He's always been a bit younger than the target age range in the HOD guides. He's done very well with this, but I did not want him to get to Bigger Hearts too early. So, I've finally figured out a plan I think will work great! Riley is 6 yo and halfway done with Beyond Little Hearts now. He completed the first 18 weeks of Beyond, and we are now taking our summer break. Next year, here's what I'm thinking...
We'll start school at the end of August. My plan is to have him do Beyond 4 days a week, will take him about 23 weeks to do (since Beyond is a 5 day a week plan, we'll only do it 4 day a week, and we have 18 weeks left of it to do). Then, we'll do Bigger Hearts half-speed for the next 12 weeks, for 4 days a week. He should be to about week 5 in the Bigger Hearts guide then (since it is a 5 day a week plan, and we'll only be doing it 4 days a week at half-speed). (He will have turned 7 in March which will be about when he starts Bigger Hearts half-speed.) This schedule will take us to about the end of May, and then we'll take our summer break.
Then the next school year, we'll start school at the end of August. He can do Bigger Hearts full-speed 4 days a week and finish out the rest of it this year. At this point, he'll be 7 1/2 - 8 1/2 when he's doing Bigger Hearts full-speed. This will keep him in the middle age range for for all of the HOD guides to come, which is right where I want him to be.
YAHOO! I am very excited about this plan for many reasons. First, he'll be in the middle of the target age ranges for the HOD guides. Second, he'll be doing school 4 days a week, which is what my older ds will be doing in CTC - love to have them both doing school 4 days a week. Third, he can ease into Bigger Hearts by beginning it half-speed at first. Fourth, the second school year, he'll already have started a bit of Bigger Hearts at the end of the previous year, so I can focus more on my older ds starting a totally new program at the beginning of the year. Fifth, my youngest ds will be starting LHTH, which makes me so happy Riley will be in the middle age range of Bigger Hearts and be able to be more independent than he would have been if he reached it when he was too young. Sixth, yes, dare I say there's a SIXTH!!!
He will be on track at that point to do PHFHG 4 days a week from end of Aug. to May - which I kind of wanted him at that point not to have the summer break in the middle of a guide anymore. I just had to share this with all of my favorite HOD ladies. Only other homschool moms could understand how nice it is to have a plan figured out!
Thanks for letting me share, and this will be a record of this plan in case I forget it at the beginning of next school year. In Christ,
Julie
I might even use some of your ideas.
, so I should have some time to really sit down and look at how to make this work. As some background, my dd is 5 and will turn 6 in October AND she does not want to take a long break between programs 
I've made my own planner which will allow me to break the units up without losing my mind! Now I just have to start filling it. 
So, I just named the letters on his wood blocks each day putting them in a tower as I did, and then let him knock them down (or "BOOM!", as he would say