How do I use Little Hearts for 1st this year and K next year

[tmcg]

This fall my 4 yo will do Little Hands for pre-k (or K4) and my 6 yo will do Little Hearts for 1st, but then next year do I use Little Hearts again, just purchase the Kindergarten books to accompany it.....then do it again for 1st grade w/ the 1st grade books I have from the older child? Do I do 2nd grade with the oldest using Little Hearts or move up a level when the oldest is in 2nd and go from there? Please help me be less confused.
Tammy

[mom2boys030507]

Next year do Little Hands with 4 yo and Little Hearts with 6 yo

The following year do Little Hearts with 5 yo and Beyond with 7 yo

Each program prepares them for the next level. As far as what books for Little hearts for you 4yo when you get ther you will have an idea from your older if they are ready for the 1st grade books or if you should go with the K books.

HTH

[MamaMary]

Hi Tammy,

I agree with Karen! I would do "Little Hands" with both of them. If your oldest knows the information you could even pull them in to "help" ( )
teach. I use my older children to demonstrate what I am asking the younger to do.

Combining the programs frees up your time so that you can work on phonics or emerging readers.

HTH,
Mary

[Kathleen]

Hi Tammy! Are we helping you be less confused?? The advice I've seen these experienced ladies (including Carrie) give is to take a program more slowly rather than to repeat it. I would say that your kiddos could do Little Hands and Little Hearts this year. They would then be ready for Little Hearts and Beyond Little Hearts... Since your 5 yo would be on the young side for Little Hearts next year, you could easily do 1/2 the plans for a day until your felt the child was ready for the whole thing. (Left page one day, Right page the next...)

As far as whether to use the K or 1st things for Little Hearts... I don't know whether you've ordered this year or not...if you haven't, I'd just get the K Science book as it's the one that matches better with the activities in LHFHG, and there's really not a big difficulty difference in the 2 from what I understand. Then the other things that are either a K or 1st level are consumable...the handwriting, thinking skills, and math workbooks...so you'd need those new anyway.

Kathleen

[Melanie]

take a program more slowly rather than to repeat it. I would say that your kiddos could do Little Hands and Little Hearts this year. They would then be ready for Little Hearts and Beyond Little Hearts... Since your 5 yo would be on the young side for Little Hearts next year, you could easily do 1/2 the plans for a day until your felt the child was ready for the whole thing. (Left page one day, Right page the next...)

This is great advice!!!

The guides are only meant to be used for one year for each child. Carrie gives us age ranges so that we can match the program with the developmental level of our kiddos rather than grade level....isn't she smart!?! And it also helps those of us who combine our kiddos who are close in age (I have 3 in a 15 month span, so for my sanity's sake I combine).

Are you wanting to combine or keep them seperate?? Do you have other kiddos coming up?? Just keep asking questions, and we'll all try to help you hash out your plans!

[Carrie]

Tammy,

The ladies are giving you wonderful options to think about. Each of our guides is designed to be one year of instruction. So, even though there are multiple ages listed on the guides, that is used to show you the youngest and oldest ages that we recommend for each guide to be used with.

So, if you go with your kiddos in 2 separate programs, you could stretch out the guides to take a slower pace (taking longer than a year to complete them if you'd like). But, when you finish the guide, you don't go back through it again with the same kiddo. You move that chid up to a new guide.

Is that clear as mud! If so, just ask away. The ladies will chime in to clarify.

Blessings,
Carrie

[tmcg]

Thanks for the feedback. I have a 2 yo boy in addition to my 2 girls. So he would use Little Hands next. I am not sure if parts of Little Hands would be appropriate for him now or if I should just hold off. Maybe I'll understand better once I take a look at the curriculum. I have not ordered anything yet.

Also, a public school teacher friend gave us Handwriting Without Tears, but I was planning on getting the Italic for my 6 yo as I like the way it looks. So, what should I do? I don't want to waste it and I've heard good things about it, but I want to do things by the "book" as far as not deviating from HOD as it may be hard to follow the manual if I have a different program. Thoughts?

At first I wanted to combine programs w/ the girls, but b/c the 4 yo has had no preschool and I think it is good for the older to be ahead on things (to help build her self-confidence), Carrie recommended doing 1st w/ the 6 yo and having the 4 yo do Little Hands to give her time to enjoy school without the pressure. Also I think Little Hands woudl be too easy for my 6 yo and I alreay got behind a bit with some things that were too easy that we spent time on for K and wanted better instruction for the things that she had difficulty on. So, I hope that answers everyone's questions . Thoughts?

Tammy

[Kathleen]

Tammy - I think it sounds like a great plan to do LHFHG with your 6 yo and LHTH with your 4 yo. In my house I have an 8 yo boy, 4 yo girl (this week), and a 2 yo boy. The 8 yo will be doing Bigger and the 4 yo continuing LHTH. When I do LHTH with her, it's our special time together without the boys. They get their own time to play...usually with cars. She loves the one-on-one for 20-30 minutes, and they love their special play time, so it works great! We do call them in to act out the Bible stories with us occasionally...it worked great to have a Pharoah, Moses, and the Egyptian army all represented. I don't think a 2 yo couldn't participate in a lot of LHTH, but if he's going to get his turn in a couple of years, I'd savor the special time with your 4 yo!

About the handwriting...you can use absolutely anything you want for it and be A-OK! Several moms use their own math and some their own LA, and HOD still works great for them. So don't worry about that.

Kathleen

[Jen in Va]

Tammy, I sent you a long response by email--did you get it? If not, I can pm it to you.

Jen

[my3sons]

Welcome! I agree with what's been said here already. I think you'd enjoy using LHTH and LHFHG for all the reasons mentioned. Your 2 yo would probably "pop in and out" of the activities, and possibly continue "playing them" long after the activity is done (i.e. driving the car over the masking-taped "A" on the floor, over and over again). This is what typically happens at our house!

In Christ,
Julie

[water2wine]

Hi Tammy! I am combining my 4 and 6 year old into LHFHG and going the slow route. But my littlest has had a bit of phonics, knows her letter sounds and is blending now. Plus she wants to do school all the time so it is the only way I could have my sanity. If that had not been the case I would have opted to not combine. I think when you are looking at younger kids phonics level and or maturity really become factors in choosing the right program. So far it is really working out great for us. But if at any time I feel like it isn't I always have the option of speeding up the older one and slowing down the younger one to make it a better fit. Even though that is what I chose for my kids I would probably go for LHTH and LHFHG for your 4 and 6 year old for your kids. I think it makes more sense for where they are at and I think in general it makes for smoother transition later on when picking the next program to use. I did it for the best fit of now knowing I would need to be really flexible later on if the levels did not match in the end for my two using LHFHG. And for your two year old just be little for a few more years and have pretend school for a while.

For handwriting you can use whatever you want and it will not hurt the flow of the program whatsoever. HOD is really very flexible. She has it set up knowing that all families are not the same but so that it will work with those differences. If you are still really questioning I would take a really good look at the placement chart and follow what your children line up with the most. My 4 year old lined up with everything in LHFHG except age so that made it clear for us. On the other end I have one with learning difficulties who is older and the chart really helped me place her as well. So it is really very accurate. It's hard to know that looking at it but when you get your books and use the program you see that it was the right decision.