Hooray!!! Got my box and a ? for you ladies. :o)

[ForHisGlory]

Well, box day was this past Friday!!! I am SO blessed to have found HOD, and all of you lovely ladies who love the Lord!!! Thank you all for blessing me. Evan and I will begin LHFHG in perhaps a month or two...unsure at this point since we just moved 2400 miles, and we are (Lord-willing) closing on a home the beginning of June. Right now we are living in a bit of chaos (staying with family), and structure is needed!

I have a question...over and over again I read about "doing a guide at half speed/half pace." How does one go about doing this, and when would one do this?

I am thinking about just doing LHFHG as written (doing all boxes 5 days a week). That would place him at the next guide for what would essentially be first grade ( and age 7). Any thoughts???

[inHistiming]

Many people use the next guide, Beyond....., for first grade and are very happy with that. LHFHG (as well as the other guides) are great preparation for the next guide in line. However, I think that Beyond.... is a better 2nd grade curriculum. My daughter just didn't seem to 'get' the story time or history read alouds as a first grader. When we went back to the second half in her 2nd grade year she did great. She really loved the stories and we had a wonderful year! So, if you move through LHFHG as it is written you would be doing Beyond....when your dc is in first grade. My opinion is that you should move through it half-pace, which basically means you do half the boxes one day and the second half the next day, taking two days to cover one day of plans. Does that make sense? That way, your dc would be about 8 (and in 2nd grade) when you begin Beyond....which would be my preference. HTH

I'm sure others will be along soon to offer their suggestions.

[ForHisGlory]

inHistiming...thank you for your thoughts, and for answering my question!

[my3luvs]

I am planning on doing Little, beyond and bigger at 1/2 pace with DD-5 so we end up in Preparing when she is in 4th.

[my3sons]

This is a good discussion! It so depends on the child really. My oldest ds is on the youngest range of the guides and has done so well. My middle ds needed a few half-speed blips to grow into things, but has done great too. I think if I were you, if your child places squarely in LHFHG, I'd start LHFHG full-speed and see how it goes. If it is too much you can always drop to half-speed. Or, you could do it just 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week. You could do this with Beyond as well, and with Bigger Hearts (as they are 5 day a week plans, doing them as 4 day a week plans will spread them out longer). I wouldn't go half-speed unless there is a present reason to do so. Life often steps in and makes it difficult to proceed for a season. Having some wiggle room is nice. But that's just my thought, you will know what's best for your goals, and there is certainly no one right answer here. I love that different options are given within threads, because HOD really is that flexible, and then you can read through the options and decide what fits you best.

In Christ,
Julie

[ForHisGlory]

This is a good discussion! It so depends on the child really. My oldest ds is on the youngest range of the guides and has done so well. My middle ds needed a few half-speed blips to grow into things, but has done great too. I think if I were you, if your child places squarely in LHFHG, I'd start LHFHG full-speed and see how it goes. If it is too much you can always drop to half-speed. Or, you could do it just 4 days a week instead of 5 days a week. You could do this with Beyond as well, and with Bigger Hearts (as they are 5 day a week plans, doing them as 4 day a week plans will spread them out longer). I wouldn't go half-speed unless there is a present reason to do so. Life often steps in and makes it difficult to proceed for a season. Having some wiggle room is nice. But that's just my thought, you will know what's best for your goals, and there is certainly no one right answer here. I love that different options are given within threads, because HOD really is that flexible, and then you can read through the options and decide what fits you best.

In Christ,
Julie

Julie, thank you for your wisdom! I am planning on doing LHFHG full speed with Evan. He is a bright young boy, and is eager to do school work. We did a bit of school work for a month or two before moving. Evan also did some school with his sweet big brother (Ethan) before Ethan passed away. With that said, Evan is quite used to school, and I think he is ready to just run with it!!! But indeed, I will slow down if it's needed.

I appreciate all of you ladies!!!