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This was our third year using HOD and it just continues to amaze me with how great each year is. I thought of this time period as knights, castle, kings, queens etc, but it is so much more. My ds knows more about church history than most adults. He understands things like what caused the Protestant Reformation and why Pennsylvania was established by the Quakers and who founded the Amish. The history projects continued to be his favorite part of the week. The thing I liked about his year is that several of the projects involved cooking and he is getting quite handy in the kitchen. He now helps cook dinner and he even cooks all the bacon for men's bible study on Saturday morning. I know he wouldn't do this if it weren't for the practice he has gotten making things in HOD. The research postcard for history was one of his favorite parts and I was amazed how independent he was with this. In years past he struggled with finding the answers, but now this is like an old friend to him.

The picture study seems simple, but he also really enjoyed the time with this each week. We would take turns seeing how much we could remember about the paintings and then he would make educated guesses as to why the artist painted things a certain why. It tied in so nicely with all he was learning about the Renaissance Artists.

The science was very interesting for him. Dh is an environmental engineer and therefore my ds has heard lots of talk about water tables and drilling and sampling and oil spills and now he understands what his dad is talking about. One of his experiments didn't work as expected and his dad loved that and explained to him that they have found the exact same thing in the real world. Adding written narrations to science increased the interaction with the material read and I think helped the learning process.

I loved our discussions centering around the book "Boyhood and Beyond". I feel like this book really challenged him to take a look at how he was doing things and choices he is making now that will impact what kind of man he becomes. The puberty study was also very good. We choose to have my dh go through those books with him. My dh wasn't sure how to approach some of the topics and this was a straightforward presentation that he was comfortable with.

One big thing I really saw this year was how the skills have built on each other. Each year the thinking goes a little deeper and the writing is more challenging. The amount of reading increases as well, but it is still manageable, even for my ds who is a slow reader. His writing using IEW made leaps and bounds this year. I was very impressed and I think he has learned some very useful tools such as keyword outlining that will help him with other writing assignments.

We didn't do the Shakespeare study, mostly because he is a slow reader and I was afraid it would overwhelm him. Looking back I think he could have done it and been fine. We were always finished early on the day the Shakespeare study was scheduled. Most days took 4 1/2 hours and at the most 5 to finish, but we use a different math that takes around 45 minutes to do. He also takes a morning break.

Lynn, I loved reading about your year (and your weeks on your blog) with RTR! I wish I would've blogged our year to have all the wonderful photos and memories that you do.

We also had a great year with RTR (and extensions for high school)!! HOD is such a perfect fit, because it incorporates all aspects of the Charlotte Mason-style learning in such a fun, easy-to-do way! We cover things like art appreciation/picture study, poetry reading, etc. that can sometimes get "left off" when time is short, but not with HOD! Even the hands-on projects are broken down in such bite-sized pieces that they are simple to complete without being a burden on time or resources.

I loved how there is not only a daily "Quiet Time" for Bible study and prayer (to incorporate that all-important skill), but also a "together-time" Bible/worldview study where we were able to discuss Godly womanhood and growing up according to God's plan and for His glory and our good.

I also used to think that the medieval times were my least favorite history period to cover, but HOD made it so interesting with the incredible book choices, projects, and assignments (as well as the gorgeous history notebook the kids make), that it was just as great of a year as any other time periods we have studied. The use of the audio history CDs adds to the dimension of learning styles and helped to reinforce the subjects being read about in the living books history choices.

HOD does a really great job of tying together all the aspects of history through the literature, oral and written narrations, related geography study, and an ongoing timeline that the students make in their notebooks, which really helps cement the "flow" of history in their minds.

We started the Shakespeare study and did about 1/3 of it, but ended up dropping it because we weren't comfortable with the content of many of the stories (all the magic, etc.)--but the notebook and the way Carrie has designed the study is still wonderful. (It was just Shakespeare we didn't love, nothing to do with HOD.)

The IEW "Medieval-History Based Writing" assignments were very helpful in improving writing skills, adding specific techniques, and increasing vocabulary (and using it in the writings). The final 5-paragraph essay was a nice project to put all those skills to use.

Overall, it was a really great, successful year, and I highly recommend HOD to anyone who is looking for an awesome, all-inclusive, God-honoring, Christ-centered curriculum! (I was a presenter at our homeschool group's curriculum fair with HOD this year, and it was my privilege to share it with others.)

Ladies,

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to share from your hearts about RTR! I know it takes much time to do, and you both were so gracious to make work of writing a personal review. I was blessed by your thoughts, and I know others will appreciate reading them too! This will be a great help and encouragement to many families who are considering HOD!

Blessings,
Carrie

I am so glad to read through all of your comments regarding RTR. This will be our first year using HOD. I am trying to decide if it would be better to start with CTC first or would it be ok to jump in for our first year doing RTR. Is it needed to do CTC to understand RTR? My dd is technically going into 6th 'according to her age but I am aiming at 5th grade level work for her this year. We pulled her out of public in 3rd grade and had her in a charter homeschool this last year but have decided to pull her from the charter as well. So I am going to be homeschooling all three kiddos from here on out. My boys are one grade apart -K and 1st but figured the LHFHG would be perfect for the two of them. I am just stuck on Melody's level and trying to figure out what would be best for her this year. Any feedback would be great. Thanks so much - Brittney

not sure if you made a decision yet but thought I would share my experience if it will help you. My DD did CTC in 5th grade at age 10 and it is plenty rigorous for a 6th grader especially if you use the extensions. CTC is a wonderful year that I wouldn't want to skip. My second DD is in CTC this year at 5th grade and 10 years old. She is an excellent reader and student and we are not even doing extensions. So far, it is perfect for her. My oldest DD is now in Ress to Reform and she is now in 7th grade and nearly 13 yo...This guide is a big jump and I wouldn't put my 5th grader in it unless they were very advanced and had already completed CTC. But that's just my opinion, with my experience with HOD so far. Absolutely LOVE it and don't want to ever use anything else again! We've tried a lot of curriculum and feel the Lord led us to HOD and the search is over! May the Lord direct you and your family in your homeschool journey!
Elizabeth