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to next year and have questions.

Right now my 9yo, 4th grade daughter is doing Preparing with the Extension Readings. That's going great. Next year she'll do Creation to Christ. I know that I'll need the Economy package and the science add ons. I don't know if I should redo the 4/5 DITHOR book with different books (maybe with some of the option 2 and option 3 books listed under the basic package). If I use some of those books for DITHOR, then use the history option set for the storytime section of the plans. I hate to skip the extension books, but maybe I should. She excels at reading/language arts, so the reading level wouldn't be an issue... just possible overload. She'll do the R&S 5th grade English and the Singapore math (will probably have to finish 4B for starting level 5).

Next up is my 8yo, 2nd grade son. He's doing Beyond, which is going well. We're doing the Emerging Reader's set along with some ETC books (right now he's doing book 4.5 of that... he'll probably finish a couple more before we take a break for the summer). So, next year he'll do Bigger. I already have the economy and science packs from when my older daughter did it. I'll probably get Cheerful Cursive for him, but I'm a little reluctant. His penmanship is poor. Right now he's finishing up Rod & Staff's first grade handwriting books. I think I'll go ahead and start DITHOR with him with the 2/3 manual. We'll probably go slowly and plan to go through the genres over two years. He'll start R&S English 2, which I have. We'll continue with Singapore math. We'll probably use mostly the boy interest set for storytime. It pains me to have him "miss" anything, but I don't think it feasible to inclue the extension package for him.


Then there's my 6yo, kindergarten son. He's doing Little Hearts. It's going okay. He struggles with doing just one page of the Reading Lesson each day. The other stuff is okay. He's doing the earlybird kindergarten math. Writing is a struggle for him (like writing out the numbers). He's also doing Rod & Staff handwriting and Explode the Code (Go for the Code now, which he'll finish within a couple weeks). In hindsight, I kind of wish I would have waited to start Little Hearts with him until he was in first grade. I don't know if I should start Beyond with him next year or not. I'm afraid he'll always be in material that's just a little too much for him if I keep with this pace.


Next is my 4yo daughter. Ideally she'd be doing Little Hands consistently, but I just don't get to it. She's low on my priority list as far as school goes. She does have Rod and Staff and ETC workbooks that she enjoys... also a HWT book... and she does the Reading Lesson. She's a better reader than her older brother. She still wouldn't be old enough to start kindergarten if she was in public school next year (December birthday), but she'd love anythign that I could get to with her. I have all the Little Hands to Heaven stuff, and have started it with her a couple times already...


My 2yo is delayed in speech, so she'll be starting speech therapy this coming week. Someone will come to our house for an hour each week. So, I need to make it more of a point to read/sing/play/work with her on basics too.


And then I've got my little 8mo. She can just play with blocks and puzzles and chew toys.



So, I guess my main questions are:

Is it okay to not purchase the extentsion pack for my oldest?
What should I do for her reading? storytime?

Should I get the Cheerful Cursive for my will be third grader?

What should I do with my will be first grader?

What should I do with my oh so precocious 4yo?

Julie - it's wonderful to catch up with you! You are amazing - can I just say that?!? I always enjoy reading your posts so much, and I am so glad your year has gone so well - I missed you here - but I get you have a busy life. O.k. for the questions...

Is it okay to not purchase the extentsion pack for my oldest?
Definitely o.k. I wouldn't do the extensions with her. I know she is an excellent reader, but CTC is a meaty program already (we're loving it with our 10 yo BTW ), and the extensions are really for older dc anyway (like 12-13 yo's). So, if I were you, I would not do the extensions and just let her soak up all of the rest of CTC. She will love it!

What should I do for her reading? storytime?
I'd do DITHOR 4/5 with her again, but use different books. I think that sounds like a good plan to use the books from the other CTC storytime options, or of course any titles you haven't used from the DITHOR 4/5 Girl Book Pack would be wonderful too. We are loving the History Set in CTC for Storytime. My ds often takes the books we finish reading up to his room to read them again and again. I think she'll enjoy those very much for Storytime.

Should I get the Cheerful Cursive for my will be third grader?
You could either get it or wait a year, or maybe the best thing to do would be to get it and start slowly, adjusting the pace depending on how it's going. You could easily spread it out over 2 years. It is an excellent program, and quite easy on the kids, but if it's going to be a struggle, there's no harm in waiting. I'm in the same boat with my ds. We start tomorrow, and I'm just beginning it to see how it goes.

What should I do with my will be first grader?
I'd start Beyond and spread it out over 2 years, but do daily phonics/reading. I think that will give him time to really grow in his reading/writing skills but still keep him moving ahead nicely. When we began Beyond, I didn't think my ds was ready, and we eased into it at first, but he surprised me and could do more, more quickly and better than I thought he could. So, I think I'd just start him half-speed and plan for it to take 2 years, but up the speed if he seems ready at any point.

What should I do with my oh so precocious 4yo?
I think I'd do LHTH half-speed as time allows. I am doing this with my almost 3 yo, and it's going well. We just do about half of the boxes each day, and it takes me very little time and pays big dividends as he is less wild after having mommy time with me. However, just keep in mind you can spread this out over more time if need be too. LHFHG is for ages 5-7, so there are a lot of options of when to begin that, and you do have your hands full (but are doing an awesome job, BTW!!!! ).

Oh, and my little guy had in-home speech therapy for 2 years, when he was 1-3 years old. He had a slow start to it, but then just took off. I didn't do anything extra with him, but I did find it very helpful to listen in on the speech session now and then and try to talk to him like she did, in a very distinct clear voice, repeating the same words often to him. We also had his hearing checked, and he had a lot of fluid in his ears that made him not pass the tympanagram (not sure about the spelling there ). He had to have a shot to help clear up the fluid, and I believe that helped as well.

I'm sure others will chime in with their thoughts, but you will know best what you want to do. Those were just some ideas I had! Good to hear from you, Julie! God Bless!

In Christ,
Julie

I don't have any advice about what to do with your older kiddos since I'm not to that point yet but it looks like Julie gave you great advice. One thing I was going to suggest for your kindergarten son was to slow down Little Hearts to half speed but do phonics, math, and handwriting daily if he's able. This is what I'm doing with my son and it's working great. We do the history box and the rotating box (dramatic play, artistic expression, science, etc) one day and then do the bible study and storytime boxes the next. We do the rhyme and music daily. We also do the fine motor skills box, phonics, and math daily, but you could slow those down to half speed too if you needed to. This is working out great for us and we just check out library books on the history/science topics to read if we want more. Then when you get to Beyond, you could start it at half speed for awhile too until you think he's ready for the full program.

Hope that helps!

StillJulie,

I agree with the ladies' wise advice. They have done a terrific idea of talking through possibilities with you. I was also thinking that it would be a good idea to slow LHFHG down to half-speed right now with your 6 year old, but keep doing phonics daily. The handwriting and math could even slow down to half-speed too if needed, depending on how much of struggle those areas are. Sometimes a year of maturity can make a huge difference (with boys especially).

I'm not sure how far into LHFHG you are, but you could potentially consider combining your 4 year old and 6 year old, if you slowed your 6 year old down in history and science but kept him going on grade level in the 3R's. Just a thought.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you for your responses. I really do appreciate you taking the time to help me think through this all.