This is a tricky one I think. It really depends on your approach/philosophy of education and the skill set of your younger dd. I can tell you what I would do but this really is just my opinion for what would work in my family so take it with a grain of salt. My son, who turned 6 in October, is doing Kindergarten. He started it in August coming from 2 1/2 years of preschool (public school) so he had some academic background. He started K knowing all of his letters and their sounds and he could do basic math. Academically he can handle it. But, my son has fine motor strength issues so the sheets that require those skills are hard for him. Also, even though academically he could handle the work and the sheets his readiness to sit and do school is still emerging and the fine motor difficulties make the sheets challenging. I am not sure what the SL cores you mentioned entail as I have no experience there and haven't looked at them. But, I am seeing the value in the better late than early philosophy.mtmom9107 wrote:I have three children. dd1 age 5 (6 in Sept), dd2 age 3 (4 in Nov) and a baby boy. I plan to use and have already purchased MFW K for the oldest to begin this fall (Aug 2014). I'm thinking it might be a little easy for her because of what we're doing this year (SL P4/5 with LA K and Singapore Earlybird A and B) so I plan to maybe speed it up a little bit.
I'm not sure if I should get the student sheets for dd2 for this fall. Would they be a little hard for her? I don't think that I will officially do kindergarten with her for two more years. She would be 5 when we start K, it would be 2016. So then if I used the student sheets with her for K this year I couldn't do the student sheets with her next year when dd1 is in 1st grade (2015) because that would be to hard for her and then to go back to Kindergarten the following year. Should I get the student sheets for dd2 this year and then next year do something different with her while doing 1st grade with dd1?
I'm not sure what to do with their spacing in age.
Any ideas and/or suggestions?
Personally, I would use the preschool package for the younger dd and do K with the older. Even if it is "easy" for her, she will learn so much. Going through it more quickly than normal is doable. Then move her to 1st grade and continue preschool activities with the younger until she starts Kindergarten. After first, you older dd would do Adventures and I would continue the path of K, 1st, then join older for the younger dd. After the youngest completes 1st she would join older dd in the cycle.
I think it is important to do K and 1st at the age appropriate level because of the phonics and handwriting involved. If your younger likes to do school and workbooks you could add some fun workbooks into her day. She will still get a lot of the material your older dd is learning just by listening in on the Bible and Science activities. She could participate as much as she is able and as she is interested.