What to do now?

[MomtoJGJE]

We started our "fall semester" this past week. I'm taking the fall off HOD for Jayden to let her mature a bit and just doing a few unit studies. I had planned on getting Grace and Julianna back on track with doing school regularly.... I had let them slack off a bit with different vacations we had taken and finishing up Beyond with Jayden.

As of right now, I have them combined... we are doing LHTH and adding in the right side K options from LHFHG for Grace. Apparently, during the couple of months we didn't really do anything with the two of them Grace just absolutely blossomed. SO, now I really don't feel like it's fair to her to keep them together. Not altogether a problem really, except it is a little bit Help me figure out a plan...

- I don't want to do guides back to back.... this is my issue, and if it turns out to be best for them, then so be it, I'll get over it.
- Grace is ready to start LHFHG NOW.... she's actually been ready for a while, but now she's WAY past just LHTH with K options... she's ready for 1st options and the ERS. But she still has 1/4 of the K options left and I don't have the money to order more stuff right now.... I have it budgeted for January actually...
-Julianna will be ready for LHFHG next fall, if not sooner... she's close, but it has become obvious she's not going to be ready by January/February. Her listening skills are what is holding her back... Fine motor skills and knowledge and desire are already there.

My original plan had been to start them together in LHFHG in January/February and do it half speed 4 days a week for a few units, and then go from there to figure out half/full speed. That's just not going to work, but I really really don't want to be back to back with guides.

[Lynnw]

My .02.... If I read correctly... your 7yo isn't ready for Bigger but has already done Beyond. Your 5 yo is ready for LHFHG, but your 3.5 yo isn't and won't be anytime this school year. I would consider combining your 5yo and 7yo in LHFHG now, beefing up the LA for your 7yo (i.e. did she do list 1 spelling words in Beyond last year? let her do list 2 now, etc.) I would also consider having your youngest wait another year to start LHFHG (as a 5.5 yo instead of a 4.5 yo) so that you don't do LHFHG back to back.

The next year you have a couple options.... you could put your oldest in Bigger and your middle in Beyond - but then you have back to back guides. Or.... would it be possible to keep them together in Beyond, beefing it up for your oldest by using the right side of Bigger and adding DITHOR? (Even though she's already done it once, she would likely get even more out of it?)

FWIW, I have combined my 7yo dd with my 5yo ds in LHFHG this year and I'm really pleased with it for her. She's solidifying her knowledge of Bible history and enjoying Reddy Fox.

[MomtoJGJE]

No.... my oldest is ready for Bigger, but I don't want to rush her into Preparing.... We school year round, and if I had gone straight into Bigger right now we would have been starting Preparing right about the time she turned 8...

Grace was ready for LHFHG last year, but I wasn't ready to do 3 programs and Julianna was very much ready for LHTH. Grace was having a little bit of trouble with Reddy Fox, and when I asked here for advice it was suggested to combine them in LHTH with K options for Grace. We started that in January, took lots of breaks, and it was working great! Until now....

Julianna will absolutely be ready for LHFHG next fall... I am going to wait until then to start her though, and I'll probably start her half speed for a while.

Jayden would be bored out of her mind in LHFHG and would stop doing school at all if I did Beyond with her again. We did Beyond for 1.5 years The unit studies are a nice change for her, and a chance to beef up her handwriting between now and starting Bigger and work on her reading a little more fluidly before starting DITHOR. She hates to read, so I thought letting her read whatever she wanted for a bit, though requiring her to read, would maybe let her like it better.

They very much, when we start in January, will be perfectly placed in Bigger, LHFHG, and finishing up LHTH... Grace would actually probably do quite well in Beyond, but I'm starting her in LHFHG so 1.)she won't miss getting to do it and 2)so she and Jayden won't be in back to back guides.

To clarify my question.... how can I work it so I won't be doing guides back to back... combining *at this point* is out... but they are really close... I suppose I could just stop with LHTH right now and start back in with just Julianna in February after I get the other two going, but that will only buy me a couple of months and not solve my back to back issue... Add in on top of it, I have a 17mo right now who is the most exhausting child in the world she's in to everything!

[Lynnw]

Sorry I misunderstood as well! That's what I get for applying my situation too much to yours!

Hopefully some others will have some better ideas for you. The wisdom here from Julie and Carrie and others has amazed me as I worked through my own placement concers!

[Mom4Him]

Lora Beth- how wonderful that your little sweeties are doing so well! It can definitely "throw you for a loop" though- can't it!! I've had similar battles with trying to figure out the best placement for our family (ours are close in age too- but, like yours, vary in ability)!
I'm wondering if you could just start Grace in LHFHG now- & as soon as you think Jayden is ready- get her going in Bigger- that way you would have a guide in between the 2 of them (you could do Bigger at half speed for a while or slow down with Preparing, as I'm thinking that once they get to the older guides, it won't be quite as big of a deal if you're doing back-to-back guides since they do a lot more independently ) Then, for Julianna, you could continue what you are doing now (I'm not sure how far into LHTH you are). If you will be done with LHTH in December- maybe you could go through LHTH again with her- just adding in a few things (that's what we are doing this year with our 4 year old- & it's working really well). Then, come next September, if she is ready, you could start LHFHG with her (Grace moves to Beyond & Jayden continues in Bigger or starts Preparing) but take 2 years to do LHFHG -that would end up putting a guide in between Julianna & Grace. And then you can start thinking about the little one!
This is very similar to what our plan is for the next few years (but of course you know how planning goes!! )!
Hopefully this all makes sense & can help a little!
Have a great day!
Jessica

[MomtoJGJE]

yeah... it hit me this morning that without Julianna joining in Grace could just go full speed and I could let Julianna go half speed with both LHFHG and Beyond and that would space them out. I'm not even considering Evie in my plans yet. I still have a good 2 years if not more before i really start anything with her at all.

We are on whatever unit "N" is in in LHTH So I think I'm going to stop for now and pick up after I get everyone else going in the new year. I don't have the right side stuff I need to start Grace yet and won't be able to get it until January I think... but that's ok. She'll be ready to start emerging readers pretty soon around January or February anyway and I can just add that in to LHFHG.

I think just posting here helps me see more possibilities, no matter what the answers are

And yes, plans can change quickly! I had made a new plan in the not too distant past and it changed on a dime this week when I realized how much Grace had progressed!

[MomtoJGJE]

It hit me while I was talking to DH last night that I don't have to wait with Grace until she finishes her current workbooks to start LHFHG... I can just use them and when she gets done with them move on to the next level. So I could start in the next couple of weeks (or even now) going half speed so that we'd be in a good routine before I start Jayden in Bigger. Then I could wait until after Jayden gets going steadily in Bigger to start back up with Julianna.

Between getting Grace going already with LHFHG and waiting until February to start Julianna back on LHTH (I already have unit studies planned out for this fall) and then doing LHFHG half speed with Julianna that should space them out nicely. It might be a while before I have a whole school year between guides for them, but at least I'll have a month or two this time and then a lot longer between LHFHG and Beyond.

So for anyone following this thread here's my current "plan"

Jayden will start Bigger after the new year, probably half speed for a couple of units and slowly building to full speed. Unit studies until then to beef up her writing and reading.

Grace will start LHFHG sometime in October (or maybe sooner) going half speed until I feel like I have a grasp of doing three different levels with a baby running around. She'll join in the unit studies if/when she wants to.

Julianna will continue doing the unit studies with Jayden. Will start back with LHTH about a month after Jayden gets started with Bigger. I might even do it half speed with her for a few units just to spread them out a little more. She'll also have her grocery store workbooks because she must have school like her sisters

[MomtoJGJE]

Ok... strike those plans... Grace surprised me even more today. I told her what the new plan was and she told me she wanted to start now. So I planned on doing half a day today.... well, she finished a whole day in about 45 minutes including an interruption... granted that was without phonics, but we did add in practicing her awana verses... so we'll be doing full speed 3-4 days a week.

[my3sons]

It sounds like you have worked this out nicely! I love being a fly on the wall seeing a good plan come together. I think that you can start your oldest in Bigger, knowing that will be where your biggest teaching time goes, your next little gal in LHFHG, and as time allows little peanut(s) in LHTH. I think you may enjoy combining your 2 youngest eventually. I too like a year between teaching guides, and this will do that nicely for you. If you put your time in Bigger Hearts, you will be set up oh-so-nicely for the following year, when your oldest moves on to PHFHG and becomes more independent, and your next child moves to Beyond and needs you a little more. I have loved this as our dc grow and move through the guides. My teaching time went up until Bigger Hearts, and then my teaching time went down from there. This was perfect, as my younger dc gradually needed me more and more, and I then had the time for them, while my oldest was ready for independence and ready to fly. Isn't it great Carrie has 4 dc herself? It shines in the plans. Enjoy - sounds like you're set with a good plan!

In Christ,
Julie

[MomtoJGJE]

Yes I love how God works things out when you just leave it to Him instead of trying to muddle things up

And I posted all of it because I love reading about other people's processes, so I thought there might be another weirdo like myself out there