New to HS, HOD, Placement Help

[SaraAnne]

Hi All,
I am new to HS and as we start this journey, I was hoping to use HOD from beginning to end. I really want to stick with one curriculum and stay with it. I was hoping the pre-K curriculum would be a good place to jump in and get my feet wet, before our the girls are required to be in school. My Oldest is 4.5 yo, 5 in December. My Second is 3.5 yo, 4 in February. My Third is 19 mo, and the 4th with be here in January, God willing. I am looking for a pre-K program that will ease us into HS, and prepare my kids for the more serious subjects and learning/homeschool format that will take place in the years to come. Some people have suggested combining the older two, to make things easier in the long run. I have thought about it too because I think My 2nd would want to join her older sister in school activities. But looking at LHTH and LHFHG, I am not sure that their learning abilities would allow for this in the second year. I think they both could handle LHTH this year, but what do I do next? Do I repeat LHTH for the younger, or find another curriculum for her if she needs it? I've seen recommendations here that a younger sibling should not be bumped up to the needs of the older, and that I can eventually do each individual child on their own program as they get older. That could be 4 programs or more!?! Thoughts? Advice?

God Bless,
Sara

[StephanieU]

My younger two are similar ages to yours (a little farther apart actually). I do plan on combining them, and here is how we will do it.
First, we will add in the 3Rs for the older one at his pace (he has already started math, handwriting, and fine motor skills). My "goal" is twice a week per subject, which he is normally fine with.
Second, we will do LHTH 4 days a week. If we get done before the youngest is ready for LHFHG, we will start over again. The Bible lessons are even enjoyable for my 6.5yo, so I think they will be fine repeating if necessary.
So, when the youngest is ready for LHFHG (at least 4.5 if not 5), we will start that. Again,we may do 4 days a week, so we gain the time we may need.

[my3sons]

Hi Sara! Welcome to the HOD board! StephanieU has some very good thoughts to ponder. I was wondering if you could please share a bit about each of your 2 older dc with the placement chart in mind? Especially the first page of the placement chart - reading, writing, grammar, math? I know they are young, but any information you could give in regard to the placement chart would help us advise you more specifically for your family. Here is a link to it...
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

I especially would love to hear if your older dd knows her letters/sounds or is learning them. Is she writing any letters or not interested in that yet? Is she really interested in getting started with phonics/writing letters/doing math, or is she still more interested in just playing? How about little sis? Know any letters yet? How does she feel about 'learning' right now? How do the 2 of them seem to work/play together? This kind of information will really help. I do think combining can work for the older pair, and then looking ahead, for the younger pair. Thanks! Oh - and you can't go wrong with HOD - it is all simply a blessing! But the cherry on top is accurate placement. So all this chatting is worth it!

In Christ,
Julie

[SaraAnne]

Thanks All. I appreciate your input. Julie,

My older DD knows her letters, but we are still working on sounds, not really there yet. She can write a few letters, but gets them mixed up some and her shapes are still shaky. She knows numbers but I haven't seen her want to write any. I think she would be interested in school and am pretty sure that the LHTH would work well for her. Her little sister loves to do things with her older sister, knows the alphabet, but I can see her tiring easily with the lessons. She is not as comfortable with numbers as her sister. She is also distractable. We haven't done any formal schooling, but the girls love listening to books. My main concern with starting this is mostly for me and not the kids. I get easily stressed out with having a set schedule of things to get done in a day, so I wanted school to be as easy on me as possible and ease into learning to be on a schedule for all of us because homeschooling our children is a non-negotiable in our family. Plus my concerns in the original post. I know I am putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, but I am one of those people that despite my aversion to schedule, need to have a long term plan.

Thanks again,
Sara

[MelInKansas]

With as close in age as your children are, I think you would probably want to combine them. Usually you don't want to have kids in back-to-back guides, so if they place close enough together you try to combine them. But you do this by putting them in the guide that fits the younger child and then adding on for the older one. In the younger guides, you may then need two of the guides in order to accomplish this as you would add some of the 3R's from the next guide up. As they grow, you will only need the one guide as things like math, reading, grammar are not as tightly tied to the guide level. I hope that makes sense.

So in your current situation, that probably means trying to delay getting into LHFHG until the younger one is at least 5, if the younger is very bright and willing to start things like writing early, or maybe the younger would be 5.5. As mentioned, you would do reading, writing, and math that the older child is ready for, use LHTH at some point for Bible learning and activities, and as you said, as an introduction to "school." I could also recommend, to fill in your gap with the older until you are ready for LHFHG, some of the Rod and Staff workbooks that aren't covered in LHFHG. I used them with my 5YO until she was ready for LHFHG.

So one suggestion is this: For this year, find something to do with the older one. Something simple and fun that you both enjoy. Don't worry about the next one. For next year, do LHTH with the oldest and next child, adding on FMS (Fine motor skills) workbooks from LHFHG, learning to read, and handwriting for the older one if she seems ready. Get extra read-alouds if you like. Then the following year do LHFHG with some of the Beyond options for the older one (or the 1st grade FMS workbooks, continuing to learn to read, or Emerging Readers from Beyond for the older). I'm sorry if this is confusing, it's just a bit of a picture of what it could look like.

Sadly, this makes the guides not quite as open-and-go as they are if you do them with each individual child when they fit well into them. But as you move forward, looking at having 4 children and schooling them all, you would want to combine them to save yourself and them time during the day. Doing them together is a lot of fun too! There are some activities, the Rhymes, and other things that are more fun with a partner. My oldest two did do LHTH and LHFHG together (mostly) but then I held my 2nd one back and put her in LHFHG again 2 years later when she was ready to really do all of it on her own. My children are at least 1 1/2 guides apart so I do have them all separate but they are also far enough apart that my oldest is taking on more independence in her work and I don't have to be working with her in order for her to be making progress on school.

I hope this helps!

[bethelmommy]

I have my oldest 2 dc combined and plan to combine my younger 2 dc as well. I suggest starting LHTH with both and see what happens. If a full day is too much for the younger, then you could complete only half a day of plans each day for awhile and stretch out the guide a bit more than a year. Then you will likely be able to move right into LHFHG, either at half speed or 4 days a week. It is pretty easy to stretch out the guides as needed while letting the oldest move ahead with reading, writing, and math. Kids change so much it is hard to plan too far ahead. If you think your 2 oldest would enjoy working together, then I would totally give it a try.

[my3sons]

Thanks All. I appreciate your input. Julie,

My older DD knows her letters, but we are still working on sounds, not really there yet. She can write a few letters, but gets them mixed up some and her shapes are still shaky. She knows numbers but I haven't seen her want to write any. I think she would be interested in school and am pretty sure that the LHTH would work well for her. Her little sister loves to do things with her older sister, knows the alphabet, but I can see her tiring easily with the lessons. She is not as comfortable with numbers as her sister. She is also distractable. We haven't done any formal schooling, but the girls love listening to books. My main concern with starting this is mostly for me and not the kids. I get easily stressed out with having a set schedule of things to get done in a day, so I wanted school to be as easy on me as possible and ease into learning to be on a schedule for all of us because homeschooling our children is a non-negotiable in our family. Plus my concerns in the original post. I know I am putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, but I am one of those people that despite my aversion to schedule, need to have a long term plan.

Thanks again,
Sara

Thanks so much for sharing more about your dc here, Sara! I think Little Hands to Heaven, 4 days a week, would be wonderful for you and both of your daughters! They both place there, and they are close in age, so it makes sense to combine them. As for a long term plan, many moms do our first 4 guides over 5 years, doing them 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week, and LOVE that plan! So, you'd do Little Hands to Heaven, LHFHG, Beyond, and Bigger Hearts 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week, and spread those 4 guides over 5 years. I love this plan because you could keep your daughters together, it would not be difficult for you to do this as a mom, and this year you'd ease into homeschooling with just 25-30 minutes a day of schooling. Pretty nifty, right?!? Of course, as always, you have the option of slowing any guide down to half-speed for awhile if that fits your dc or your family well, but this would be a plan that would work now and for years to come. What are your thoughts though?

In Christ,
Julie

[SaraAnne]

Thanks everyone!
I never thought of slowing down the curriculum to 4 days a week. That sounds like a wonderful option and would get both girls where they need to be. As soon as I find my wallet (I think it's in the car my husband took to work) I'll be ordering the curriculum and getting some new pencils, paint and such.