5 yr old boy...HELP!

[rod_squad]

Hi all. My ds, 5 is a challenge. He is excited for homeschool but im not convinced he understands that we still have to work. Long story short....im wondering if taking this first year to work on being home together and work on some behavior issues is a good idea...not focusing too much on rigorous academics and letting the learning happen naturally. I am the queen of power struggles and i feel like anything i can do to lighten the atmosphere and make it fun will be well worth it. I want this to work!
I have a 3 year old daughter who is ready to learn! I really dont want her to pass him up and i think she could in a heartbeat. I thought of maybe doing Little Hands with both of them.
Thoughts?? Advice?? Thank you so much in advance!!

[tjswaine]

Hello. LHTH with a 5 year old is totally doable. My middle ds began LHTH when he was 5 along with The Reading Lesson, Singapore's Earlybird Math, handwriting, and the Rod & Staff preschool books from the right side of LHFHG. It was a very fun and successful year for him. He was (and is) a very active, wiggly boy and I knew he wasn't quite ready for the left side of LHFHG. LHTH was definitely the right decision and this program prepared him beautifully for beginning LHFHG at 6 years old.

Having your son and daughter learn together would be wonderful!
In Him,
Jess

[krismoose]

It sounds like an excellent investment of time, energy and love to do that! I started doing "school" with my ds when he was 4.5 mainly as another way to train him in obedience The tasks were well within his ability, they key was learning to participate joyfully for those times (5 minutes at first ). Little Hands has several bite-sized activities that can be spread out or done all at once, depending on your family's needs. When he's ready to learn to read (ie, knows his letter sounds and *wants* to learn) The Reading Lesson is wonderful. It requires no writing, and can literally be done in 5 minutes a day. I still marvel that my ds learned to read by doing it for 5 minutes a day over the course of a year! As he becomes ready, you can always add in handwriting and math too. I added things one by one with my ds - all at once would have been too much. HTH

[countrymom]

I agree with the others. I would do LHTH this year with him and gradually add the right side of Little Hearts (phonics, math, handwriting) as or if he is ready. No sense in getting off to a bad start and he is young yet. Little Hands will allow you to work on other areas with him that will make schooling down the road a joy.