LHFHG?

[twoxcell]

My dd 5 is doing LHFGH this year. Her birthday is October 31st, so we started a bit early on this guide. She is super smart, and stubborn. At this point she loves everything about these guides except listening to storytime, and History(she does enjoy the family time Bible though). She also will not say the verses with me . I wondering what I should do with her next year as I do not think she is going to be ready for Beyond when we finish this. I would like for her to get as much out of Beyond as my ds has this year. He is 7, and is loving Beyond. Any thought or ideas?

[twoxcell]

Just wanted to add that she is doing well with the K math, and will be doing singapore 1a/1b next year and she is on lesson 35 of Reading Made Easy. Also she loves listening to me read picture books.

[krismoose]

How far along are you in it? Can you slow down so that she'll be older when you finish? I wish I had slowed down, because my ds justwasn't ready to start Beyond, even 1/2 speed, when we finished LHFHG. I've been missing doing HOD while working on 3Rs and geography. Also, if you slow down the left side activities, you can take more time to deal with the stubbornness issues, so they won't be there by the time you get to Beyond What doesn't she like about storytime?

[blessedmomof4]

If you are not too far into it, maybe you could consider using Little Hands to Heaven with age 4 to 5 books, but still use the reading and math from Little Hearts, then do Little Hearts next year with 1st grade options, after she has matured some?

[twoxcell]

We are on unit 15. I'm not sure she just will not listen to the Burgess books, and won't answer the questions. As soon as she sees them she gets frustrated. I really do not know why, because she loves me reading to her normally. Like I said she is very stubborn, so when she sets her mind to something it is tough to break through.

[krismoose]

The language is challenging in the Burgess books. Did you see this thread? viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8051 Julie adds some suggestions for teaching those listening skills.

[christina101902]

I also started LHFHG early with my daughter who wont be 5 until April. The wonderful thing about this curriculum is you can give and take and make it work for your daughter. I plan on repeating LHFHG for first grade as well as it is written by Carrie. However, during this Kindergarten run through Im exempting the History and Burgess books, and continuning to use our Bible and Devotional from LHTH. I am using the Beatrix Potter series, I think its important to read whatever sparks her interest at this age and then just ask a few questions at the end. Ex: We read The story of Peter Rabbit and I asked if she thought Peter had made good choices during his day? What did he do to get into trouble? She was able to answer all of the questions I asked. In my opinion whether it's Dr. Suess or The Little Red Hen as long as they are listening they are accomplishing so much at this age. Instead of History we are doing Social Studies/Geography activities to talk about the big world God has made and all who live in it. There are others who just do one side of the book per day. I hope this helps. I will not begin Beyond until second grade, my daughter will be 7. I believe everyone on this board is so helpful. I hope you have much success on this endeavor.
Chrisitna

[countrymom]

A couple of thoughts:
First, I agree with the others that you could easily either slow down to 1/2 speed (you can still do math, handwriting, and reading at a pace she can handle - I always do those subjects everyday when going 1/2 speed), or you could finish LHFHG without the history and storytime, then repeat next year inserting storytime and history and using 1st grade right side options, basically doing reading and math where she is at.

I am wondering if she is melancholic in temperament? The reason I mention it is because narration is a difficult skill for many children in the beginning. It is different than just having a book read to you and can take some time to learn - believe me, we are struggling with narration in our home with a slow learning curve. A melancholic does not like it when they are not sure how to proceed, or can't do something correctly. They can sometimes have a slight (or heavy) bent towards perfectionism and they usually hesitate to do something they don't understand. A melancholic needs to know exactly what they are doing before they begin. This poses a few issues with education. I have a strong melancholic and had to "learn" how to teach him last year when we did LHFHG. I did this by letting him know he was expected to do his schoolwork to the best of his ability with full effort, but at the same time I adjusted for his temperament by doing a lot of modeling and allowing him to ease into an activity (we particularly struggled with the action rhymes, but by the end they were his favorite.) Narration and the action rhymes are definitely topics that could stall a melancholic. Just throwing that out there. You have received some great advice, hopefully you can put together something that will work. I would not continue to go full speed right now though in order to give you a chance to work on some issues and perhaps let her grow into it.

[FiveLittlePeaches]

As smart as your daughter is, maybe she just isn't ready for that portion of LHFHG yet. For my second year of homeschooling, I combined my oldest 3 in LHFHG, when my youngest was 5 and my oldest was 7. My youngest would sit and listen but rarely participate in any of the discussions. Then when it came time to do Beyond, she had the most difficult time and really started to resist doing school. In hindsight, I wish I would have put her back in LHFHG and let her do it again...more accurately, just give her a chance to really do it.

This is my 3rd year doing HOD. I am very confident in this curriculum, and based on my experience, I know what I expectations I have for my kids. Now I have a five year old, but I planned on using LHFHG for her 1st grade year. She has shown signs of readiness, so I thought I'd give LHFHG a trial run. She enjoyed Reddy Fox, and could actually narrate the first chapter exceptionally well! She hears her sisters do narrations, so she understands the concept. Unfortunately, I started losing her during Bible time, and she practically ran out of the room for history. I don't even remember if she made it through the whole reading. She just wasn't ready, and I'm totally fine with that.

I just want to encourage you to hang in there. LFHFG is a lot harder than it appears. Maybe you could just work on the 3 R's right now. Make school fun and enjoyable and give it another shot in a few months.

[FiveLittlePeaches]

oops. Double post

[jenntracy]

I used LHFHG right side when my son turned 5yrs Oct 29th. (He is 7 now). We didn't do the left side. We would add in our own science and Bible. HE was so not ready for history. However, he did like the storytime.
the next year we used the left side of LHFHG. we did our own storytime, continued on level with reading/phonics, math and we did handwriting since we had left that out the previouse year and only did the Do it Carefully and Finding Answers book.
Basically we did a 2yr Kindergarten.
He wouldn't have been able to go to "public" school till the 2nd year i was using LHFHG anyway. it was just that he was ready at "5yrs" for some instruction but not mature for it all.
It has worked out great. He is very bright as well.

This year for 1st grade we are doing Beyond as written. We just continue on level with reading (is in DITHOR this year) and we use Math-u-see so we continue where we left off.

HOpefully that helps.

Perhaps you could slow her down???

Jenn D.

[twoxcell]

Thanks ladies you are awesome . Yes she is a big perfectionist, and hates to lose or fail. I really need to think about some of your advice, and figure out what to do. It's funny because she will sit for long periods of time doing a puzzle or some other hands on toy, but when she sees Danny Meadow mouse and she completely checks out It's funny because my ds who is usually doing copywork when I read to her will try and answer the questions for her. Also if she were going to PS here she would be in K next fall, so no rush. I talked to my dh about it and he wants me to keep it light this year for K, so I'm considering continuing with math/phonics/handwriting/fine motor skills, and just reading some other books to her to build up her listening skills. Then we will pick up where we left off adding in first grade options next year. I'm going to buy LHTH for my dd2 when she is 3, so she can join in with her if she wants also.

[my3sons]

What a good discussion already - just one more thought - it may be good to continue to help her grow into listening to read alouds and answering questions about them. Since you are going to be getting LHTH in a bit anyway, I think it would be great to have her do the Bible history part from there. You could get the younger Bible for your little guy, and the older Bible for your dd, and that way she would still be learning to listen carefully and answer questions after hearing the readings, so she can keep growing in that area. You could do the same with the devotions if you wanted. She will probably be more ready for the history books and Burgess books when you pick LHFHG back up again then. Just an idea - but you will know best here.

In Christ,
Julie

[andi1234]

We did LHFHG last year. My dd turned 5 in October also. She REALLY did not like the Burgess books either. She loved the bible and the devotional. She did very well with the math and the Reading Lesson. We just ended up reading other books for our read alouds. If I could do it over again, i would probably have gone half speed last year. She was not ready for Beyond this year so we are doing another program (and not really enjoying it). We can't wait to start Beyond next year!

[Tracee]

My ds has an auditory processing issue, and I tried to start LHFHG when he was 5 1/2, and he still wasn't ready to listen. I put it on the shelf and started when he was 6 and it has been awesome. Now, he has been listening great and answering the questions with ease. He memorizes the verses and enjoys the rhymes in motion. We still had a little trouble with the Burgess books, but we are getting ready to try again. I 'm just waiting until we are at a point in the guide where a new book starts. For me, it has been amazing to just wait a little while and work on some other skills while he matured a little. He is getting much more out of it now, because I waited, than he would have if we kept going. So, in my humble opinion, I would try to slow down or wait while we worked on other skills.


HTH,
Tracy