heartofdakota.com

Jaime1439 wrote:Good morning,

We are looking into your curriculum for our children for the upcoming school year. I have been intrigued by the Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling for a year or two, but have hesitated in purchasing a curriculum in this fashion. I have two children who are currently in the A Beka DVD program. I have to be honest that the only reason I am looking for other curriculum is the cost. Aside from sending them to school, this has been the best thing for me over the last 2 years. I attempted to teach my oldest K5 and found myself slacking in schedule and always behind (I was pregnant at the time and also had a toddler). My oldest (James) will be entering 3rd grade and is 7 years old. My youngest (Laura) will be entering 1st grade in the fall and is 5 years old.

I find CM type curriculum rather confusing, but I want a curriculum that is Bible based throughout and not just in “Bible time”. From looking at your website, it seems that my oldest son would be placed in Bigger Hearts for His Glory. Could this curriculum also be used for my daughter who will be going into 1st grade?
I would not put a first grader into Bigger. I would suggest doing LHFHG with 1st grade options.

Phonics: I have been very happy with A Beka phonics and both James and Laura are doing well with it. James I would consider an “emerging reader” as your website describes. He has good command of the phonics special sounds and rules, but could use some extra practice. Laura is working on blends and short words and is working through the K5 readers very well.

Arithmetic: James does very well in A Beka arithmetic, but could use more practice with speed drills etc. Laura is doing well with her basic math.

Writing: Both James and Laura are learning cursive. James starting in grade 1 and Laura this year in K5. I was thinking of continuing with A Beka for writing instruction. Would this work with your program?
HOD is written where you can use your own phonics, language arts/handwriting, and math. It may add time to your day though if you use a time intensive curriculum for these. Abeka is time intensive if you follow their lesson plans. Will you be purchasing their curriculum guides for these subjects? I would add about an hour to an hour and a half to the approximate times it takes to do your HOD guides to do these subjects with Abeka

History/Science/Social Studies: I feel that A Beka is lacking in this area in the younger years. I am not sure what it is like in years to come, but it seems like it is very light and I am looking for something more.
You will definitely get a different feel for history in HOD than Abeka has in the younger years. A lot of skills are taught through the history and the activity boxes tie into the history. Science does ramp up in Bigger with HOD.
What would your recommendations be in our situation? As a mother who has not in the past been able to keep schedule in homeschooling, will this curriculum just set me up for failure this coming year?
I am pretty familiar with Abeka having used it for most of my education in private schools myself. I have used bits and pieces of it (2nd, 3rd, and 4th) with my chidlren as well. My oldest went through Abeka k4 and k5 for everything. It will give a good education, but it is very different from Charlotte Mason and HOD style learning. A lot of it is just learning facts and rote memorization. We are having a better time and remembering more with HOD. As for keeping a schedule, it is definitely easier to look at than Abeka's curriculum guides. Since you have been doing the DVD's, you have probably had a grid style curriculum guide for the year. The regular parent curriculum guides for parents are not set up this way at all for Abeka and they are full of more busy work than the DVD schedules give out as well. HOD is set up with all the subjects on a 2 page spread in one book. I find it easy to stay on track and keep our schedule moving forward.
I would think that a 5 yr old that has finished Abeka k5 would fit well in Little Hearts with the 1st grade options or maybe Beyond. I would check the placement chart and just circle off which fits your dc better in each category LHFHG or BLHFHG and then just count up the circles and see which has the most.
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
Having done a majority of Abeka 2nd grade with my oldest, I would suggest Bigger Hearts with R&S 2 not 3. We have done Abeka Language 3 with middle dd and it is very similar to R&S 2 in content. I agree that the emerging readers would be a good start with HOD to round out everything and get extra practice. After Abeka 2nd grade spelling, your ds should be ready to start dictation 1 as I remember spelling list 2 and Abeka 2nd grade spelling are very similar with word lists. I will tell you that Abeka math does add to your day with HOD as my ds9 used Abeka Math 1 and Abeka Math 2 alongside LHFHG and BLHFHG. It will add about an hour to the approx. time that they take. So instead of your school day with Bigger running 3 to 3 1/2 hours it will run closer to 4 to 4 1/2 hours.
You might want to take a look at Singapore and see what you think. It isn't about rote memorization, but more about learning the why behind math. This really helps later in Algebra and higher maths. You can know your math facts till the cows come home, but if you don't understand the why behind it all higher maths can be difficult.
My son is doing Bigger for 3rd grade (we have a Dec. b-day) and it is going really well. The boy storytime titles are great!!! He is about 1/2 way through the emerging readers and they have really helped him work on his comprehension and fluency. It is a lot more hands-on than Abeka with geography too. Your child isn't just finding places on a map in a book and answering questions. They get to take the globe and trace the continents and really think and explore geography. The science experiments are not just leading a child in a direction either. I was shocked at my son's first science experiment lab sheet. His guess was spot on and there was no leading. He then got to do the experiment and really enjoyed writing that his "guess" was correct. We didn't get that type of feeling with Abeka's science and my oldest did their science through 4th grade. I feel my children aren't just memorizing the scientific method but truly learning the scientific method.
Anyway, these are my experiences with ABeka and HOD. If you have any specific questions about Abeka and switching, you can pm me if you like. I hope it was okay writing about the differences in our experiences with Abeka.


Thank you for your time!

Jaime1439 wrote:Thank you for your reply!

I got the catalog in the mail yesterday and spent all last night going from catalog to website.

I am leaning toward Bigger for James with R&S English 2 and A Beka 3 cursive for practice. I am not sure about Singapore for math. I see there is a placement test I think I will have him take. I might do A Beka Arithmetic 3 or even R&S Math 3. Does anyone have experiece with R&S Math? Do you love Singapore the most? If I consider him an "emerging reader", does that mean I only need to order the emerging reader books or do I also need to order the Classic or boy set as well? Also, with these changes, will that make the guide confusing or will it be easy to just plug these things into the boxes?
We have done R&S Math as well. It is time intensive, very repetitive, and your child begins writing all their problems on paper starting in the 3rd grade. The good part is you can re-use it easily then b/c it is all hard back books. If you like Abeka Math and it is working, then stick with it. Just realize it will add time to the approx. times of the guides b/c Singapore isn't time intensive and the little synopsis in the catalogs before the books that say BHFHG should take 3 to 3 1/2 hours is assuming that you do it exactly as written. I like Singapore and we have done it some as well. My ds5 is getting to start it from the beginning and I think that is an advantage. My other children all started out with something else and we didn't feel that we could jump into Singapore after giving them the placement test.
The emerging readers set is for them to practice their reading skills. The boy set is for storytime. These are books that are above grade level that you read aloud to your child and there are discussion, activites, and more scheduled in the guide. My son loves the boy set. We used classic with Beyond. All the sets are great, but there are some really great books my boy's boy loves in this boy storytime set.
We use a different language arts and math and it does not make the guide more confusing. I just ignore those boxes in the guide. We do use some of the ones you are mentioning so if you want to pm me...I can elaborate more

I am looking at Little Hearts for His Glory for Laura for 1st grade with A Beka phonics and cursive writing.

My other thought was to do Beyond Little Hearts for his glory for both. Adding R&S English 2 and Math for James and A Beka phonics for Laura with Singapore 1A&1B books for Math. Is this a crazy idea?
If you want to combine, it isn't a crazy idea. I would look at where they both place first on the HOD placement chart. Then I would place where your youngest places and beef up for the older. I think a 1st grader that has been through Abeka k5 could do Beyond. Spelling List 2 is in the Beyond guide and would work well after Abeka Spelling 1. You do not get dictation with the Beyond guide so you would either need to do something else for spelling for your son or buy the Bigger guide for the dictation. He will have done the words in spelling list 2 with Abeka Spelling 2. The next year in Bigger you can add extensions for your son. It is worth a try and if it doesn't work out well, then you can always add in Bigger for your son.