HOD LHFHG question

[lilbean05]

We just started our full time school schedule last week and I have found that some of the activites listed in LHFHG are a bit much. The arts and crafts are very fun, but the variety of math activites and memorization activites seem to be a bit over the top. (With learning to count, you have the child count out chocolate chips today and put them on cut out paper cookies, tape out the number 5 on the floor and have your child walk the number 5 the way he should write it, memorization via rolling a ball and saying the individual words of the verse back and forth to each other, etc) We have skipped doing these sorts of hands-on preschool type activites, and instead we have just learned the Bible verse through repetition and how to write numbers by writing them with a pencil and paper. It is much more "boring" and I wonder if I am doing my child a disservice by being more pen and paper and not more hands on. Any thoughts on this?

[Tidbits of Learning]

I don't feel that you are doing your child a disservice if they are learning the material and have a creative outlet. Personally doing LHFHG, I found that a lot of the activities were on the young side for kindergarten and really young for 1st grade. I have chosen not to do the math activities that come with the guide. We are using the instructions in the Earlybird kindergarten book and finished our Earlybird 2a book this week in 6 weeks. I think a lot of the math activities are to draw out the math book for the year and are completely unnecessary. The instruction boxes in the earlybird kindergarten book are great and interesting and do not seem to be too young for the kids.

I also have the Bigger Hearts program and have found that the math activities in it are young also and do not teach the Singapore method to you (the teacher) in order to help explain it to the kids. I plan to buy the home instructor's guides as soon as I can. I think the "activities" are more to draw out the math and keep it in short cm style learning. I haven't found it beneficial to us to use the activities at all with either LHFHG or BHFHG.

We dropped all the memorization activities for Bible as well in LHFHG. For the activities to be so young, the Bible memorization is a lot. I find just going over the Bible verse together each day to be sufficient. Just wait until you get to the Bigger Hearts and it expects your child to do jumping jacks and push ups while learning 3-4 Bible verses a week.

After 9 weeks of LHFHG, I have started pretty much writing out the schedule for the texts that she recommends and omitting the activities that are too young or too tedious for us. We got way ahead in our R&S books and handwriting books. The only part of the guide that we are moving on pace with is the storytime books.

So I would say adapt it to meet your needs and don't worry about it.

[lilbean05]

Thank you for such a candid answer! We seem to be gravitating towards doing the same--just using the reading schedule and SOME of the activites, but most of them we pass on. It makes me feel a bit foolish for spending so much money on the curriculum when we aren't really using it. But, this is also our first attempt at homeschooling, so it is good to help me get on my feet and get organized. I can't believe that push ups and jumping jacks are incorporated into the memorization activites! How funny! Your child would be huffing and puffing through the verse! :)

[Susie in MS]

This is one of the problems that I have with HOD too. Although I do realize that there are some children that really need to move A LOT to keep their brains functioning. Especially some boys, which Carrie has 3 (or 4 I forget). Those types of activities my dd was doing when she was 3 yo! After a few months of using Five In A Row where the activities are so much more mature and rich....and my now 4 yo is doing wonderfully with....it will be impossible to do the activities like you mentioned when we start LHFHG. I will be skipping those. I don't think you are doing your child a disservice either.

[Sue G in PA]

Jumping in here to "hijack" and ask another question: Is the HOD curriculum really worth it then if you are omitting most of the activities? I ask only b/c I am looking into LHFHG or Beyond for my 6yo and 4yo. Mostly just my 6yo. I noticed, too, from the samples that the activities were a bit "toddlerish" and silly for a 6yo...even a 6yo boy! My 4yo dd would probably like them, but in the course of my busy day I just KNOW I would skip the silly stuff. So, is it worth it otherwise? I'm now wondering if I should just skip it altogether for this year and go with FIAR for both dd4 and ds6, MFWK for dd4 and just use another phonics/math for ds6 (he's beyond MFWK phonics). Any input would be great...sorry to hijack...you can just pm me if you would like as not to clutter the thread. Sorry OP!

[Another Lynn]

Hi Sue! I don't have experience with MFWk or FIAR (except I do have Before FIAR - but that's a little different), but I've used half of Beyond and I tried LHFHG for a couple weeks. *I* couldn't get into LHFHG, but we really liked Beyond. I used Beyond with my 7yo ds. He loved it, called it "fun school," etc. He's less enthusiastic (to say the least) than his older brother, so I was amazed that he did not scoff at some of the things we had to do. Sometimes he was not interested in a particular craft or art project, but others he would produce something quite beyond my expectations (given his past attempts at similar things). He loved the "science" projects too and each day begged to know what we would be doing. The only reason I'm not finishing the guide with him is that I'm trying to get everyone doing the same history and science this year.

 

I don't know if your 4yo would be ready for Stories of the Pilgrims, or the other parts in Beyond. Look at the sample week and see what you think.

[hmschooling]

My 5yo LOVES the bible verse memory activities and it keeps his busy little body moving! He couldn't remember a single verse or 4 words until we used those activities and now he's remembering LONG verses with ease! We have taken a break from school since April and he still remembers the verses without any hints and no review. I'm sold on it! It also works on their motor skills and serves this dual purpose...works well! It is also a great break from a sit down activity.

 

I do think the math is a bit drawn out but I love the activities anyway. Sometimes we combine some lessons and pick 1 or 2 of them to complete it all. Sometimes we'll do a week of lessons in one day and just use one activity for it all. I think hands-on/manipulatives are very important at this age.

 

I'm not using all of HOD right now, but I have used 2 of the guides and parts of 2 others. I think it all works fairly well in the flow of things and it's easy enough to adjust to fit your pace and your child's...so you might be on one day for math and another for the rest. But, I'll admit, I've skipped activities here and there and it doesn't hurt. But it is fun to do them when you can....it's fun for the kids even if it seems young to you...my dc are far more capable than many of the activities, but like I sometimes enjoy a swing at the park or a trip through the play area at Chuck E. Cheese to "fetch a lost child", kids enjoy acting young and silly too sometimes.

[Rebecca]

Two responses:

To the OP:

The curriculum is your servant not your master. Adapt it as you see fit. The activities are there- if you see that your child needs more reinforcement, wiggle room etc.

 

The activities that I personally would NOT omit because of the thinking skills they develop are: science exploration, dramatic play (develops thinking skills and concentration, reinforces key history concepts), rhymes in motion (coordination, thinking skills, reinforces the themes) storytime box (comprehension, narration, etc.).

 

We do not do the motor skills work with our scripture memory. I also pick and choose math activities.

I, too, sometimes wonder about the "boring" factor...

 

 

To Sue G. in PA:

I think HOD is worth it if you are looking for a Christ-Centered Curriculum that prioritizes ease of use. HOD is also skill focused so it prioritizes the important foundations in math and language arts.

I have tried FIAR and I have used MFW and I far prefer HOD for ease of use. There is something delicious about FIAR- but I was also frustrated with just one book for our school a day- we read, digest, and enjoy far, far more than that. Also- I found that I couldn't commit to the activities to reinforce all the subjects and then I had the uneasy feeling of not giving a comprehensive education. As far as MFW, for our family, HOD is much easier to schedule and complete and takes less time. It fits our flow much better. I think it is more complicated to use part of MFW and FIAR and something else for your six year old. I would either use all of MFW with the four year old and six year old and then use LA and Math for the six year old OR I would use LA and Math at the 4/6 year old level and FIAR or LA/MATH for the 4/6 year old and HOD. Does that make sense?

 

I am using LHFHG with my 6 1/2 year old son right now. We are finishing week 25. As I wrote above- we do not do the motor skills with scripture memory or most math activities. However, I haven't found anything to be "toddlerish."

 

We enjoy it and my children are THRIVING with this program. However, I THRIVE on flexibility and I love how I can adapt this program to meet the needs of our family.

 

I am a homeschooling mom of six ages 9-1.

Rebecca

[Zebra]

I used LHFHG last year, and ended up dumping the schedule for the same reasons. HOWEVER, I am using parts of Beyond this year and I feel it's a better fit so far (3 weeks in ;) ).

 

I found some of the activities tedious, but the point is that you have all these activities at your fingertips to use as you see fit. Generally the point of the activity is to either learn something that the child is having a hard time with, or help a wiggly child learn. If your child picks up a certain concept easily and isn't wiggly, then feel free to not use the activity.

 

We ended up using Singapore, phonics, the read alouds, the memory verse cd, and the hw on our own schedule. The program was worth the $$ to me because I used most of the curriculum from it and it gave a newbie homeschooler an idea how to make a schedule. I did have a hard time "allowing" myself to drop the schedule!

 

This year I am not using the LA or math from Beyond, but I am using the left side of the plans and the storytime. I didn't want to tweak, but I'm feeling optimistic that I found the magic combo for this year!!

[Tree House Academy]

We are doing Bigger and Beyond this year. My kids are both boys and I do see the benefit to having the kids do jumping jacks while memorizing the Bible verses. I am not one for busy work, at all, but I don't see the jumping jacks as busy work. I see them as a bit of "p.e" if you will. Of course, I do have boys and one of them is as ADHD as they come - so maybe my perspective is not so good for your situation.

 

I also spent most of last year making my school time with the kids all about learning. The kids came away from it literally hating school...especially my youngest child. While he is capable of more, that doesn't always mean I need to allow him to do "more." He needs to have FUN sometimes too - both of them do. HOD is exactly what we were looking for. :)

 

ETA: I am NEVER afraid to tweek. We don't do the math or English recommendations, we add in a different Bible study to go along with HOD. We also do Spanish, Typing, and Music that are all not part of HOD. If we come to a science "experiment" that my son has already done or that he knows intuitively because it just "makes sense," then we discuss it and he writes up his sheet. I don't think I could ever live *exactly* by a book.

 

I also make my own schedule for HOD and we do the boxes that we do in the order *I/my kids* need to do them in.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Tree House Academy

[Sue G in PA]

Hey everyone! Thanks for the replies. Upon first glance...LHFHG looked too "young" for my 6yo. Personally, I wanted to start w/ Beyond b/c I wanted to do the Amer. Hist. However, after reading all the replies and going on my "gut" instinct about HOD...I am starting to reconsider my plans. I like MFW K but I must remember that it just never got done last year! Perhaps b/c I was also teaching 4 older kids and was exhausted! I like the way HOD is laid out much better than MFW K. I think I'll spend the next several days looking over MFWK again, looking at the HOD samples and praying. I felt like God led me HOD for a reason...just not sure which level or what timing, KWIM? So...keep the suggestions coming and thanks for all the replies! OP: I hope this is helping you too and you aren't upset I "hijacked" your thread!

[Tidbits of Learning]

Thank you for such a candid answer! We seem to be gravitating towards doing the same--just using the reading schedule and SOME of the activites, but most of them we pass on. It makes me feel a bit foolish for spending so much money on the curriculum when we aren't really using it. But, this is also our first attempt at homeschooling, so it is good to help me get on my feet and get organized. I can't believe that push ups and jumping jacks are incorporated into the memorization activites! How funny! Your child would be huffing and puffing through the verse! :)

I found that I adapt more so with LHFHG than with BHFHG. I only skip the Bible in BHFHG. We tried the jumping jacks and I did them as well with her and it wasn't for us.

I'm sure this method works well with some children, but it wasn't for mine.

This was my first attempt at homeschooling as well and I don't regret buying LHFHG b/c it helped me to make my own schedule, but it also showed me that I can find curriculum that I like and put together a schedule just as easily as buying one already done that I may not like parts of and probably won't completely use the way it is meant to be used.

[Tidbits of Learning]

Jumping in here to "hijack" and ask another question: Is the HOD curriculum really worth it then if you are omitting most of the activities? I ask only b/c I am looking into LHFHG or Beyond for my 6yo and 4yo. Mostly just my 6yo. I noticed, too, from the samples that the activities were a bit "toddlerish" and silly for a 6yo...even a 6yo boy! My 4yo dd would probably like them, but in the course of my busy day I just KNOW I would skip the silly stuff. So, is it worth it otherwise? I'm now wondering if I should just skip it altogether for this year and go with FIAR for both dd4 and ds6, MFWK for dd4 and just use another phonics/math for ds6 (he's beyond MFWK phonics). Any input would be great...sorry to hijack...you can just pm me if you would like as not to clutter the thread. Sorry OP!

 

I find it harder to do all of the HOD things if you have a lot of children. I have 4 kids that range from 2-9 yrs. old. A lot of the HOD activities seem geared to the youngest age on their age range and the academics seem geared to the mid to oldest age on their age range.

I don't think my ds6 would have been ready for the writing in BLHFHG and needed the fine motor skills in LHFHG. By the placement chart, he fit into LHFHG for the 3r's but I feel LHFHG is geared to kindergarten.

Nine weeks into LHFHG and we are zooming through parts of it. We will be done with math in 6 weeks both a and b books and through the R&S fine motor skills books and the handwriting book in the same amount of time as well. So I will have a lot of time to fill b/c we will only be 15 weeks into school when we finish a lot of the LHFHG texts. So it has not been worth it to me in the long run. I wish I would have looked at it for her text recommendations and researched them on my own and then purchased what I thought was a good fit and scheduled it for my child.

My honest advise would be to take a look at all the curriculums and programs that you are feeling drawn to and write why you are drawn to them and what components you like about them and what you dislike about them. Most of these are just guides to other curriculum scheduled out for you. Take what you like from each and then you will have a "guide" that will be perfect for you and your child.

[lilbean05]

Shew! School day is over--lunch is finished, kids are in their rooms resting/napping, and now I have small break! I am glad that so many people have chimed in with some responses!

 

I am not at all upset about jumping in with questions. It is actually nice to hear that Beyond is a bit more mature, so maybe we will end up choosing to use that next even though we aren't doing much of the extra activites in LHFHG. My kids are 4 and 2, and my 2 year old just listens in when he feels like it. He really picks up on the left side of the page when we are reading Pilgrims and the World God Made. At the dinner table, my 4 year old couldn't remember which animal we talked about and my 2 year old jumped in "The SNAKE!! SSSSS!!!".

 

As an aside, for example, today's dramatic play was folding clothes and packing a suitcase because we were going to spread out from the Tower of Babel. Meh. We didn't do it. We pretended to talk in different languages and made up our own sounds that none of us could understand, but we skipped the packing bit. The math is WAY easy and we tried the read-alouds that are suggested, but we actually don't like them very much. But, we love starting with our history, the kids both LOVE the rhymes (although I think they are silly, they eat it up) and they love the bible verse memorization followed by playing the CD track of the verse. This, I think, is one of their favorite times, especially my 2 year old. He usually then runs off to play or he colors if we are doing the "Do It Carefully" book. We skip the rest of the right hand page though and we end up doing FLL some days, SW1 everyday, Horizons Math everyday, and Evan Moor Geography 1 everyday, followed by our own story-read aloud time with both kids. Oddly enough, my 4 year old can't get enough of the math.

 

So after detailing our day, I guess in the end the curriculum is worth it in that it led me to the books/CD that we are using on the left page. I would probably be a bit lost in teaching the Bible, Bible based history, and verse memorization without it because I would want to teach much more than the fundamentals that these books teach. If we didn't have the curriculum, though, we might be just fine if I found a good Bible curriculum to fulfill the left page of activities.

 

I don't know if that was helpful to anyone. I agree with a pp who said that it is good for kids to be silly and just be kid and I think this is why I feel guilty skipping some of these easy, silly parts.