New..and Amazed...

[InHisImage]

Hi my name is Dee. I am incredibly amazed at the tender mercies that my Lord has shown me. This has been an incredibly rough here for my family and I. I have always wanted to homeschool and knew that the Lord would direct me in that path if it was His will for me. And it is. I am forced to go back to work. So I honestly don't have much time to prepare lessons and do TONS of arts and crafts, although some are great! I don't want to overkill in that area with my little ones, 3 and 23 months. I am planning on doing LHTH, Can someone give me a typical day doing that curriculum with little ones. My oldest the three year old. Knows most letter sounds but still needs some help in that area. He's what I call an Eager beaver, he asked me to teach him how to read , I told him that we just need to take it slow right now. Sometimes he reverses his letters.... I am not sure how to correct that, but I think in time perhaps that will change. My 23 month old is very vibrant, he loves to count and knows most of the alphabet. Anyway, all of that is not my priority. I want my kids to be impassioned with the word of God written on their hearts. They go to daycare now and they've picked up a lot of ungodly things--and characteristics that I had to nip in the Bud. Can you give me more of an insight on LHTH, I've looked at the website and such, but I want to hear from people who have used it.

[Candice]

Hi Dee,

Welcome, so nice to have you here!

I have to tell you I just jump at the opportunity to be able to tell someone about HOD and LHTH! My first thought is always wanting to share how much children learn and retain about the Lord. All else is secondary, in my opinion, especially at this young, tender, and impressionable age. Of course, the program is set up wonderfully and effectively to implement academics but, the focus on the Lord is amazing! It is absolutely Christ-centered.
My daughter is 4 years old and we have been working through LHTH for some time now. She absolutely enjoys it and has absorbed so much from the bible readings and activities as well as the devotional readings. She commonly requests to do LHTH or to read her bible storybook or devotional. Another wonderful thing that I have noticed is that she is becoming increasingly aware of her behavior and attitude, and how that affects others and whether or not God would be pleased. Her character is being shaped and directed to follow a path that the Lord would be pleased with. I believe that LHTH, coupled with my direction as a parent (as I ask for God's direction ), is shaping my daughter into a loving child of God. I could not be more pleased.

LHTH is very engaging for little ones. It offers fun and memorable fingerplays, letter and number recognition, bible stories and activities, devotionals, music, science/active exploration, art activities, and fun role playing/dramatic play. And the best part is that it is all perfectly connected to the bible story that is being covered in a particular unit. Every piece is connected and has a purpopse. A super neat bonus is that the guide is absolutely open-and-go, no doubt about it! I typically do not look ahead even to the next day for preparation since I know I can truly open the guide, see what we will be doing and go for it! And by the way, the art activities (crafts) are completely manageable for the parent, so fun for the child, and again, designed to perfectly relate with the bible story being covered. It is not useless hands-on stuff that leaves you wondering why you took the time to do that! It creatively reinforces the lesson being taught.

As far as a typical day, I thought I would try to describe that for you (it will be a bit abbreviated however!).
Either my daughter asks to do LHTH or I ask her if she would like to. She says yes, and I open the guide, take a quick glance and gather simple supplies/materials. We do the fingerplay and have fun with that. We read the bible story and focus on the "key idea" that is always listed. It is a simple, wonderful reference to keep me in the right direction! The guide typically calls for some dramatic play and bible activity that relates to the bible/character lesson. These are very interactive and constructive, and allow for the child to be creative, imaginative and helps them to really process the intended meaning of the bible story/lesson.
The math and letter activities are typically hands on and well suited for wiggly ones. An example might include, stomping or moving like a certain animal and counting those stomps/movements to understand the order of numbers. We love to take these activities outside, and I have to laugh because I know some of the neighbors must be looking out of their windows wondering what the heck we are doing stomping and flapping our arms while counting! I didn't cover all of the activities but, I hope this provides you with a glimpse of our day.
This program is so meaningful, fun and very manageable for the parent. It can be accomplished in 30 minutes a day but often, we like to take our time.
I hope this helped and I apologize if I rambled, it is getting late here!

Candice

[susie in ms]

Hi Dee,

Candice did a great job so I will only add a little bit. My dd is not yet 3 and she is very active (slowing down though ) so we don't do a typical day as listed in the guide, but we do do more than we used to as she slows down. Hannah Grace loves to be read to. Sometimes she will sit in my lap, while other times she will run in circles while I am reading. Don't let me stop or she will say, "Read, Mama, read more". I may read the devotional and discuss the letter of the week in one sitting, and then at a diff part of the day let her draw her letters (upper and lower) in salt, or trace the tape on the floor, ect and read the Bible story. Another sitting will be a craft activity and the acting. All of this takes very little time. If it was all pulled together then it may take 30 minutes. Non of our days are the same as we have a very unusual life right now. So we just do school when we can. HOD is very good for that. I wanted to point you to a pic of my dd. She is praying for baby Moses to be safe when he was placed in the water.
http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=939
Scroll down a bit till you get to my post and then scroll down a little more. This is how well the Bible is taught in LHTH.

[my3sons]

Candice and Susie did a super job of explaining LHTH! Welcome to the boards, and I too had to work the first few years of homeschooling. I know how difficult that can be. However, God will provide what is needed. By choosing a God-honoring curriculum, like LHTH, you are going to be off to a wonderful start with homeschooling. We have used LHTH twice now, and enjoyed it both times so much. It takes 20-30 minutes a day, and it is centered around Bible stories. The boxes can be done in any order, and there is a great balance of reading and "get-up-and-get-moving" activities. Both of my children were early readers, and I do believe it is due to their learning their letters and sounds so well in LHTH. You're children are on the young side, so you can take longer to do LHTH if you want. We did it just a few days a week with one of my children (though we did do the Fingerplays and the letter activities daily), and we took several years to go through it. That was fun too! Around age 5 or 6 or so, you'll want to be done with LHTH so you can begin Little Hearts for His Glory. It's nice to meet you, and if you have other questions keep on asking! Moms here are great!

In Christ,
Julie

[Kathleen]

Dee,

I just wanted to say hi and welcome to the boards! I don't have anything to add about LHTH except that we are using it and loving it, too! I couldn't ask for a better curriculum to use with my kids at this age!

Enjoy!
Kathleen

[Carrie]

Dee,

I just wanted to pop-in and welcome you! We're glad to have you here!

Here's a link to the LHTH folder, which may be of some help to you too:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/view ... 2d8f6baad7

The ladies did a great job of helping you and answering your questions. The moms on the board are so uplifting and encouraging, aren't they!

Blessings,
Carrie