heartofdakota.com

If you have used "Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory", please share your experience 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.

We used Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory last year and again really enjoyed the Heart of Dakota products. Let's see what are my favorite aspects of this curriculum?................We enjoyed history alot (I liked the mini timeline)& the history books were great, math exploration blocks were fun & helpful, I liked Day 5 language arts, storytime book selection was AWESOME.

We are repeating BLHfHG because my 2nd grader was just not ready for Bigger Hearts for His Glory.......which I CAN NOT WAIT to get next year!!!!
The Appendix has many suggestions for using BLHfHG for more than one year. I am using the Suggested Storytime Titles to read a different book than last year, also my ds is using the Scheduled Books for Emerging Reader (questions included), Spelling list #2, and Math Alternate Schedule for Singapore Primary Mathmatics 2A & 2B.

It is nice to have everything fit together so nicely in a day. I really love teaching my boys and feel so blessed to find a curriculum that works great for our family and our budget!

I used Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory last year with my daughter, who would have been in first grade in public school. I love what it did for her! She was having difficulty reading in Kindergarten, due to an undiagnosed vision problem. We took her to the eye doctor, got her some glasses, and began working on improving her reading. She was not ready to enter the first grade by fall, so because of that and other reasons, we decided to homeschool her (along with her 3rd grade brother).

We chose to begin with Reading Made Easy for our reading program. It was great. I love the way they have all of the letters in a different color (or shade) to indicate what sound it makes. I also really enjoyed the Language Arts portion of the curriculum. The index cards for spelling is really helpful. My daughter is not good with remembering just from sight. So, it was great for her to write the word on the card, look at it, then try to write it down from memory. We used the cards all week, and she really improved with her ability to spell. I also like the way nouns, verbs, etc. are introduced slowly and clearly. She enjoyed making up sentences and dictating to me.

My favorite part of the curriculum is probably the copy work portion. I never would have guessed how much her handwriting would improve just from copying a poem from a piece of paper. She made marked improvements in just a month, and continues to do so. She is more accurate, writes more quickly, and her reading has also gotten better. She can now read what she writes with ease, except maybe for words she has not encountered before.

The history portion of the curriculum is awesome, too. We enjoyed reading the history texts that come with BLHFHG. We actually did not finish them because we were focusing so much on her reading, so we will be using them this year with both children to supplement their history. The science book is nice as well, and she loves to do experiments! We will be using the science and history books, as well as the list of emerging readers schedule this year. We are looking forward to another year with BLHFHG, and can't wait to use DITHOR in the future.

I also have a preschooler, so we are looking into using Little Hands to Heaven soon. We're very happy with the product, and I feel sure others will benefit as well.

I have used Little Hands to Heaven, Little Hearts for His Glory, and am now using Beyond Little Hearts with my 6 year old. We love it! What I like the most is the sweet time that I have with my children when we read our poem or say our Bible verse or read one of the great stories. I also love the way the math gives hands-on ways to learn before we do the workbook page. My little boy is really learning math, and he loves it.
I also love the flexibility because we don't have to do everything, everyday. I would definitely recommend this curriculum to anyone.
God has really used Carrie in an awesome way with all of her books!

I used Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory last year with my son who was in second grade. It was a wonderful change of pace for us. We had previously done two years with a full curriculum where everything had to be mailed in and graded. It was a lot of book work and there was no leeway. What I like the most about Heart of Dakota publishing is the freedom. We now have time for things like science experiments and art projects, and these are even incorporated in the curriculum. I also like the variety. The history activities, and art projects, and the science experiments give us something new to do, which really helps my hands on kid. I thought I would have to find another curriculum to order for this year, so I was estatic when I heard about Bigger Hearts for His Glory which I'm using now. Thank you so much for all your hard work.

We are just starting our second week of homeschool. I have a 6 year old daughter and an 8 year old son. We are doing BLHFHG with the emerging reader books. What a blessing to know that we are in the center of God's will. I love having my kids home with me. I missed them terribly when they were in school! I feel so blessed to be starting out with such an amazing curriculum!
Bridget

We absolutely adore HOD books! We used Little Hands to Heaven 3 years ago for our son and this year for our daughter and then last year used Little Hearts for his Glory and now this year have 2 weeks left in Beyond Little Hearts for his Glory! We can't wait for this next year for the next one and then going back to LIttle Hearts for his Glory for our daughter. We love the songs...how the history and science and art and Bible memory work all go together. It is precious time to spend with our children and not have to hassle over plans...everything is already laid out! The crafts are all so fun and always use things we have around the house...which is wonderful! The spelling is great, grammar is just enough, books are fun and exciting...we just love it all! We can't wait for next year! Thanks sooo much! Randy and Rachel with Ryan, Rosie, Reanna, Roman:)

We started a light schedule of BLHFHG this summer to get my kids used to the change in smaller doses. We are starting unit 4 on Friday. I would just like to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for the huge change in attitude towards schooling from my son who has autism. Carrie did a wonderful job in trying to find a fit academically for both of my children.

Holding my son back a little to be with his sister who is a year younger than he is made all the difference in the world. His focus is so much better since he is no longer trying to pay more attention to her curriculum than his, he tries to help her along where she struggles, and he actually asks to do school on occasion. He is writing without much complaint (he rarely wrote before without a huge fight) and is actually drawing and participating in the art projects without a struggle. I would never have believed that something like finding a new curriculum could make him do a 180 degree turn.

I just want to say that I am so pleased to be a part of the HOD family now and recommend it to everyone all the time. I still have a bit of a struggle with my son and my daughter has her own challenges with her dyslexia but this curriculum has made a world of difference and we are blessed to have found something that works so well.

We are so happy we chose HOD!! After finishing Little Hearts my son was ready to start Beyond for 1st grade. While he excelled in the reading and math he struggled with the copywork and the read alouds (he has Tourette's Syndrome which makes it hard to speak at times without verbal tics). However, as the year progressed I began to see his confidence grow. He started to love the poetry section and often surprised me at the end by doing it without complaining and doing it well. We loved going into depth of the pilgrims and truly felt like we were a part of the journey. Each book was a blessing, even the ones that were challenging for him to listen to or read aloud. I loved to see the growth in that area as well. We finished the guide in over a year due to moving and all that entails, but it was nice to ease into 2nd grade finishing up the guide. His confidence has risen so much in this guide and as we turn to Bigger Hearts for 2nd grade and almost turning 8 I am so looking forward to what growth will occur this year. I see the genius of the guide. There is no need to add anything. My son enjoys playing Reading Eggs and Mathseeds online so that is the only thing he does extra, but it is just for fun. Thank you HOD for this wonderful curriculum.
Michelle from Indiana