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My 4 1/2 yo is already reading books like"Robert The Rose Horse", "Go Dog Go", and "A Fly Went By" with little help. We are doing 100 easy lessons to be sure he has phonics instruction since most of the words he can read are by "sight" instead of sounding them out. I wanted to start HOD in April or May when he turns five and we are finished with our Sonlight P4/5 program. I had planned to use BLHFHG w/the emerging reader set because of his reading skills but from reading other's posts, I think he may not have the attention span to listen to all the other reading (he is on meds for ADHD). I think LHFHG would be good for him except there is no schedule for the emerging reader set in it. What do you do with an early reader? Any ideas? I thought about using LHFHG and supplementing with our own early reader books but I don't want to slow down his development just because it's not scheduled into the program.

I would definitely go with LHFHG for your main guide. My dd just turned 5 this past August, and we started LHFHG a bit before she turned 5. She DOES have a good attention span, and still, in the beginning the history readings were just a bit of a stretch for her. She does fabulous with the guide now though, and it is absolutely a perfect fit. Anyway, my dd is also an advanced reader. She actually can read at a 4th grade level and even reads bits out of chapter books like "The Boxcar Children" from time to time, but is still more comfortable at the emerging reader level, largely due to vocabulary and such. We just went ahead and bought the BLHFHG guide early, so we had the schedule for the emerging readers. I know we will use BLHFHG for next year anyway, so it wasn't really a big deal to just buy it a year early.

My oldest is 5 and is currently at Lesson 56 in 100 Easy Lessons. We've been taking it pretty slow and I think we'll be done by May. I think she'll place pretty well in Beyond next year, but I too have seen posts by other families that made me think Beyond might require more on attention span than kids on the young end of the age range can do well. I plan on doing the Emerging Readers Set and Singapore 1A/1B schedule from Beyond with LHFHG next year. I'll always be one guide ahead for a couple areas, but I'm ok with that. So I recommed getting the Beyond TM early. It's not that expensive and it's great to have the next year's TM so you can get a peak ahead.

I've been doing the Blue Learning Language Arts Through Literature with 100 EZ and really like how they mesh together. It starts with VERY easy readers and progresses to much longer ones by the end of the program. It's been a fun addition for us.

I'll probably do all the books listed in the back of 100 EZ before starting the emergent readers set. I don't have any other suggestions as I'm new to this. Hopefully some alternative ideas will come in for you! Good luck.

We finished phonics early while doing LHFHG. We just used the Beyond guide and Emerging Reader's Set then, along with LHFHG. We finished it in the middle of Beyond and started DITHOR 2/3 then. When doing the Emerging Reader's Set, you usually just pick 1 of the Bibles, but there is a reading schedule and comprehension questions for both. Since we were starting the set with my young ds, I decided to get both Bibles, so we went through the Early Reader's Bible first because it's easier, and then we did The Beginner's Bible and the rest of the schedule after that. This stretched the Emerging Reader's Set out an additional 9 weeks. It worked perfectly for my ds! It helps to just think of the order of reading being phonics, emerging reader's set, DITHOR 2/3, DITHOR 4/5, DITHOR 6/7/8. You can start these anytime with any core HOD guide, provided you just get the necessary guide to accompany the reading part you want. Hope that makes sense! I think if I were you, I'd do LHFHG, and use Beyond for the Emerging Reader's Set schedule/questions.

In Christ,
Julie

My son is in the LHFHG guide and just turned six.We had also used 100 easy lessons for Phonics. we just started using the Emerging reader list from the BLHFHG guide and we are almost into the 1st grade level math. we will be using the rest of it next year so i went ahead and got it just like another mom said. He is so excited to be able to read his Bible. We use the Beginner's Bible.

Jenn D.

Thanks, everyone, for the helpful suggestions! I think that I will go ahead and get both guides and do the emerging reader set along w/LHFHG. I was hoping to spare the extra $$$ next year- but oh well! It will still end up being less than the other curriculums we were considering. Thanks again!!!

Just adding an "agree"... my dd was a good reader, but we did LHFHG with the Emerging Reader set for Kindergarten. Works well!

Another "agree" here! We are using LHFHG for Kindergarten, along with the Emerging Readers for my son, who has been reading since he was 3. It's perfect for him. He can read and comprehend what he reads pretty well at about a 2nd-3rd grade level, BUT, his maturity level for listening to the History and Story time read-alouds, etc. is definitely less. I'm using BLHFHG for my 2nd graders, and my Kindergartner, despite being able to read very well, would not be able to get as much out of it as his older, more mature siblings.