Help getting started with LHTH and then LHFHG

[LynnG in Hawaii]

Hello all,

I am brand new to the board and to Heart of Dakota. I am an experienced homeschooler, and just sent my first off to college this fall . . . but now I have a younger "batch" of kids and am starting all over. Specifically, I have a daughter who will be 4 at the end of October. We currently do lots of read alouds, HWT for Pre-K, and a phonics program taken at a slow pace. DD is doing well with learning her letter sounds and is just starting to blend sounds to read simple CVC words. I've been looking at HOD for several months now and actually like it more and more each time I examine the samples.

I am strongly considering doing LHGHG for DD's kindergarten year, which I will probably begin next fall even though she won't quite be 5. Would it make sense to go ahead and get LHTH to complete this year for her pre-school year? Or should I save it for next year, since she will still be not quite 5 next fall?

If I do go ahead and get LHTH now, which of the two Bibles and devotionals would you recommend for her? She's kind of right between the 2-3 age range and the 4-5 range, since she's getting ready to turn 4.

To further complicate my planning, I also have a 2 yo son (2 this past July, to be precise). So he is about 21 months younger than his sister. He is currently pretty much a little Neanderthal - just running around and destroying things, mostly. But the day will come when I will start schooling him as well, and I'm wondering if I should slow down what I'm doing with DD in order to combine him into our lessons. Or would it really be best to plan on doing 2 separate programs with them, and just focus on their individual needs one year at a time?

I hope I'm making sense in my ramblings. Just looking for some guidance from those of you who are much more familiar with this program. Thanks in advance!!

[lmercon]

I am doing LHTH with my 4 yo dd this year. It is adorable and lots of fun! I am not stressing myself out to do school with her everyday. My goal is to complete LHTH and LHFHG and maybe a bit of AW from Winterpromise (I have that from earlier years with my ds) within the next 3 years. I am taking my time because I really don't want to do Beyond with her as a new 6 yo. I just completed Beyond with my ds. He was 7 when we started the program. I'm glad I didn't do it a year earlier with him. I don't think he would have gotten nearly as much out of it as he did. He definitely would have struggled more with the assignments, particularly the reading and writing. We are doing Bigger this year. It is quite a jump. I think a typical 7 yo would struggle with Bigger a bit. I aim to have my kids in the middle or upper age range for each program.

I guess what I'm recommending is to take the preschool and the kindergarten years slowly so as not to be in too-advanced programs in the early elementary years. Each program is quite a bit of a jump from the last. I have not done LHFHG yet, so maybe some other ladies can help you out with that program specifically. I was just encouraging you to look down the road a bit.

My 2 cents,
Laura

[LynnG in Hawaii]

I am doing LHTH with my 4 yo dd this year. It is adorable and lots of fun! I am not stressing myself out to do school with her everyday. My goal is to complete LHTH and LHFHG and maybe a bit of AW from Winterpromise (I have that from earlier years with my ds) within the next 3 years. I am taking my time because I really don't want to do Beyond with her as a new 6 yo. I just completed Beyond with my ds. He was 7 when we started the program. I'm glad I didn't do it a year earlier with him. I don't think he would have gotten nearly as much out of it as he did. He definitely would have struggled more with the assignments, particularly the reading and writing. We are doing Bigger this year. It is quite a jump. I think a typical 7 yo would struggle with Bigger a bit. I aim to have my kids in the middle or upper age range for each program.

I guess what I'm recommending is to take the preschool and the kindergarten years slowly so as not to be in too-advanced programs in the early elementary years. Each program is quite a bit of a jump from the last. I have not done LHFHG yet, so maybe some other ladies can help you out with that program specifically. I was just encouraging you to look down the road a bit.

My 2 cents,
Laura

Thanks so much for your reply, Laura! I do appreciate what you're saying about not rushing into the various levels. We've used many Sonlight levels, and in my opinion the typical (or even above average) child tends to do better if they're more at the upper end of recommended ages. I hadn't considered trying to take approximately 1.5 years to do both LHTH and LHFHG . . . but that might be a great option for us!

Do you have any thoughts as to which Bible and devotional we should choose?

Thank you again,

Lynn

[krismoose]

Hi and welcome! I would suggest the older bible for your 4yo. The follow-up questions in the older bible are perfect for my 4.5 ds and usually go over dd's head I haven't read the younger devotional that's currently being used, but I have Playtime Devotions (recommended in past LHTH, but now out of print) , and it's great for my 2.5yo. The younger bible is great, but it's really very young. My 2.5 dd actually prefers the older one for some reason. The older devotional (My ABC BIble verses) is great, but meaty, and we will go through it a few more times over the next few years, I think. If you think your 4yo would enjoy LHTH now, I'd go ahead and start and not worry about how much your 2 yo participates...he'll probably join in more as he gets older, and you could always do it again with him when dd moves on. You can also start LHFHG half-speed (taking 2 days to do one page in the guide) if you get to it before your dd is 5. I, too, thought about slowing my 4yo's program down to accommodate my 2yo, and Carrie's (the author's) recommendation was to stay with the older one's level for now, that it can be more challenging to try to combine kids before they're reading and writing independently, and to just take it year by year for what would work best for us. HTH

[LynnG in Hawaii]

Hi and welcome! I would suggest the older bible for your 4yo. The follow-up questions in the older bible are perfect for my 4.5 ds and usually go over dd's head I haven't read the younger devotional that's currently being used, but I have Playtime Devotions (recommended in past LHTH, but now out of print) , and it's great for my 2.5yo. The younger bible is great, but it's really very young. My 2.5 dd actually prefers the older one for some reason. The older devotional (My ABC BIble verses) is great, but meaty, and we will go through it a few more times over the next few years, I think. If you think your 4yo would enjoy LHTH now, I'd go ahead and start and not worry about how much your 2 yo participates...he'll probably join in more as he gets older, and you could always do it again with him when dd moves on. You can also start LHFHG half-speed (taking 2 days to do one page in the guide) if you get to it before your dd is 5. I, too, thought about slowing my 4yo's program down to accommodate my 2yo, and Carrie's (the author's) recommendation was to stay with the older one's level for now, that it can be more challenging to try to combine kids before they're reading and writing independently, and to just take it year by year for what would work best for us. HTH

Kris, that actually helps quite a bit. It's amazing how nice it is to just talk things through a bit with people who have been in similar situations. My gut instinct was to focus on what DD-almost 4 needs, and not really worry about DS-2 for now. My main goal in life with him at the moment is just to keep him alive by the end of the day. (Ultra busy and hyper 2 year old boy, need I say more?)

So, to clarify, you think I should go with both the older Bible and the older devotional (My ABC Bible Verses)?

Thanks again, and I'd love any other input or advice from anyone who has gone through LHTH before.

[lmercon]

I agree that with the pp about the Bible. Go with the older. As for the devotional, it doesn't really matter. I have both, and they are both adorable. If you really want to focus more on your dd, then I'd say to go with the ABC Verses. If you want a devotional that they both can do with you, I'd go with the other one.
hth,
Laura

[jenntracy]

Hello Lynn

My son turns 6 at the end of this October. Last year, when he turned 5 we started LHFHG at half-speed. We only did half a day's worth each day.So this year we are finishing up the other half. It is working out quite well. so i guess you could say we are taking 2 yrs to do Kindergarten. He just wasn't ready for ALL of it when he turned 5 in October.

We have always used the Beginners Bible because my kids love it and if the verses for the story aren't in their Bible we just break out our Family NKJV.
We have the ABC devotional, but i had also bought Small Talks About God devotional, used ( it was just going out of print at the time i got my manual). We use both. I do prefer the one that is out of print and so do my kids, but we do like the other one as well.

my almost 6yr old and his eldest sister are only 16 1/2 months apart so i do plan on combining for the History side and let them do their own Basics. i think if they were farther apart i would probably do them separate. that is just my opinion.

Blessings
Jenn D.