**Please help me choose!!

[threegreatkids]

I read the link comparing MFW with HOD. It was helpful....thanks!! Is there anyone on the board who has actually USED both MFW and HOD that could give me an idea??

I used SL for 3 years, MFW for 2 years and just started HOD. I think the post written by Julie last summer, comparing the HOD and MFW, really hits the nail on the head! One thing that really jumped out (which I really understand now that we are switching) is that MFW places high priority on keeping the family together for grades 2-8, while HOD prioritizes fitting the program to the particular child. That was exactly why MFW stopped working for us! We loved Adventures, which is written for a narrow age range, but when we got to ECC (grades 2-8) I didn't feel like it was working as well for us. But these 2 things (family doing the same program vs. program written to fit the needs of the child/age/developmental level) really are mutually exclusive. You must choose which matters the most to you. After much prayer we decided that it was more important to us the have programs that fit our kids, and we're willing to let the "family cycle" go.
Now that we've started LHFHG, and I've spent many hours looking at the BHFHG and PHFHG manuals, I can see that there are so many other things about HOD that fit us better...the book choices, the types of crafts/activities, the wonderful bible teaching, the daily schedule, having the books on hand...I just feel like we've come "home" here.

[my3sons]

Both of you mentioned doing LHFHG with the 5 and 7 y.o. I'm considering your suggestion. My question is: What about phonics, reading, and math? My 5 y.o. is just STARTING phonics and isn't reading yet. (She'll be in kindergarten). It looks like a great fit for her, for sure! But my 7 y.o. is reading long vowel words and has worked most of the way through Singapore 1 A (Not Earlybird, regular), so there's a big gap between the two. How would I handle this? I don't want to hold back my 2nd grader by forcing her to do spelling tests with "hat", "bug", etc. b/c she did all that last year and I want her to progress. So I think SHE fits better in the Beyond program. But would that be too much for my 5 y.o.?? I'm still going to be going through LHTH w/the 2 and 3 y.o. and can't do 3 other programs, too!

Reading through this portion of your goals, I think I'd do Beyond with the 5 and 7 yo then (with appropriate LA and math down-sized for 5 yo, as well as any other writing modifications for your 5 yo to do the Beyond assignments). CTC would still work great for the 10 yo!

My other question is about time. If one program is 4 hours and another is 2.....is that a 6 hour school day?! I think that's too long for us.

We did PHFHG and BLHFHG last year. PHFHG takes about 4 hours to do, and BLHFHG takes about 2 - 2 1/2 hours to do. We began at 8:15 and finished by lunchtime. Here is a link to schedules so you can see how different moms go about doing this - I found this thread very helpful in setting up our day:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093

Also, does the CTC program have something similar to MFW where the children learn about/prepare Biblical feasts? That looks like fun, so just wondering if CTC has any "fun" activities to do as a family, or is it all just my 10 y.o.??

CTC has your 10 yo do a fantastic history project and science experiment every week. We did projects and experiments in PHFHG, and had a blast! My ds sometimes chose to do his baking projects for supper (or in the case of the Egyptian pastries, and the Renaissance feast, we did them over and over again ). My ds also almost always showed my dh his projects over supper, which was kind of fun as a neat recap of the day. If you'd enjoy making these things more of a family affair, you could certainly do that.

In Christ,
Julie

[Carrie]

Mamochka5,

You caught me as we're wrapping up the new book, which is always our busiest season! So, I'm just popping in and out on the board right now. Normally, you'd have had a response from me awhile ago, so I appreciate your patience.

The ladies are doing a fantastic job of helping you sort through your options and find the right fit for YOUR family. At HOD, it does take time to find the fit that will be right for each unique family, as we are not a one-size fits all company. However, you'll find that finding the right HOD placement is time well-spent as it gives you a more customized education for your kiddo's specific needs and actually makes you look at each child as an individual to see what the needs for that particular child may be.

I have a few scenarios swirling around in my head, after reading through the thoughts you've shared with the ladies.

Option 1: Place the 5 and 7 year olds in LHFHG (and add the right side of Beyond for spelling, hands-on math lessons 1A/1B, copywork from poetry in Appendix of Beyond, the language arts lessons once weekly, and the Emerging Reader's Schedule in the Appendix for your 7 year old). In this option , you would do CTC for the oldest.

Option 2: Combine the 5 and 7 year olds in Beyond, doing it on a 4-day plan (thus stretching it 9 weeks into the following school year to allow your 5 year old to grow into the program better). In this scenario, you would need to add a phonics program for your 5 year old, a handwriting workbook like A Reason For Writing, Kindergarten math, and possibly the Rod and Staff workbooks. You could do this easily by adding those parts from the right side of LHFHG, or you could do these options without the LHFHG guide if desired (but then you wouldn't have the hands-on math lessons in LHFHG) In this option, your oldest would do CTC.

Of the options swirling in my head, these are my top two choices. I have a somewhat similar age spread at my house (having a 13 year old, 10 year old, almost 7 year old, and a 3 year old). The spread in abilities simply due to age and maturity is large between what a 7 year old can do and what a 10 year can do. We will be doing CTC with my 10 year old this upcoming year and Beyond with my almost 7 year old. My 3 year old will begin LHTH (slowly), and my oldest will pilot a portion of our new program. So, I can empathize with your situation. I do enjoy my school days with my kiddos thoroughly and find it very manageable to run more than one HOD program. We've been doing two or more for years now. Only you can know what will suit your family best though! I pray the Lord will give you the peace that you're seeking with whatever your decision may be!

I also wanted to mention that the HOD guides from Preparing Hearts on up switch to craft-type projects and do include baking, simple feasts etc. So it's not that we don't do that type of thing at HOD, but rather we wait to schedule it in our guides until the child is at an age where he/she can truly do the projects for himself/herself and follow the directions to carry it out (rather than having the parent be in charge of it all)!

Here's a link to a past thread describing some of the projects within Preparing Hearts: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1715


Blessings,
Carrie

[Mamochka5]

Carrie,
Thank you for answering! I looked at the link you posted for the Preparing projects and they look so great!! Can you give me an idea of what types of things there are like that in CTC, which is what I will probably do with my 10 y.o. son?? Just a few would be fine...just to give me a better idea. Are the projects and feasts in CTC something we can do as a family (as in Preparing) or is it all independent? I love that there is a lot of independence in CTC, but don't want my son to feel like he's "alone" all day b/c he really enjoys doing things with us, too. kwim?? Also, have your dc enjoyed The Story of the Ancient World book? I've never seen this before your catalog.

With my 7 and 5 y.o. girls, I'm still not sure, although I'm sort of leaning toward doing Beyond with them both and adding in ETC, Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Math, HWOT with my 5 y.o. I'm not sure the benefit of combining them in one over the other. Any ideas for pros/cons of LHFHG vs. Beyond for my girls? Just based on age, it seems like LHFHG would work best b/c they could both move into Beyond next year when they are 6 and 8. But, there are no guarantees of where either will be in reading next year. My biggest concern is not wanting to hold back my 7 y.o. I know they'll need separate math and phonics/reading instruction for a few more years (as will the 3 and 2 y.o. later on). As far as math ideas goes, I'm probably fine with the K level w/ the counters, etc. we have, but start liking more ideas in the actual Primary levels. And I am still not sure about going off the history "cycles", so for long term, I just don't know. It seems like the Beyond guide may be more helpful to me at this point with the copywork and spelling right there, but I don't know. I guess I need to look at the spelling lists and see if she's beyond those or no. I guess a review in the beginning wouldn't be bad, so long as it progressed to include new things after not too long. (?) Also, my 5 y.o. will still want to join the littles for LHTH b/c she really enjoys it, even though she knows her letters. My 7 y.o. joins in for the crafts, but likes to be the "teacher's assistant."

The other thing is I just don't think we can buy 2 full programs AND an additional teacher's guide this year. So I need to choose carefully.

Thank you all for your patience in answering my many questions. I think you are correct, Carrie, that finding the right placement will pay off in a better school year. I just don't know sometimes if my questions make sense. It's been helpful reading your suggestions. I look forward to your reply. I know you're busy...thank you!

Liz

[zookeeperof3monkeys]

Hi,
I want to add in one thought that I haven't seen mentioned yet. In the appendix of Little Hearts there are lists of optional literature supplements. From 3-8 per unit. I think you could do Little Hearts with your 5 & 7 yr old and add in the literature supplements for your 7 yr old borrowing the books from the library. In the Literature Supplement Unit 1 lists Daddy, Is There Really a God? by John D. Morris, Bombus the Bumblebee by Elsie Larson,Who Made God? and Other Things We Wonder About by Larry Libby, When Dragons' Hearts Were Good by Buddy Davis, and 95 Animals of the Bible by Nancy Pelander Johnson. There are 34 such lists, that's a lot of reading options geared for younger children. You could even have her copy her favorite passage out of the book of the week for her copy work. Or you could use a poetry book like A Child's Garden of Verses for copy work. In this option both children will get to benefit from the dramatic play, rhymes in motion and fine motor skills. I think it's easier to "beef up" a program than it is to cut it down a notch. My personal experience with 7 yr olds is that they are still a bit "wiggly", this program would help "get the wiggles out" with the dramatic play etc. I would do Little Hearts and Little Hands while your older child does Independent work, Math, grammar etc. You could listen to the older child's read a loud time as a family.

If you wanted to use HOD longer, you could put your 10 yr old in Preparing. I have my 10 yr old going into Bigger this fall. My reasoning for this is HOD builds upon skills previously learned, my son had never done narration or copy work before so this route suits him perfectly. Also, Bigger is biography based and he really wants to do it. He's finishing up Beyond now.Good luck with your decision,any choice you make within HOD will be an excellent one
Blessings,
Kim

[Mamochka5]

Does it affect what I should teach the 5 and 7 y.o. knowing that my 3 y.o. will actually be 4 y.o. in September?? Should I keep doing LHTH with him and the 2 y.o., or do him along with the older 2 in LHFHG? Or is 4 too young for that?? I'm also looking for pros/cons of doing the girls (5 and 7) in LHFHG vs. Beyond, based on all that I've shared. I am finding your insights so helpful.

Another question about CTG (I'm hoping Carrie gets a free minute to respond to my last post). Does the guide just schedule Singapore math, or does it have activities? Who writes the teacher's guide for Singapore...Carrie or another company? I need help teaching the 4 and 5 level of Singapore, for sure. We did Rod and Staff last year b/c it was so much easier for me to teach.

Thank you!!!

[WigglesMom]

There aren't any more hands on activities past 2b in the HOD guides. You have to get the home instructor's guide in 3a and above to have instructions. Singapore makes the home instructors guides and you can look at samples on the singapore site. Make sure you get the home instructor's guide b/c there is one for classrooms as well. http://www.singaporemath.com/Primary_Ma ... d_s/39.htm
BTW, I pm'd you about the spelling.
Val

[Mamochka5]

Aaahhhh! That's me being overwhelmed and confused. I still don't know what to do. If anyone else has an idea, please jump in!! I'm sorry to take up so much time. I just don't want to order the wrong materials.

Thank you!
Liz

[Mamochka5]

Thank you so much to all of you who posted suggestions. I thought I would let you know what I've (sort of) decided. Based on everything, I think I will just continue with LHTH for the youngers, do our SL Core 4/5 reading--adding in appropriate phonics and math--and do some SOTW I and activities w/the 5, 7, and 10 y.o. We will probably also read History for Little Pilgrims b/c I already have it.

I was (am??) planning to do CTC with my 10 y.o., but was/am having a hard time deciding between CTC and MFW's CTG. I haven't gotten much feedback on that, so I'm still not sure. CTC's not even out, so no one can tell me anything. I can't get a feel for the pros/cons of either for my 10 y.o., so I'm almost where I started. I'm also not clear on what I really NEED to buy for CTC, compared with CtG. My preference for my 10 y.o. is to do one of these programs, adding in a little SOTW for my 7 y.o., but if I don't choose soon, we may all end up doing SOTW again.

Anyway, thank you for your input. If anyone wants to post advice for me about which to use (or PM me), I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks!
Liz

[WigglesMom]

Hi,
I hope you get more replies about CTC soon. Have you tried searching for CTC in the search at the top. I know there was some posts about notebooking and such for CTC that might help in your decision.
Val

[MommyInTraining]

Hi Liz,

I know Carrie is trying to get CTC ready so that it can ship the first week of August. Julie is probably busy helping with the project too.

I am pretty certain that once they get that taken care of they will be back to chime in with advice.

Hang in there !

[mamaloves4]

Hi!

I think you have been given some wonderful suggestion by the ladies here on this board. I just want to share with you my experience with doing MFW (adventures) and my thoughts on HOD.

We went with MFW because of it's strong missions emphasis and the idea of multi-level teaching. We switched to HOD because the multi-level teaching was not a good fit for us (many ladies on the board here combine their children and it works beautifully, but not for our older two, I may be able to combine my younger two), the crafts/activities often didn't get done due to obscure items that I don't normally have in hand, and the length of time each subject took varied (which made my daily schedule fluctuate), and my library(rural) wasn't well stocked in non-fiction and fiction books MFW recommended. All that said, it is still a good program and many people I know happily use it. I was not comfortable with some of the book selections that my younger children would be exposed to at such a tender age, which meant I would need to 'tweek' things and I would rather not do that.

We made the switch to HOD part way through our second year with MFW and it has been a wonderful fit for me and my kids. I appreciate that the length of lessons/boxes take approximately the same time each day. The supplies are ready on hand as they are usually everyday kitchen/grocery supplies. I love they layout of everything over two pages and I don't mind flipping to the appendix as I was doing a lot more flipping with MFW. I also appreciate Carrie and her gentle approach with the tasks to do in each box. My oldest dd has done a wonderful job of learning and retaining quite a bit. My second dd is thriving being in her own level and I found that last year we were done by noon doing two guides and sometimes LHTH.
Overall, HOD has been a blessing to me as a busy mom who happens to homeschool and to my dc since everything is laid out so nicely mama actually does it!!

I hope this helps and keep praying and trusting that the Lord will guide you to exactly where he wants you to be.

Jess

[my3sons]

Carrie,
Thank you for answering! I looked at the link you posted for the Preparing projects and they look so great!! Can you give me an idea of what types of things there are like that in CTC, which is what I will probably do with my 10 y.o. son?? Just a few would be fine...just to give me a better idea. Are the projects and feasts in CTC something we can do as a family (as in Preparing) or is it all independent? I love that there is a lot of independence in CTC, but don't want my son to feel like he's "alone" all day b/c he really enjoys doing things with us, too. kwim?? Also, have your dc enjoyed The Story of the Ancient World book? I've never seen this before your catalog.

Carrie is putting the final touches on her latest guide, and I have been helping her this past week. She'll be back on the board very soon and answering questions again. She and I just finished going through CTC multiple times from cover to cover, so I can try to answer your questions here. Carrie will certainly chime in as well then. Just off the top of my head, here are some of the awesome CTC history projects we'll be doing: baking Egyptian palace bread, having a Roman feast, making a prayer box to be "nailed" to our doorframes (or taped ), carving a signature seal, experimenting with catapults, making a slingshot, designing Roman clothes, "competing" in Olympic-style games, and many, many more projects that are written to be independent but could obviously easily be more family-oriented if that is something you desire.

[my3sons]

Does it affect what I should teach the 5 and 7 y.o. knowing that my 3 y.o. will actually be 4 y.o. in September?? Should I keep doing LHTH with him and the 2 y.o., or do him along with the older 2 in LHFHG? Or is 4 too young for that?? I'm also looking for pros/cons of doing the girls (5 and 7) in LHFHG vs. Beyond, based on all that I've shared. I am finding your insights so helpful.

I think I'd keep the 2 and 4 yo together doing LHTH. For your 5 and 7 yo, it really would work to do either LHFHG or Beyond. Usually, I'd say do LHFHG, but because of all that you've shared, I think I'd lean toward doing Beyond 4 days a week. It sounds like you are wanting a challenge for your 7 yo, so Beyond would fit that. As long as your 5 yo can hang with it without feeling over-challenged, it should be fine. Doing it 4 days a week would match your CTC schedule, and LHTH can also easily just be done 4 days a week, taking longer to finish that as well. Otherwise - if you find you want an easier year for the 5 and 7 yo, and can swing it financially, I'd get LHFHG and use that as the core, and get the Beyond manual for the things Carrie mentioned.

Another question about CTG (I'm hoping Carrie gets a free minute to respond to my last post). Does the guide just schedule Singapore math, or does it have activities? Who writes the teacher's guide for Singapore...Carrie or another company? I need help teaching the 4 and 5 level of Singapore, for sure. We did Rod and Staff last year b/c it was so much easier for me to teach.

Thank you!!!

The CTC guide just schedules Singapore math on a 4 day schedule, using the Textbooks and Workbooks. It has schedules for Levels 3, 4, and 5 of Singapore. The Textbook is the teacher part, and the Workbook is the student part. We've found that to be enough; if you are wondering if you should get the Home Instructor's Guide as well, I think I'd give it a try with just the Textbook and Workbook for awhile first. Then, if you get going and feel you want more instruction time, then you could get the HIG at that point.


In Christ,
Julie

[Mamochka5]

Thanks, Julie. Those sound like fun activities for CTC. We would definitely want to do those as a family. I'm wondering how much longer our day would be doing History activities and Science as a family, instead of independently. Do you have any idea how much time it would add? Are most activities "doable" for my youngers?? My 10 y.o. said he'd feel "sad" to do most of his school alone. I'm trying to have him do some parts independently and some with us....the fun stuff and science. Plus, I'd really like for us to do ONE science. But, I can't really figure a way to do it all at the moment. It's hard without actually having the guide in front of me. I've never seen the CtG guide either, so I'm flying blind on both. The one week sample is helpful, so I'll look that over some more.

Do the bird and plants science books have any pictures?? The sample chapters don't show any photos. I don't think my dc will do well (even my 10 y.o.) with a text-only (dry) science book.

Still thinking about what to do with the girls now, too. I guess I'll just hang out until Carrie is able to get back to the boards.

Thanks again,
Liz