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If you have completed "Resurrection to Reformation", please share your experiences with us. It will be such an encouragement for other homeschool parents to hear from you, and it will be especially helpful for those who are prayerfully considering whether Heart of Dakota is well-suited for their family.

Blessings,
Carrie

We have used RTR this year as a first course in high school study. You can see under this post the author’s suggestion for how to do that. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7240 We found even with the additions it flowed and came together just as all HOD programs do. That was really a pleasant surprise. I expected beefing it up would be quite a bit of work. Turns out it was really quite simple and very much well worth it.

We absolutely loved RTR as a high school level study. My daughter did much of it independently. And having done CTC the year before she really was ready for the independence high school level really requires. It was a little bit of a jump but still a very easy transition. I checked her work daily and kept track of what was going on by having her describe her day to me and narrate what she read. We also added a few written papers for the sake of grading. That was a great way to have them learn deeper and apply some of it to another format as well to work on writing skills. Finding topics is not an issue at all. RTR really got us both thinking about interesting topics to write about, sometimes she picked and sometimes I did.

We so enjoyed our together time. It was time for us to grow and bond together. We had our “womanly” time together as RTR covers so well the things women really should discuss with their daughters (and sons for that matter). We really enjoyed that time and it gave us a platform to discuss further what our family values are in the area of growing up and what would be important in the future for being a godly woman. We got to share some wonderful poetry together and went deeper into the meaning of the poetry than we had ever done previously. My daughter has always been a strong reader but did not much enjoy reading aloud. Poetry this year really moved her to a place where she enjoys reading aloud now. I enjoyed listening to her as well. Art appreciation was also a great time for us to share. She was the only one doing RTR so we made it a game between the two of us who could find more in the art than the other. We enjoyed it so much we did it more than the program called for looking at the art. My daughter has not really been artistic. RTR has helped her to grow to love art. We plan to carry some of that love into our study next year with Rev to Rev.

I've spoken of using RTR as high school level because that is how we used it. But next year I get to use it again with my son and another daughter. I am very excited to see it through the way it was written and just be able to open and go. Since they are less independent I get to enjoy more of the program. I have to tell you my son wants to not have a break and just get to RTR. He has been tortured watching all the great stuff my oldest got to learn. I love how with HOD I never have to coax them to get to work. It's always the other way around, they drive me. What a blessing that is.

Water2Wine -- Thank you so much for posting your experience with Resurrection to Reformation. I have been searching for information about this program. There is so much info. out about the "younger" HOD programs, but not a lot about the older ones. We are planning to use RTR with our 7th grade son. We are both very excited about it! Thanks again!

Oh good! You are going to love it! I am really excited to repeat it again this year. There is less written about it just because it is still pretty new. But one thing with HOD is you can count on the programs just getting better and better as they progress. We loved loved the younger guides as well but as skills get more complex the guides just get richer and you can really see that in RTR. Enjoy it!

We're not quite done, BUT RTR has been a great first year of high school for our family, as well. It's interesting to note that as the year began my then 14 yo was not excited at all about studying medieval and renaissance history, but my how time changes things. He loves, absolutely loves the history reading - Mystery of History was one of his favorites along with all the extension selections. He's understanding and making so many connections now with church history and the church today. This is a common topic of conversation around our table and now he "gets" what his dad and I are talking about all the time. We did not use the science, because he had already completed a year of physical science in 8th grade, but I'm looking forward to using the science with my rising 8th grader. The Shakespeare study was great and it provided a great jumping off point for our whole family to begin a slow reading of some of Shakespeare's plays. The mapping, research, timeline and notebooking exercises are excellent. I must say this is one of the real strengths of this program. We'll be wrapping things up with RTR over the next few weeks, but my now 15 yo shared with me the other day he can't wait to begin Rev to Rev for his Sophomore year!

Water2wine and Florence,

Thanks so much for taking time to post about your year with RTR! It is so helpful to many readers.

Blessings,
Carrie