Placement for Stair Step Children

[pilotswife321]

I'm new to HOD and completely new to homeschooling. I'm very excited to order Little Hands to Heaven for my first year of homeschooling after viewing a friend's copy and researching other curriculums as well. I love how simple and clear the layout is! This fall my children are DS-4, DD-3, DS-2, so this sounds like the correct placement for them to do together, but I am curious as to what HOD book I should use for each child moving forward. I just can't visualize the schedule with multiple children. I don't know if it will be trickier or easier having kids closer in age? If my son moves on to the next book for "Kindergarten" next year, do I repeat LHTH with my other two? And again for my youngest the following year? My youngest's birthday is mid-August, so I'd plan on starting Kindergarten two years behind my middle child (So in 2020, I'd have a one in 3rd grade, 2nd grade, and Kindergarten). What do I do with him until then besides repeating LHTH each year? I can visualize what the correct placement should be with just one child, but having trouble adding my younger two in. I was wondering if someone can help me map the next year or two out for me for all three of them? Thanks!

[StephanieU]

First, take it one day at a time! I know it is so tempting to plan ahead, but often those plans change. When we first found HOD, I thought I would combine my middle two. They are only 20 months apart, and I thought they would work well together. Well, it turns out my kids fight for attention if they are together. And my older son excels at fine motor and math while my younger daughter is better at listening (and may catch him in reading). So splitting them was easier!

As for repeating LHTH, first don't push to get it done in a year. Now, some times it is easy to get a guide done in a year. But, at the ages of your kids, life often happens more than you want! If you get 2-4 days of school done a week, that is fine! When the oldest is ready for K things, just add those into LHTH. You can do this using any resource, but one common thing to do is buy LHFHG and start the fine motor skills/handwriting, phonics, and math boxes in that guide. My almost 5yo is doing that right now. We will finish LHTH around Christmas and start LHFHG in January most likely.

If you want to combine kids, you want to wait until the younger is ready for the guide. It is a lot easier to beef up a guide in HOD than it is to make things easier. So, if you want to combine your older two, plan on spending two years on LHTH. You can easily add in some crafts if you do get to school most days. Or you can add in other letter activities easily as well.

[MelInKansas]

I would second a lot of what Stephanie said. First of all I recommend you don't try to get LHTH done in one year. Do it 3 days a week or so and let it take up to 2 years to complete. As your oldest is ready for more math, or handwriting, or learning to read, just add that in for that one, letting them move forward in the areas they are ready for. But don't stress if that one is NOT ready for a while. Many children aren't ready to read or write much at all until age 7 or 8. The math activities and concepts in LHTH are sufficient for preschool, unless your child shows a great interest or aptitude in it. And many people do use LHTH for Kindergarten also, it can work for that as well.

Another option to think about (and what I did with my oldest 2 when I first started HOD) is to move on in the HOD guides and let the younger ones "tag along" for parts of it until they are ready themselves to start LHFHG or above. My oldest two did LHTH when they were 4.5 and 2.5. Then my oldest moved on to LHFHG and the younger one listened in, did rhymes and hands-on activities, and would color a page or something. When my oldest was in Bigger Hearts she was ready to start LHFHG - they are almost 2 years apart in the guides now but not quite.

However if you think you will have some back-to-back then it would be best to start two in LHFHG together, as Stephanie said, when the younger one is ready and add on more stuff for the older one. That way as long as it's working for you and them, they can stay together all the way through. You don't want to drag a younger through a guide they are not yet ready for. That would go along with the 2 years for LHTH plan - 2 years then you will have a 5YO and 6YO and as long as they both seem ready LHFHG might work out great for them then! I would continue maybe just 4 days a week with that, stretching out the guides a bit so the younger one is still able to keep up. But as Stephanie also implied, it's definitely too early to say where these kids will be 2-3 years from now. You can adapt it as you go, that's part of the beauty of homeschooling.

[Nealewill]

With the ages of your kids, it is difficult to make a projection now. For me, my kids are 18 months apart. I found that my son in the middle was much closer in level to my younger child than my oldest. So for me, I combine my younger two and not my older two.

I will say, I do really like having them be 2 levels apart. I would be hesitate to do back to back guides. For the past couple of years I was able to do back to back guides with my kids until I did Bigger and Preapring with my kids at the same time. Yikes! That was tough! So I dropped Preparing and made my son jump back in and repeat a portion of Bigger. Truth be told, as my kids grow, if my middle son is ready to bump ahead of his younger sister, he will skip RevtoRev. I hate for him to skip anything but at that point, my oldest will be in high school and these two kids will be very independent at this point. Plus, I allowed my son to finish the science in Preparing this year and he is doing science in RevtoRev next year with his older sister.

So anyway, my two cents would be to combine the kids that seem the most similar. If you can't tell when you start, start the oldest off alone and just combine the two younger kids for history and science. You can do your own math and grammar with each. But by combining them this way, you will never do a guide two years a row. I have really enjoyed having the time off between guides and it is so fun to think about enjoying some of the books again with the kiddos.

[pilotswife321]

Thank you all for your advice! I know I'm thinking way too far ahead than necessary right now. I appreciate you giving me ideas about how it might work out.

I like the idea of not having to do a guide two years in a row, Nealewill. I also agree that it is too difficult to make a project now. Currently my oldest is ready to take off and my middle is closer to him than my youngest, but as my youngest grows, who knows?

MelInKansas & StephanieU, not trying to get LHTH done in one year does sounds nice.

Again, I appreciate your help!

[my3sons]

Awesome advice here already! As Little Hands to Heaven (LHTH), Little Hearts for His Glory (LHFHG), Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory (Beyond), and Bigger Hearts for His Glory (BHFHG) are all 5 day a week guides, they can easily be spread out over 5 years, by doing 4 days of school each week. Since your older 2 seem a better pairing now, which we often see when the oldest is a boy and the next sibling is a girl, you could do LHTH with them 3-4 days a week, taking longer to finish it, and then begin LHFHG with them when your daughter was 4 1/2 or so. At any point during LHTH, if you feel your son is ready for more, you can add K Phonics (i.e. The Reading Lesson and CD), K Math (i.e. Essentials K Math A and B), K Handwriting (i.e. A Reason for HW K, OR Italic A), and K Fine Motor Skills (i.e. Do It Carefully/Finding the Answers). To add these, you would purchase the LHFHG Teacher's Guide from HOD, which has all of the plans for these. Then, when you order the rest of the LHFHG Economy Package later, just let HOD know you previously ordered the LHFHG Teacher's Guide from them, and they'll credit back the package savings you would have received. When you spread out these guides, a good rule of thumb is to be certain your now 4 yo daughter is at least 7 yo when she gets to BHFHG. That guide has quite a bit of writing in it, and she will need to be at least 7 yo or older to be able to hang with big brother. As far as the 2 yo, I'd let that little one go play for now! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[pilotswife321]

It's now spring of 2016 and I'm looking to purchase curriculum for the first time for the 2017-2018 school year. I've done more research and I'm still most impressed with HOD's Christ-centered, integrated curriculum and the easy open-and-go format. I think I'm now closer to deciding on placement.

This fall...
My oldest son, age 5 (December birthday) will be in Kindergarten
My daughter, age 4 (February birthday) will be in Pre-K
My younger son will be 3 (August birthday - not looking to start Preschool with him until 2018)

By now, I can tell my daughter is definitely going to be best paired with my older son. I better understand now the idea of stretching out the guides by doing 4 days of school a week if we need to. My older son seems ready for LHFHG. My daughter is a bit more behind on letter sound recognition and perhaps some math concepts, but otherwise up to speed with him. I'm wondering if I should start with LHTH at full speed for both of them with K Phonics, Math, Handwriting and Motor Skills for him and just wait and add K additions for my daughter during LHFHG while big brother does the 1st grade additions? I understand that it will be best for my daughter to be at least 7 yo when she gets to BHFHG and don't want to do that any earlier. I just want to be sure my older son isn't bored. Do you think this sounds like I'm on the right track? Or should I start off with LHFHG this year with both of them using K additions and spread it out over 2 years instead of instead of beginning with LHTH?

I think I can see a clearer picture of how it might work now:

FALL 2017: DS5 – KINDERGARTEN, DD4 - PRE-K, (DS3)
LHTH Full speed for DS & DD with Kindergarten additions for DS

FALL 2018: DS6 – FIRST, DD5 - KINDERGARTEN, (DS4 - PRESCHOOL)
LHFHG for DS & DD, K additions for DD, 1st additions for DS

Then continue with two guides spaced 2 years apart ...
FALL 2019: DS7 - SECOND, DD6 - FIRST, DS5 - PRE-K
Beyond for DS & DD, LHTH for DS5

FALL 2020: DS8 - THIRD, DD7 - SECOND, DS6 – KINDERGARTEN
BHFHG for DS & DD, LHFHG for DS6

FALL 2021: DS9 - FOURTH, DD8 - THIRD, DS7 - FIRST
Preparing for DS & DD, Beyond for DS7

...and so on.

Obviously this would all be subject to how quickly/slowly they advance as individuals. I understand now how I could spread guides out as needed (especially around the time good writing skills are necessary to move forward).

Thanks!

[StephanieU]

This looks like a good plan to at least try!

[pilotswife321]

Thanks, StephanieU!
I've been praying about it and was able to get my hands on copies of the K handwriting, math, and phonics this week. It gave me the confidence to decide on starting both my DS & DD on LHFHG. They look like something DD can handle. We'll start slow with the goal of completing the guide in 2 years. I can always speed up or slow down as needed. SO looking forward to this journey! It's just taken me awhile to wrap my head around how placement would work. Ready to go for it now!