LHTH double-speed for an almost-5?

[Heidi in AK]

Has anyone else done LHTH double-speed?

DD is so close to 5 she can smell it, and she is so eager to be in Kindy. That said, she's not the most overachieving child I've met, but she definitely loves LHTH and asks to do it. We even did some tangential activities this weekend, and she still asked to do LHTH, on the holiday weekend. You might remember that she also asked to do LHTH on Mother's Day, when I was still working at the school, too!

So, we do the fingerplay, the Bible story, the rotating box (art, devo, or active exploration), the song, and the Bible activity. We add phonics, handwriting, thinking skills (leftover workbook from before, which works well so we can follow LHFHG when we start it), and math. These are all leftover worksheets and readers from other sources we already had.

She will want to sometimes do two days of LHTH and she also doesn't want to quit. She wanted to do LHTH both Sunday and Monday (July 3-4). This morning, I did two days with her. We are on Unit 7, and DH would like for me to contemplate finishing the book by Christmas.

I don't like the pressure, but is the goal ok? She'll be 5yr 4mo by then, and really the only box she places solidly on LHTH for is history. Everything else she places into LHFHG.

PS - this is technically our Kindy year. I really want to wait to start Bigger till she's 7, if possible. And if we start LHFHG in the spring 2012, I am contemplating doing it half-speed 4 days a week till I know it's not too much for her.

[MomtoJGJE]

Do you want to wait for Bigger until she's 7 or Beyond? That'll make a difference in my post

I think I would set a schedule of what you want to do. Like tell her "we'll only do school 5 days a week, but 2 of those days we can keep going until you want to stop" or "we'll do school 5 days a week, and any day on weekends that you want to, but only one lesson a day"

I know this is probably unpopular, but I don't see any reason why not to double up on LHTH if you have a goal to start LHFHG at a certain time. LHTH in my opinion, for an older 4 or 5yo, is for fun and to get them in the habit of doing school.

Now for the waiting until she's 7. If she'll be almost 5.5 when you start LHFHG, then I don't think you'll have a problem with waiting to get to Bigger until she's 7. Now, if you mean Beyond and you start when she's 5.5, then that's going to be harder unless you take big chunks of breaks or go half speed the whole time. And if she's asking for THAT much work with LHTH she's not going to do well going half speed LHFHG for 18months. You'll have to supplement so much to keep her on that schedule it isn't worth it.

One thing I've done to allow time to pass since we school year round is to do unit studies in between guides. Make a few lapbooks on things and do fun stuff.

[Heidi in AK]

Oh, I did mean Beyond! I get confused to those two guides.

[MomtoJGJE]

Then if you want to hold her off for Beyond for another year and a half then I would suggest doing LHFHG 4 days a week and taking breaks every once in a while to do something else instead of doing less LHFHG each day (half speed)...

Of course, if you take an extended time off, like for summer break, that'll be different. We don't take breaks like that very often, so my viewpoint is different.

If you do both LHFHG and Beyond 4 days a week you'll add in an extra 18 weeks, so with that in mind, if you take summer off you won't reach Bigger until she's roughly 8, though you'll start Beyond while she's still 6. (I think... My mind is shutting down )

[my3sons]

I think you can do LHTH double-speed for an almost 5 yo, as long as you can see she is going to be ready for LHFHG when she's done. We did this with one of our sons for a time. We did one LHTH day of plans in the morning, and another one in the afternoon. We finished it out this way because my ds was loving it so much he was asking for more, and it was obvious (by his age and his skills) that he was ready for LHFHG. I wouldn't look too far down the road. It is hard to tell what exact age your dd will be ready for Beyond. The target age range for Beyond is ages 6-8. My oldest ds has always been on the youngest side of the range and has thrived doing a guide a year (he is now beginning RevtoRev this year). My middle ds will be more in the middle of the age range. Who knows where my youngest ds will be? That is the beauty of HOD. You can go at a pace a child shows is good for them. You can always go half-speed, but until your child shows a need to (and as long as the child is within the age range within a guide), going full-speed is advised, and in your dd's case, double-speed will be fine. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie