LHFHG for an older student

[turtlemama]

We are using three guides this year plus I have a 9th grader who is using other curriculum. I am using Little Hands to Heaven with my almost 3 year old. He really enjoys having one-on-one time with me so I don't want to give up on those 30 minutes or so that we spend on it. Then I have a nearly turned 6 (birthday in less than 2 weeks!) that we have completed Unit 1 of Little Hearts for His Glory with. My 9 year old also likes to tag along with him, but I also have the Bigger Guide that we have gone through Unit 2 so far with him. He (the 9 year old) has fine motor skills delay and is currently writing at a 1st grade level, he reads well, though. My problem is that I don't have enough time to teach them all one-on-one in each of those guides. I can only work through part of each day in Little Hearts and Bigger with the two middle boys. So I keep thinking that if I could just do the left side of the Little Hearts with both the 6 year old and 9 year old and then assign some independent reading plus the Language Arts and Math curriculum that I already own for the 9 year old I could get a full days curriculum done with both of them. And in 2 years they will both be in Bigger and my 9 year old can do the extensions in that because he will be 5th grade at that point. Is this a bad idea to do? I know there are no actual extensions until Bigger, but the books in the Appendix for Little Hearts for His Glory seem appropriate for a third grader to work through and narrate. Then I would just need to figure out a science for him. Thanks for any help you can give me as I figure out how to fit them all in!

Heather N.

[manyblessings]

I know you already own Little Hearts and Bigger Hearts-but have you considered trying Beyond to combine the almost 6 year old and 9 year old? It would depend on if the younger child could handle Beyond. I don't think Little Hearts would offer enough challenge for a 9 year old, but Beyond could be tweaked a little to fit the older child. Beyond could also help for the 9 year old's fine motor delay since much less writing is required than Bigger. It would mean buying new curriculum, but you can save the ones you have for later use, since you also have a preschool child waiting in the wings. Or you could call HOD to see if you can return Bigger and Little Hearts if you bought from HOD directly, or sell what you aren't using now if return is not possible.

[StephanieU]

Have you considered combining the 3 and 6yo for the Bible portion of LHTH and then doing the "right side" of LHFHG with the 6yo (math, phonics, and fine motor skills/handwriting). Then continue LHFHG with the 9yo. I don't think long term combining the 6 and 9yo would will a wise choice.

[turtlemama]

So I would go through Little Hearts with the left side and the 1st grade options on the right side next year (or whenever the Little Hands to Heaven guide is complete) for my current 6 year old? And then hopefully my 9 uear old will be ready to move into Preparing which has independent work at that point? That might work, but it is difficult to know how much his fine motor skills will increase this year. Maybe going thrpugh Bigger slower is better than going down two levels. I will consider this option and see how that might work. My children are all spaced apart in such a way that combining is difficult, but not combining is difficult, too!

[turtlemama]

And thank you for more things to consider. I'm pretty sure you commented on my Facebook post, too. As you can see I'm still stressing about this school year with all these guides!

[turtlemama]

@manyblessings Sorry, I somehow missed your reply earlier-sorry about that! I haven't looked too much at Beyond Little Hearts to see. I would hate for my 6 year old to miss Little Hearts because it seems like a nice introduction to formal school work. He is my "spacey" child who doesn't pay too much attention to the things going on around him so I would be hesitant to move him up at all. Thank you for the suggestion and I will look at Beyond just to see what sort of work is done there. Thanks!

[MomtoJGJE]

With your age gap I have a couple of suggestions. One is you can continue Bigger half speed for a while for your 9yo to grow into it. Maybe require less writing (we don't require the copying the poem or the vocabulary written work for my 9yo for instance... possibly some other things that I'm just not thinking about since today was our first day back after break and we just did spelling, math, and she read her next ER chapter. I have her read the chapter on her own one day, then read to me and answer the questions the next day) and build up to doing all of it. It sounds like the LHFHG one is doing fine, but you could also just do half of that each day. My LHFHG child is a newly 6yo and her stuff doesn't really even take an hour to do. If it took more than that I'd back off some. We do the entire left side with AWANA instead of the HOD Bible verses, the Burgess books, and math and handwriting from the right side. She finished the FMS books and we aren't doing reading instruction yet because she's so young.

The other thought is to just combine them for storytime instead of history this year. Let the older have his history and science, but join in with the Burgess books from LHFHG. He can listen in, but not answer since it's the younger ones school time. And you said he's a good reader, so he could possibly start reading his own science. The history books are harder, but the science is pretty doable. As the older works toward being more independent (since he is 9) you'll have more time to do school with the others while he's doing that, cutting down on your time.

[my3sons]

We are using three guides this year plus I have a 9th grader who is using other curriculum. I am using Little Hands to Heaven with my almost 3 year old. He really enjoys having one-on-one time with me so I don't want to give up on those 30 minutes or so that we spend on it. Then I have a nearly turned 6 (birthday in less than 2 weeks!) that we have completed Unit 1 of Little Hearts for His Glory with. My 9 year old also likes to tag along with him, but I also have the Bigger Guide that we have gone through Unit 2 so far with him. He (the 9 year old) has fine motor skills delay and is currently writing at a 1st grade level, he reads well, though. My problem is that I don't have enough time to teach them all one-on-one in each of those guides. I can only work through part of each day in Little Hearts and Bigger with the two middle boys. So I keep thinking that if I could just do the left side of the Little Hearts with both the 6 year old and 9 year old and then assign some independent reading plus the Language Arts and Math curriculum that I already own for the 9 year old I could get a full days curriculum done with both of them. And in 2 years they will both be in Bigger and my 9 year old can do the extensions in that because he will be 5th grade at that point. Is this a bad idea to do? I know there are no actual extensions until Bigger, but the books in the Appendix for Little Hearts for His Glory seem appropriate for a third grader to work through and narrate. Then I would just need to figure out a science for him. Thanks for any help you can give me as I figure out how to fit them all in!

Heather N.

Hi Heather! I would like to hear more about your almost 6 year old. Could you please share about his phonics/reading, writing, and math? Also, I am thinking that your 9 yo may not be accurately placed in Bigger Hearts if he is writing at a first grade level and has some fine motor skills delays. There is quite a bit of writing in Bigger Hearts, so for this reason, could you please also share about your 9 yo's reading, writing, math, and grammar with the first page of the placement chart in mind?
https://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

You are not very far into any of these guides, so it is wise to step back and reconsider placement, so you can have the best year possible! For sure, you can go half-speed in Little Hands to Heaven, as your little one is only 3 years old. However, what is best for the almost 6 and 9 year old depends on what you can share here in regard to the placement chart. After you've shared, we'll chime in with ideas that best fit your family!

In Christ,
Julie

[turtlemama]

Hi Heather! I would like to hear more about your almost 6 year old. Could you please share about his phonics/reading, writing, and math? Also, I am thinking that your 9 yo may not be accurately placed in Bigger Hearts if he is writing at a first grade level and has some fine motor skills delays. There is quite a bit of writing in Bigger Hearts, so for this reason, could you please also share about your 9 yo's reading, writing, math, and grammar with the first page of the placement chart in mind?
https://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

You are not very far into any of these guides, so it is wise to step back and reconsider placement, so you can have the best year possible! For sure, you can go half-speed in Little Hands to Heaven, as your little one is only 3 years old. However, what is best for the almost 6 and 9 year old depends on what you can share here in regard to the placement chart. After you've shared, we'll chime in with ideas that best fit your family!

In Christ,
Julie

My 6 year old is still at the beginning level of learning phonics and how to form letters. I had started him in The Reading Lesson, but it just wasn't really clicking well for him. He could never remember the letter sounds and the pictures kept distracting him and he would tell me stories about the snake or octopus on the page and ignore the letters altogether. So I set that aside and am just now writing each letter on the board and having him copy it on his personal chalkboard while saying the phonics that go with that letter. That is going better since he only has the one letter to concetrate on!
He is doing really well in math. He quickly understands numbers and has even begun to add up to 10 on his own. He enjoys the hands-on aspects of the Singapore Kindergarten Essentials Math, though some days the pictures on the workbook will distract him.

Over the Christmas break I have done a lot of thinking and praying on my 9 year old's schoolwork. I am thinking Bigger Hearts may not be correct placement either. According to the placement chart he is in Bigger for Phonics placement because he is done with phonics and reading independently. However, with his writing skills he places in Beyond Little Hearts. He can copy sentences and he can study a spelling word and write it down after, but he cannot compose his own sentences yet. I have begun to introduce basic grammar concepts with him such as noun and verb and he seems to understand them-he enjoys Mad Libs as a fun way to practice those. We do short math lessons for him and I try to make sure to have some hands-on way to introduce the concepts. Addition and subtraction facts are pretty well memorized. We have not introduced multiplication or division yet.

I hope those details are helpful! My thought for the rest of this year is to do Little Hearts for His Glory half speed with my 6 year old and just do some unit studies with my 9 year old to finish this year and try Bigger next school year. I look forward to hearing your thoughts now that you have those extra details. Thank you!

[my3sons]

My 6 year old is still at the beginning level of learning phonics and how to form letters. I had started him in The Reading Lesson, but it just wasn't really clicking well for him. He could never remember the letter sounds and the pictures kept distracting him and he would tell me stories about the snake or octopus on the page and ignore the letters altogether. So I set that aside and am just now writing each letter on the board and having him copy it on his personal chalkboard while saying the phonics that go with that letter. That is going better since he only has the one letter to concetrate on!
He is doing really well in math. He quickly understands numbers and has even begun to add up to 10 on his own. He enjoys the hands-on aspects of the Singapore Kindergarten Essentials Math, though some days the pictures on the workbook will distract him.

Over the Christmas break I have done a lot of thinking and praying on my 9 year old's schoolwork. I am thinking Bigger Hearts may not be correct placement either. According to the placement chart he is in Bigger for Phonics placement because he is done with phonics and reading independently. However, with his writing skills he places in Beyond Little Hearts. He can copy sentences and he can study a spelling word and write it down after, but he cannot compose his own sentences yet. I have begun to introduce basic grammar concepts with him such as noun and verb and he seems to understand them-he enjoys Mad Libs as a fun way to practice those. We do short math lessons for him and I try to make sure to have some hands-on way to introduce the concepts. Addition and subtraction facts are pretty well memorized. We have not introduced multiplication or division yet.

I hope those details are helpful! My thought for the rest of this year is to do Little Hearts for His Glory half speed with my 6 year old and just do some unit studies with my 9 year old to finish this year and try Bigger next school year. I look forward to hearing your thoughts now that you have those extra details. Thank you!

Thanks so much for answering my questions - I apologize for just getting back to you! As far as your 6 yo, prior to starting phonics, it is important children know their letters and at least one sound for each. Little Hands to Heaven teaches this beautifully, has Bible history, wonderful devotions, music, etc., and you are already teaching it to your little one. Your 6 yo just turned 6, so I would have him join in on Little Hands to Heaven to learn his letter sounds, but you can continue with the K Options for language arts and math. So, he would join your little one for everything, but also do A Reason for Handwriting K or Italic A, Do It Carefully/Finding the Answers, and Essentials K A and B Math. Then, when you finish Little Hands, your 6 yo can begin Little Hearts for His Glory with the first grade options for handwriting, fine motor skills, math, and add phonics at that time. You can have your 6 yo be your 'helper' with your little one, but also focus on him learning his letters/sounds and K LA and math skills.

Then, I would get Beyond Little Hearts and do it with your 9 yo now. This is a wonderful guide! I think it fits what you've shared about your son's placement well. Beyond... will have him copying 1-4 sentences each day. He can begin with 1 and work up to 4. It also has 2 options for spelling, which will fit well. It has basic grammar concepts on Day 5 that require little writing, are fun, and are an excellent foundation prior to R & S English. I would also do 1B and 2A for math for him, using the hands-on math lessons in the Beyond guide for 1B, and the hands-on math lessons in the Bigger guide for 2A. (Multiplication begins in 1B, so this placement makes good sense.) Singapore is considered at least a year advanced. It will be hard for your son to jump into Bigger Hearts next year without the skills he needs from Beyond. You can see that, as you are trying to come up with transitional things on your own to do, but he needs a balance of all subject areas. That makes his school day include both "disciplinary" and "inspirational" subjects, rather than just "disciplinary" subjects. You will enjoy the balance this gives to your teaching as well, and Beyond... only takes a few hours to do each day.

By combining your 2 littles in Little Hands and adding K LA and math for your older of the pair, you will be down one guide and able to have more time to teach your 9 yo a complete guide, Beyond..., which is really what he needs. I am excited about this placement, but what do you think? I am HOD's placement specialist, so you can always give HOD a call, and I'd be happy to help you on the phone as well! Or, just ask more questions here - whichever you prefer - we are here to help! I can also help with questions/placement of your order - God bless!

In Christ,
Julie

[turtlemama]

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestioms! I have ordered a used copy of the Beyond guide to look over it. I am still worried about it not being "enough" for a 9-1/2 year old. But with his fine motor delays perhaps I need to concentrate less on age and more on ability. I want him to grow in his writing ability (which he has this year already!) without making him frustrated with the amount of work.

I am also moving the 6 year old into Little Hands with little brother and getting those letter sounds better developed before moving into Little Hearts. That should make my days a bit more simplified as well. Thanks again, you have been a tremendous help!