LHTH: Can we do this for two years?

[erin.kate]

My youngest is 2, will not be three until 12/30. We are adopting a 5-ish yo boy (will be 6 on paper in late July) from Ethiopia in a few months. Our next "school" year will start in July/August (depending on when Shaw gets home and settled a bit).

I am planning on LHTH with Shaw and with my other 5yo (she turned 5 last week) along with the right side LHFHG for Ellie only (DD5). Once Shaw is ready for LHFHG right side we'll move to that, but only at his best time. My oldest, Gracie (7), will be in Beyond.

I would like to include my youngest, Sullivan, in LHTH, but he is such a late birthday that I'm not sure what to do with him until he is ready for K work. Can I do LHTH for two years with Sullivan, or is that stretching it too long? He would still only be 4 then for LHFHG, which feels too young. I know that it's not so much about his age, as much as ability, but I still feel like 4 is too little for K learning.

Should I wait one more year to start anything aside from preschool games until he is 3, then do LHTH for two years, and then move to LHFHG when he is 5?

Or, I could do LHTH for 2 years and then LHFHG for 2 years ... half speed for both and then he'd be ready for Beyond when he is 6 and has had a really thorough experience with LHTH and LHFHG.

Hmm ... looking forward to hearing your wise btdt words.

[tkeller]

I don't have the exact situation but here's what we did! We started LHtH when my son was almost three. Took about a year, we went slowly. When we got finished he knew all his letters and sounds but was in no way ready for Lhfhg. So we started Lhth again , but this time I added some things to make it like Lhth 2. I added:

1. Hooked on Phonics
2. The Rod and Staff Preschool workbooks ABC ( saving D & F to do with Lhfhg)
3. Singapore Earlybird 1a&b
4. HWT Preschool book.

We are almost done with LHTH now, and he is so much more ready thus time. He is reading early reader books, has much better handwriting, and can sit still for longer. He will still be a little young for it so I might start half speed with Lhfhg till I see if he can handle it.

Personally I haven't minded doing it over again, although I know it's not for everyone. Good luck with everything!

[erin.kate]

Thank you for your ideas. I could definitely add to LHTH the second time around. And, realistically, he will only be 2 1/2 when we start it in the summer, so it will be very fresh to him the second year, I'm sure. But, at least this year he can participate with his new brother, who will be 6, but academically more like a preschooler. Again, thank you for giving me more good ideas to think about.

[solagratia824]

Hi,

Everyone's different, but here is our experience... My dd3 has an early January birthday, and we started in LHTH in August when she was 2 1/2. We are going to do LHTH over 2 years. I also have ds5 in LHFHG. We don't do formal school every day... so I haven't been following the guide exactly this time around. I don't do every box every day as scheduled. I have been selecting the ones I think will work best for her right now.

When we do school, I usually choose activities from LHTH: Bible story, fingerplay, and a letter activity. We are using "A Child's First Bible." Often I end up only doing part of the fingerplay because her attention span is short. She's gotten most of her letter names and sounds... and is catching on to reciting numbers and counting objects. For math, since she sits with us while ds5 is doing LHFHG, I usually have her practice counting with whatever manipulatives ds5 is using for his math activity. And then we also do read-alouds, picture books from the library.

Next year, I am planning to follow the LHTH guide as written with "The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes" and one of the devotionals (not sure which one yet). I will probably also include some phonics work (we have our own program) and handwriting practice. I also like what the pp said about doing some of the other Rod and Staff preschool books for extra fine motor practice. Depending on how she is doing with the math activities, I may or may not add in Singapore Earlybird.

I'm not sure what will happen the year after that. Like you, I will have a not-yet-5 yo that will have done LHTH twice already! I think I will see how she is doing next year... and then figure it out and go at her pace. One of my thoughts is to focus on the 3Rs with some read-alouds or unit studies for the first "semester" while she is 4.5 and then start LHFHG in January when she turns 5... and then take 1.5 years to do LHFHG.

Hope that helps... Glad there are others in similar situations! What a great community there is here...

[MrsMandy]

I will be using LHTH with my 2 year old (2 in March) in the Fall. I was going to do it half speed or even slower. I like going through it again adding in some other materials too later. I was planning on taking it slow and just following her lead. As of right now she doesn't want me to really read to her, she likes to take the books and go off by herself, but she is getting better. I am tryinh to decide if I should do 1 side per day (day 1 left side, day 1 right side, day 2 left, day,2 right) or do 1 week and then do it again the following week sort of like practice???

[erin.kate]

Hi,

Everyone's different, but here is our experience... My dd3 has an early January birthday, and we started in LHTH in August when she was 2 1/2. We are going to do LHTH over 2 years. I also have ds5 in LHFHG. We don't do formal school every day... so I haven't been following the guide exactly this time around. I don't do every box every day as scheduled. I have been selecting the ones I think will work best for her right now.

When we do school, I usually choose activities from LHTH: Bible story, fingerplay, and a letter activity. We are using "A Child's First Bible." Often I end up only doing part of the fingerplay because her attention span is short. She's gotten most of her letter names and sounds... and is catching on to reciting numbers and counting objects. For math, since she sits with us while ds5 is doing LHFHG, I usually have her practice counting with whatever manipulatives ds5 is using for his math activity. And then we also do read-alouds, picture books from the library.

Next year, I am planning to follow the LHTH guide as written with "The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes" and one of the devotionals (not sure which one yet). I will probably also include some phonics work (we have our own program) and handwriting practice. I also like what the pp said about doing some of the other Rod and Staff preschool books for extra fine motor practice. Depending on how she is doing with the math activities, I may or may not add in Singapore Earlybird.

I'm not sure what will happen the year after that. Like you, I will have a not-yet-5 yo that will have done LHTH twice already! I think I will see how she is doing next year... and then figure it out and go at her pace. One of my thoughts is to focus on the 3Rs with some read-alouds or unit studies for the first "semester" while she is 4.5 and then start LHFHG in January when she turns 5... and then take 1.5 years to do LHFHG.

Hope that helps... Glad there are others in similar situations! What a great community there is here...

It sounds like you are me! You have articulated my mind for Sulllivan. I think that your plan sounds really simple and like it will be effective. I hadn't thought about taking a "semester" before LHFHG, maybe with FIAR which I love, before beginning LHFHG ... maybe even a full year (mine is a boy so he could probably use more time for basic skills, too).

Thanks for putting your plan down for me. That helped me think of that year leading up to LHFHG.

[KristinBeth]

I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old doing LHTH. My 2 year old (a young twosie, just 24 months when we began 6 weeks ago) listens to the bible stories, does the hands-on activities, fingerplays, and scribbles while her older sister is making pictures. I know she is not getting everything out of it that her sister is because she is so little, so I'm just going to go through LHTH with her again when she is older. It is so quick and fun, I won't mind doing it again in a year or two. My 4 year old is already looking forward to doing it again ("teaching Hannah" as she calls it) when she has moved on to another guide. When we go through it again, we'll take it slower so she can get everything out of it, and occasionally some Before Fiar and nature walks, arts and crafts.
Enjoy!
Kristin

[erin.kate]

I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old doing LHTH. My 2 year old (a young twosie, just 24 months when we began 6 weeks ago) listens to the bible stories, does the hands-on activities, fingerplays, and scribbles while her older sister is making pictures. I know she is not getting everything out of it that her sister is because she is so little, so I'm just going to go through LHTH with her again when she is older. It is so quick and fun, I won't mind doing it again in a year or two. My 4 year old is already looking forward to doing it again ("teaching Hannah" as she calls it) when she has moved on to another guide. When we go through it again, we'll take it slower so she can get everything out of it, and occasionally some Before Fiar and nature walks, arts and crafts.
Enjoy!
Kristin

Hi Kristen,

I love your blog.

Thank you for sharing with me. Did you do LHTH twice with your 4yo? Will she move on to LHFHG next year? Will she be 5 then? Lots of questions, I know.

Arts & crafts are the best part and B4 would be a really nice supplement, too.

[KristinBeth]

Hi Erin! Thanks, I'm glad you like the blog. I didn't do LHTH twice with my 4 year old. We just started (on unit 7 now) because I didn't know about HOD earlier. I was just doing easy crafts and Sonlight read alouds with her previously, plus those preschool workbooks you can get at Costco for $10 Now that I'm thinking about it though, I like the idea of starting LHTH at 4 (or 3.5 and going slower) so they can get everything out of it and be ready to move on to LHFHG at 5. My daughter is a late September birthday and will be starting LHFHG in the fall just as she is turning 5. We'll take it as slow or quick as we need to depending on her abilities (she's really good with comprehension and loves activities, but needs more development of fine motor skills). I've heard a lot of wise moms here suggest LHFHG at 1/2 speed if the kids are on the younger side of the guide. PM me if you want to chat more about it offline!
Warmly,
Kristin

[solagratia824]

Speaking of starting LHTH at 3.5 or 4... I think that's a good idea.

If my dd3 was my only or oldest child, I think I wouldn't have started her in any program at 2.5. With my son, when he was 2-3, we just read a lot of picture books and played with letter magnets... and at 4, we added some phonics activities, a handwriting workbook and math games, very informal. I didn't know about HOD then.

When I decided to start my son in LHFHG this school year, I knew dd was going to want to be included and "do" school in some way. So I purchased LHTH so that she could have her own "program," too this year (even though we are not doing it fully). But, it does put us in this awkward position of being still at least 2 years off from LHFHG at this point. I'm glad HOD gives additional choices for Bibles and devotionals for the different ages... which does allow us to repeat it with some variation.