Using LHTH for 3 yr old

[erdrmom]

Hello! I am new here and currently using LHFHG for my dd for Kindergarten/1st. She's kind of doing both levels, K where she needs it and 1st where she needs it. She is doing great and I just love this program! My 3 yr old ds sits in with us when we do school and sometimes participates and sometimes plays cars. He loves doing that and particpates in the art, dramatic play, rhymes in motion, and some of the science activities. He loves the read alouds and the Bible stories, and usually knows the answer to my questions before dd does. So that got me thinking about ordering LHTH for him. It's something that we could do in conjunction with what his sister does and I think he would be excited about that.

So, here's my question. If I order that for him now, and we progress through LHTH, where do we go next? He is just 3 now, and even taking it slow, he would be finished before he was 4. I don't know that he would be ready for a full blown Kindergarten program. So would I just use LHTH for him again with new activities? What have you all done with this?

Blessings,

Cindi
http://www.tdfamily.blogspot.com

[Samuel'sMommy]

Hi Cindi and welcome to HOD!
I have a 3 year old that I am doing Little Hands with. He turned 3 in March and we started a couple of months later. What I am doing is taking 2 weeks to do 1 unit. We have MOPS, playdates, etc that go on a couple of days a week and on the days we don't have anything we do Little Hands. It should take me until the end of next year (2009) which will mean we will have spent a year and half on Little Hands. Then my plan is to start Little Hearts that January (2010) and do the same thing stretching it out over a year and a half finishing in May/June 2011 which would be the end of my son's Kindergarten year. Then we'll just go through the rest of the guides at the regular pace of one per year. Hope that helps!

[water2wine]

Hi Cindi and welcome. You can go ahead and do LHTH now at a pace that works for your child and then if you go into LHFHG but do it at half pace taking two days to complete each day's assignment (one side one day and the other side the next). If you want more later on you can either speed it up or read from the appendix. So basically you will take 1 1/2 years to 2 years to do the LHFHG with him. I have a started LHFHG with a 3 1/2 year old and took it very slow. She is now 4 1/2 and very ready for full paced but we still have a lot to go since we took it so slow and added a lot of Bible Story reading and had a summer break. I have found it to be real easy to move at her pace and actually I have a 6 year old doing it as well and we can still meet her needs as well. It's pretty flexible. I think you will find by the time you get there it will work for you. Hope that helps.

[funkmomma71]

You could look at doing www.letteroftheweek.com it is a feee resource with a full year's worth of activities for young learners. It is Christian based and I plan on using it either alonsgide of LHTH or before hand with my ds when he turns 3 so that we can do a couple of years of pre-school stuff before we get into LHFHG. You could also just spend a year going through the Bible before you start LHTH and mix in some easy workbooks to introduce letters and numbers.

Nancy

[Carrie]

Cindi,

I just wanted to welcome you! We're glad to have you here!

The ladies are doing a great job of helping you talk through your options. I agree that you could spread LHTH out and also spread out LHFHG. That way you'll give your son time to grow into the needed skills for the upper programs.

You could do LHTH 3 or 4 days a week, doing the whole day within a day. Another option would be to take 2 days to do one day of LHTH, reading the story and doing either the fingerplay/rhyme or music both days, and then splitting the other boxes over 2 days.

When you get to LHFHG you could also spread it out, doing the left side one day and the right the next, or any other split you desire. Another option would be to do a 4 day plan with LHFHG, which helps stretch it too.

Anyway, just some food for thought!

[my3sons]

Hi Cindi - nice to meet you! With one of our dc we did LHTH at a slower pace, about 3 days a week - though we did the Letter Review with Sounds daily, as well as the music. We just really loved those parts! With another one of our dc, we did LHFHG at half pace, as has been described - left page of plans one day, and right side of plans the next day. When my ds was ready, we moved to doing it all in one day. So far, all of our dc have been on the young side of each of the HOD programs and have really enjoyed them. My middle ds is just starting BLHFHG, and he's just shy of being 6 years old. I think as along as it's going well - keep going. If not, slow down to the half-speed as long as necessary. You are so blessed to be starting your homeschooling with HOD, because each subsequent guide builds upon the previous one, and that makes all of the skills smooth transitions. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[erdrmom]

Thanks for all of your great ideas! I have been doing a mix of Letter of the Week and ABC Homepreschool with him, but he just seems to enjoy the HOD format much more than the others. I did the Letter of the Week with my dd before I found HOD, she got bored with it pretty quickly so I made up my own stuff using that program, ABC Homepreschool and books I bought at my local teacher's supply. It was WAAAYYY too much work and I decided to not reinvent the wheel for Kindergarten with her and that's when I found HOD. Since I hadn't used LHTH, I wasn't sure how it would transition to the next level, since I am guessing he'd be ready for LHFHG right around his 4th birthday. I think I will go ahead and order the book and plan to start with him after the holidays. He'll be 3 next week, so that will give me time to get the book and review what I need to do to get started! Again, thanks for your thoughts!

Blessings,

Cindi
http://www.tdfamily.blogspot.com