heartofdakota.com

Carrie,

I have been using your curriculum for 4 years. LOVE IT!! I cannot say how pleased I am and my husband also with all that we have seen our children learn - in a fun way over the last 4 years. We started with LHTH and have just completed Beyond. My 7 year old daughter will be using DITHR this next year and planning to continue on with BHHG. Since they are only 2 years apart and both are very good students, I am struggling with what approach to take this next year. My son(5) has listened to all the read alouds this year as well as the history stories and he has done the science with us. My struggle is whether to go back to Little Hearts for his Glory with him or to continue on with just him listening and absorbing all that he can in the science and history areas. We use Sing, Spell, Read and Write for our phonics program which he will be doing Raceway this year and also Saxon Math. What sugguestions would you make? Thanks again for your hard work in providing such a WONDERFUL lesson plan that ties all subjects together and keeps us focused on the most important aspect of life - learning to live for God.

Billie Ruth, Texas

Hi Billie Ruth, and welcome to the HOD Board! It's so nice to hear how much you have been enjoying HOD over the years with your precious kiddos. We have been too - it is such a blessing in our home. Since Carrie is in the middle of her writing season and it may take her a little bit to get back to you (though I know she will eventually ), I'll throw out some things you could ponder in the meantime. If you take a look at the placement chart and place your 5 yo, I wonder where he would fit? I am guessing LHFHG from what you said.
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

Bigger Hearts is quite a jump from that placement, and even with your younger ds being able to listen in on older, more mature books well, I'd be worried about him getting all he needs as a 5 yo. (Not to mention this becomes more and more of a challenge up through the guides as the content becomes to mature for a kiddo not near the target age range of a guide - i.e. the Ancients time period ). We started BHFHG half-speed with our 7 yo this year, and though he is a very solid reader and a good writer, it was challenging aplenty. BHFHG begins to have many writing skills in the plans that are necessary for that age but quite impossible for a 5 yo. Here are some links describing the writing in BHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1516&p=11829

I know you could just skip the writing things for your 5 yo in BHFHG, but then when would he learn them? HOD does such a good job of incrementally teaching difficult skills like oral narrations, written narrations, notebooking, scientific method, etc., and if a child doesn't do them in the guides they are taught in, I just worry how they'll ever learn to really do them correctly.

I wonder if you could do LHFHG with your 5 yo, and half-speed Bigger with your 7 yo this year. Then the next year, you could do Beyond with your 6 yo, and the other half of Bigger with your 8 yo. The next year, you could have your 7 yo do the right side of Bigger Hearts, but combine your then 7 yo and then 9 yo for the rest of PHFHG? Or maybe at that point, you'd know if it was just easier to separate them. Anyway, I thought I'd just kick around some ideas with you, and you can share your thoughts when you get a chance.

All of HOD's guides are awesome, so there is a customized HOD plan out there that will fit your goals and kiddos just right - we just have to chat about it to find it. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Billie Ruth,

My3sons gave you some terrific options to ponder. I like her plan for gaining your 5 year old some time and maturity before heading into the upper level guides with your older child. I would tend to lean in the direction that she shared, but only you can know best what will work for your family. At HOD we tend to gaurd against little ears hearing content that is too mature for them and also gaurd against pulling the younger child along behind an older child for too many years (as the younger child will not develop the skills needed to function on his/her own then and would just be riding along). Just something to ponder.

Another option you could consider would be to do both LHFGH and Bigger Hearts at half-speed next year to keep your time to a minimum, and you could have your 5 year old listen in to Bigger Hearts for history and science (while doing LHFHG as the core program) to keep your kiddos together in that sense. By the time your oldest reaches Preparing or CTC though, the content will be far too mature and the writing will be way too much to consider keeping them together. If you did slow down the older child to half-speed for the history part while continuing on full-speed with the younger, they could possibly join up someday. Do you have any other kiddos in the mix that may combine with your 5 year old at some point?

Blessings,
Carrie