LHFHG with a 4.5 year old?

[MamaPajama]

Okay, so I brought up my questions the other day about combining my kids in Beyond in a year and a half. I discussed it with some of my more-seasoned "real life" homeschooling friends (who also know DD) and to my surprise all of them suggested the possibility of just ignoring the age recommendation on the guide and trying to combine them now to make my life easier. (I believe someone on here suggested it the other day too, but at the time the idea wasn't really sinking in yet.) I have to say that the more I think about it, I'm kind of digging this idea.

My DD LOVES doing school and keeps asking for more of LHTH. Thing is she already knows her letter names, short vowel sounds and consonant sounds, and she's beginning to try handwriting on her own. She wants to learn to read, so I've started phonics with her. She can sit through the Burgess stories with DS and narrate in small chunks. As far as her skills are concerned, I think she's pretty solid. She will be 5 in January, so logic tells me she's not THAT far off from being ready for Kindergarten. I'm not sure that holding her back 4 months is really going to make or break her Kindergarten year.

I have read here several times that each guide does a wonderful job of preparing the child for the next. How much does age really play a part in that? Would it really hinder her ability to keep up in Beyond, Bigger, etc.? I know that nothing in homeschooling is cut and dry, and at any time I'm prepared to slow down if we need to. But seriously the idea of just combining them now and getting on with it already sounds great! And if we did that, we'd likely keep doing a lot of the activities in LHTH for fun since she likes them so much.

Has anyone else done this? Am I going completely out on a limb here?

Edit: I looked at the last thread again and saw that krismoose had suggested combining now and doing LHFHG and BLHFHG 4 days/week so that DD would be in the age range by Bigger. But I'm terrible at math and it's killing my brain trying to think of exactly how long each guide will take that way.

[mamayi]

I did just what you described. I let my dd2 join in with my ds1 when he started LHFHG. (Dd was about 4.5 when we started Little Hearts) I didn't require a lot of her but she enjoyed listening to all of the readings and activities. I didn't do any formal math or writing with her just some Rod and Staff workbooks and other simple things. When we started Beyond I basically did "left-side" Beyond and "right side" LHFHG with her (like The Reading Lesson and K level math and her own handwriting book and started spelling words about halfway through the year). We took a year and a half to do Little Hearts and completed Beyond in one year.

The issue that we are having now is that my ds1 is very ready to move to Bigger but my dd is not. (NOTE: If I had slowed down the pace of Beyond we would not have this situation.)
While she could mentally do the work, she is not quite mature enough for the work load. I am taking a few months to focus on basic skills like math and reading and handwriting and the beloved Storytime (plus a few other things) and plan on starting Bigger at a 4 day per week schedule come January (when dd will be a few months shy of 7) so that it will take a year and a half to do and then dd will be in a great spot to start Preparing. So at some point you may realize that your dd cannot keep up but with HOD it's very easy to slow down and tailor things to fit your family.

For instance, my ds IS doing some things from the Bigger manuel (like dictation and we're really focusing on developing oral narration skills) while my dd is continuing with Spelling list 1 from Beyond. If you have both guides it's pretty easy to coordinate. (I hope I am not making it sound confusing!)

To sum up, if it makes your family's school operate smoothly with each child's need being met then go for it!
HTH!
Andrea

[MamaPajama]

Thanks for your response. I DID finally figure out the math and found that if we did both LHFHG and BLHFHG 4 days/week, we could start BHFHG around January 2013 where both children WOULD be within the age range (7 and almost 9). I see that from Preparing on up, the guides are set up for 4 days/week anyway, so I thought if we stick with that plan we might as well just do Bigger 4 days/week too and not sweat doing it full speed. In talking with my homeschooling friends, I also found that ALL of them said they had to slow things way down at times, or sometimes even shelf school for a while while they dealt with various issues, so I realize we probably won't stay completely on schedule. As long as both kids are doing their own core subjects on time, I'm not too concerned about when they pick up the "extras". Thankfully DH feels the same way. I just like to have some sort of game plan in mind. It makes my brain happy.

[MomtoJGJE]

FWIW we will be starting LHFHG sometime after Christmas with my then 6 and 4 year old... We'll be going half speed 4 days a week for a while.

[mamayi]

So glad a plan is coming together for you.

[countrymom]

My son started LHFHG at just 4 1/2 and he did fine. We used the kindergarten math and science book. He was good at listening to chapter books already and knew all his letters and sounds and could sort of sound out easy words. We started in "The Reading Lesson" at the same time. We have just started Beyond and I am going 1/2 pace because of his age. So far it is great. He is not quite done with TRL, but since we are going 1/2 pace in Beyond he will probably end up finishing the emerging reader set with Beyond anyway. I purposely am going 1/2 pace now so we don't hit Bigger too soon. I think with the skills you describe she would do fine.

[Mommamo]

I used LHFHG when my oldest was 4.5 and it was a perfect fit. Eventually I will be using LHFHG with my younger two when they are 6 and 4. I think as long as you adjust the math and language arts to your youngest child's level and that she's used to listening to longer books without pictures, she'll be fine.

[my3sons]

Starting LHFHG at 4.5 yo, or starting Beyond at 5.5 yo, with a child that is showing herself ready wouldn't concern me so much as long as the pace was slowed so that she wouldn't reach Bigger Hearts prior to 7 yo. You may want to do Bigger Hearts half-speed for awhile too though. My ds started it when he turned 7 yo and even though he is a strong reader and writer, I did roughly 3 months half-speed with him. After our summer break, he'll be ready for full-speed Bigger Hearts, and he'll be older - around 7 1/2 yo. I can tell he'll do better with everything in it now, and probably retain more as he's older. I'd try to get to Bigger Hearts when dd is 7 or 7 1/2 yo. I wouldn't worry about Bigger Hearts (and on up) being rigorous enough for your older ds at all. HOD focuses on getting the 3 R's down as well as teaching beginning CM skills such as listening to living books, beginning narrating, etc. for the first years; as well as beginning science skills and Biblical application, etc. But, once dc get to Bigger Hearts on up, learning deepens and widens - so much so, that HOD guides currently written for older students of ages with extensions through 13-14 yo are easily being tweaked for high school. So, I say this just to assure you that the concern long-term is not "will it be enough for your older ds", but rather "will it be too much for younger dd". If combining is what you desire, I'd slow it down, and I'd work on getting her reading and writing early as this is the biggest factor in determining whether a child can be ready for the upper guides. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[MamaPajama]

Thank you so much for your thoughts, Julie. I was concerned both with slowing DS down and also with speeding DD up, but after reading your response I know now which direction is best to take. I've decided to do LHFHG at half-speed for the first half of the guide and then pick it up to full-speed if I feel they are both ready. That would put us at starting Beyond with 6 and 8 year olds and Bigger with 7 and 9 year olds. If we find that any of the guides are going too fast for her, we will slow it down again, keeping in mind what you've said about the extensions for DS. This also gives me a vision for what I hope to accomplish with my younger two, but we will see what those days bring when they come.

I do appreciate everyone's input on this!

[MamaPajama]

Maybe not. I tried doing half of LHFHG Unit 1 this morning, and DD kept asking, "Are we done yet? Can it be Ubber's turn? Can I go play?" She didn't even want to sit in on the story! I'll probably try it for another day since tomorrow's Friday, but I'm getting the feeling it's going to be too much for her. Either way it's just fine. I thought this was at least worth a shot, though.

[my3sons]

I was surprised when I began homeschooling that there was such a strong message being sent to homeschoolers to combine because it "makes schooling easier". I think that is true... sometimes... for some familes... but certainly not for every family and for all dc. Other times, combining just makes things harder. Just because we as moms have one guide to get done instead of 2 or 3, does not mean schooling 3 dc will be that much easier. In fact, to appropriately meet each different child's needs and abilities, often so much tweaking needs to be done to make it work for all, that it's just a whole lot easier to enjoy teaching different guides. That is what we have found with our 3 sons at least.

There is no way my child doing LHTH could pay attention long enough to do LHFHG, and you may be finding that out now with your dd as you try this. Your dd was probably very accurately placed in LHTH, and now that you have tried to move her to LHFHG, you may find that it is cumbersome to try to include her with older big brother, because he is probably quite far ahead of her. You may well decide that 20-30 happy minutes with dd in LHTH, and 1 1/2 hours of happy minutes with ds in LHFHG is better overall for everyone, as each child's age, maturity, attention span, and ability is better met this way. (And, dd can go play when she's done as she so desperately wants to do, and ds can have you all to himself and clip along with LHFHG to finish on time which is probably what he so desperately wants to do ).

So, you may find through this that you would truly enjoy doing LHFHG with him, and LHTH with her, and have everyone be happier. This is a good thing to have happen actually, as you will know truly whether combining is easier and better for your specific situation or not. I think this weighing of whether combining is truly best for each of us is very important to do. Putting aside the common homeschooling message that "combining is easier" to see if in our specific situations it really is easier, is a wise thing to consider. I hope you find what fits best for your family overall, whether it is combining or not combining! Thanks for sharing these thoughts as many are processing through the same thing.

In Christ,
Julie

[MamaPajama]

Thanks Julie! I think you're absolutely right. After racking my brain last night to come up with a schedule for them, I'm thinking it might be more work than it's worth. And then after her reaction this morning, eh... I don't want her to dread school at a young age. I think I'll go back to my original plan and just add TRL to LHTH since she was asking for more school. That's probably enough for now. But you're right, I'm glad I at least tried so I didn't spend the rest of the school year wondering what could have been.