New to HOD

[kimberleybyrd]

Hi my name is Kimberley and we are a missionary family living in Puebla, Mexico. We have four beautiful and amazing children. Our two older children live in Texas. James is 26 and Elisabeth is 22. We also have two little ones, Lottie-5 and Emma Jane-5, they are not twins but are miracles of adoption. I have always felt a calling to homeschool my little ones and we have been using LHFHG for about 6 weeks now and we love it!

I am about to order next years curriculum because our big kids are coming to visit this Christmas and there will be no more teams coming to Mexico for awhile because of the dangerous situations here lately. Both girls are almost 6 years old but Lottie is more advanced than Emma Jane. Emma was not adopted until she was two years old and is a little delayed. Because I need to order the curriculum now, I have no way to evaluate them at the end of the school year. Should I go ahead and order the next level? Be patient with me, I am VERY new to homeschooling!!!
Many blessings,
Kimberley
www.lottiegracebyrd.blogspot.com

[GinainMD]

Hello and Welcome! I don't really know how to advise you but just wanted to welcome you.

[pjdobro]

If they are doing well with LHFHG, then the natural progression would be to continue on next year with Beyond. They would fit perfectly into Beyond as far as age and as you continue to progress through LHFHG, they should acquire the needed skills to progress smoothly into Beyond. Welcome!

[mrskturner]

Hey Kimberley I looked at your blog, you have such a cute family!! Emma and Lottie are BEAUTIFUL!!!! We have two biological boys and we adopted our daughter when she was eight years old. She has several delays from living the first five years with very neglectful parents. She is working in Bigger along with my seven year old son. They love HOD and have a great time doing school together.

I would love to hear about your adoption story sometime and about the mission work your family is doing in Mexico. I love missionary work. I am reading a book right now to my kids about Gladys Aylward, a Chinese missionary. I have been on several mission trips to NY and Ohio when I was a teenager and worked with Spanish churches there. In 2007 I went on a mission trip to Honduras. My heart is truly with mission work, but I am married to a Navy Chief. So we are living in the military life. So I do a lot of praying for other countries, reading about missionaries, and financialy supporting missionaries. Once my husband retires I pray that God will allow us to serve him as missionaries in foreign countries.

I would go ahead and order the next curriculum. And don't stress over the evaluating them at the end of the year. Just ask them to narriate what they are learning back to you to see if they are grasping what you are teaching them.

[4Hispraise]

Welcome to the Board, Kimberley...and welcome to the adventure of home schooling! I would agree with the pp who said that if both of your dds are progressing, then they should be right on target for the next guide. And, by the way, I jumped over to your blog - your girls are beautiful!!

[kimberleybyrd]

Thanks everyone, I feel more comfortable ordering it this next week now. Kirsten, I would love to share our story with you!! I would have never believed in a million years that I could learn another language at my age but I did!! I tell people all the time that if it is God's plan.....He will provide

Thanks for giving me a big welcome, I am anxious to begin learning from all of you!

[my3sons]

Hi Kimberley, and welcome to the HOD Board! I think you've already gotten excellent advice. We have always found that if our dc are doing well with the guide they are in, they will do well with the coming guide too. Beyond is a delight to teach! I look forward to getting to know you more here.

In Christ
Julie

[Carrie]

Kimberley,

The ladies have already given you such wise counsel, so I'll just pop-in to welcome you too! We're glad to have you here and pray that the Lord may continue to bless your time spent with Little Hearts for His Glory.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Tansy]

Hi Kimberly,

I'm a Home team Missionary wife here in TX, Were with Gospel for Asia . I have 2 precious girls through adoption. One from India was adopted a around 2 years of age, she is delayed, and has lots of learning challenges. The other was adopted at age 5 from China so sweet, so smart, she was our "Special needs adoption" that wasn't... You can really tweak the program to fit each child so don't stress to much. I just brought the older one back from Public school like Tuesday... I mean just!, And I have them together in Bigger. In many ways they are on lvl with each other.

I'm really excited your here, lots of us are adoptive families. Big squishy hugs. You should go post your blog on the missions thread. Your blog would be a blessing to them over there!

BTW have you read The Connected Child? its and awesome book, for adoptive parents of little one that are out of sync. So if your getting your book order in I would highly recommend it!
Sara aka Tansy