Introducing myself.

[Cindie2dds]

Hi everyone, my name is Cindie. We are completely new to Heart of Dakota and I have two daughters (Juliette, Jan. 04 and Jordan, July 06). We will be starting in the fall. I have so many questions, but I think I'll start off with the basic ones. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

We are just finishing Sonlight P4/5 with my oldest. While we have enjoyed it tremendously, my younger daughter really can't join us right now like I believe she can with Heart of Dakota. How much can my then 3 year-old do with us? I have LHFHG. I am hoping this is where we should start. How many of you out there do this with kids the same age as mine? Can they do the science part together? I got the K science and Primary 1A Singapore since my oldest has already completed Earlybird. We have the Rod and Staff books already, and the CLP Nature Readers, so I think this is going to be a great fit for us. It's very different from what we are used to, so any tips for both kids, send them this way. Has anyone taken the binding off the Teacher's manual to have loose pages to make it easier to handle?

Thank you so much for your help!

Cindie

[gratefulmama]

Hi Cindie!
Welcome to HOD!! You are going to love it! I am excited for you and Juliette! It will depend I guess for Jordan on how much she can do with you and Juliette but she may be able to listen to some of the story time, and a lot of the your left side "learning thru History" - dramatic play and rhymes for sure! You may want to do LHTH with Juliette at some point before she starts LHFHG. It is lots of fun. As far as taking the binding off the manuals goes, I've heard of people doing it, but just to let you know, they are bound with a lay flat binding so you dont have to worry about pressing the book open! I put stick on tabs in the back of mine for math, history supplements, etc. Otherwise, I'm sure some others will be along to welcome you and help you out with some more tips!
Many Blessings,
Victoria

[Teena6]

Hi, Cindie. This is my first year using HOD. I am doing LHFHG for my 5 & 6 yr olds. Well, my 6 yr old has turned 7 and my 5 yr old will turn 6 this summer. We love it. I know your 5 yr old will love it and I do believe your 3 yr old could follow along too. I know some other ladies will share that have used HOD for a long time.

I love it.... can't say enough good things

My 11 yr old daughter loves it too. She is in Bigger with extensions. I love how it correlates everything together... she LOVES it and gets it!

I am not sure about the binding thing.

Welcome!

[eazbnsmom]

Welcome Cindie!

[my3sons]

Welcome to the HOD Board, Cindie! LHFHG is a wonderful program, and I know you and your dc are going to enjoy it as much as we did. LHFHG sounds like a good placement for your 5 yo, and your 3 yo would be able to enjoy a portion of it. As gratefulmama suggested, you may want to do LHTH with your 3 yo. That would be super easy to do - just 20-30 minutes a day - and it would fit your 3 yo very well. Then, whenever your 3 yo gets wiggly during the more sit-down type portions of LHFHG, you can just let her wiggle off and go play because you'll know you'll be doing LHTH with her to cover her bases well. I would look for you being able to combine your 2 little honeys in the left side of the HOD guides, and then have them do different right sides of guides for their LA and Math down the road. This is very easy to do, and would meet each of your dc's needs so well! You will know best what you wish to do, but if your end goal is to combine as much as possible (and your dc are definitely close enough in age to do so), then getting your 3 yo LHTH would start her on the road to knowing her 3 R's well and would get her ready to combine more with older ds through the years.

In Christ,
Julie

[Cindie2dds]

Thank you, Ladies! Okay, so the left side of the Day's lesson is the one that my younger one can do with us and then Storytime on the right-hand side. The fine motor skills, phonics and math we could do when my younger is taking a nap. Have any of you used Explode the Code for phonics? We used the primer (Get Ready, Set and Go for the Code) this year and it was a lot of fun for her. I was wondering what everyone else uses. The Rhymes in motion looks like fun, but I don't recognize some of the tunes in the back. Is there a website that would give an example of the tunes that I don't know? How do you guys do the "Hide 'Em In Your Heart" CD? I was going to put it in the car since we drive a couple of times a week into town.

What did you ladies like about LHTH for my 3 year old? I wouldn't mind getting it, but I want to know what you enjoyed about it since I just purchased LGFHG and BHFHG. I need to tell my dh why it is necessary before I purchase something else.

Thank you so much for your help!

Blessings,
Cindie

[Dustybug]

I've been using LHTH with my 3 year old since Feb(when she turned three) and we LOVE it. It's so simple and easy to prepare for, there aren't a ton of extras and everything is right on level with what my DD can understand. She asks for "school time" everyday and sometimes gets upset on weekends when I tell her we're taking the day off! There are tons of activities that really help her grasp the Bible stories, letters, etc. I would recommend it to anyone and will be starting my DS on it when he turns 3 as well.

[my3sons]

Thank you, Ladies! Okay, so the left side of the Day's lesson is the one that my younger one can do with us and then Storytime on the right-hand side. The fine motor skills, phonics and math we could do when my younger is taking a nap. Have any of you used Explode the Code for phonics? We used the primer (Get Ready, Set and Go for the Code) this year and it was a lot of fun for her. I was wondering what everyone else uses. The Rhymes in motion looks like fun, but I don't recognize some of the tunes in the back. Is there a website that would give an example of the tunes that I don't know? How do you guys do the "Hide 'Em In Your Heart" CD? I was going to put it in the car since we drive a couple of times a week into town.

What did you ladies like about LHTH for my 3 year old? I wouldn't mind getting it, but I want to know what you enjoyed about it since I just purchased LGFHG and BHFHG. I need to tell my dh why it is necessary before I purchase something else.

Thank you so much for your help!

Blessings,
Cindie

I used just the Explode the Code workbooks (1-3) over the year as a supplement to my phonics program. I let my ds choose to do 1-4 pages, and he enjoyed that. For the Rhymes, if I don't know the tune, I just make up my own or say it in a poetic-type rhythm. Whether I am singing or saying it in a rhythm, my dc enjoyed the actions and the words. For the Hide 'Em in Your Heart CD - it is meant to be played every day as a help for memorizing the Scripture. We often started by listening to the track listed in the plans each day to help my dc practice their verse before saying it for the Bible study box. With one of my sons, we marched around the kitchen singing it together. With my other son, I held him in my arms (I know he's kind of getting old for this, but he's little and a real little cuddler ), and sang it together. Either way, the music was a huge help in committing the Scripture to memory.

I really loved everything about Little Hands to Heaven! Here are a few favorites...
*learning an action and sound for each letter gave me a great cueing system to use with them when they were doing phonics later and made beginning to read a snap
*the activities were short, fun, and our dc often kept doing them long after "school" was over, which gave me time to homeschool my older son
*it only took 20-30 minutes, required no prep on my part, and made the child I was doing it with feel special and get his "mommy time" in with me
*the Bible focus was wonderful - my dc loved the Bible so much the cover came off
*it made me do art projects, etc. with my dc, which I don't think I would have really gotten done otherwise on a consistent basis (and my projects wouldn't have tied into the Bible so nicely)
*it made me be a more "fun" mom with my little one, especially once I was homeschooling my older son
*I no longer felt like I had to come up with things to do that were fun and educational - LHTH made this easy and filled that void

In Christ,
Julie

[erdrmom]

I really loved everything about Little Hands to Heaven! Here are a few favorites...
*learning an action and sound for each letter gave me a great cueing system to use with them when they were doing phonics later and made beginning to read a snap
*the activities were short, fun, and our dc often kept doing them long after "school" was over, which gave me time to homeschool my older son
*it only took 20-30 minutes, required no prep on my part, and made the child I was doing it with feel special and get his "mommy time" in with me
*the Bible focus was wonderful - my dc loved the Bible so much the cover came off
*it made me do art projects, etc. with my dc, which I don't think I would have really gotten done otherwise on a consistent basis (and my projects wouldn't have tied into the Bible so nicely)
*it made me be a more "fun" mom with my little one, especially once I was homeschooling my older son
*I no longer felt like I had to come up with things to do that were fun and educational - LHTH made this easy and filled that void

I second everything that Julie said about LHTH! I have been using LHTH with my youngest since Jan, after he turned 3. He wanted his own school time. We are doing it slowly to try to make it last until the end of the next "school year." It is very easy to do even alongside LHFHG, or BLHFHG. He sat in with us for the first part of LHFHG, but the further along I got, the more I realized that he needed something at his level.

As far as your question about what to do with the Hide 'em in Your Heart, we have had these CD's for years, and we used to listen to them in the car. I brought them in to use for school, and my dd would dance or sing to the music as I prepared for the right side of the lesson. I would put the song on repeat and we'd listen to it 3-4 times before we continued. It gave her a break in between, and gave me time to move books around.

Welcome to HOD....you will love it!

[Carrie]

Cindie,

I just wanted to welcome you to HOD! We're glad to have you here. The ladies are doing a terrific job of helping you talk through your options. If you have other questions, ask away. We're glad to help!

Blessings,
Carrie