Needing Advice :)

[MommaK5]

Hello! Ladies,

I posted last year about combining my children in LHFHG. We did this for about 12-15 weeks. We loved the program and the girls learned a lot!
They girls are close in age but after about 12 weeks the large gap in their abilities began to become acutely apparent. This was especially true for the older who is moving along at an average rate of learning.
She turned 8 in April and is doing Bigger now at full speed and is loving it!

Anyway, I originally thought we should or needed to keep them together so I changed to a different curriculum. It went fine but the curriculum was not CM friendly and seemed lacking after using HOD.
This is our second time around homeschooling. We have three grown children who we homeschooled using BJU backing the 90’s, so now you know how old I am. Ha! I didn’t even know about CM then. The prodigious difference between textbooks and living books type learning is astounding! We don't want to ever go back!

So, we are back in the amazing HOD guides but I am not going to try to combine the girls again.

Our other dd turned 7 in November and I am finding that Beyond is a bit too much for her at full speed. She struggles with her fine motor skills, some mild developmental issues and is basically a child that needs more time for each new thing and more practice as she learns them. I would do the rest of LHFHG however we went ahead and read the history/science books and the Burgess books after we stopped LHFHG last year.

Maybe there is a way to change up LHFHG (something else for history?) or what I was hoping for was a concise explanation of how those of you who do the guides at half-speed actually flesh it out. Since we are just starting the guides again (3weeks now) I am planning to use them through most or all of next year also. Then hope to move along each year as long as they write new guides.
Here’s praying for high school guides! I've been there and done that (teaching high school) 3 times and would love HOD guides as an option.

So, all of that long windedness to find out if there is a specific way to get the most from the half-speed approach or other suggestions??

Thank you so much!
Blessings,
Kathy

[krismoose]

Hi Kathy,

Here's a to a thread including how Beyond half-speed happens in a few homes. I wish I could figure out the simpler way of posting a link
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5431&p=40158&hilit= ... fhg#p40158

here's another where beyond is mentioned at the end:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5600
HTH

[psreit]

Our dd will be 8 in May. She is currently doing LHFHG. I plan to begin Beyond in August. It sounds like your dd7 is similar to my dd in her skills and abilities. My dd also needs to take things slower in certain areas. I'm not sure if dd will be able to handle Beyond full speed or not. I read some of the ideas for half-speed on the links that were given. If dd has problems keeping up full speed when she gets to Beyond, I would probably do the left side + storytime one day (maybe add a little Math if things are going well), and then do the rest of the right side + continuing review on the Bible verse the next (I want to keep Bible in it every day ). I am just going by how our days are going in LHFHG. We work through the left side rather quickly and dd's struggles are in the reading and writing, so we would have more time to focus on that a different day if need be. This is all a tentative plan. If I feel dd can handle full speed, I will do a complete day, but I won't know that until we begin. Definitely, when there are appts., other activities, etc. we would not do a full day. I am making sure that we get Little Hearts done by May/June, but if Beyond takes longer than a year, that's okay. I want to make sure dd is really 'getting it' before we move on.

[MommaK5]

Kristen and Pam,

Thank you so much for the links, ideas, and encouragement. I read through the links. I am still praying about which direction to go with my youngest but think I may have a plan. Both of my “littles” are adopted and both have special learning needs that I didn’t have to take into account with our children the first time we homeschooled; I feel a bit inadequate at this.

I went back and looked at the placement chart again very carefully. My youngest truly places much closer to LHFHG than Beyond. She is working through TRL and I like it a lot. She was not ready last year. This year she has caught on to basic reading and decoding without too much difficulty. She is just slightly behind in math but seems to retain what she learns. Fine motor skills seem to be the biggest area of difficulty, writing, cutting, etc. give her grief.

I am thinking about putting her back in LHFHG. I don’t want to over stress her. I was partially concerned because of her age being at the older end of the guides’ suggestions for finishing. It is reassuring to me to know that others have children whose ages don’t match the guides suggested age span but are working well for the child anyway.
I don’t think it would hurt her to review the books we read aloud when we stopped LHFHG last year i.e.: history and science. She didn’t seem to understand or connect to them very well the first time anyway. I think she may just need extra time and practice with her fine motor skills.

We only do regular academics 4 days a week during the school year and part time in the summer. This means she won’t finish LHFHG until she is 8.5. I am not sure how I feel about that but if she isn’t ready she isn’t ready.

I appreciate this board and the wealth of information and help that is here. If anyone has any other ideas I am open to advice.

Blessings,
Kathy

[psreit]

Kathy,
Don't feel badly about your dd finishing LHFHG at 8.5. Many people get the mindset that their dc need to be doing certain work at a certain age or grade. That simply is not the case. Some children do excel faster than others. Some are just not able to learn to the highest level. My hs evaluator said that as long as they are progressing, that is what's important. I had it with dd(21) in her math and now we are experiencing it with our adopted dd(7) who has some attention and processing difficulties. I almost started her in Beyond last fall, but I am so glad I didn't. It would have been too much. LHFHG was a good start for her, just the right amount of work. More than likely, at some point, dd will need to take the HOD guides at a slower pace, so she will be older finishing them as well. But, that's okay, as long as she is progressing. I am going to work through them as she is able.

[Carrie]

Kathy,

It's good to see you! The ladies are doing a great job of talking through possible options! One thought I had as I was reading about your 7 year old was that LHFGH does sound like a good fit for her right now, but perhaps you could just pick LHFHG up where you left off with it last year. In this way, no matter whether she took all of what you did in LHFHG in last year or not, you won't be repeating, will be moving forward making it more exciting, and will get to Beyond about the time she's truly ready for it. So, I'd just pick LHFHG back up somewhere around weeks 12-15, around where you left off, and go forward.

It's the skills you're really needing to instill as she journeys, and she'll still get a good dose of those prior to heading into Beyond, but this plan will help her be able to move on when she's ready too, so we're not holding her back in any area in order to finish a guide she's already been partway through.

Just a thought!

Blessings,
Carrie

[MommaK5]

Pam,
Thank you so much for the encouragement it means a lot to me. I read through some of your past posts and I think you may be right about our daughters being similar in their learning issues.

Carrie,
I am so appreciative that you would give of your valuable time to answer me! I can only imagine how busy you are with everything as well as homeschooling too.

I agree with you and have been looking through the LHFHG guide to find a good place to start. We are also going to tweak our yearly schedule as we have two of our adult children getting married this year! Maybe that is why I am feeling a bit crazy lately.
We may move into a five day a week schedule and this would help with finishing LHFHG in a timely manner also. I want my dd to do her best but not be overwhelmed. I know we will find a good balance as we work along.
Once again thank you so much for your wisdom it is invaluable!

Blessings,
Kathy

[my3sons]

You have such a good plan forming here - one other thought I'd had was you could get whichever science book you didn't use last year, as LHFHG schedules 2 and they are both good! I think it makes total sense to go back to where you left off and let your sweetie just soar.

In Christ,
Julie

[MommaK5]

Hi! Julie,
Thanks for the encouragement!

So what would you suggest for history? I got out the "History for Little Pilgrims" and low and behold she remembers a lot of it! I am actually thrilled to know that she retained most of it of course. However, this won't work for history this time.
Since we had started with Beyond she was listening to “Pioneers and Patriots” and she is enjoying it.

I haven’t questioned her about the Burgess books but we read all of them plus some that aren’t even in the guide because the other daughter really liked them and wanted to hear more.

I had another idea but would like some feedback in case there is a reason this would not be a good idea in the long run. I was wondering if I could pull the Language Arts from LHTHG and basically do Beyond for everything else? I am going to work through the Fine Motor Skills from that box either way so that could work I think.
Then as it becomes developmentally appropriate for her move her into the Language Arts part of Beyond. I would start her back at the beginning of the Beyond book or wherever she “fit”.

We use a different math program and dh teaches math after 3rd grade at our house so that isn't an issue either way.

This would also alleviate the problem of our schedule being more stretched out and she would fit the age guide for Bigger much better when she finished Beyond.

Blessings,
Kathy

[my3sons]

Well now, that's an interesting idea. Let's run with that. What if she did half-speed Beyond, and for the first year of it, did LHFHG LA full-speed, and for the second year of Beyond, she did full-speed Beyond LA? I think this could work. This way, her LA would eventually meet her core guide in BHFHG, and that will definitely help her be prepared to be able to do BHFHG well. I've got to run - but will check back to get your thoughts, and I will think more on this too!
In Christ,
Julie

[MommaK5]

Julie,

I like this idea! Can you give me more specifics about how to actually do Beyond at half-speed? I have read several links on this but everyone does it differently. Should I do one side one day other side the next along with doing LHFHG’s LA full speed?

I also figured I can do LHFHG’s LA box alone through the summer very easily to continue growing in these skills.
Then when we picked up in the fall we should be close to being ready to start slowly moving into Beyond’s LA.
Do you suggest we start the Beyond LA at the beginning of the guide or at the place we had worked up to?

This is very helpful! Thank you so much for your time and thoughts.

In Christ,
Kathy

[my3sons]

Julie,

I like this idea! Can you give me more specifics about how to actually do Beyond at half-speed? I have read several links on this but everyone does it differently. Should I do one side one day other side the next along with doing LHFHG’s LA full speed?

I also figured I can do LHFHG’s LA box alone through the summer very easily to continue growing in these skills.
Then when we picked up in the fall we should be close to being ready to start slowly moving into Beyond’s LA.
Do you suggest we start the Beyond LA at the beginning of the guide or at the place we had worked up to?

This is very helpful! Thank you so much for your time and thoughts.

In Christ,
Kathy

Truly the best way to move through HOD is to just move through the guides as they are written, as this will incrementally and successfully move dc along and prepare them for the next guide to come, which is why I'd just usually say about 100% of the time that finishing out LHFHG would be the way to go, even if there was some repeating of reading books, discussions, etc., but because your dd is remembering much of what you read, and because I am getting the feeling you are wanting to move her along to Beyond more quickly than finishing out LHFHG would allow, my advice is going to be different here.

I really like your idea of working through the summer to strengthen skills for Beyond. You could quite possibly have your dd ready to just do Beyond half-speed, including its LA, which would be easier to do than half-speed Beyond with full-speed LHFHG LA. So, since you did the history/science/Burgess books for LHFHG, to prepare for Beyond, you could have your dd finish out the Do It Carefully/Finding the Answers and/or Thinking Skills Grade 1 for fine motor skills, as well as having her complete whichever handwriting program you've chosen, either "A Reason for Handwriting K" or "Italic A". Likewise, she could finish out her math along with the hands-on activities in LHFHG. To prepare for the longer readings, for the more difficult readings, and to strengthen listening and comprehension skills, you could do 2 easy things. First, you could read a story a day from whichever LHFHG Bible you didn't use, either "The Family Time Bible" or "101 Favorite Bible Stories", and do the accompanying comprehension questions orally with them each day. If you didn't do either, I'd do "101 Favorite Bible Stories", as it's a little more difficult and will prepare her better. Second, I'd begin reading the girl interest Storytime books with Beyond, and do the accompanying Beyond Storytime box for that. You will probably get through just maybe 3 genres or so, but that will jumpstart her in many needed skills for Beyond. Likewise, I'd try to have her copy 1 Bible verse a week, using the ones from LHFHG to get her going on some copywork. If you want to prepare her for science, you could easily get whichever LHFHG science book you didn't read, and just go through the LHFHG manual and have her work through the experiments and activities that go along with it. Science is scheduled 2 days a week in LHFHG, so you could complete that in the summer as well using the LHFHG plans. This would all worth together to prepare her for Beyond Little Hearts, and you could then begin Beyond half-speed working just from the Beyond manual. For Storytime, whichever genres you read in the summer, you could just use the Classic set titles for those few genres to begin and then move through the Beyond guide sequentially, taking advantage of the beauty of using the daily plans!

As far as doing guides half-speed, we have done all of them half-speed off and on with different dc of ours, and I think it is important to balance out the writing and reading for those dc easing into a guide. It is also very nice to keep the left side of the plans as intact as possible, as they all go around a history theme. I did half-speed Bigger Hearts with my middle ds for around I think 13 weeks of plans, so 26 weeks of school, and just moved to full-speed recently with him. Many of the daily plans boxes' titles are the same in Beyond and Bigger, so I'll share a portion of a post where I shared how we did half-speed Bigger in case that may be helpful:

Bigger Hearts for His Glory (half-speed):
We alternate between these two schedules, spreading 1 day's of plans out over 2 days.

First day:
*Corresponding Music, Bible Study, Poetry Activity, Poetry copywork
*Reading about History, Rotating History Activity (bottom left box), DITHOR 2/3 (just read to me today), Storytime (with the lesson today)
*Math flashcards, book on tape, chores

Second day:
*Science, R & S English 2, Storytime (just read today)
*DITHOR 2/3 (he reads and we do the lesson today), Singapore Math, Dictation
*Cursive, book on tape, chores

Because my ds is on the young side of BHFHG, I do not want to get through LA or Math too quickly. This is why we are going half-speed with these as well, and also why I added in math flashcards, just so he gets a little math but isn't moving ahead too fast with Singapore. I also decided I want to hear him read every day, and I also want to read our Storytime book every day. But, I only do the lesson one of the days. In this way, the pages we both read can be less each day, we can move forward each day, but we are not doubling up on the lessons of Storytime or DITHOR. I hope that makes sense!

We do his school in 3 blocks, hence the bullets above. This has worked great! The book on tape and chores are just things we do to finish out the block.

Here are a few links specific to times for Beyond's boxes of plans that may be helpful:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=162
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4390&p=32417

HTH - but those are just a few ideas! I think an overall goal would be to prepare dd for Beyond, and to eventually just use the Beyond manual as it is written, beginning half-speed, but then knowing you can always move to full-speed whenever dd is ready. We've done guides half-speed for as long as 2 full years, and for as short as 2 weeks - it just becomes obvious over time what pacing a child needs, and blessedly, HOD is flexible enough to bend with those needs. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[MommaK5]

Julie,

Truly the best way to move through HOD is to just move through the guides as they are written, as this will incrementally and successfully move dc along and prepare them for the next guide to come...

I totally agree with this! I am also SO thankful that HOD is flexible enough in it's guides for mom's like me with children who don't fall exactly where their peers do academically to be able to adjust it to fit. I am trying to keep the big picture in mind as I work on my plan. One thing I thought of while thinking this through is that Bigger has extensions. So, even if it took us longer than average to finish Beyond she would have ample time to be on track with BHFHG when she gets there.

I know one thing without a doubt this is by far the best curriculum out there for a plethora of reasons

Thank you for the detailed explanations in this last post. As I put together a plan from yours, Carrie's and the ladies' advice and ideas, I am trusting God for His help implementing the end result. He has never failed me yet. I feel sure this will all work out and knowing there are all these wonderful ladies here to lean on if things get confusing is such a blessing!

You have given me an enormous amount of your time writing all this out and I truly appreciate it! Thanks again!

If you like, once I get our plan organized and running smoothly I will post and let you know what we are doing and how it is working.

Blessings,
Kathy

[MommaK5]

Hello! Ladies,

I have spent the last few days reading over past-posts. Praying with and talking to my dh about what direction I should go with our dd 7. I want to share the decision we have made and why, in hopes that it may be of help to someone in a similar situation.

Even though we did the first few weeks of LHFHG a year ago, we have decided to put our dd 7 who has been struggling, back into full speed LHFHG exactly as written. (except math) I will use "Our Father’s World"-CLP for science this time. I have done more reading and thinking about this than I can tell you. I have tried to take into account the advice of each lady who responded and especially Carrie and Julie. I am beyond appreciative of the time and thought that everyone has given me here on this board! There is such a sweet spirit of kindness and service here.

OK, here are my main reasons for going with LHFHG.

After reading and rereading the placement chart, I can tell it has been very carefully designed to be as accurate as possible. Dd7 fits the placement chart significantly closer to LHFHG than she does Beyond. Almost every past-post I found with questions about placement seemed to indicate that those who stayed closest to the placement chart were most successful in implanting HOD long term. We do not plan to change curriculums again and I suspect that dd 7 won’t be developmentally ready for Bigger at the end of the next school year. (May 2012) Even though she will fall within the suggested age range for Bigger.

LHFHG’s contains the Dramatic Play and Thinking Games, which I believe will be an added asset to strengthen the areas that dd 7, is weak. Science and Artistic Expression are hands-on and she needs this too. She also needs the content of the Fine Motor Skills box in LHFHG.

One of the things that bothered me was that she would be repeating some of what she had already learned. Dh reminded me that we reread almost all of the girl’s favorite books to them numerous times and that this isn’t a bad thing. In the long run IMHO it will be much easier to review something already learned and add a bit of information if needed vs. trying to make more difficult academic content easier to understand.

Dh also alleviated my fears about her being a year and a half older than the recommended age to finish the LHFHG guide. He said, he didn’t feel it was a big issue. He also said
“Part of the reason we choose to homeschool is to instill a love of learning. If we want the girls to love the process of learning then learning should be enjoyable. If she is frustrated by trying to keep up with a grade level based on "average children" it certainly won’t be an enjoyable experience for anyone.”
Such a wise man I have.

Another reason for our family is that she has an older sister 8 who is moving through Bigger. Dd8 has some challenges of her own and both girls need individual attention from me.
I think a less intensive approach for dd7 will also give me the time to give dd8 the extra help she will need to become a more independent learner as she moves through Bigger and prepares to move into Preparing at the end of the 2012 school year.

Well, there you have it, HTH someone.

Blessings and many thanks!
Kathy

[psreit]

Kathy,
I understand how it feels to be at peace with a decision. It happened to me when I chose to do LHFHG with dd instead of Beyond. Your reasons for making the choice you did are valid. No need to worry about the age range for a guide. If your dd places there, that is the best. For my dd, if she comes to a point where she needs to slow down, we will do that. I'm not going to push her through a guide just to keep her at a certain level. I agree with your dh about wanting learning to be enjoyable. I know you'll have a great year.