I'm at a loss

[lswatson111304]

I'm going to be HS my daughter and this is our first year. She is currently 4, but she will turn 5 Oct.3rd. She is behind in some areas, and right where she should be in others.

I'm torn between preschool which looks like she knows most of, and K. She is behind in speech and some fine motor skills.

Anyway, I was first looking into MFW, and asked my pastors wife to look it over for me...and she handed me a list of other things she likes better, and it was an entire list of pick and choose from here and there....which is great except I feel so lost. I'm so new to all this that I'd love to purchase a curriculum for our first year and go from there so I don't get overwhelmed. Although I know that we may end up purchasing something that doesn't work for us.

Then I looked at Heart of Dakota-little hearts for His Glory, and I'm really liking the look of theirs too, along with HOP, and possibly HWT.

I don't know..how does one choose? I'm getting down to the wire, should have already ordered and started setting up and I haven't...any advice for a newbie?

[AudreyTN]

MFW K is a great program! I've heard of some using it for PreK, so it seems that it may be perfect for your needs. If she's not turning 5 until October (and if this were my child) I wouldn't start K until next year anyway.

[chris's girl]

Hmmmm...can a 4 year old be "behind"? My advice, and I know how hard it is as a first time homeschooler--relax. She's 4 and should still be getting a lot of her learning through play. I too have heard MFW K is a great program! All I do at this age is teach letter sounds and move on to beginning reading. I think A Beka phonics is a good program. I don't use them past the first grade or so, but the early stuff is good.

[texasmama]

I see you are in TX. Me, too.:001_smile: Has your dd been evaluated by the school district for speech therapy? Two of my kids have received this service as preschoolers. It is a nice service which is provide free of charge if there is a need.

 

I have a dd who will turn 5 in October, as well. What I am planning on doing with her is "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" (though I think I would have chosen another program, in retrospect), A Reason for Handwriting, Singapore Math Essential Math kindergarten A and B, Bob books (for reading practice) and tagging along with the brothers for history, literature readalouds and Song School Latin. We will have a relaxed year with her, moving at her pace. At this age, I don't think you can go wrong with taking a slow and relaxed pace.:001_smile: My dd wants to do reading lessons and cries for math lessons like her brothers so school is something to be desired for her. I won't push her...my goals are just to get her reading (at a beginning level), do some basic math and continuing to work on learning letter formation with the handwriting program. I have some workbook-y things, as well, to fill in the times when I must work with the ds's and she is begging for something to do.

[lswatson111304]

by behind, I actually mean she is behind in speech, she didn't talk at all till she turned 3, and now that she is talking and doing well, she isn't understood by most people, and she has communication issues due to this. So yeah, she is behind in some things, but in academic things I guess she would say she is doing everything she needs to be...when it comes to letter sounds though...her speech slows that down. KWIM?

[lswatson111304]

I see you are in TX. Me, too.:001_smile: Has your dd been evaluated by the school district for speech therapy? Two of my kids have received this service as preschoolers. It is a nice service which is provide free of charge if there is a need.

 

I have a dd who will turn 5 in October, as well. What I am planning on doing with her is "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" (though I think I would have chosen another program, in retrospect), A Reason for Handwriting, Singapore Math Essential Math kindergarten A and B, Bob books (for reading practice) and tagging along with the brothers for history, literature readalouds and Song School Latin. We will have a relaxed year with her, moving at her pace. At this age, I don't think you can go wrong with taking a slow and relaxed pace.:001_smile: My dd wants to do reading lessons and cries for math lessons like her brothers so school is something to be desired for her. I won't push her...my goals are just to get her reading (at a beginning level), do some basic math and continuing to work on learning letter formation with the handwriting program. I have some workbook-y things, as well, to fill in the times when I must work with the ds's and she is begging for something to do.

 

Hi, thank you! Yes, DD is in Speech with the public school, although I'm not sure I want her to continue this year. With her taking speech at school she wants to be there full time, and I don't want that. Also my husband works out of town and we come visit him often which if she goes to public school, even for speech, we won't be able to just get up and go whenever we want to. The kids go crazy if they go more than a week without daddy so we spend a lot of time out of town.

[laurad1125]

Breathe. It will be OK. Personally, I wouldn't start a 4 year old in K. Do some K work if you want but call it PK. Leave yourself some room.

 

In PK/K there's very little that actually needs to happen. You don't have to do it all "right" from the beginning. (As if any of us do it all "right" at any point)

 

Read to her. Talk about numbers. (You have one cookie. If I give you one more, how many will you have?) Explore nature together. Go on field trips.

 

Work on fine motor skills if you want. I was worried a ton (I wish I could have all those hours back) about my older son's find motor skills. We did lacing cards, an assortment of bolt/screws and nuts, mazes, chalk boards, pudding in a cookie sheet, legos, etc. (BTW - he's 11.5 and his fine motor skills are just fine!)

 

Remember - there isn't one right curriculum. There are probably quite a few that would work fine for you. It's easy to spend so much time looking for the "perfect" one that we pass a lot of them that would be really good. (Ask me how I know...:glare:)

 

I've not used either of the ones you mentioned but I'll bet either would work well enough. I know a lot of people on the board use those.

[mom24boys]

I'm not experienced (this is our first year too), but I did buy Heart of Dakota for our first year and I think we're going to love it. I figure, by purchasing a "complete" curriculum like HOD (or MFW for that matter) I would increase my chances of success. As I gain more confidence and knowledge, we can branch out more next year if we so choose.

 

You might end up right where your friend suggested, but maybe, like me, you need to take baby steps to get there. I don't think you could go wrong with MFW or HOD. (Those were my 2 curriculum finalists as well.) If you do go with HOD they give suggestions for phonics (The Reading Lesson or Reading Made Easy) as well as for handwriting (A Reason for Handwriting...which looks so cute). I also like that the phonics and math are not tied to the rest of the subjects so you can move at your own pace in those subjects without getting behind in everything else.

 

Hope this helps. I know it can be stressful. :tongue_smilie: I'll say a prayer that God will lead you to the right solution for your family. :001_smile:

[texasmama]

by behind, I actually mean she is behind in speech, she didn't talk at all till she turned 3, and now that she is talking and doing well, she isn't understood by most people, and she has communication issues due to this. So yeah, she is behind in some things, but in academic things I guess she would say she is doing everything she needs to be...when it comes to letter sounds though...her speech slows that down. KWIM?

 

Given this piece of information, I would recommend that you continue with the speech therapy above all else really. As you have experienced, reading is difficult for a child with a speech delay. I wouldn't be concerned that you need to miss speech therapy sometimes due to dad's schedule. I would take her as much as possible. Speech therapy is so beneficial to many children, and it sounds like the services have been a great help to her. Remediating her speech would be my number one goal if she were my dd. Much of the rest can wait, though I'm sure there are some good programs which will enhance her speech and language progress.:001_smile:

[fenni]

I would definitely get some speech therapy.

Also consider Little Hands to Heaven. I think it would fit her perfectly! I have used and like MFW K, but it doesn't sound like what she needs right now.

[krismoose]

HOD and MFW are both solid, Biblical programs that are *very* well laid out for a new homeschooler. Also, the author of MFW is a speech-language therapist who worked with young children before she homeschooled, so the support for language development is exceptional in her PreK, K and 1st gr. programs.

[ALB]

Another vote for Little Hands to Heaven or MFW K. I almost bought MFW K and think it looks like a gentle program that is perfect for kids still learning letter sounds/ just beginning to read. Little Hands to Heaven also teaches letter sounds and math skills. You could easily add HOP and HWT to that one if you wanted, and still come out okay price wise. Ofcourse with MFW, that includes your phonics and handwriting so you wouldn't need to add anything.

My only concern with Little Hearts for His Glory is that it includes lots of reading longer passages aloud and then introducing basic narration skills (verbal). Many people even use it for 1st grade, although it's fine for K as long as your kid is ready for that aspect. Seems like doing Little Hands first would be great preparation for LHFHG next year if you want to use HOD.

[TheCoffeeChick]

Remediating her speech would be my number one goal if she were my dd.

 

:iagree: She'll "catch up" after her speech issues are taken care of.

 

My dd turns 5 in the fall also and we are calling this year K4 and next year will be K5. It really doesn't matter what you call it though, because all you can do is go at the pace of your child. I will still call next year K5 even if she were doing calculus! She'll be 5 and that is kindergarten in my house. ;)

 

When she is ready, give her more. If she needs more time with something, spend more time on it. :D I'm sure this is one reason you plan on homeschooling, right?

[....]

Hi! No way would I start a 4 yro with school (and I have massively nerdy kids) !!

 

As far as delays, I have a 2nd grader who had serious hearing problems (he was going deaf in both ears) from the time he was 2-3 years old and he was also very delayed with speaking. He had a difficult time learning to read last year. If there is a hearing/speech problem in the early years, it might take them a little longer to distinguish letter sounds necessary for reading. Now, his hearing's fixed :tongue_smilie:(he has selective hearing now - LOL) and he's reading just fine and on grade level. But, it took him longer to get to that point.

 

Also, do you have specific goals for homeschooling? Have you read Cathy Duffy's Top 100 Picks for Homeschool Curriculum? The first 1/3 of the book is homeschooling goals, learning styles and different approaches to teaching. I highly recommend this book for the first year of school.

 

Also, have you read The Well-Trained Mind?

 

If I were you, I would do some Pre-K stuff this year and start K the year your student would be starting with public school. There's no rush.

 

Have you looked at Sonlight's Pre-K Core 4/5? Most of those books, you can get at the library for free. That would be a great supplement to preschool and it might actually help your student in the verbal arena. Throw in some art projects and Wa-La! You're ready for Pre-k!

 

Good luck with your school year!

[Mom0012]

I haven't read the other posts, but MFW is a wonderful program and can create some really beautiful memories for you and your child. I think it's a wonderful way to go for a young Kindergartener.

 

If I had another child, I would definitely use this with them for K and then throw in tons of read alouds from the SL catalog.

 

Lisa

[JudoMom]

MFW & HOD are both great programs. I would encourage you to pick the program that would challenge your daughter a little bit, but not overwhelm her. Since she's your first and she's so young, I would say that if you're unsure, pick the easier program and the one that looks like the most fun. I personally think that setting the habit for schoolwork in the early years is important, and a fun, not-too-challenging program can help accomplish this.

 

I used BJU's K4 program when I started PreK with my oldest, and it was a great choice for us (though had MFW or HOD been available then, I probably would've gone with one of those). I learned what I liked and didn't like, and he had fun. I gained a bit of confidence as a teacher and am now very comfortable picking and choosing what I think will work best for my boys.

 

Have fun!

[Alison in KY]

Either program would work great, you cannot go wrong at this age. Don't forget to have fun, your daughter is really young.

 

Alison

[AmethystMoon]

If you feel your dd is ready for a K curric, go for it. I am using Little Hands to Heaven with my 4 year old though. He shows many signs of being ready to move onto Little Hearts for His Glory, but I know he would get overwhelmed. Anyway, I also am using HOP along with Little Hands. It's such an easy curric to suppliment.

 

If you plan on using Little Hearts for His Glory, I'd recomend going half speed.

[VBoulden]

Please don't give up. You really are free to choose something that other moms wouldn't choose for their children and you do not have to know about everything that's out there to pick something great... I still don't know about it all and I have been homeschooling for two years now and researching for over five! :001_smile:

 

The first year I homeschooled, I was the only one I knew to ever chose Bob Jone's DVD school for K4. I felt like I needed alot of "help" and liked the idea of having a "teacher" and I just prepared the stuff. I liked it, but wanted to take more control the next year.

 

So, for the next year, I chose Sonlight's Core p4/5. It provides plans, but I became "the teacher."

 

This next year, it will be "all me" and I will be leading my daughter through the material without real plans, following a schedule instead and helping her create history and science notebooks, etc. like The Well Trained Mind suggests.

 

I think it was nice that your pastor's wife made you a list. That may have taken her a lot of time. But, to get started, there is no harm in getting something you feel really sure about, personally, and then using that list and other recommendations, to "move out" from there once you are more comfortable.

 

Good luck. :grouphug:

[daybreaking]

My little boy will be 8 next month. I'd give anything to go back to when he had just turned 5. Instead of starting a formal K year, I would have done HOD's LHFHG. It would have been a perfect introduction into homeschooling, yet in a gentle way. I don't know much about MFW, but I highly recommend any of HOD's programs.

[skueppers]

My advice for a child this age is not to do a curriculum at all.

 

Figure out what you need to do for speech therapy. Do that.

 

Sign your kid up for one or two physical activities, like soccer or swimming. Go to the playground.

 

Find out what's available in your area at local nature centers, museums, zoos, etc. Go on an outing to one of these places at least once a month.

 

Get together with other kids on a regular basis.

 

Go to library story time.

 

Get books out of the library and read them.

 

If she seems interested, try early reading activities -- a good free option is Progressive Phonics, check out their Alphabetti printable books.

 

Rely on daily life for number stuff. Helping to set the table is a valuable math experience at this age.

 

Get some pattern blocks or a Mighty Mind set.

 

Have a bunch of art materials on hand. Discount School Supply is a good source for inexpensive preschool art supplies.

 

Play games, like memory, board games, go fish, etc.

 

Go on nature walks.

 

If you do television, watch nature programs on TV.

 

Pay attention to her. It will become clear if she needs something else.

[Evergreen Academy]

Hi! No way would I start a 4 yro with school (and I have massively nerdy kids) !!

 

If I were you, I would do some Pre-K stuff this year and start K the year your student would be starting with public school. There's no rush.

 

Have you looked at Sonlight's Pre-K Core 4/5? Most of those books, you can get at the library for free. That would be a great supplement to preschool and it might actually help your student in the verbal arena. Throw in some art projects and Wa-La! You're ready for Pre-k!

 

Good luck with your school year!

 

:iagree:with both of these recommendations. I have waited until each of my kids is between 5.5 and 6 to start their K year, depending on where their birthdays fell, and I haven't been sorry. I figure it is much easier to push a child forward if they are ready (we did that with dd when she was 7), but harder to hold them back (if you have to report to the district).

 

We loved Sonlight Core 4/5. I used it with littlest ds when he was 5 - he also had no speech until he was three. The Developing the Early Learner series of workbooks that comes with the program is fantastic for both developing pre-school skills, and for evaluating your child and determining areas where she needs help. However, my ds has some auditory processing issues (not uncommon with late speech, you may want to watch for this), and that made listening to longer stories difficult for him; even at 5 I had to hold many of the books until he was able to tune in to books without pictures. Some of the books had to be held until he was 6 and in 1st grade.

 

My recommendation: continue with speech, and build her a pre-K curriculum based around her speech needs and getting her ready for K next year. I would include the workbook series mentioned above along with something like Sonlight 4/5 if you think she is ready (you can see samples online). If the books in that program would be a bit much for her - and they might - the preschool/K workbooks that Rod & Staff puts out are great for early learning and include cutting, matching, listening sorts of skills. Plus, they are so inexpensive!

http://www.rodandstaffbooks.com/item/1-10020-GH/?list=Rod_and_Staff_Preschool

 

If you chose this route, you could use the library and find books about the world around you, with colorful pictures and simple, straightforward text. Talk about the things in the pictures, ask her questions. Teach her to answer in complete sentences if that is an issue. Keep an eye out for words she might not know, and talk about what they mean. With kids who have late speech, I've found they don't always "absorb" language the same as typically developing kids, and things that might be intuitive to others, have to be explained. Play board games, bake together, and listen to books on tape. Enjoy your year whatever you choose!

Blessings,

Aimee

mom to 6 great kids ages 7-19, schooling grades 2, 4, 4 and 7

[Hockey Mom]

We had a lot of fun with BJU's Kindergarten program. It's a little pricey, but it was worth it, IMO.

 

Like you, I was nervous about homeschooling my first year (which was last year). I wanted something in a box, that would lay everything out for me, AND still be fun for my Kindy-Kid. BJU offered both of those things.

 

DS loved his teachers, and he really enjoyed the characters that each class brought with it too. 'Cookie' was our favorite (he made fun snacks every week). You can see some of the stuff we did in Kindergarten on my blog (in my siggy).

[SproutMamaK]

Thought I was starting a new thread- oops!

[NanceXToo]

I agree with those who said "relax." Don't stress over curriculum for a four year old. Enjoy her. Enjoy life. Get speech therapy, and then do some pre-K stuff with her as she's willing and able, but not with a lot of pressure or expectations--- arts and crafts, nature walks, music, gentle exercise, conversation, lots of reading, games, hands on activities, free play, being outdoors, imagination, manipulatives, and so on. If she were going to public school, she wouldn't even be able to start until NEXT year due to her age, right?

 

If you must use a curriculum, go with a gentle, hands on, creative one if possible (I LOVE Oak Meadow K for that!!!)... but seriously, it isn't even necessary yet.

 

If you let yourself feel all this pressure over school for a four year old, can you imagine what it will be like as that child gets older? This is the time to just enjoy each other!

[Tidbits of Learning]

I have never used MFW, but I have heard the K is good. I did see it at convention and it looked really great. I would go with your gut. What do you feel comfortable about? I'm sure you pastor's wife was just trying to be helpful, but she got a little caught up in helping you and instead of giving her opinion of the program you liked and were looking at she gave you a list of what she would like.

I am going to agree with those that have recommended HOD's Little Hands to Heaven if you go with HOD. My son's speech (he had issues-have had 3 with issues) improved after doing LHTH. You focus on the sound of the letter everyday with a rhyme. You literally go AA Adam and BB B boat and CCC clippity clop every day for a week. It honestly helps. With the speech and the birthday date, I would opt for LHTH over Little Hearts for his Glory.

It isn't hard to add in a math or HOP or something of the like b/c it is such an easy program to do that takes little time. That is what I am doing for this year when he will be 4. I am adding in Singapore EarlyBird Math 1a&1b and the R&S Preschool books.

I think you can't go wrong with MFW K or LHTH and they are both open and go which is great for a first year.

[crl]

Your friend's list might be great stuff but you have to find what works for you.

 

:iagree:

 

I think both HOD and MFW are great programs. I am considering doing MFW K with my 4/5 year old son. Little Hands to Heaven from HOD would also be a great choice to add a gentle program to the speech therapy since it focuses on the letters and has a great Bible program to go with it. Both of my kids enjoyed it.

[lswatson111304]

WOw! Lots of advice here! Let me first address the speech issue. Alyssa has been in Speech since she was 2. She just DIDN'T talk at all until she turned 3 and a light turned on. Now she is talking in sentances, and having conversations with her dolls! She is amazing to watch! She is sooo eager to learn, but in HER way! I love that about her. Which is one reason we want to HS, I believe that PS just won't be able to meet her needs. She started at 3 with the PS - speech, well, she was about 3 yrs 3 months old. So in those 3 months before she was officially in school (and out of ECI) she did amazing. I know that there was just something that had to click when she was ready. Since then she has learned so much and a lot of it is just "when she is ready" with help from her 1 hr/week speech class. She goes 30min 2x/week during the school year. Right now her speech is just needing to learn how to properly pronounce words, and she leaves the ends off a lot of words. Which is why it is so hard for some people that don't know her, to understand her. I know she still needs to work on her speech, and I know she isn't done, but I was just thinking that she is doing so well working on it at home, I wasn't sure that that 1hr/week was going to hold her back if she didn't go. KWIM? I am thinking that since we are always home on Sunday, for church, we just signed her up on monday mornings to go to Dance class so she can get out and be active and interact with other kids, that we could still do speech on monday mornings before her dance class. I will be talking to her speech teacher about her schedule to see if we can work that out.

Other than that, we already do a lot of working on words together. When she says something not quite right we repeat it until properly, stuff like that.

Alyssa also has moderate hearing loss in her Right ear. Her audiologist told us when she was a newborn that it wasn't something they could fix, but that since she has 100% hearing in her Left ear, it might not affect her too badly. She didn't think at the time that a hearing aide was something she needed, so we didn't get her one. Now looking back, I'm wondering if we should have. Maybe that one ear did affect her more than we thought? I don't know, and I'm not sure I ever will. I'm going to schedule her yearly audiologist appt in the next week, and I'm going to talk to her about it. I'm not sure if getting her one now would help or not??? I'm not sure she needs it, she hears us...but how well? I worry about the decisions we make as parents, are they the right ones? Ya know? LOL

 

I was thinking of doing the MFW K because I had read it was pretty in between of PreK and K. And she knows most of what they offer in their PreK program. This is our first year, and for DH my "trial run" so he wants to see what we are doing and see her learning, which she already is just by playing simple games and such. We already do all the home learning like counting foods, cooking, arts and crafts, we live in the country so nature is at our fingertips! We have a bird farm down the road that we've visited once (to buy chickens) and its on our "field trip" list! I just wanted to add just a little "structured" work because she really enjoys it! She loves workbooks, and educational games on my iphone! I certainly don't plan to move her "up a grade" to K, I just wanted to meet her needs where she is craving learning. I have always 100% planned to go at her pace, and let her learn what she is ready to when she is ready to if she needs extra time, she will get it, if she excels in one subject we will do the best to move that one up. KWIM? These are all reasons we want to homeschool, DH being gone all the time just solidifies that decision because Family is very important, and not only do I need my husband to succeed in what we do as a family, they need their Daddy, so we have no choice but to go visit him.

Ahh, that got long, I'm sorry.

[lswatson111304]

I think I'm going to do the LHTH 4/5 :001_smile:

[TheCoffeeChick]

I think I'm going to do the LHTH 4/5 :001_smile:

 

 

I think your dd will enjoy it - she's lucky to have a mom who puts so much thought into her schooling. :)

[AudreyTN]

I think your dd will enjoy it - she's lucky to have a mom who puts so much thought into her schooling. :)

:iagree:

[lswatson111304]

Thanks! I ordered it, I really hope she enjoys it! Now that I've settled and ordered I feel more at ease! Can't wait for it to get here so I can start getting ready!