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

It seems BLH "fits" better with one concern - history but I can get the Pilgrims book as a supplement. Please let me know if others have had similiar experience with this age level/placement.

Thanks Again!

Lisa

I'm bumping this up so others will chime in My ds is doing LHFHG, so I don't have much to share...The history is pretty integral to the program, though...You could always do LHFHG with 1st grade options for math, handwriting & phonics/emerging readers...

I would suggest doing LHFHG with 1st grade options. We tried BLH with my 5 turning 6yo last year and it worked, but not smoothly like it should have. She could read, add and subtract to 10, write all her numbers and letters and sentences, spell the second list of all the spelling words, etc. but she just didn't have the ability to sit and listen to everything that was needed, so we ended up skipping a lot of it. Like we didn't do Story time like we should have and I just read the books to them at night. We are doing it again this year (6 turning 7) and she's doing great so far! She loves it!! She dreaded it last year.

If I had it to do over again I would do LHFHG with 1st grade options for her just to give her the experience of sitting and listening. And she did 10 hours a week of preschool for two years prior to homeschooling.

I like the option of doing LHFHG. You could choose either the K or the 1st. grade options. Doing the one year sweep of history gives a great history foundation. Your dd would thoroughly enjoy it, and would also have the time to more fully develop her writing skills (writing sentences instead of words) and her listening skills (for longer books with fewer pictures). Beyond has dc doing copywork of sentences, spelling lists and lessons with writing sentences, grammar 1 x a week, listening to longer readings with fewer pictures, genre study of Storytime, etc. I think starting with LHFHG would fit your dd's academic needs well and prepare her for the increased rigor of Beyond. Being in the middle of the age range of HOD guides is a very nice place to be. LHFHG is an excellent program, and I think it would be a great start for your dd!

In Christ,
Julie