Valentine's Day fun - Why do you "heart" Heart of Dakota?

[3sweeties]

Just now getting a chance to chime in -- I completely agree with all of the above reasons, but also...

*I love how God, Jesus, and His Word are intertwined in multiple subject areas.
*It has taken so much pressure and stress off of me to have lesson plans/activities already written that match my DC's varied learning styles.
*I would have given up on homeschooling by now without HOD--it has been a tough homeschool year teaching two for the first time plus a new baby!
*I love how simple HOD is to use -- even Preparing has not been hard to implement!
*I love the way the lesson plans are written with a Charlotte Mason bent.
*I also love the unit study approach.
*I love having a wonderful board of Godly ladies I can come to for encouragement/prayer needs/ideas.
*I have truly LOVED seeing my first DS (in his second year with HOD) begin to show the fruit from our first year. He is challenged in a good way and rarely ever complains about school.

I know there are many other things I appreciate about HOD -- there are just too many to list!

[creativemommy]

Ditto to the posts above, but also...

I LOVE the conversations that HOD spurs on outside of our school time. It's usually based on something we talked about during our school time, but these conversations about the Lord happen everywhere and with anyone who will listen, including store cashiers! My children's hearts are being focused on the Lord and what HE wants them to do and they're excited to tell anyone who will listen about HIM!

AND I LOVE how God uses the verses/devotionals in my life! Encouraging me and convicting me at times !

[BrooklynsMom03]

Every day I am so grateful for HOD.....I would not have been able to homeschool without it and my daughter would be in public schools...we tried that a couple times...and it just didnt work either...and without the wonderful lesson lay out...and being able to just sit down and do it....we would not be home schooling.....which makes me sad to think about where we would be right now without that! I love the simpleness of the projects.....we always have things on hand to use...when we need it....and it doesnt take alot time to prepare....which for my personality works so well.....whew....procrastination...and homeschooling...did not go together until now! I found myself last night go over the catalog last night....for all the up coming grade levels...and it felt exciting to see what is in store......Beth in Idaho

[KristinBeth]

We are still new to HOD (LHTH only so far) but we love it. I feel like it's a secret that needs to get out!!! We "heart" the gentle instruction, developmentally-appropriate, carefully-thought out lessons, fun and of course the Bible focus, which is the main reason we chose it. I also heart that Carrie is organized while I am not, the guide is easy to read and use, and there is a great support group of moms like you to help!! I'm looking forward to the rest of LHTH and moving on to our kindergarten year with LHFHG!
Kristin

[tjswaine]

I "heart" HOD because it works for all types of children. It works for my quiet and serious son who loves the "couch snuggling" and it works for my silly and fun-loving son who loves to "act it out".

[Tree House Academy]

Heart of Dakota has been a God send for me...literally. I had to try it twice with my oldest before i realized that this is where God wants us...but it rang loud and crystal clear with my older ds this year. Each day, my children grow in their faith and understanding of Christ and I grow as a Christian mom watching my children take it all in.

When someone asks me about our curriculum, I can't ever tell them enough wonderful things about HOD. It takes me hours and I am all over the place telling them how great it is in this area and that. I don't know how we homeschooled before I came to HOD and I can't imagine doing it any other way now. I praise God everyday for leading me to HOD, givng me this wonderful group of ladies here at the HOD board, and guiding Carrie as she has created these guides and chosen the books for our studies. Glory be to God! I absolutely heart Heart of Dakota with all my HEART! LOL

[pjdobro]

I have enjoyed reading all the responses thus far. So many of them are reasons that we love HOD here too. I had to smile especially at the one that Carrie picks the same books as I would use, because that is one of the main reasons I started with HOD. I already had most of the books! I still find even in the upper programs that I have quite a few of the resources because we have a lot of the same taste in books. I think we have a lot of the same goals, but Carrie actually gets it done!

*I love that the work of figuring out how to use those great books is done for me and even includes wonderful activities for all learning types to help cement the information.
*I love that everything that is needed is covered in a timely manner which gives me time if I want to add in any extras.
*I love that my children get to do fun things in school and also have plenty of time left in the day for imaginative play.
*I love that the program is gentle and respectful of my childrens development, understanding how much they can do at each age.
*I love how the academic skill increases at each level gradually increasing the difficulty so my children are always challenged but never overwhelmed.
*I love how it fosters a love of learning and gradually leads my children to be independent learners so they can be learners for a lifetime.
*I love how my children are developing relationships with the material and making connections between so many different subjects.
*Most of all, I love how my children are growing in the Lord and developing Godly character.

I think I could go on and on, but I'll stop for now. Thank you Carrie for a wonderful program and board. Thank you Julie for putting so much time, effort, and wisdom into this board. Thank you Austin family for giving so much. We love you! Happy Valentine's Day!

[Heidi in AK]

Added to MANY of the aforementioned "hearts," I heart that it is so memorable. We're only on LHTH week 2, but DD4.5 purposely misquoted the "B-B-B" song to be silly, saying that two hipps got on the ark and it sank! Of course, that gave us a teachable moment (after we chuckled about two hippos getting on a boat) in which we talked about how great God is in instructing Noah to build the boat out of a type of wood and design that would hold up the Ark even with elephants, giraffes (her example), and hippos on it! LOL! Great fun, and teachable God-moments too!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

[FiveLittlePeaches]

I'm a little short of time, but we also "heart" HOD.

Here are two unsolicited quotes from my daughter that she said recently:

"When I grow up, I'm going to homeschool my children and use Heart of Dakota." (Can you picture a second generation HODie???)

and

"Mrs. Carrie sure knows how to give great assignments kids will love." And we find that to be true daily.

[John'smom]

We love HOD as well. What I love:
1. Everyday my dc beg me to read more.
2. My dc try and guess what fun/educational activities that they get to do each day. Plus they are planned out and easy to implement with things I have on hand.
3. More Bible in our homeschool than ever before and I love how it's tied in to what we're learning.
4. I'm not stressed out and that makes my dh happy.
5. Even when my dc are running temps, they still want to do HOD.
6. I love that it makes me feel like a successful homeschool mom.

[deltagal]

There are many reasons I love HOD, but today...my 11 yo who is in Preparing was looking at a picture my 13 yo who is in CTC had drawn for his notebook. Without being told what the picture was my 11 yo said, "Don't you think you should have included the two rivers?" My 13 yo gave him a look and my 11 yo went onto say, "Isn't this supposed to be the Hanging Gardens? Well, it would be more accurate if you included the two rivers." And the conversation went on between the 2 of them. I love that they had this exchange and I just listened. My children's knowledge and skills are growing exponentially. With HOD I feel secure in knowing that all the bases are covered. Carrie is truly gifted with a vision for growing a child's heart and mind and an ability to divide it into a daily plan!

[Carrie]

Ladies,

I read this thread over several days and just couldn't believe the outpouring of love for HOD from your hearts! You humble me, and I'm praising the Lord with you today for blessing us with each other! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to share from your hearts! I "heart" each of you too!

Blessings,
Carrie

[Mercy]

I know, I know! Valentine's Day is over! But we are still in the month that we celebrate Valentine's Day....

I been thinking about this post. And for some strange reason, I have been trying to figure out what I DON'T like about Heart of Dakota. I think because it seems to good to be true! This is total honesty here!

Raising my children up in a home that they can learn to love Jesus is Is the most important goal for me! Now, I've only been using this curriculum for a few weeks, about a month... I own preparing, little hearts for his glory, and little hands to heaven. That's a good spread so that I can see the philosophy of heart of dakota. As I have looked over this coming year and the books and all the things that I've seen I am very very please!

Everything that is studied points back to the glory of God.
It is so incremental that it seems so easy yet it's gradually challenging the children.
There is an rythem that is built within it so that they know what to expect next. This alone is teaching my son independence. That was part of the goal of why we came to HOD. The other is that my daughter would have her own school. I knew this was important for my middle child, but what I didn't know was how important it really is for all children!

[Mercy]

Oops! I pressed submit on accident!
I'm not done marveling over to the greatness of his curriculum...lol!

Where I was going is that it is so important to meet each child individually where they're at. Something I didn't quite see before. My main goal was for us all to be on the same page. I was trying to meet each child individually but that wasn't the main goal. Now that I have been using heart is Dakota I can see how beautifully this works! And I don't feel like I'm in too many different places at once. We are using three different guides, So I thought that my brain would be crazy trying to keep up w them all. But really, my oldest is working very independent now. My youngest,is just working on his own little pace. He just likes to know that he has his own school like the big kids. But all this is helping me to focus on my middle. That was Exactly what needed to happen!

We just make sure to meet every day as a family. That creates the family unity that i know is so important.

I love the time increments as well. Because there is so much packed into such a little time, school is really able to get done every single day! No more skipping because we don't feel like we have enough time. The guide is laid out perfectly!

I know there's more that I could say!
But I just wanted to take some time to thank God for this curriculum!
He is so faithful to guide us as we listened to His still small voice.

Praying for my new HOD family.

Mercy

[seekhimfirst]

I have so many reasons that I "heart" HOD but a few in particular just this week. My oldest doing CTC has told me several times that he loves his "history book" and history cd. He usually begs for us to do storytime first when I check-in with him because he loves the books we've read during that time as well. This is a child who isn't "into" reading! Because we try to go by a schedule I have a certain time for him to narrate to me or go over his work, but almost every day when he finishes a reading he is almost bursting to tell me what he just read! He is a very intellegient boy but lacks in the motivation department and CTC has been so wonderful in providing direction for him to do some learning on his own instead of waiting to be spoon fed by mom!

My other two kiddos are doing beautifully also . I am enjoying such a precious time with my youngest doing LHFHG. I absolutely love the history going through the bible. He is asking SO many questions after reading the history portion and the bible time and really thinking and making connections in his life. This week one activity was to respond to some statements I made with either a nod yes or bow and shake head no. When we got to "you love Jesus" he stopped, looked at me, and finally shrugged his shoulders. As I gently pressed him to just give an answer yes or no he finally, in his own words, told me that he didn't know because he disobeys so he must not love Jesus. How awesome that our school days/lessons are so full of opportunities to share the gospel! I can't imagine anything else I would want for his kindergarten year. We love the songs and the Burgess books, too! My middle gal is loving everything about Bigger and I am already seeing some improvement with her oral narration skills!

I used something else last semester and our days were short but at the end of the day I just didn't feel like my kiddos had learned a whole lot. They were all combined together and my prep time became overwhelming to make it work for each one. NOW, my prep is next to nothing, my kids are each learning at their own level and (provided we start on time ) we still have a very reasonably short day, with lots of time to enjoy the outdoors or whatever else we decide!!! With HOD I am thrilled to know that my kiddos are getting a super education and leaving time for me to still be mom and for them to still enjoy childhood!