Thinking I need to REthink....

[andreamichele13]

After reading a few things about placement on here, I'm wondering if I should rethink what I'm thinking of doing with my 2 youngest children. My son will be 6 in March, and my daughter will be 5 in August. My son will DEFINITELY be starting LHFHG asap (it should be here tomorrow...yippee!!!), and I initially thought I would include my 4 year old daughter as well b/c she already knows all her letters and the sounds they make and is VERY interested in school. BUT, after reading a few things, I've seen where a few people recommend placing your child in the MIDDLE of the age range, which would mean my daughter should be in LHTH. Does it really matter, or should I just keep her in LHFHG? My only concern is what has been voiced here...that when she gets up into the upper levels, she will become discouraged because the work will be too much. I hadn't thought about this before b/c she IS so interested in school and picks up very easily on phonics and such (she and big brother are almost on the same level there...he is ahead of her in math though). I just don't want to be overzealous and start her too soon! I guess I could do LHTH and then add in phonics as she seems interested?????? What do you ladies think??? ALSO, if I put her in LHTH, I will then be running 3 different cycles at the same time, since my oldest is 12. I don't want to do too much b/c this will be my 1st year doing HOD and I have no idea what to expect!

Thanks so much!
Andrea

[Sue G in PA]

I am sure that ladies more wise about placement issues than I will respond shortly. However, I will say that based on my experience with LHFHG, your son and daughter should do very well with it. My daughter was 5 (August bday as well!) and my son 7 when we started LHFHG. She, like your dd, was already reading CVC words (and more), advanced in math, comprehension skills, writing, etc. My son, however, was a bit less advanced...a struggling reader but on target with math and handwriting. Both children enjoyed LHFHG and are now enjoying and doing well in Beyond. My dd6 is on target to reach the upper level guides (Preparing and up) by the lower end of the age recs. 8yo in Preparing. I'm not "that" concerned about that right now. If her skills progress at the pace they are currently, she will not have any problems at all. If, however, her skills slow down a bit, we can always progress through those guides at a slower pace. I wanted to keep her and her brother combined for the same reasons you mentioned...running multiple guides. In fact, I started out the year running 3 guides...soon to add LHTH for my 3yo. I have since moved my 10yo down to Beyond to join dd6 and ds9 and am just "beefing it up" for him with higher level science, more history reading and more mapwork, writing, and grade-level math and LA. Tomorrow will be our first day with all 3 of them together! So excited. But, anyway, back to YOUR question... ...my advice would be to go with your plan. Start both in LHFHG and go from there taking it one year at a time! Enjoy!

[bethelmommy]

Well, we're brand new to LHFHG and have only finished the first week, but I can share that my dd (a young 4) is doing really well with it. LHFHG is actually perfect for her as written in every skill and subject area. My ds 5.5 is more advanced in math and reading and requests additional story time, but otherwise enjoys the guide as is as well. Thanks to Julie (my3sons)'s excellent advice, we plan to do LHFHG, Beyond and Bigger 4 days a week to stretch the guides out and allow dd time to mature with the guides. I can always add extensions if needed to beef things up for ds in later guides. Again, we only have the first week under our belts, but I am amazed at how well they are both doing. If your children place in LHFHG according to the placement chart, then they will probably both be just fine.

[andreamichele13]

Thanks, girls! So, if I'm understanding correctly, you think I should do just 4 days a week with both and that would stretch it out, right?? It may take a little longer also b/c of summer. I plan on doing school, but it won't be every week and everyday b/c of summer camps and such that my husband and I participate in (he's a youth minister). Perhaps it would work out then. I just don't want to regret pushing her later. I want her to enjoy school and not struggle. I sometimes forget that, even though she is progressing nicely in phonics and such, she IS still 17 months younger than my son. I want her to be a baby for as long as she can! I'll be getting my LHFHG in the mail today and will be able to look through it! SOOOO EXCITED!!!!

Andrea

[davisfam7]

Andrea,
My kiddos are passed LHTH and LHFHG but Julie's advice is great about stretching the guides out by doing them 4 days a week. Also remember that you can always slow your dd down to half paced if needed at any time. Let's say she does great through LHFHG and even in Beyond, but starts to struggle in Bigger. All you need to do is start going half paced with her, meaning that she only does one side of the guide a day. So she would do the left side on one day and finish the right side the next day. This will also slow the guide down for her to get the skills she might be struggling with. Anyway, there are a lot of ways to build in extra time for them to get the skills they need with HOD. That is one of the great reasons I love this program! Hope that helps! Good luck and have fun!

[andreamichele13]

Davisfam,

At first, I was like, WAIT, I didn't post anything else....our last name is Davis and i refer to us as the Davis Fam often! haha. Ok...I digress....

YES! That DID help immensely b/c I was struggling by what everyone meant by "slowing it down" for my dd. This will be my first year with HOD and I wasn't understanding what to do. That makes MUCH more sense to me...only doing 1 side of the page a day. YES! Now I get it. I think I will definitely do that then. THANK YOU, fellow Davis!

Andrea

[bethelmommy]

Davisfam,


YES! That DID help immensely b/c I was struggling by what everyone meant by "slowing it down" for my dd. This will be my first year with HOD and I wasn't understanding what to do. That makes MUCH more sense to me...only doing 1 side of the page a day. YES! Now I get it. I think I will definitely do that then. THANK YOU, fellow Davis!

Andrea

Yes, you can do 1/2 pace (1 page a day) and/or 4 days a week. There are 5 days in each unit for the lower guides. So, if you only school 4 days a week, then you are adding on weeks to the guide. If there are 34 units, then you add almost 7 additional school weeks to the guide. If you do that through LHFHG, Beyond, and Bigger, then you stretch out the guides over an additional half school year.

My two oldest dc are 18 months apart as well. I totally understand wanting to keep them together.

[andreamichele13]

Alicia,

Thank you! Is that what you do? I'm still waffling back and forth about whether to order LHTH also. I don't want to just do 4 days a week with my oldest. I want to do 5. BUT, if I just do 4 days with youngest or just do 1 side of the page with her, she'll still be doing different things all the time than my ds5.5. She's just so eager I can hardly hold her back, though! Oh well....we'll try for a few days/weeks and just see how it goes!

Thanks!
Andrea

[andreamichele13]

SO, after thinking on this for awhile, I decided that, even though my dd is progressing in phonics and such, I'm going to go ahead and do LHTH with her and just beef it up a little, and then do LHFHG with my ds. I want dd to be able to enjoy "school" and be little for as long as possible. And, even though she seems to have a huge desire to learn to read, I still have to keep in mind that she is 4, and won't be 5 until August. So, I ordered LHTH and am looking forward to it! Working at 2 different paces (doing 2 pages for my ds, and 1 page for my dd) out of the SAME book seemed more complicated to me than doing both LHTH and LHFHG concurrently! Given that each of these programs take about an hour to complete each, I think we'll be okay. I guess we'll find out! I might fall flat on my face and be way too overwhelmed, but we'll see! Either way, I can already tell this is a stellar curriculum and I'm so stoked about starting!

[bethelmommy]

I'm glad you have it all worked out. You know your kids best and it sounds like you have a great schedule lined up. To answer your earlier question, both of my dc do LHFHG 4 days a week as scheduled and then some extra three R's practice (non HOD resources) two additional days a week. Starting in Bigger there are extensions available if they become necessary for ds. Dd is actually able to handle 5 days a week just fine, it's just not necessary at this point and keeps her from speeding through the guides too fast. At some point (maybe Preparing?), the guides switch to 4 days a week anyway so I like setting the routine of 4 days a week for HOD. It leaves extra time for other things as they get older - additional practice in an academic subject, music lessons, foreign language, etc... For now, my oldest ds has a lot of weekly therapy appointments and dd loves art, so it's nice to have the extra day. I look forward to hearing how your year goes.