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Seriously- this placement SHOULD not be so hard. We bring this on ourselves.

I had the revelation to stretch out LHFHG over K-1st (half-speed for 2 yrs) then Beyond for 2nd grade, Bigger for 3rd, etc....
Giving time to mature and enjoy the material as well as each other. Is this the essence of homeschooling? We can always add in more..

Any thoughts or experiences on this?

My vote is for you and your little ones to enjoy homeschooling! And the guides can easily be used for a 2 year time span.

When I am in a dilemma I ask myself 2 questions Have I prayed about it? and Do I have peace?
and if I'm still in a dilemma I say ooo Husband can figure it out

I stressed alot too about what to do for the "missing year", since we are starting lhfhg for K. But since we have gotten started, alot of my worries have seemed to resolve. I would just start where they place and at whatever speed goes well for them for now. I finally just had to do this and we started lhfhg full speed. I figure that if there comes a time when ds needs to slow down and go half speed, maybe in a later guide, we can do that.

I really wish that I would have found HOD sooner.. that would have saved us all some blood(not literally) , sweat and tears. I could have used lhth last year for k and moved on with lhfhg for 1st this year. I would have felt better about that, but it just didn't work out that way for us.

I agree that we do this to ourselves. Try not to worry too much. I am sure it will get better once you get started. Hope that helps...I seem a little scattered..sorry.

It's tough to know what placement is best for each family, and each mom sure knows her kiddos best, so I think you should use the pacing that you feel is best. In general, I've found my oldest seems ready to fly and does a guide a year. My middle ds needed half-speed at the start of each guide, and then he is ready to fly. My youngest wants to do school all of the time because he wants to be just like his brothers. God gives us different dc with different needs and different personalities, so the best advice I can give is to consider each child individually first, and then see how you can best meet each of their needs within the context of the family's overall needs. Half-speed with 3 guides over 6 years may be stretching it out too much, but I think you'll know when you get there. The best advice I can give is to look at the placement chart for each child's present needs, place them accordingly using the pacing that fits them best, and enjoy the year! We cannot know what the future holds, and often things go a different direction than we'd planned, so just put the pressure of figuring it all out right now off your shoulders and enjoy your year with this moment's needs in mind. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie