heartofdakota.com

Hello,

I pulled my 9 year old son (4th grade) out of PS this past fall. After drifting for a bit while I found my footing, I am now considering several different options for him. One of these is HOD, and it looks like he would place into Preparing.

I have a few questions about it and would very much appreciate some input.

1: Rod and Staff English - from the general look of the books and some other reviews I have read, I do not feel my son would work well with it. I am struggling, though, with trying to figure out exactly what it covers. I have read in places that it has a lot of writing. Is it just grammar or is it partly a writing program too? Does anyone have any experience with alternatives and what might work instead? I hope it is okay to ask this - I am just really trying to make this switch a good move for him without loosing any more money to my trials and error approach

2: With respect to ordering: I am trying to figure out what exactly to order. I see the economy package, plus the science add-on, DITHOR (all fine), math (which we are all sorted for) then the Basic Package and the Deluxe Package of books. Do I get them both? One or the other? From the catalog, it looks like the Basic is for Read Aloud and the Deluxe is used in lessons - is this correct? If it is, has anyone just gotten the Deluxe package and then found their own read alouds?

Thank you for the help and advice,
Amanda

Welcome to the board, Amanda! PHFHG is such a good program - we are enjoying it now too. In answer to your questions...

1. I'd encourage you to take another look at R & S English, and at least give it a try. It does cover much more than just grammar, and those skills are hard to fill another way. HOD suggests doing 2/3 of it orally, and having dc write just a section or so. This has worked well for us. Yes, it is not flashy, but yes, it covers everything thoroughly and sequentially so beautifully that where many sources would otherwise have to be used, just the one R & S English source is needed.

2. The Basic Package is the read aloud package for the "Storytime" box of the plans. It matches the history and is excellent. The "Self-Study Deluxe Package for the Independent Reader" is used in the "Independent History" box of the plans. Dc are responsible for doing this box independently, including the reading of the books. This box is full of important skills. The following year (in "Creation to Christ") dc are responsible for all of their history reading. We found the "Independent History" box in PHFHG to be fundamental training for doing CTC's history the following year. If possible, I'd get both the Basic and the Deluxe package. They teach different skills and are both wonderful. If you have to choose between the 2, I'd get the Deluxe Package.

HTH, and enjoy PHFHG - it's full of some of our favorite all-time books and activities!
In Christ,
Julie

I pulled my ds out of ps at the end of 4th grade. I also first looked at Rod and Staff and decided no way would it work for my ds. I used Growing with Grammar my first year. He zipped through it and liked it , but had zero retention. So the following year I briefly used Christian Light Education and it just had too much extra that we didn't need because HOD already covered it and it didn't have writing instruction which he needed to go along with the other writing instruction in HOD. So I switched about 1/3 of the way through the year to Rod and Staff and it takes only about 20 minutes to do and we also do 2/3 rds of it orally and his retention is much, much better than with the other programs. I also love the gentle writing assignments in it. It really breaks things down into manageable chunks and does a great job of teaching things like outlining that other grammar programs just don't cover. So while it is black and white and not super exciting it gets great results.

Thank you for the replies. I am still working through weather to go with HOD or something else. I need to decide soon! It seems everyone likes HOD so that is a strong point

Amanda

I just want to second everything everyone says. Rod and Staff takes us about 15 minutes. Mostly done orally and done on a white board. My son LOVES R&S english. It is extreemly comprehensive and quick. I have tried a few others and this is the one I alwyas go back to. It is not flashy by any means but give it a try. It is probaly the least expensive curriculum you can find. If after a few weeks you don't like it you can always re-sell it.

Can I suggest you go onto the weeks in review and look over some peoples week or their blog posts who are using Preparing. This really helped me when I was deciding to use Bigger with HOD.

Good luck to you!