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My fourth little peach is about to turn five. I pretty much let her do her own thing this year as she is pretty independent and manages to keep herself busy. She's completed some of the R&S workbooks and recently started the Explode the Code primers. She can be very focused and will do copywork, but she has to pick the book. She likes to "surprise" with with the amount of copying she does. She can almost count to 100 but I haven't really done any math with her yet...she just learned it over time by hearing her sisters reciting.

She really enjoys sitting in on her sister's storytime. We are currently reading The Ordinary Princess and everyone loves that book.

Lately she has been organizing all the beginning reading books and looking through them. She is very excited to have some books of her "own". Yesterday, she handed me one of our Dick and Jane books and said she wanted to read it. So we sat together and she actually read about four or five of the stories, with help of course, but she was determined to do it. So she appears to be ready for phonics instruction.

That little rascal really threw a wrench in my plans. I was seriously planning on doing LHFHG with her for 1st grade, but I'm thinking she might be ready to start in the fall. Now, having done LHFHG, my only hesitation is that she doesn't like comprehension questions. I suppose I really won't know if she's ready until we try. Anyway, I am sooooooooo looking forward to doing LHFHG again.

Thanks for reading!

Joy

Isn't it amazing how our kids can throw a wrench in the best laid plans? I am a planner by nature and everytime I get something planned out, I realize that my son would benefit from something completely different. It drives me crazy sometimes, but God is teaching me patience & flexibility through it.

Anyway, I just wanted to offer one suggestion since you were thinking of not using LHFHG till first grade. If you think your daughter is ready for it now, but maybe not the comprehension questions, you could do it at half speed. My son was only 4.5 when we started so this is what we have done. We are going through the entire guide at half speed. We do reading about history and the rotating box (science, dramatic play, etc) one day, the next day we do the bible study and storytime. We do the rhyme, music, phonics, math, and fine motor skills daily. By doing it this way, we will finish the K level math, phonics and fine motor skills by the time we get through Unit 17 of the guide. Then we will start the 1st grade math, phonics, and fine motor skills for the remaining units. This will take us 2 years to complete. Does that make sense? Carrie has listed lots of additional history books to go along with each unit in the appendix so we just check out several of those from the library as well as books on the science topics for the week to help stretch the unit. This has been a great fit for my DS and he absolutely loves LHFHG and begs to do school each day!

Joy,

Stephanie had a great suggestion to ponder as your 4th little peach seems ready to get underway. I know I thoroughly enjoyed doing LHFHG the second time around, and we pray you will too!

Blessings,
Carrie