heartofdakota.com

One of the reasons we choose HOD was the fact that I was feeling like my brain was maxed out and didn't have the capacity for planning or being creative at this point in life. I LOVED the idea that everything was laid out together for me and all I needed to do was open the book and go. I also was extremely impressed by the level of Biblical focus the program had! Now we are a few weeks into LHTHG and i am a little confused on using the all exclusive set up... What do you do if your child needs to go slower on a subject (or faster, or just isn't connecting with something)?? I have repeated some things with math and then just doubled up to try and catch up. I am just not sure my guy is really connecting with the activities and stuff. I always held very fondly the idea that with homeschooling education could be individualized to each student. I feel now i am having a little bit of a hard time figuring how to do that with the "all-in-one" curriculum. Also it seems a few things are not lining up very well for us. For example: in Handwriting we were just practicing the basic shapes that go into letters when in math he was already being asked to write numbers 6-10 (1-5 was already passed by as well). If he is having trouble writing those numbers should I have him do it over, just practice more in the next few days, or not worry about it since handwriting is a different subject??

I just keep 2 sticky tabs, one for the main page, and one for where we were in math. You can get packs by post-it at our grocery store or walmart that you can write on, and they last longer than sticky notes. Do you mean he was supposed to write out the words for the numbers, or the numerals? My ds' handwriting has been much slower than the rest of his skills, so I never had him write out the words for math, as he practices handwriting at other times, and that would send him over the edge . I did have him write the numerals as best he could, or trace them if he needed to. I didn't make an issue of it or have him redo any, as I figured he'd improve over time (and he did). It's still all planned out, I just move math along at his pace. HTH

I have two little girls I am combining in LHFHG. The second little girl is just getting ready to start the math although we are several weeks in. I also know that some of the lessons will take her more than one day. I plan on just using a sticky tab to note where she is in math. One sticky tab for the day we are (mostly), and one sticky tab for the math. I like to do math in the summer anyway, so we can catch up the math then.

You can certainly slow down the math if that is needed, just like everyone else suggested, just keep a marker in where you are on math, repeat activities or take longer than one day for a set of pages if you feel that is needed for it to really be grasped. In retrospect, I probably should have done this with my DD, she did get through the material but I know there are some things she didn't really understand or remember. I'm just hoping we are going to cover some of those concepts again.

I too thought it was really strange that while you were just doing beginning handwriting, they had to write 1-10 numerals for the math book. Some of them were really hard and my DD basically ended up writing them not very well, as long as it was recognizable I said it was fine. But also she writes several numbers backwards oftentimes and I wonder if this is because she had to write them that early on. What I should have done (and might recommend for you to do) is either number stickers, or write it for the child. You know they know the answer, that's what matters, not whether they can write it yet or not.

I sticky-tab math as well. My dd5 knows how to do things in her head but her fine motor is not as developed as her mind. So we do math activities and go over the math together, and if she needs help forming a number I just make dots for her to trace. We've gotten through all the numbers but 5 that way. I think it is nice that it is all laid out but HOD encourages us moms to adjust where we need to (without trying to reinvent the wheel) It's nice that we can customize our math, reading, etc. where we need to but still have the Christ-centered core of the program AND have lesson plans already done for us. HTH!

When we were still doing the activities I kept one tab in the Unit we were on for everything else and one tab in the math page. Now that we are doing Bigger Hearts but my daughter is in Singapore 3B, I just check the math box on the page to indicate that we did math even though we aren't doing the lesson printed in the box. We just move ahead one exercise a day.