LHFHG for a bright 4 year old?

[nikkinic]

I need some advice from those of you who have used LHFHG. I was all set to start it in 2 weeks with my dd4 and today I was flipping through some of the books and now I'm having second thoughts. I think the history and literature readings might be over her head. I know she's a young to be in LHFHG, but I checked out LHTH and it seemed way to easy for her. She already knows her alphabet and all of the letter sounds and is beginning to read and write and she can count to 100 and is adding and subtracting with manipulatives. So now I don't know what to do should I save LHFHG for next year? What would I do this year in that case? I would appreciate any advice you can give me! Thanks!

[MamaPajama]

I'm sort of in the same boat. My DD (4.5) is very bright. We started with LHTH and she L-O-V-E-S it. But I tried moving her up to LHFHG with her brother, and she simply wasn't interested in staying put for the readings. It took the fun out of school for her, which I certainly don't want to do.

If it were me, I'd have two suggestions. One (what I'm actually doing): Have her do LHTH and add some math, phonics and/or handwriting. Or two: Try LHFHG and do it at half-speed.

The guides are only going to get harder and harder. I've already had some experience with Beyond and I think it would be very difficult for a 5 year old. I think it would be increasingly difficult for a child who is consistently one year behind the recommended age for each guide as time goes on. Good luck!

[moedertje]

Hi Nikkinic,

Just wondering if you have taken a look at the placement chart. Here is the link in case you have not seen it. http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

If your daughter places out of LHTH, and into LHFHG for the most part, I would suggest to do LHFHG at 1/2 pace to have her grow into the skills required. There are several ways to do a 1/2 pace with the guides. This is the one that is the easiest to keep a consistent schedule.
You can do the left side of the guide 1 day and the right side the next day. So you will end up doing 1 unit in 2 weeks. I would recommend doing your phonics instruction daily.
As she grows into it and you get to the point that she can a full day of work, you can go full speed and start the next guide (Beyond) at 1/2 pace as well. You can always add the first grade fine motor option from LHFHG when you do Beyond..
The recommended ages in the guides become very important once you get to Bigger. The requirements quickly get intense. and the books they read seem to be geared for the recommended level of maturity.
So you want to make sure by the time you reach Bigger that your daughter is 7 years old...

We are doing Bigger at 1/2 pace. We started last year and continuing on, since we did not know to do half pace in the earlier guides... Now we are making sure maturity wise we are placed right before moving on to Preparing when the requirements take another jump up.

In saying this I am so thankful for this board, there are so many wonderful ladies with much experience using the guides

Hope this helps! If you have more questions, please keep asking and I am sure more Mom's will chime in to help you out!

Success.

[MomtoJGJE]

I'll be doing LHFHG with DD3 when she is 4. She's going through LHTH right now... she already knew all the things in it before we started, but I couldn't see doing LHFHG with a 3yo I'm adding in fine motor skills workbooks to catch her up a bit. In the interest of attempting to combine someone I have my 5.5yo going through LHTH with the right hand side of LHFHG. They'll be starting LHFHG in January when DD2 will have just turned 6 and DD3 will have just turned 4. We'll go half speed 4 days a week, so we'll get through 2 days in the guide per week. DD2 could easily be through with LHFHG now.... but luckily she's a very laid back kid.

I was just sharing all that with you to let you know two things.... 1.) it's ok if you think she places in LHFHG... just be sure you go at her pace... I would not suggest leaving anything out as it teaches a skill that is necessary for the next level, and 2.) even if she already knows the material in LHTH you can still have her go through it to get to the age range of the guides... just add to it if she needs more.

[water2wine]

I did it with my 4 year old when she was four actually started with she was 3 1/2 at half pace. I was in the same place LHFH seemed too easy for where she was at. I found doing LHFHG at half pace for a while easing into full pace was perfect. She is now 6 and finished Beyond. I think the listening skill is a learned skill at any age. If she is ready on the chart. I would go for it and just do it at her comfort level. I think you will find if the chart says she is ready then it will probably be a great fit that way.

[countrymom]

I did LHFHG with my then 4 1/2 yr old. One thing to note is except for the first 2 days, the history then goes primarily to the Bible stories and you don't read a lot from the other books until the last part of Little Hearts. I found he was very ready for the history readings when we got there. You could also begin 1/2 pace, as the others have suggested.

[krismoose]

I did LHFHG starting with my 4.5 yo because he was bored with LHTH. I didn't know to go half-speed, so though we enjoyed it, he's not quite ready to go into Beyond, even at half-speed (I'd be leaving out any writing and the devotional, which would be silly, IMO So we're doing other things for a few months until he's more mature and ready for some writing...I'm really looking forward to it, but wish I had slowed down from the start

[Samuel'sMommy]

I think I replied to your question on the yahoo group (if it wasn't you it was almost an identical question). Anyway I'll just copy my response here:

I started LHFHG in January with my son who was 4 years old. He turned 5 in March. I’ve been doing it at half-speed and he has been doing great. He loves it and begs to do school. There are many ways to do it half-speed, but here’s what works for us.

We do phonics, handwriting/fine motor skills, and math daily. We are doing the kindergarten options right now and when we get done we will start the first grade options. So basically we are doing the history, science, storytime, etc at half speed and will take 2 years. The other stuff we are doing full speed so we will get through both the K & 1st grade options.

This is what our schedule typically looks like
Day 1
Rhymes in Motion
Reading About History
Handwriting/Fine Motor Skills
Hymn Study – on the days we don’t do the Bible Study box I’ve been adding in hymn study using Passion Hymns for a Kid’s heart. We learn 1 verse of the hymn each week. Samuel loves this!
Phonics
Math
SL P3/4 (I already had this sonlight core so on the days we don’t do storytime, I choose a 1-2 stories from it to read. You could leave this out or add library books or whatever you have at home)
Rotating Box (dramatic play, thinking skills, science, art, etc)

Day 2
Rhymes in Motion
Library book that corresponds to the history – I pick these from the list in the appendix. If my library doesn’t have the exact title Carrie lists, I just find the section on that topic and let Samuel pick 1 or 2 books that look interesting
Handwriting/Fine Motor Skills
Bible Study
Phonics
Math
Storytime
Library book that corresponds to the science topic for the week – again I just find that section in the library and let Samuel pick 1 or 2 books that look interesting

So that’s how we do it. It typically takes us about 1 ½ hours to finish each day. We start around 10am and are done by lunch.