heartofdakota.com

My boys are 8 years old. I am looking at going back to Heart of Dakota for history and bible. I have science, language arts, and math covered outside of HOD. I have been doing my own history but I'm burned out and would like some open and go. We've done over two years of US history. I think all of us would like to do world history so Preparing really appeals to me.

Academically we are very strong readers but not in cursive or ready for the writing/composition aspects of Preparing. But I'm wondering if it would work given I'm doing language arts outside of Heart of Dakota?

Would the history and bible in preparing be too much for us at these ages (content to mature, less than appropriate/interesting, etc.)? My kids love books but do learn still with hands on. I'm not sure from the samples how much hands on there is at the Preparing level. I just don't have it in me to create a world history program for us I don't think!

8 "seems" very young for Preparing, especially with where they are in writing. The writing portion of Preparing has nothing to do with what LA you do either. There is ALOT of writing (some cursive, some print) everyday with either science, history written narrations, poetry, dictation, copywork, etc..

Have you taken the placement test to see where they would best fall?? You could ALWAYS do it half paced, taking two years to complete the work vs. one while they are learning cursive and increasing their writing endurance.

My 5th grader will be doing Preparing in the fall, but because of the above, I am not putting my 9 year old in until the following year. He'll be doing Bigger.

They fall clearly in Bigger. I guess I should do Bigger. I just wasn't excited about more US history and they've asked so many questions lately about world history. But I'm sure we'd benefit from the Bigger guide more in all the other ways.

Do the older books used in Bigger portray Native Americans in an inaccurate or negative-only light?

Rachelle wrote:
Do the older books used in Bigger portray Native Americans in an inaccurate or negative-only light?

I have never gotten the impression from any of the books in any of the guides I've used that any race or people group has been looked down on or put in a negative light.


HTH,
Stephanie

frankesense wrote:

Rachelle wrote:
Do the older books used in Bigger portray Native Americans in an inaccurate or negative-only light?

I have never gotten the impression from any of the books in any of the guides I've used that any race or people group has been looked down on or put in a negative light.


HTH,
Stephanie

I would agree! I think it is an accurate portrayal of history. Behavior in times of power struggles over land ownership have historically been riddled with less than kind behavior both in word and deed - on both sides - and I think that this is captured well without being overly graphic, violent, or wordy. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie