I would agree with using LHFHG. My 5 year old is currently in all 1st grade material for the 3 R's...he can read, write all his letters, and do addition and subtraction pretty well. But I placed him in Little Hearts because like previous posters said, the HOD materials get hard fast as they get to the upper elementary levels. The history in Little Hearts is more advanced, and they get so much more out of it when they are on the older end of the age range. I don't think your DD will be bored at all with LHFHG. My 7 year old loves listening in and helping his brother with it. My 5yr old son LOVES school and I have to remember that even though they are advanced, they are still 5, and need that shorter school time and time for exploration and play. I would say definitely keep her challenged in the LA, reading, and math subjects, and enjoy the rest. :)

I use 2 different math curriculums for my boys. My oldest LOVES Math-U-See. It really clicked with him and when I tried to switch him to other programs, he just asks to go back to MUS. So MUS it is! My second son hates MUS. He just thinks it's boring and not visually stimulating enough for him. I switched him to Math Mammoth and he is thriving. It's really hard for me to have different sets of curriculum to teach for the same subject...I like simplicity...but if it is helping my children love math and understand it better, then I'm all for it! :)

I'm going to have a 2nd grader and 1st grader this coming school year and I just bought Song School Spanish. I heard great things about the curriculum.

This is what we have planned: Language Arts: R&S English 2 Spelling: All About Spelling 2/3 Phonics: All About Reading 3...when it comes out in the fall Readers: Emerging Readers from HOD, books at library Writing: Writing With Ease, Pentime 2 Math: Math U See Gamma, Life of Fred, MEP History, Bible, Art, Poetry: HOD Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Science: Apologia Botany Logic: Mind Benders Spanish: Spanish for Kids

Leap frog for sure!! All my kids knew most of their letters by 2.5yrs old because of those DVDs! Highly recommend!!

I would personally not do the Little Hearts for His Glory just yet. The history might be over his head at age 4. It's not just the level of phonics and math that you want to make your decision on, but maturity. Little Hands isn't all phonics, it also incorporates the biblical character building and principles into it for a preschool aged child. But if you feel that Little Hands is not enough for him, you could always try LHFHG at half-paced and see how he does. Just take it slow and really focus on his math and phonics. I've been using the guide that best fits my child's age and then always customizing the other stuff like LA and math...if they're ahead or behind. My children really appreciate HOD and can better grasp the history/science end of it. I hope that helps!

Well I guess I'm not in the majority here, but we use HOD and I have 5 kids very close in age. My oldest is 7 and my youngest is 9months. We LOVE it. :laugh: Yes, it can get a bit intimidating with trying to do 3 guides at once, but they really don't take up that much time once you get a schedule down and going..IMO. I looked into MFW, my SIL uses it, and it takes her longer to do school work with her 2 school-aged kids than I do with my 3. The preschool guide takes me 20min tops a day, and the 1st grade guide takes about an hour and a half. My second grader takes the longest with 2.5hrs (all those times do overlap at points). We do our own science and combine there, and with the art/music, I just have everyone join in. What takes the most time for us is the individualized math and LA. That you'll have to do with any program. I love the fact that it's divided up into segmented boxes so that if I don't get to something, oh well, we'll do it later. My kids love the fact that they can "cross off" each box as they complete it. Now, I can't say what it will be like once all my kids are school-aged, but I know that the guides get more independent as they get older. We definitely plan on continuing for the long haul. :)

For WWE, do you use the workbook or teacher manual?

We currently use CLE for our language arts, and my kids don't like it. It's a very thorough program, but it takes so long to complete a lesson each day. I was looking at switching to either R&S English, or FLL and WWE. Does the R&S English include handwriting? I need the handwriting as well. I just want to know what are the pros & cons of each and if anyone really liked one over the other. To give you a background, I am using HOD with my 1st grader and 2nd grader. I also am using AAS & AAR.

Not really. I use the CLE math and my kids have never really been confused about the word problems. They just look at it like it's a story about someone else's life that's way different than theirs.

I would definitely do HOD. The segmented boxes will give you freedom to feel that you can do each one at your lesure instead of all at once. I am currently using LHFHG for my 5.5 year old and doing it half-paced so it would take him a little less than 2 years to do it. You could also do it half-paced and see how she adjusts and understands everything. It would give you freedom to really dig into the material and have her comprehend it. Play games with the setting of what was read in history that day, etc. That way you could use it for her kindergarten year and first grade. I would highly recommend not doing the Bigger Hearts manual until she's in 3rd grade. So you could either do LHFHG half paced or eventually Beyond or Bigger half-paced. I hope that helps some!

I currently use CLE math, but last year I used MUS. One of the main reasons I switched was because I felt like MUS didn't address the fractions/liquid measurements/telling time/etc. Those that use MUS Gamma, what LOF book did you use? I'm a bit confused at placing on the website. Thanks!

This is what we are planning for our 1st Grader this fall... LA: CLE LA 100s Math: CLE Math 100s History & Bible: HOD Little Hearts for His Glory Science: Apologia Astronomy Spelling: AAS Reading: AAR and beginner readers Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting A Art: Artistic Pursuits 1 PE: Soccer, Baseball, Swimming

We bought the deluxe and love it. The bag is really well made and I love the boxes to organize my cards. Everything seems to be of high quality and will last through all my kids. It was worth buying the deluxe for us!!

We used MUS, but then we tried CLE math and have never looked back. I highly recommend it!!

Great idea! I'll try it half-paced with him. And I'll do the readings in the evening with both of my boys and see if the competition helps him. :) Thank you for the ideas!

If it's something he's interested in, then yes, he definitely listens and comprehends. It has to be short and a picture book...he's very visual. But I thought that Little hearts was a guide that prepares him for the higher guides in HOD. Doing Beyond with my oldest, I know that there aren't picture books and short stories. I'll keep at it this year with him and if I feel like he didn't mature enough by the end of the year, then I'll just repeat LHFHG.

You know what, that could be it. He does listen to some library books that are early readers or ones that he's just interested in. I'll have to try those and see if that helps. Thanks!

My son is 5.5yrs old, and I just started him on LHFHG. He has ADHD and he's excellent with doing LA, writing, and math (he's currently doing 1st grade already), but horrible when it comes to listening to a story and comprehension. I'm trying to read the Burgess books with him, and it is totally over his head. The history has been a struggle as well. If I do projects and games with him in the theme of the material that I should be "reading" to him, then he's fine and understands it. But it's the sitting and listening part that I can't get him to do. Should I wait a year and then try Little Hearts with him or is this always going to be a struggle since he has ADHD? I don't know what to.

We use AAS and plan to go through level 7 and then just work on vocabulary.

We used MUS Primer for Kindergarten...it gave a nice introduction to numbers and adding. My son transitioned fine into CLE for 1st grade the following year.

We have this planned for the fall for my second grader: HOD Beyond LA: CLE 2nd Gr Math: CLE 3rd Gr Reading: AAR 2, Emerging Readers Spelling: AAS 3 Science: Apologia Astronomy Health: Abeka 2nd Gr Thinking about adding a foreign language in there and possibly typing...

I usually buy the economy package from HOD and then buy the readers from amazon. I know from what I hear that once you get into the higher levels, it's cheaper to just buy from HOD.

Could someone do Preparing in 2 years instead of Bigger? Just curious what the advantage is of dragging out Bigger than taking your time with Preparing...

I think you should go for it. :) Like PP said, HOD has great resale value so you wouldn't lose very much if you decided it wasn't for you. I would try it and just see how it works out. I'm also in the same boat. I did buy HOD (Bigger and Little Hearts) but have lots of other curricula that I'm going to incorporate this year. I love how well laid out HOD is and I want my kids to get used to it, because once they hit Preparing and the higher levels, I want them to follow it on their own and I won't tweak it as much. I think HOD gives them a love for reading.