Should I come back to HOD?

[sharonb]

Hello everyone! I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I am a HOD dropout. We started Beyond earlier in our schoolyear with a 1st grader and a 2nd grader. It was going fine for a while, but then I totally let it bother me that I was ignoring the math/LA boxes since we already were doing other things for those. Plus I kept dwelling on the future, wanting to continue to combine all elementary-age children as much as possible, and knowing that the HOD guides do get more difficult, so in a couple of years when the oldest two are in Preparing, the youngers would need their own program.

Here's where I messed up:
-I was not willing to mark up my guide. I think if I had crossed off the math/LA plans and written in our own, then I would have been happy with that.
-I let a couple of weeks of "rut" give me grass-is-greener syndrome, maybe not for different materials, but for a different method (since we are still reading the history and science books at our own pace).
-I worried about the future financial commitment, since the programs get more and more expensive. I figured if we use an Apologia science book plus something like MOH each year, then I can combine all the elementary age children and it's not that expensive. But if God wants me to use this program, He will provide the money. Plus we are getting out of debt (leftover from dh's seminary years) this year, Lord-willing, so hopefully we can increase the homeschool budget a little bit!

Consequences:
-Our Bible verse memory hasn't been as consistent.
-Our storytime has not been as consistent.
-Our art/project time has not been as consistent.
-Our poetry has not been consistent (or even existent lately).

So, where am I now? I am content finishing out this school year with what we are doing. We are reading God's Wonderful Works cover-to-cover and doing the activities. We are also doing Apologia Zoology 1 and loving it. We are reading Beyond's history books and doing History Pockets as well. But I am thinking about our next school year (which we will start in mid-May or early June). I am wondering if I should get Bigger. I'll have a 3rd grader, 2nd grader, and K (he will continue to tag-along for now, doing what he can. He already has his own phonics and math).

Anyone else drop HOD and then come back? Back when I first started HOD last year I was convinced that God was leading me here (as opposed to grass-is-greener syndrome!). So why did I leave it then? I don't know.

Thanks for letting me share. I am going to pray about this and see where God leads.

[Mumkins]

Me, sorta. I dropped out of HOD after 10 weeks and I really regret it. I can't wait to come back! The kids like it well enough, but I don't. I had a lot of the same issues you do. I'm still wondering how to combine. But one thing to try to remeber, as they get older, they need less help. So you wont always be teaching a lot of guides.

[Tmisek]

I am relatively new here, so I always feel funny about giving advice...but A BIG YES! I think you should come back! We have the Bigger manual and I have been looking through it...it looks awesome!

I would try not to worry right now about the distant future...God has that under control, and we don't even know what tomorrow will bring. In fact, I grabbed my Bible to look for a verse for you, and I turned right to Matthew 6:34..."Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (so true)

I know you will get a lot of encouragement here, and I pray God will make your direction "abundantly clear"!

Blessings,

[sharonb]

Thanks for that verse Tammy! I really love that passage; sometimes it just takes someone else reminding me though!

[juliekay]

Hi Sharon & Mumkins!

We have been with HOD for a year now! My oldest kiddos are a good deal older so I will try to advise you according to my 8 y.o. son and younger dc. Our first year with HOD was a huge blessing! I couldn't believe I found such a treasure of a curriculum that had the Lord as our focal point every day!

When we started HOD we could NOT do it all. In fact, like you Sharon, we began with HOD History and slowly added other things. Now, a whole year later and well into our next guide we know what we're doing, but it took a long time to find that groove.
When it comes down to it - you're the mamma & the one can make it work, but give yourself the time it really takes to make it work. Start with the 1-2 boxes you feel are priority and do those consistently and then add the next 1. We started with Bigger and we did Reading about History box and Corresponding Music. That's all! We still maintained our previously chosen Math & Language Arts. By the end of the year we added dictation. We loved those doing our Bigger so much that we jumped into Preparing this year ready to go! No regrets! We LOVE Preparing and it has taken us a long time to find our groove, but we did.

I think you need to consider each child individually at some point. The past two years I have enjoyed combining my 3 oldest children, but the reason I switched to HOD in the first place is that I found my 7 y.o. drowning in a curriculum was created to combine grades 2-6. Now, I am begging to understand that there is only so much combining you can do. While absolutely loving Preparing I have found that I have had to scale back on the work that was suggested for my 8 y.o. He just isn't ready. In fact, I plan to do Bigger again next year with him. My 2 older ones have blossomed and matured and are already dreaming of knighthood in RTR! My 2 little ones will continue slowly proceeding LHTH along with great FIAR books. My daughter will turn 5 this year so that means sometime within the next year will begin the learn to read journey, but at our own pace. My plan is to have her in LHFHG 2 years from now.

I hope that my long dialog and sharing my plans have some how expressed to you both to just jump in and swim! You will get your groove, just start and enjoy what you can do in the curriculum vs. focusing on what you did not get to!

[sharonb]

Julie-
Do you think your son will enjoy hearing the readings from Bigger again next year since he heard them last year? And, are you ready to repeat all that as the teacher?

At some point if I un-combine some of them, the youngers that tagged-along will end up doing a program that they were involved in to some extent previously. Right now I feel like we've been reading about the pilgrims forever (since we dropped the guide and kind of slacked on history for a while, we are still working on finishing up Stories of the Pilgrims), and the thought of having to read it again anytime soon doesn't really appeal to me! Though my 3rd child only just turned 5, so I guess that's another thing I don't really need to worry about right now!

I actually already own some of the books used in Bigger, so it really makes a lot of sense to me to go ahead and get the guide and do it right. But I might need to slow it down a bit; my oldest will be fine; she just turned 8 so she'll be almost 8.5 by the time we would start it (in June, since we school year-round). My ds won't be 7 until August.

[3musketeers]

Hi sharonb,

Welcome back. Reading your post it sounds like you have enjoyed most of the book choices from HOD. Am I right in reading that you used most of the books, just maybe discarded the T. Guide and read the books at your own pace? Also you are using your own math and LA?

I have many friends that love to branch out on their own and do there own curriculum. They mix and match. Some of these wonderful ladies are beautiful mentors to me. I am amazed at the cool stuff they do in there homeschool. I, on the other hand, am one that loves to have the structure of a guide. I enjoy not having to plan lessons ahead. I also don't feel confident enough in my own choices to be sure I'm covering it all. That's one of the reasons I love HOD. Carrie (who in my opinion is an expert at this) has done all the work for me. But some moms might feel the structure and plans cramp their teaching style. It just depends on what kind of teacher the mom is.

HOD is very flexible. But I understand your feeling of not wanting to mark in the book. I do mark in mine, but I have used another curriculum in the past that I refused to skip a thing in the manual. My boys were drug through numerous "girly" books, as well as the fact that we were all burnt out by February trying to keep up. If you are a mom who likes to have some freedom with your plans, then you would also have to consider if you can use the guide as just that. A guide. Then go ahead and x out math and right in your choice. If one book is not holding the children's attention sub in another. But only you can decide your way of doing things and what things bug you.

I think the idea of combining children together is a good thing. But I totally agree with juliekay on this one:

Now, I am beginning to understand that there is only so much combining you can do.

I think you can often combine children 1-2 years apart in age in certain subjects. But for each child to really learn at his level they will need individual lessons. I have really hurt one of my ds's love for listening to stories at one point, due to having him listen in to stories that were above his listening level. I know teaching several different curriculums is very hard to think about when all the kiddos are young. Eventually your older ones will need less of you. That will give you more time to work with your younger ones. Carrie has even incorporated helping the student become more independent into her plans. This will begin to unfold as you older dc are able to read and write well on there own. Carrie also seems to have considered time involvement with the youngers as opposed to the olders. The younger guides seem to only take 1-2 hours to complete, where as older guides meet longer time requirements appropriate the upper grades.

When it come to budgeting for guides, I think your wise to consider that. You will want to be honest with yourself as to how much you have to spend. I do think Carrie's TG are some of the most reasonable out there in comparison. The book choices are easily found at the library or resale book store. Because she has made her guides so flexible you can easily substitute different genre books. I would say that as dc get older, curriculum just gets more expensive. They need more so you pay more. I do agree that if the Lord wants you to use HOD He will provide it.

As to the consequences you listed. I have enjoyed the balance of HOD guides. With other curriculums it either seemed we never got any of the things I wished we were doing done or we were doing so much we wanted to drop. I have found this year that we are getting it all in and feel very comfortable in how it all runs. Carrie has narration(easy day) in History planned on the day you have an experiment (harder task) in science. She plans one day for vocab, one day for geography, one day for art, etc. I don't feel like I can't get those in, because any other seperate curriculum in those subjects would require an assigment every day.

All that to say I think you can't go wrong with giving it another shot. But I would try it as written, long enough to really see how it works. I also would be sure you have the right fit for everyone, in your guide selection.

In the long run, you will know what is the best fit for you.

Big thumbs up for coming back!
Cindy

[sharonb]

Cindy-
Yes, we are reading most of the books, just not using the guide. I mistakenly thought that I could manage to plan and schedule everything myself, but like I said, some of the subjects just aren't getting done. I let my desire to keep them combined and keep everything cheap down the road influence what I was doing this year. Maybe that's a good thing though- I've tried it both ways and found that I really do need a guide to keep me accountable on things like copywork, poetry, Bible study, etc. I passed my Beyond guide onto someone else, so I'll just continue doing what we are doing until the end of this schoolyear, and work on doing next year better.

I added up the total cost of the books we'd still need for Bigger, and it's not that bad. We have a tiny library here, so I have to buy everything. I have plenty of time to sell books we aren't using and save up money though! My Grandma occasionally gives me money for our homeschool too; hopefully she'll continue being so generous!

While I do plan on keeping my oldest 2 combined for as long as possible, at some point I'll have my 3rd child doing his own thing. Like I said, he did not enjoy Little Hearts when we tried it. Maybe we'll try it again when he is in 1st grade, which will be 2011-2012. The older 2 would be starting Preparing then, so it'd be a good time to let my 3rd child stop tagging along. That plan gives me plenty of time to think about the options and save up the money (I sold my LHFHG set when I realized that ds was not ready for it; our HS budget is so tight that I really can't afford to keep things around that we are not using right now).

Thanks everyone for the kind words of encouragement.

[mskogen]

I totally agree about the manual keeping me accountable. I get more done on the days I am using the manual than on holiday when we are doing are own thing. Thanks Carrie.

I sent you a private message.

[mariaw]

I will say that the minute my 1yo spilled a cup of water all over my guide, I was set free from the "keep the perfect guide" syndrome. Now I write all over it, and intend to keep it forever as our "record" of what was done. It makes all the difference. USE your guide! LOVE your guide! WRITE in your guide! (wink, wink)

[2littlemisses]

sharonb,

I am not sure where you live but we have interlibrary loan and we can get books from anywhere in the our state. That maybe an option for you and a big money saver.

Blessings.

[Sharon]

I just wanted to make a little suggestion about the guide. You could put a sticky note over the boxes that you are not using and write in what you want to do instead, and then it will be real easy to remove them and still have a clean guide!

[sharonb]

I just wanted to make a little suggestion about the guide. You could put a sticky note over the boxes that you are not using and write in what you want to do instead, and then it will be real easy to remove them and still have a clean guide!

yeah, I had thought of that. Though I'm also considering using the guide as our records. Right now I write down everything we do in a notebook. If we switch back to HOD I could just write down all the specific lesson #'s and the dates we do them directly in the guide. That would be simpler than writing down a Unit # and Day in my notebook and having to refer to the guide later if I want to remember what we did!

[Carrie]

Sharon,

I just wanted to let you know that it's nice to "see" you again. The ladies are doing a wonderful job of pondering solutions and of talking through things with you. They have made some excellent suggestions that will help guide you as you ponder too. We pray that you'll find the fit that works best for your family.

On a sidenote, I've always struggled with writing in my guide too, so you're not alone.

Blessings,
Carrie

[juliekay]

Julie-
Do you think your son will enjoy hearing the readings from Bigger again next year since he heard them last year? And, are you ready to repeat all that as the teacher?
At some point if I un-combine some of them, the youngers that tagged-along will end up doing a program that they were involved in to some extent previously. Right now I feel like we've been reading about the pilgrims forever (since we dropped the guide and kind of slacked on history for a while, we are still working on finishing up Stories of the Pilgrims), and the thought of having to read it again anytime soon doesn't really appeal to me! Though my 3rd child only just turned 5, so I guess that's another thing I don't really need to worry about right now!
I actually already own some of the books used in Bigger, so it really makes a lot of sense to me to go ahead and get the guide and do it right. But I might need to slow it down a bit; my oldest will be fine; she just turned 8 so she'll be almost 8.5 by the time we would start it (in June, since we school year-round). My ds won't be 7 until August.

Hi Sharon. I understand your dilemma. Some of the what is covered in Preparing is covered in Bigger too- for example - Columbus - and I can only read/teach/ study-with-my-kids about a topic for so long. Personally, I plan to just briefly talk about/read about him in review form and move on!

About this, "they were involved in to some extent previously".... I'm learning a lot about this. Maybe your kiddos are different, but what I am learning is that while they were present they only absorb so much. For example, my older boys LOVE the Focus on the Family audio series of the Chronicles of Narnia. I think I have listened to each story at least 3 or 4 times along with my now 8 year old. On a car trip recently we re-listened to the Magician's Nephew and he admitted that he doesn't remember ever hearing this and LOVED it! I am finding this to be a consistent "problem" in "subjects" we already covered in science, history and art too. I would hate to have him in the future say, "I don't remember" only for me to respond, "Yes, we did. Remember, when you were 6?" I certainly don't remember much of anything from my elementary years... Of course, I wasn't homeschooled!

So, maybe you can follow your Bigger Guide for everything and when you get to a book or topic that you all remember clearly just review it and move on. This will free you up to go to the library and extend that study in science that week or work a little more on a hands-on project or work a little harder on the basics...

You'r the Mama. It has to be fun for you too otherwise you won't do it! We love HOD! I hope that when you start again that you can too will find it a profitable way to homeschool!