Help: I think I've chosen the wrong level!

[2littleblessings]

We are in week three of LHFHG, and we are enjoying ourselves so far. However, I feel as though I might have chosen the wrong level. I bought the curriculum in April at a homeschool conference, and at the time it seemed right. Right now, though, I'm having to add an awful lot in to fit my dd. She is 5, she is reading beginning chapter books (we've already done phonics), math is just the way she thinks about everything in life (I'm a math teacher...) and she's been figuring out multiplication on her own lately and telling me about it, and her handwriting has improved leaps and bounds in just the first two weeks of HOD (didn't buy a handwriting book, just doing our own thing). She memorizes the scriptures in one to two days, and so I've been giving her two scriptures a week (I couldn't hold her attention with only one). Maybe I don't have the wrong level, maybe I just need to get the Beyond.. guide for the emerging readers questions. I don't think I can afford to buy the readers right now, but I could find many of them through our library, I'm sure. I almost bought them in April, but at the time, dd could read but wouldn't. I can handle her math skills, and I like where we are in history. She's asking for much more (more detail and more quantity) in Science, though. I don't know!! Starting school officially seems to have sprung some well of interest in her. She wants more of everything!!

I love HOD so far, but I'm wondering how I could tweak some things. I don't really feel as though I need to push my dd to be advanced, and yet I need to teach to her level. It's a blessing that she does so well, but it doesn't necessarily make teaching her easier. Any advice out there??

[water2wine]

This is a good problem but still one that takes your focus. My first thought is have you looked in the appendix? There are some wonderful things in the back of the appendix in LHFHG that you should be able to find in your library. You may have a problem finding some due to the religious content but there is quite a bit there that probably will be there. If she is eating up the Bible verses why not add the Bible story that might correlate and add that to the week. If you have Egermeier's Bible Story Bible you could add a little study there that matches what you are studying in Bible by just reading a Bible story that matches it. The resources in the appendix are linked by unit. There is so much in the appendix you could do another entire unit study with it.

I have one that is very into math and also starting to figure things out. We do math in the kitchen with cooking and play dice games where you add the dice and subtract etc. and some begining multiplication division stuff. We also do a lot of art together. She loves to do projects. I know other moms will have ideas as well. These are all the things we do together. HTH

[mom2fiveboysnc]

One thought I've had while reading this is that my boys love our local museum. We have one about 20 minutes away that has a planetarium and various visiting exhibits. On Saturdays they have outdoor stuff and reenactments of pioneer history. Or you guys could visit a petting zoo or regular zoo and then research the animals. Now is a great time to do bird studies before they go away for the winter. One thing I love about HOD is that we are VERY active in Scouts and alot of the things Carrie has to do fit in very nicely with our Scout achievements. Or you could get astronomy books from the library and study the constellations. Also I found a free unit study on oceanography which fits in perfect with Bigger these first few weeks, I don't know if we will get to try it but I have it just in case we can squeeze in something else. I'm sure there are plenty more to be found online. During the winter we get the kid concoction (SP?) books and do lots of hands on stuff in the house. You can make animal masks from paper plates or animal puppets. One thing we love in our house is science! Are you guys planning on joining Girl Scouts/Daisies or a coop? Hopefully they would have plenty of activities for you. Another thought is check with the national and state parks in your area. Ours is pretty active and has "classes" for kids on weekends like homemade bird feeders, learning about the quality of water by the insects/animals living in creeks, poisonous animals/plants in your area. These are just a few of things I can think of off the top of my head! Hope these ideas help!

[inHistiming]

Do a search online for FREE curriculum, worksheets, coloring sheets for whatever subject you want. There is a plethora of free products available.

http://www.donnayoung.org (all free)
http://www.notebookingpages.com (has some free)
http://www.about.com (all free)

And I'm sure there are many more sites that have free 'stuff' you could add to extend your studies in LHFHG. It's great that your dd is doing so well and is so excited to learn! I know you'll find an answer to your 'problem'.

[water2wine]

I just wanted to add that the placement chart is the most accurate on the levels http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php and just check it to make sure before you add things just to make sure you are on the right track with program. I would think for your child's age you are but it is also a very skill based chart so that would be very important to check out. It's really very accurate for placement and then from there you can see if your child still does want more. I have one that does but is really still in the perfect program. So it is easy for us just to add more from the appendix. I found after a while she became less demanding of more and more satisfied with what is there. HTH

[Carrie]

2littleblessings,

I would agree that it would be best to recheck the placement chart at this point and see where your daughter falls now. If she falls into Beyond, placement-wise than you may wish to just place her there.

If, however, it seems like she is well-placed overall now, then you could keep her in LHFHG but definitely add in the Emerging Reader's Set that goes along with the Beyond guide (and follow the schedule in the Appendix of Beyond along with it). You could also do 1A/1B for math along with the math activities in the Beyond guide as well, if you felt she had mastered the 2A/2B concepts. You will also most likely start the first spelling list with activities as listed in the Beyond guide as well. Then, the following year, you could do list 2 in Beyond. Many kiddos do LHFHG for history and storytime but then add-in the right side of the plans from Beyond (with the exception of the storytime there).

Part of how ready she is to move up to Beyond will also depend on how well she listens and comprehends lengthier read-alouds without pictures. Beyond is a step up in listening level too from LHFHG.

Just a few things to ponder that will hopefully help you tweak and find the best fit for your sweetie!

Blessings,
Carrie

[2littleblessings]

I think I will stay with LHFHG for the left side of the page and storytime, but I will order Beyond and the Emergent Reader's set. If I do that, then I think I will mostly need to enrich the science portion, and I don't think I'll have any problems doing that. I really want to stay with the overall view of history starting with Creation, so this is really the level we should be in. I wish I could find more of the books from the appendix in my library system, but I haven't had much luck with that. For the first two units, I wasn't able to locate a single book off that list. I might have to go ask one of the librarians to work with me on finding some of them for future units; they are always helpful. Thanks for the advice; I'm feeling better now. (Who knows how I'll feel by the end of week four, but...)

[Carrie]

I think it sounds like you have a good plan. The books that are on the Appendix list for many of the beginning units for LHFGH will only be found at a church library, as they're mainly Christian.

Another option, If you are desiring to raise the listening level of the literature you're reading aloud.. you could always add in the Storytime box from Beyond as well, and read aloud one of the chapter book sets (Boy, Girl, or Classic) from Beyond. Then, when you head into the rest of Beyond next year, you could just choose a different set from the one you used this year to read-aloud. That would definitely raise the level of the program you're doing this year much higher too!

So, essentially, you'd get to read-aloud more terrific books, and you wouldn't mess up your schedule for using Beyond the following year. Just a thought.

Blessings,
Carrie

[moedertje]

How exciting of a challenge this must be. What I have done with my son already knows a lot of the scriptures, because we have had the CD since he was 3, is to memorize extra verses. You could have her memorize a couple of verses or whole chapters. How great is this for you daughter to be so eager to hide the word in her heart!

Have fun and succes!!!!!!!!