What to do b/t LHTH and LHFHG

[amysue277]

I am hoping someone can advise me here...I don't know what to do next year!

In the Falll, my older son will be 5.8 and in K. My 2nd oldest son will be 4.3 and in Pre-K. This year, we are following a loose thematic based preschool curriculum, and I'm doing AAR level 1 with my older. He is doing very will with it-reading comes very naturally for him. I anticipate finishing level 1 slowly this year and throughout the summer. My younger son, however, still needs work with his letters and is generally not as quick to catch onto things. He also has a speech delay and seems that his abilities will be much different than my 1sts.

We have never used LHTH, mainly b/c I just heard of it and already have a TON of pre-k resources. I couldn't justify buying anything since I have a ton, and am also a former K-6 teacher. I literally have a closet full of homemade letters games, printables, games. etc etc.

BUT-I thought I would need something more structured for my son's K year. Maybe it's my nerves or whatever, but I wanted a schedule to tell me what to do everyday to keep me on track.I feel like my teaching style is very eclectic. I found HOD, and like what I see. I browsed the LHFHG guide and decided that there was no way I would do it next year b/c I thought the history/bible portion would be WAY too advanced for my younger, and I really need to keep them together in the guides.

So...I'm considering shelving LHFHG to do for their 1st/K years...or possibly doing it 1/2 speed. What concerns me is that my younger son will be doing it next year then, and that brings me back to my original concern of him doing it too early and not comprending much. I'm having trouble meeting both of their needs, although their only 18 months apart.

Does anybody know what I could do next year? I do plan to keep reading, math, handwriting and phonics going for my older, but am strongly consdiering just creating my own curriculum. WIth a 2 and 1 year old, that sounds like an awful lot of work that quite frankly, makes me tired just thinking about it. Any insight is welcome!

Thanks,
Amy

[mrsrandolph]

Honestly, I would consider doing 2 different guides with them. I know it seems silly, but it is VERY doable. LHTH takes very little time, and LHFHG is not very time consuming either. I really think it takes a 6 year old to comprehend the history portion of LHFHG well.

Just my opinion. ; )

[my3sons]

I'm a former teacher too, and I had a lot of resources at my beck and call (like a basement full ). I still did LHTH and loved it! I enjoyed using all my other stuff for centers or a rotation of activities after LHTH was done. LHTH with the older options really does a super job of planning history in a chronological way with a themelike feel to it. Everything coordinates beautifully - the art, the hands-on activities, the devotional, the music, the fingerplays, the letter activities - it just brings those skills together in more substantial way than putting my random things I owned together could have done. Plus, it was like a nutshell version of LHFHG and great prep for that as dc were learning in a bite-sized balanced way the types of subject areas they will be asked to do more with in LHFHG. So, my suggestion would be to do LHTH with the older options, as it will be balanced and a great prep for LHFHG! Then, you can use all of your fun stuff you own for some rotating activities to enjoy. We've now done LHTH 3 times with our 3 sons, and it truly is a joy to teach. HTH as you ponder what to do!

In Christ,
Julie

[mom23]

I think LHTH would be a great place to start. With the ages/grades of your kids I definitely see where you'd want to combine them. I'm using LHTH with my 5 yo right now. At the beginning of the year I'd planned to make it his K year, although he was only 4 until Nov. However, I soon saw that although he's very bright, he really was not ready emotionally/developmentally for an official start to K yet. So, we're taking it slow and will stretch LHTH between this year (K4) and next year (Kindergarten.) I think it works for both-which would be the ages of your two kids next year.

It sounds like you're not really wanting to buy something else when you have all of those wonderful resources already in your home. My personality would have a hard time letting go of all that, too . Just can't see "wasting" money when I already have stuff that I could "make do" with . However, I'd encourage you to consider it, anyway...if you're wanting something structured you'll be buying something, anyway, right? Might as well get them started with HOD . It's so fun, they don't even realize how much they're learning. It just makes your day go so smoothly, and with two littles in the house, you'll need that! There are some free preschool resources online that might be an organizational help, but when I've looked at those they seem like too much work for me to put together and carry out. I run back to my LHTH .

One other thought that came to mind that would be a completely different option for you is this: if you'd want to temporarily separate your two, because they just were too far apart right now, you could possibly do LHFHG half speed with your older child, while your younger one does LHTH, or another K thing full speed, and then next year, your younger would do LHFHG full speed while your older finished up LHFHG half speed. That would have them both ready to move on to Beyond the next year. That's a thought. If it were me, though, I'd put them both in LHTH next year.

[ShariCA]

My boys are 14 months apart and I wanted to keep them together too. I tried LHTH, but it didn't really work for us, so I did an eclectic year for both of the boys, with the older one doing the K portion of LHFHG (right side of guide minus storytime) and the younger one doing preshool readiness things. Next year they will both be ready for LHFHG with 1st grade and K options for them.