does heart of dakota work for large families?

[Gwenny]

Yes. There are families that have had their children combined in the younger years and then needed to separate at some point. It all depends on the children--which we can not plan. Sometimes one child will take off and/or another one struggle in a certain area. That's a benefit of placing them where they really fit. Then, if they are struggling with something, you can slow down if needed, etc. When trying to combine it would be hard to slow someone else down if not needed.

I had things planned out in my mind, then I was thrown a curve ball and my almost 12 yo has dyslexia and dysgraphia. I've had to readjust what we are doing.

[Mom2Monkeys]

Yep! It really does and IMO it works better for large families than programs that are "made for" large families to come all ages. I have run up to four guides at once. I have five kids now grades 10,7,4,1, and baby this fall. (Theyre just turning 15, and 12,9,6, and 5mos) I'm.running two guides now between three of them and oldest doing her own thing. The two combined are the 12&9yr olds because we recently learned of some.learninf issues the older had. Otherwise they'd all four have their own guides this year again! I've used HOD since 2008 when my rising 10th grader was in 2nd grade. We love it and it's so wonderful that it's easier.tonuse than the multi age programs that required so much tweaking with each lesson to meet the needs of each level.

[MomtoJGJE]

We use separate guides for my kids... The only hard time would be using Beyond/Bigger and Bigger/Preparing with both, but you'd be in the habit of doing school with them by then and so it wouldn't be as big of a deal as if you were starting out with those guides.

One thing that could make it easier, other than simply doing LHFHG half speed for a while with your 5yo, is to stagger start them. I'm sorry if that has already been suggested... I was interrupted while reading several times and probably missed some stuff! Anyway, you'd start your older one in Beyond to get the hang of it. Then a couple/few weeks later you would start LHFHG half speed with your 5yo. Another thing you could do to spread them out a little more is to do the half speed LHFHG only four days per week. The fifth day of Beyond is pretty light... so you could just do reading and maybe some fun stuff like science experiments or math workbooks from the dollar store with them combined on the fifth day. So basically, if you were doing full speed Beyond 5 days a week, and half speed LHFHG 4 days a week, by the end of six weeks you would have finished six units of Beyond and less than three units of LHFHG. When your Beyond child finishes the guide you'd be roughly in unit 13 of LHFHG. At that point you could probably easily go full speed LHFHG and your older would be starting Bigger.

Alternately you could wait and not start LHFHG until after Christmas, which would serve the same purpose.

But really once you get in the hang of it, running multiple guides is not hard. The younger guides are short and sweet, and can easily be completed while the older ones (Preparing and up) are doing independent work.

[my3sons]

The ladies have done an awesome job of chatting through this! I m so sorry I'm just getting back to you - I am also helping families in other ways for HOD, and it has already been a crazy summer! When talking through combining or not combining, it is really helpful to discuss specifically where each child falls in placement regarding age, reading, writing, grammar, and math, as opposed to just which guide overall each child best places in. Specific information helps make more and more clear whether combining is a good idea, who it may be best for, and what the overall family needs might be. So, based on the general information shared so far, which is age and where each generally places, starting your turning 8 yo in Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory seems to be a good idea. Based on age, your turning 5 yo might place in Little Hearts for His Glory or in Little Hands to Heaven with LA/math from Little Hearts for His Glory. Your 3 yo places in Little Hands to Heaven, or you could wait on that and have your 1 and 3 yo eventually do this more together.

Starting Beyond... with the 8 yo, and stagger starting your 5 yo later would be a great idea! If you like the idea of possibly combining the 3 and 5 yo, or the 3 and 1 yo, then we could talk through some options about that. I'd love to hear specifically about each child's reading/writing/grammar/math skills if you get the chance. The reason placement takes time is because each child is so important! We just want to give you and your kiddos the absolutely best year ever - so it is well worth the discussion!!! If you are at peace moving forward with your 8 yo in Beyond and slowing down LHFHG for your 5 yo, then by all means - just disregard this further discussion of placement I'm asking for - the Lord always knows best, and if you've been in prayer about it, and have found peace and joy moving forward, then hooray! Otherwise, I'd love to dig into this a little more.

As far as the Bible focus of HOD, it is powerful because it is both personal through Bible Quiet Time and parent led through Bible Study, it is daily, and it is not a stand alone subject - so the Bible is not only a dedicated daily 2 prong approach of more private/personal Bible Quiet Time (formally starting in PHFHG) and more discussion/parent led Bible Study - it is part of virtually every subject. Every guide has students share their faith in the Lord by preparing and sharing the gospel in some way, so this is putting into action the sharing of the Gospel on a personal level. Every guide has its own Biblical focus in both Bible Quiet Time (starting in PHFHG) and in Bible Study, but every guide also includes Biblical Scriptural connections through resources chosen (which often include missionaries/biographies of Christians/etc.), discussions, projects, activities, etc. This keeps in balance the nurturing, growing, and maturing of personal faith, alongside the nurturing, growing, and sharing of faith in an outreach missionary capacity. This balance recognizes the importance of tending to personal faith, while also sharing the Good News we have as Christians with others! So, every year has a personal side of faith, and every year has a sharing side of faith, but each year's focus changes. You can read about each guide's Bible Study and Bible Quiet Time focus within the Introduction of each guide, but to see the entire picture of a guide's Biblical focus, you'd want to also look at each of the subjects areas and their resources. So, yes, missions and outreach are a part of HOD, a very important part - but so is the growing of a strong foundation of personal faith and Biblical Worldview - so when our children share the Good News with others, it is coming straight from our King Jesus, who is sitting on the throne of their own hearts. I hope this helps! Thank you for your questions - especially those that show you long for your children to know the Lord and share Him with others! It is the reason HOD exists. I hope you get the chance to enjoy looking through the Bible focus and resources in each of the guides, but I'll share the "Introduction's" description of the "World Geography" guide below. It was a powerful year for our son in 9th grade! All of the Bible Study, Bible Quiet Time, Biblical Worldview, etc. personal and parent-led previous years prepared him beautifully for the Biblical focus in WG! It was an incredible year!

Students not only travel the world with the resources described above, but they also embark on a journey to answer the question, But Don’t All Religions Lead to God? With World Religions – An Indispensable Introduction as a guide, students navigate the multi- faith maze and use their newfound knowledge of 8 of the world’s major religions to reach out to people of other faiths. Since understanding world religions is a crucial and often overlooked part of understanding world geography, our included World Religion & Culture’s study fulfills this need. The religions of the world continue to dominate settlements, architecture, family structures, professions, community design, travel, worship, and government. The World Religion & Culture’s study provides students with a multi-faceted look at the world that helps them expand their thinking and deepen their understanding about life beyond their borders. It is also designed to give students compassion for the unreached peoples of the world, to help them become more deeply rooted and grounded in their faith, and to stir their hearts to share the Gospel with those of other faiths.

I hope something here helps as you ponder your dear family's homeschooling future!

In Christ,
Julie