Question? thinking of switching guide mid semester

[LHayes723]

I need some help here in thinking.

I have a 6 yr old girl who will be 7 in April. And she has been going through the Little Hearts For His Glory guide last fall. So we are about half way done. My question is whether I should quit LHFHG and move to starting Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory. Here is why I am contemplating this:

-It is ALL super easy for her. I didn't know if that is a good thing that she accomplishes it all easily and quickly or if it should be more challenging.
- We should be finishing up The Reading Lesson very soon.
-The Thinking Skills: Grade 1 workbook is so simple for her. But she likes it.
-We end up reading the Storybooks ways faster than the schedule in the guide because the chapters are soo short and she wants to know what is happening next. But she loves the story and has enjoyed me reading them to her.
-We use Saxon math so the math portion isn't a factor for me (but if it was it would be way to simple).

But I was trying to look ahead today and see if perhaps it is more challenging in the later weeks. I don't want to rush ahead. SO I am TOTALLY fine just finishing up LHFHG and waiting till next Fall to begin Beyond. But just wanted to see if this is pretty typical for it to be done so quickly and easily.

Thanks ahead for any helpful input or thoughts.

And just for added info I also have a 4 yr old boy going through LHTH. He also enjoys listening to the stories by Burgess. He will prob start LHFHG in the fall.
I had wanted to try and put them together but they are in really different places. And I have a 2 yr old girl, so I am afraid I am setting myself up to run 3 different guides one day! Ahh.

Thanks again.

Laura

[raindrops]

What do you think about doing two days worth of work in just one day? You are already doing that in storytime and using your own math so it wouldnt mess with the math schedule. So just doubling up on the science and history and zipping through the fine motor skills books. She sounds like she might enjoy the extra reading anyhow. I wouldnt tell you to skip the rest of the guide... the history towards tje end is great.

[StephanieU]

What unit are you on? We find some of the units between 19 and 34 to be more challenging than others, at about the same level as the early units of Beyond.

[LHayes723]

Oh that's helpful to know! We are in Unit 17. I am leaning toward just finishing it up.

[Nealewill]

I think you will enjoy finishing up. I am in Unit 17 as well

And IMHO, at this age, easy is good and fine You want school to be fun. My dd just completed the activity today where she got to paint a piece of paper with her hand and then put the hole marks in the hand. Did is challenge her, well actually.......she did it twice. The first time she realized she had too much paint on the paper and so she redid it to make it look it better. For me, she is totally into it and that is all I care about. I think finishing LHFHG this year will be a great fit for your dd too.

I have noticed that with every level there comes a point where my kids are not as challenged as they were when they first started. That is a good thing IMHO I want my kids to be able to sit back and just enjoy the guide without having the stress of always increasing the challenge on them. You want kids to not feel flustered or overwhelmed. My oldest reached that point at about 2 months in. My son just recently reached it - I would say right about the time we took our break is he now at a point where he is soaring and just enjoying. And my youngest has pretty much been enjoying most of the year. But that is great for me. My kids are learning new things. My kids love what they are learning. And it is just neat to see them grow into the guide where they can just take off.

[mamanlait]

My youngest daughter enjoyed challenging herself and moving at a quickened pace through some of the early guides. I always finished one before moving on to the next because it gave me peace of mind that there would be no gaping holes in her early education. If she's terribly unchallenged then you might need to reconsider placement all together but if it's fun, she's enjoying the books you are reading to her from the Guide, and you aren't really wanting to jump ahead, I'd just stay the course and double up on days when things are running smoothly. This is a great time to make weekly library trips and pick out extra reading for science, history, geography, etc. We would bring home about 20 books a week during those young years. Oh...I miss that time!

[MelInKansas]

I skipped the last 4 weeks of LHFHG and regretted it as there were some things covered in there that were helpful to starting Beyond. When I went through those with my 2nd born I realized what she had missed. I really think it's good to finish. If you want to accelerate it a bit and your daughter is okay with the pace of that then I would see no problem with that.

[Samuel'sMommy]

I agree with what the other ladies have suggested. I would just keep moving through the guides finishing one before starting the next. I would consider doubling up though if you think she can handle it. I wouldn't stress about it though. If you are home all day and have time to get 2 days done then do them, if not, just move forward doing one day as you have in the past. As she gets into the older guides, if they are still easy for her, you can always add in the extensions. During LHFHG if she is wanting more, look for some of the books listed in the appendix at your library. We found many of them when we did LHFHG and my son loved them. We also would check out books on whatever science topic we were studying each unit. It was a great way to add more without adding too much.

[LHayes723]

Thanks everyone that's been super helpful. I plan on enjoying the rest of LHFHG. I am prob going to double up on days we fly through. And look into adding more books!

[MomtoJGJE]

Doubling up is an awesome way to get done with LHFHG at a pace that suits the child. I've had to do that twice in LHFHG, but never with any of the other guides.

One thing I would caution you on is that there is a reason why the readings are scheduled as they are. Most kids can listen to more than one chapter of the Burgess books in a sitting. A good portion of kids could listen to the whole book in one sitting. But CM philosophy is to read short bits and then be able to ponder them better. To really get something out of it. So I would only read the section advised in the guide for the day you are doing and choose other books to read throughout the day that can have as much read as she wants. You can even get other Burgess books if she likes those characters.