Little Hearts Too Much for a young 5?

[KristinBeth]

Hello,
We are using and enjoying LHTH for preschool with our 4 and 2 year old daughters. We are supplementing with some other things (The Reading Lesson, a lot of read alouds, and some worksheets from Developing The Early Learner) because the 4 y.o. wants more, more, more. Probably because we moved to a new state last spring and don't have enough play dates for her yet!

I was planning on sailing right into Little Hearts next school year. DD will turn 5 in late September and is eager for "kindergarten". I was on a yahoo message board for HOD Moms and heard from several that they think Little Hearts might be too much for a young five year old, and is more appropriate for a six year old or first grader. Some have suggested a short break, with MFW K first, and then Little Hearts at age 6 (first grade or right after completing MFW K). I know that this board is for HOD users, obviously, but I'm hoping for an honest assessment from some moms who have used Little Hearts with young 5ers. Was it too advanced? No problem? Did you have to modify the guide? DD already knows all her letter sounds and is excited about doing The Reading Lesson now. I was hoping HOD would be at the AFHE convention in July so I could talk to someone and really look through the materials up close and in detail, but didn't see AZ on the conference schedule.

I tend to be a "more is better" person, too (must be where dd gets it) so at first doing MFW and then Little Hearts seemed like a good idea. But I don't know if it's necessary, and I didn't want to mess up my idea of "grade levels" - one grade per year - even though we plan to school year-round. (It's 115 degrees in the summer here, might as well stay inside and have school!)

Thanks for sharing your insights and experience!

[countrymom]

I believe you are referring to Little Hearts for the young 5? I began Little Hearts prior to my son''s 5th birthday (closer to 4 1/2 really) and we did fine. Because children are so variable in their readiness and skill levels for academics, I really think a lot depends on your child. If your child is able to sit for short readings from chapter books, has an average to good attention span, and is ready to do some basic handwriting/drawing tasks, I would say you would be fine. We had a great year and I am amazed at what my son learned and remembers. You could also always begin Little Hearts at 1/2 speed and then move to full speed if you feel she is ready. That is how I did it and I actually moved to full-speed quicker than I had thought we would.

[KristinBeth]

Yes, thank you, sorry for the confusion. My brain was thinking Little Hearts but my hands kept typing Little Hands for some reason. I changed my post so it's not so confusing. Appreciate the reply!

[Tree House Academy]

I think I would start off Half-pace with a young 5 year old in Little Hearts. If she/he can handle it, then speed up. If not, then you can always let Little Hearts take 2 years and come in with Beyond in 2nd grade. We are doing Beyond in 2nd grade and it is a perfect fit for ds 7 (who also started K as a young 5 year old - end of Sept birthday).

[Samuel'sMommy]

I started Little Hearts with my DS when he was 4 1/2. We started out half speed and he did great with it. My original plan was to do the entire guide half speed and have it take 2 years. However, after about a year of going half speed he was ready for more so we are now doing the entire guide every day and it will have taken us 1 1/2 years. It's worked great for us. Here was our half speed schedule:

Day 1:
Rhyme in Motion
Reading About History
Handwriting/Fine Motor Skills - We did these daily and if we had continued half speed for the whole 2 years we would have finished all the K options and then gone on to the 1st grade options. Since our plan changed a little, we finished the K options, and will get halfway through the 1st options and we'll either finish them through the summer or with Beyond next year.
Phonics - Did this daily and are now on to the emerging readers
Math - We did the math activity one day and then reviewed the activity and did the worksheet the next.
Rotating Box - art, science, dramatic play, etc

Day 2:
Rhyme in Motion
Bible Study
Handwriting/Fine Motor Skills
Phonics
Math
Storytime

This made the workload about even each day and we had lots of fun. Since it didn't take us long, we would add extra books on the history or science topics we were doing each week. Hope that helps!

[Bramble]

My son was 5 at the end of August and we began Little Hearts around the same time. He did not use a pre-school program, but has caught a lot from his big brothers. He already knew his letter sounds and was reading CVC words. He was already accustomed to listening to chapter books with no pictures, is advanced in math, and is eager about school. He has done wonderfully with Little Hearts and The Reading Lesson. The R&S books are super easy for him, and I kind of wish I had bought the grade 1 Thinking Skills book instead; however, I didn't want to push. I have been very happy with his placement.

[krismoose]

Hi and welcome to Arizona! Where are you? We're in Tucson. Sadly, HOD doesn't travel this far west yet for conventions, but I ask for a few extra catalogs so I can give them to any friends that ask I've actually considered trying to talk dh into visiting our friends & family in Cincinatti in March, or Tampa in May, just to meet Carrie & Julie in person...not going to happen, but fun to imagine

I started LHFHG with ds when he was not yet 5, and had a great time, with only the devotional being a bit over his head. In retrospect, I wish we had done the history parts half-speed, because he just wasn't ready for Beyond at 5.5 when we finished. I would have just added in the "other" fun stuff like extra art, Spanish, music etc. and wouldn't have had to find a filler for the inbetween time

I've also done part of MFW K, and I think I responded to you about it on another board, but if I didn't, just PM me

[abrightmom]

I wanted to second (or third or fourth ) starting Little Hearts half speed. My DD almost 5 and DS6 are starting together in a month. I'd love to combine them so this is how we're going to do it. We plan to move to full speed 4 days a week in the fall so that we don't finish too early. This is Carrie's idea and I'm very happy with it. She'll also use The Reading Lesson. DS6 (going on 7) will be doing his skill work from the Beyond Guide alongside the 1st grade options from Little Hearts.

Hope that makes sense!! It's really such fun to try something to see if it's a good fit for your crew. I'm finding that each family is completely unique. The best way to figure out if something will work for you is to give it a whirl! If your heart wants to continue with HOD then I say Go For It!

[LeAnna]

Hi Kristen,

I pm'd you.

LeAnna

[Mom4Him]

Hi Kristin! We are enjoying LHTH with our 4-year-old right now too(& LHFHG with big sisters)!! It's great- isn't it!? Our little girl is about 3 months older than yours, but we are planning to just start LHFHG at full-speed in August! I really think LHTH is preparing her really well for the next guide, & she is ready! So, if you are wanting to just jump right into LHFHG- I say go for it! You can always slow-down or speed-up whenever it seems best for your little one! I do think the idea of starting out at half-speed could work really well too!
Have a great day!
Jessica

[LeAnna]

I think one thing to consider when you are starting LHFHG is how you want to follow in the other guides. You don't have decide now, on everything, but each guide gets a little more harder in different skills. I know for us in Beyond, we had to slow down again, for my younger 6 year old to catch up. So, question is, would you like to slow down and do half pace as needed through the guides or have them be on the upper age level of the guides and move through more at a yearly speed? This fall, with my son, I want to keep him on the upper age range. After using the guides with my girls, it seems for all them, to be a better fit skill wise. I'm having to pace it out so that they don't get into Preparing too soon. We are taking a year and a half to do this. It's up to you and what works for you and your kids, just something to think about.

[my3sons]

We did LHFHG with 2 of our dc at 5 yo, and it was wonderful! I think it depends on the 5 yo. We did go half-speed with our middle ds at the start of LHFHG, and that was very easy to do. You could begin that way, and at any time go full-speed if dd was ready. We likewise went half-speed with Beyond for a bit, then full-speed. HOD makes this easy to do! If dd did well with LHTH, then she will do well with LHFHG - certainly half-speed.

In Christ,
Julie

[KristinBeth]

This is all very useful advice. Thanks everyone!

[andi1234]

My dd started Little Hearts 2 months before her 5th birthday (October birthday). She did fine. Some of the devotionals were a little over her head, but other than that, we had a great year! I agree that you could go at half speed to begin with and she how she does. I did decide that she was not quite ready for Beyond this year, so we are doing another program and will start Beyond in the Fall. We probably could have gone at half speed with Beyond, but the thought never crossed my mind when I was planning.

Good Luck with your decision and have fun!

[Heidi in AK]

Hi Kristin,

I lurk on the yahoo group page and saw your posts there. I posted something similar here and got feedback from Carrie and Julie to go half pace in LHFHG in K, and then to supplement with other materials, if you feel the need. I am going to take this approach and speed up as she seems to retain more. Right now my 4.5yo DD can't sit for more than one chapter in the storytime readers, so I know we're not ready, much as SHE'd like to think she is!!!

What I'm going to do if we get to the end of LHFHG and we're not done with "first grade," we're going to hover for a while, with some other materials we had already picked up. I don't want to start Bigger until DD is at least 7, which is right before the start of second grade for us.

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Please take what I say with a grain of salt because I'm pretty new to the HSing world myself, and am just going based on what I've seen from others and heard from friends. It is K, and you could make some friends along the way that you could schedule those playdates with. That would slow down the process for you a bit too!