Placing my 4 year old

[Gyminey]

Hi everyone,

I am brand new to this board, but have been reading many of the posts and I am blown away by how helpful and encouraging everyone is! What a FANTASTIC resource! I can already see what a blessing this is going to be in the years to come with HOD (Lord willing).

Despite all my reading though, I have not been able to find a good answer to my question, so forgive me if this is really redundant (or just link me to the right place!).

I have a 4 year old son who is finishing up LHTH. He has a mid-October birthday, so I am torn about what to do with him in the fall. Everything I see as far as his skills tells me that he will be ready for LHFHG. First of all, he LOVES school. We do it in the morning and by the afternoon he asks if we can do it again. He knows all letters and sounds and can read some basic sight words. He can write his name, sit through a chapter book (currently reading Little House in the Big Woods), and has a freakish memory. However, everything I seem to read says that being on the low end of the age range for the guides is a bad idea. LHTH has been wildly successful. We couldn't be happier with curriculum. He has loved it, I have loved it, my 2 year old has loved it, and we look forward to using HOD for our homeschooling. So am I insane for wanting to start my 4 turning 5 year old with kindergarden?

Also, if we do start in the fall with LHFHG, that will put him always being on the very very young end of the guides. That, too, has me concerned as we work our way up with regards to content in the guides and readiness in the future.

I'd appreciate thoughts from anyone who has done this, or links to threads that discuss it.

[StephanieU]

I see a few options.
1. You can start LHFHG half speed. Do the right side of the guide (phonics, fine motor skills, and math) full speed or what ever speed seems appropriate. Then do the left side 3 days a week (or spread out over 2 days per lesson). The history after the first week or so isn't hard (once it gets to almost 100% Bible), but then once you are done with the Bible it gets a little harder, where maturity really helps them understand history. The devotional is another thing that maturity really helps with, as it is a very intense devotional for most young children. Storytime might be okay, but the language might be a struggle. So, you can decide to do this with the left side or right side. If you do it daily, you could just fill the rest of the guide with other Burgess and Potter stories. If he wants more school each day, you could add in nature studies, foreign language (like Salsa Spanish), more science, or just more crafty things.
2. Do LHTH again for the history, Bible, and science/art and then the rigth side of LHFHG for the 3Rs. This would be if you think he wouldn't mind doing it again. You could even do it double speed and start LHFHG when he is 5.5.
3. Do something else as a gap year before starting LHFHG.

I personally would lean towards 1 or 2, which is what our plans are with the younger two...

[Gwenny]

I think StephanieU had some great ideas. I would go with 1 or 2 also-probably 1 is best.

[Samuel'sMommy]

Another idea is to do LHFHG, BLHFHG, and BHFHG 4 days a week instead of 5. If you did that, you could easily stretch those 3 guides into 4 years but would still be making forward progress. If your son can do the skills on the placement chart, and it sounds like he can, then he will probably be fine going into LHFHG. Stretching them out will slow him down from reaching the higher guides too soon and give you some extra time in there if he does get stuck and you need to go down to half speed in any of them. I think if you are both ready, you should go for it!

[Seashell517]

I agree. You should meet him where he is. If he is ready, do LHFHG. You can always slow down. Being ahead us a great place to be. It will give you so much flexibility in the coming years.

[The2youngs]

We were in the exact situation you find yourself - my younger son has a mid-October birthday as well. We didn't discover HOD until the beginning of the school year, however, so he didn't use LHTH, but he had gone to preschool so knew letters, numbers, some sight words, etc. I decided to just jump into LHFHG as soon as he turned 5, basically just starting his Kinder year "late". We won't finish LHFHG this school year (we'll end our year mid-May, and complete Unit 25, I believe), so we'll just continue it in August, then jump into Beyond. We're currently doing HOD 5 days a week now, but will actually slow down to 4 days a week next year (backwards, I know, but it works for our current/upcoming circumstances).

I've found that he's caught on very well to the language in the Burgess books, is now reading fairly well (having completed Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, similar to "The Reading Lesson" that HOD recommends), and is understanding the devotional pretty well also. However, for the sake of his maturity, I am planning to slow things down just a tad next year so that he'll be better equipped as we move into the more difficult guides. Basically, we'll take about 4 years to cover Little, Beyond, and Bigger.

I would say, if he's ready for it, go for it. You can always slow down if you feel the need, or start slow and speed up as you see his readiness. Thankfully, HOD is flexible enough to use in spanning school years so it's not hard to put down a guide in May and pick it back up in August.

[Gyminey]

Thank you all for your input! Is it pretty typical for people to not do a full guide in a single school year? I guess I have just assumed I would need to start in September and finish in May, but it sounds like not everyone does it this way. Do you find it difficult to stop a guide for a few months (say for a summer break) and then pick back up?

[StephanieU]

We took just over a month off at the end of November/December, and it wasn't a problem at all. I know Julie and Carrie have both stopped part way through a guide too. We school year round, and just go slower when the weather is nice. So for May through July, I hope to get in 4-8 weeks of work total. We will take a week off here and there for things like VBS, trips, etc and then a day or two each week for fun. Other days we will just do school when it is really hot outside.

[Gyminey]

Great info. Thank you.