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This past school year I have taught 3 guides -Preparing, Little Hearts/Beyond, and Little Hands- and after the initial start up time found it fairly easy. One thing that helped was by stagger starting the guides. I also had my oldest start with independent ( or at least semi-independent) work. Then ...

I never added to Little Hearts for His Glory. Most cases you don't need to. It is perfect for k-2nd grade depending on the child. Mine used it for the last half of K & first half of 1st. The only thing you could say was "added" was we did more of the Rod & Staff fine motor skills books because my ch...

My son has always worked better by crossing the numbers off. Sometimes I let him. Other times I taught him to count back by pointing with the pencil. If the dot ended on a number, that was the answer. So, using your example 7-2 he would make a small pencil dot on 6 and count "1", then make a small d...

I don't know if this helps, but I have seen these blends used more in phonics and not moving on to "real" spelling until children were comfortable with them. That's the way my brother learned and one of my sons, and they rarely get a word wrong. It's also sort of the way I learned. I did not have sp...

We used copy paper & a binder for the Notebooking pages. For the experiments I used the Preparing lab sheet as an example- then made my own. That way we wouldn't get tired of the same sheet over 2 years. Having a sheet made up like that does make it easier. Although if they need to learn to do it ow...

Usually when they place in two guides it is best to start with the lower one. Especially in your case where he hasn't had much practice with written narrations. For my oldest that is a big part of Preparing. We are about half way through and he is still learning how. We will be finishing next year f...

If you get started on Beyond and your child needs more grammar you could always do the day 5 grammar several times a week. It would mean working ahead in the guide for that box. I am doing Beyond for the second time- one child the guide was enough, one we've had to add the grammar in daily. I like t...

I agree with MelInKansas that you keep going full-speed until they are struggling with a concept or to get a full days work done. Then you move to half-speed. I also read to my children besides school and will sometimes ask them to tell me their favorite part - and that seems to help some with compr...

Sara Coleridge (1802-1852) is the author of "The Storm"

We use the supplemental titles and we do some narration and I ask a few questions. However we do it in a more relaxed manner. It gives them a nice break from deep thinking although they still are concentrating and focusing without realizing it. That is just what we do. I am not sure what you are sup...

We make a schedule allowing extra time, then follow it more like a routine. As we get farther along we get a little faster thereby taking less time. Mid-year I reevaluate and make any changes needed. Always adding more time into schedule/routine than expected. It just gives them an extra break or tw...

In Bigger Hearts especially you want to finish the guide - or least up until the last 2-3 units. There is so much prep work involved. My oldest finished the guide in Aug/Sept of this school year and if he had not I don't believe he would have been ready for Preparing Hearts. We did not do the last u...

I don't see any reason why you can't start if you really wanted to. Using the youngest options, although I would only do 3 days a week. That's usually all a 2 yo will be ready for, and it will keep it short & sweet for her.
Have fun!

Based on what you shared I would do Little Hearts for your 6 yo. You could add Little Hands for the youngest as able. It is so short & sweet it is not like doing an extra guide. For awhile I did it in the evening as a devotional time with my youngest. Then the two olders actually fought over who was...

What a great thread - this should be one to remember and refer to often! :D Such wise words here! :D One comment as far as the 'do they have to work it out or not?' In the Textbook portion, I make them work it out the way Singapore guides them to (often noted by Singapore in thinking word bubbles)....