krismoose wrote:Hi all,
I have a ds (4:7) and dd (2:3) and I actually bought both LHTH and LHFHG because I think I need to see them both to decide where to start. I'll give you some background: My son and I started phonics a couple of months ago (at his request) with All About Spelling, knows his letter sounds, can write his name and a few other letters (we started Cursive First and do lots of large motor practice as his pencil skills aren't quite ready for letters all the time.) We did R& S Counting with Number last fall, tried Singapore Earlybird briefly, then started Rightstart math A recently. He knows and can write 0-9, and can count much higher and do simple problems (How many forks will we need if T joins us for dinner etc.) He enjoys listening to chapter books when I can find one on an interesting topic (He loved LH in the Big Woods and LH on the Prairie) He enjoys coloring while I read a short bible story to him & his sister together, cutting and pasting, and listening to Vos' Child's Story Bible when she's not around. He loves science books, and biographies when I can find ones at his level. By skills and interest, he seems to fit well into LHFHG and I know he'd like it. However, I want to make sure that dd can tag along with the non-math-phonics-writing parts, so I'm thinking that LHTH would be a better place to start. I don't want to start LHTH in the middle, but I think it would be nice to get into the history and science more around January (he turns 5 in Oct and we'll cut back significantly on school around Thanksgiving until the new year). Also, we've been doing Living Books Curriculum's Foundation Year, and while I adore most of their recommendations, we've tweaked it so far it's not recognizable any more
Suggestions?
Hi Krismoose, and welcome to the HOD Board!
Thanks for sharing about your dc, as that helps all of us out with placement advice so much. It does sound like ds fits in LHFHG, but since he is on the young side, you are wanting to combine, and just because LHTH is a blast - I do think the best placement would be for the 2 of them to do LHTH together. You can easily add in any of the right side of LHFHG if you'd like. Since there are several LA and math choices written in each guide, this is easy to do. For example, for Fine Motor Skills, you could do
A Reason for Handwriting K (or
Italic A) this year with LHTH, and
A Reason for Handwriting A (or
Italic B) next year with LHFHG. Of course, you can continue doing the handwriting you've already started to if you're enjoying that. For Fine Motor Skills, you could also do
R & S books D and F with LHTH this year, and
Thinking Skills with LHFHG next year. For math, you could do
Earlybird K with LHTH, using the hands-on plans in LHFHG, and then the next year use the Appendix schedule in LHFHG for
1A/1B (or use the hands-on plans for 1A/1B in the Beyond LIttle Hearts guide). Or, continue with the math you've been doing if you enjoy it. (You'd probably want to wait to do the Storytime in LHFHG until you do all of LHFHG next year.) However, there really is absolutely no need to add anything to LHTH - it is very appropriate for both your ds and dd. I just thought I'd mention those ideas since ds would place individually in LHFHG. We've loved doing LHTH several times over here at our house! It is always a hit, always a great start to homeschooling, and always make me be a more "fun" mom that gives needed attention to the littles.
Not to mention - it does a beautiful job of teaching prek skills - like getting dc ready to read, write, do math, and listen to read-alouds.
In Christ,
Julie