HOD or SL pre-k

[3girls4me]

Hi ladies,

I have a daughter who just turned four. I am not using an official curriculum with her, but we are doing reading eggs and Math seeds and various other things, including just reading a lot. She has started reading three letter words. She knows almost every sound for the alphabet. But I'm seeing that she really wants and probably needs a more structured day. So I am looking into using a pre-K program for her. I think I have it narrowed down to heart of Dakota or sonlight. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!

[3rugrats]

We use sonlight and love it! I'd recommend starting w/ P 3/4 if you do choose it b/c P 4/5 makes a great K year. It is not a formal kind of schedule at the P level though, basically just a reading list of great books. 

[hopeallgoeswell]

Background: I have used SL p3/4 with all three of my girls for PreK. I have used HOD Bigger, Preparing, and Rev. To Rev.

 

I LOVE SL for PreK and have never been drawn to HOD for the younger years. That being said, SL isn't really "structured" for P3/4; it's more read these stories over the next couple of months and do these activities. There are a lot of character building tips to work on throughout the year. HOD is structured daily (Unit 1, Day 1 do these things). I would print out the samples and see which one speaks to you and your daughter. Best wishes :).

[kirstenhill]

I owned the HOD preschool program (Little Hands to Heaven) briefly and used it for a couple months when my older DS was about 4.5.  The "academic" content is pretty light -- just letter recognition/basic sounds, basic numbers/counting, colors, etc.  They are fine preschool skills but my DS had already mastered those skills at the time we started the program.  The Bible stories, crafts, finger plays, etc were kind of fun..but not fun enough to keep up coming back to the program day after day when he already knew his letter sounds, etc.  

 

So, it might depend on your goals -- if you are looking for crafts, finger plays, Bible readings, simple science explorations, etc (and still add in your own reading/math content if you want to continue to pursue that), it might work.  If you are looking for a list of books to facilitate your reading time together, SL might be a better choice.  Or if neither of those things meet your goals, then you might have to look at something else.

 

 

[LindaOz]

I am using SL P3/4 and love it. As the pp has said it is not structured, but you could have a set time of day to read SL books and do an activity to create your own structure if you wanted to.

 

I use it along with Easy Peasy Getting Ready. My girls love this.

[3rugrats]

I know you have these 2 narrowed down, but thought I'd throw this out there b/c it's free, and would add a bit of structure if you are looking for that. I did this along w/ sonlight when I wanted some more academics, if you will...

 

http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com/curriculum/3-year-curriculum

[twoxcell]

 

I owned the HOD preschool program (Little Hearts for His Glory) briefly and used it for a couple months when my older DS was about 4.5.  The "academic" content is pretty light -- just letter recognition/basic sounds, basic numbers/counting, colors, etc.

That would be Little Hands to Heaven. Little Hearts For His Glory is HOD's K/1st grade program. ;)

[shawthorne44]

We are doing Sonlight combined with 'Sound Steps to Reading' and loving it.  We also do Reading Eggs and ABCMouse.  The computer time is mostly so that I can comb her hair.  I agree with the PP to start with P3/4.  They are still part of our bedtime books, and you won't like all of them but many will be a treasure.  

WTM recommends a book called "Slow and Steady Get Me Ready".  I wish I'd look at it sooner.  It has one really good activity for every week of the age.  

[kirstenhill]

That would be Little Hands to Heaven. Little Hearts For His Glory is HOD's K/1st grade program. ;)

 

Thanks...It was a few years ago, I guess I forgot the title! I had that title stuck in my head from reading it here or elsewhere I guess!

[jer2911mom]

I did both. :)  I like the skill building in HOD and the literature in SL.  HOD LHTH doesn't include literature, so P3/4 is a nice addition.  HOD LHFHG has the Thorton Burgess read-alouds and the additional Beatrix Potter compilation, but I wanted more lit, so I added the P4/5 books to it.  You can do some reading in the evenings.  

 

LHTH is short and sweet and P3/4 is just a list of books to read, as someone already mentioned, so it's really not hard to do both.

 

HTH,

Kathy