heartofdakota.com

Warning--Long
Hello,
I am a pastor's wife with 5 young children: a 9 year old ds (10/98), an almost 8 year old ds (05/00), an almost 5 year old ds (04/03), a 3 year old ds (01/05), and a dd who just turned 1 (02/07). I have been hs for 2 1/2 years using a variety of materials. Currently, the boys are using Lifepacs for LA, Abeka graded readers, Math-U-See, Story of the World, and delight-directed science books from the library.
I stumbled on this website looking for a preschool curriculum for my almost 5 year old. He has been begging to "do school" for awhile, in particular, to learn to read. He can write his name and knows some of his letters and sounds. I have been a little stressed trying to figure out how I'm going to add K next year. I don't particularly enjoy putting together lesson plans nor do I have the time at this point in my life.
So... my question... Should I start Little Hands with my ds now, or wait and begin Little Hearts in the fall? Also, I'm prayerfully considering using Bigger with my older boys next year. The idea of opening up the TG and starting is very appealing. I also think it would be great for the boys to have some cohesiveness to what they are studying. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Melissa

It sounds as if your youngest is about where my youngest is; he can also write his name, knows most of his letters, and is beginning to learn some letter sounds. We will be starting with LHFHG approx. next week. I'm just going to see how he does with it, going slowly. We're going to do 1 page of lesson plans per day, taking two weeks to complete a Unit, so this program will last us twice as long as normal. I thought that would be the best way to do it to make sure he is prepared for Beyond when we finish. It's something others on this board have tried and recommended. He will still only be about 6 when we start Bigger. Only you can decide if you want to start now or wait until fall, but I think it would be easily done either way. Maybe some of the ladies who have used this program, and Carrie, will chime in with their opinions. I am just beginning LHFHG too, so I'm not a lot of help. I hope you enjoy HOD. I know I have enjoyed using Beyond with my daughter, and we'll be using Bigger with my DD and DS (older) next year as well. Good luck, and I look forward to "talking" more with you!

momtofivelittleones wrote: I have been a little stressed trying to figure out how I'm going to add K next year. I don't particularly enjoy putting together lesson plans nor do I have the time at this point in my life.
So... my question... Should I start Little Hands with my ds now, or wait and begin Little Hearts in the fall? Also, I'm prayerfully considering using Bigger with my older boys next year. The idea of opening up the TG and starting is very appealing. I also think it would be great for the boys to have some cohesiveness to what they are studying. Any advice would be appreciated.

Welcome! I'll give you the good advice I have and let someone else fill in the gaps. First can I just tell you as a mom of six and a dh who is working two jobs (one PT and one FT), which means I am on kids pretty much 24/7 HOD is a life saver. I know that pastors tend to work double time as well that is why I mention that. The organization, the ease and the way the program flows is wonderful! Plus it is really just spiritually linked very well and that is the most important thing to me. Carrie is very gifted at tying everything together in a very meaningful way. I also love that it is flexible and anything I want to add to it can be added without throwing the whole thing off. So as one mom of many to another you will love it for all your kids! Say good buy to the stress of trying to put something together on your own!

Here is the placement chart for your children. With your oldest it is probably going to boil down to what do you want them to learn if they test for either Bigger or Preparing. And then the younger ones is really going to depend where they are in phonics/reading etc. and that will tell you if they can be combined into one program. I would think your older ones could be as long as they are on target with reading and writing.
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
Anyway enjoy seeing what is best for your kids and welcome! You are going to love this program. Honestly I am jumping down excited we have this every day we use it. It is so much easier and allows me to focus on the spiritual and character goals we have with our children instead of the other stuff that matters but can take away from the main purpose for me anyway. It's wonderful for moms that have a lot on their plate but still want something wonderful for their kids.

Just wanted to say "hi" Melissa!

Check the placement chart first, it is very helpful. My dd also has an April b-day and we started Little Hearts the Sept. after she turned 5 and she has done great! I will say, however, that she was reading fairly well before we started and was used to hearing chapter books (no pictures).

I'm going to venture to guess that your little ds is this same way since he has older siblings! For some reason, if they have older sibs, they seem to be a little more "ready". However, being a boy may make a difference as well....

Hello! Welcome to the boards! Here's my lengthy reply (sorry!)

I have a dd4 (6/03) that I had the same dilemma about (LHTH vs. LHFHG). She can write her name in capital letters, knows all her letters and letter sounds and does well in our "informal math training". After looking at the placement chart, reading the input from the wonderful women on this board, and praying about it, we decided to go with LHTH.

Although I know LHFHG would have been fine for her now, too, I want her to really absorb the Bible stories and memory verses and have plenty of time to continue to work on her fine motor skills through art exploration activities (which are great in LHTH).

I feel she is strong in LA and math, but I want to strengthen other areas before advancing her to the next level in LA and math, and before starting formalized handwriting instruction. Plus, she feels successful because she already knows the LA and math concepts, which builds her confidence, she's getting a good review, and having FUN!

Also, there's only one page per day in LHTH, and since I'm just now getting into a routine with two children (I have a 10 month old), it fits in our schedule better.

However, there are some days that we do more than one page...I suspect we'll be ready for LHFHG at the end of the summer/beginning of Fall, but I have "eased" her into school at her own pace by using LHTH while using Bible stories and verses at her level in the LHTH curriculum! (Plus, I now have LHTH to use with my youngest as soon as she's ready!)

Side note, the only other items we're using outside of HOD are the manipulatives for Get Set for School (for pre-writing skills) by Handwriting Without Tears.

So, that's our situation...Hope this helps!

Delia
mom to dd4 and dd 10 mos.

One more thing...looking at the first week of each curriculum helped me to decide, too. Here are the links:

http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/little ... t-week.pdf

http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/little ... t-week.pdf

God bless,
Delia

Hi Melissa!

I just wanted to say "welcome". I don't really have any advice for you...but I can say that my dd and I are loving LHTH this year. (She was so sad that we didn't "do school" today...we're out of masking tape. Ooops!) My sister has been using LHFHG with her just-turned-5 yr. old. She says that it's been great for them!

Kathleen

Welcome,
If you are thinking about starting Little Hearts in the fall, I would start LHTH now and go through it all first. It's such a wonderful program that gets them ready to learn and teaches them so much more than is obvious. It's short enough (1/2 hour) for you to continue over the summer easily and even to condense the week if you need to. I cherish the memories of my kids doing LHTH.

momtofivelittleones wrote:Warning--Long
Should I start Little Hands with my ds now, or wait and begin Little Hearts in the fall? Also, I'm prayerfully considering using Bigger with my older boys next year. The idea of opening up the TG and starting is very appealing. I also think it would be great for the boys to have some cohesiveness to what they are studying. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Melissa! Welcome to the HOD board! You've already gotten some good advice from the HOD moms here. I agree that first and foremost, looking at the placement chart will be your best place to begin. That being said, based on what you've said so far, I think it would be a good idea to start LHTH with your ds now. We've done LHTH twice now, and it truly only takes 20-30 minutes a day to do. I think it will give you total peace about using HOD with all of your children. Many moms are doing 2-3 HOD programs on this board (me included - we're doing LHFHG and Bigger...), and it is honestly very easy to do.

As far as your older boys, I think Bigger... would be great! We're doing it now, and it takes about 3 to 3 1/2 hours to do. It is so much fun, and I just pick it up and teach from it each day. Everything on the left side of plans correlates with the history theme, and the right side is LA and math. It sounds like you are ready for a change, and if you are stressed out right now (which I'm sure I would be with the wonderful size of family you have and your dh's pastoral duties), why not just start Bigger... now? You could still do your Math U See by subbing that in for the math "box" in the plans, and you could also probably use your Abeka readers for the reading part of Bigger, either by plugging them into the Drawn into the Heart of Reading genres or just by continuing to use them as you already are as your reading program. Then, you could always switch to HOD's math and reading once you see the guide and decide what would work best for your dc.

Just an idea - I'd love to hear more from you after you check out the placement chart! Glad you are here, Melissa!

In Christ,
Julie

Welcome, Melissa! We're glad you're here!

The ladies on the board have given you some wonderful advice. If you get a chance, pop back in and tell us what you're thinking once you get a chance to look over the placement chart linked here:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

We all love to help!

Blessings,
Carrie

Wow! Ladies, you are awesome! Thank you for the wonderful, prompt replies. I have checked the placement board and definitely want to begin LHTH with my little ones (almost 5 and 3) now. I think it will be just right for them.
I'm still considering Bigger for my two older boys. They seem to enjoy Story of the World-- the audio and activities-- and I'd like to complete the 1st volume. Math-U-See does seem to be working for them right now, too. I definitely will not be continuing with LifePacs after this is complete and I also need to figure something out for science. I'd love to pour over Bigger and DITHOR and see whether it would be a good fit for us.
Both of my boys love to read and be read to, but protest writing assignments. I am hoping to see that develop more over the next couple of years as both are very creative. When the placement chart states:" parts of speech, mechanics, and usage" , to what degree of understanding should my boys have in order to begin Bigger?
Thanks again,
Melissa :

Hi-my 2 daughters really had no formal grammar at all before Bigger, so I am using Rod and Staff 2 with them both, which is sceduled daily into Bigger. If your boys already have had a good introduction to grammar, you could easily substitute Rod and Staff 3, doing 1 lesson a day. I would hesitate recommending to start with Rod and Staff Grade 4, unless your children are quite advanced in that area-the jump between 3 and 4 is kind of big. This website has sample lessons from Rod and Staff English books:
http://www.rodandstaff.info/samples/english/
Incidentally, with R & S 2, you only need a student text- you really won't need the teacher book, but with 3 and up, you will. You'll only need a student text and a teacher book for the upper levels, because Carrie writes additional language arts into her daily lessons in the HOD manuals, which makes it all very complete. I hope that helps.
Also want to let you know, R and S begins simple diagramming of sentences in grade 3.

Ditto what Lourdes said!
Julie