What is one area in which you've seen growth or progress...

[Carrie]

Ladies,

I love to take time to reflect on areas where I see my kiddos growing and changing right before my eyes! If I don't take time to notice, I can really miss these little advancements. So, I thought I'd share an area for each of my kiddos where I've noticed growth this year through HOD.

With my littlest one who is 6, I can really see that he is paying attention so much better to the readings in LHFHG, especially in history, devotions, and storytime. What a difference in his understanding and comprehension!

With my next son who is 10, I can see such an improvement in his spelling and drawing. He is doing much better with dictation than I anticipated, and his drawing is also coming along (which is a huge shocker as he is not inclined that way).

My 13 year old is really coming along in independence and work habits while doing MTMM. This is a huge step, as he has always been my very creative, but easily distracted, child. He is also really excelling in his notebooking and taking such care with it! I must say that I am thrilled by this, as he had gotten quite messy for a couple of years.

My 16 year old is really much happier overall this year as a junior. I can tell that he is getting older and is really coming into his own with his schoolwork in general. He has a good mix of subjects that he enjoys, and he's learning to like the challenge. He has always been my "get it done" child, who sometimes misses the joy in the journey, so this change does my momma's heart good! He is also my poor test child, who does not get to reap the benefit of using the HOD plans in high school (as they're not written in time for him to fully experience).

So, how about all of you? In which areas are you seeing growth and progress in your kiddos as they travel through their HOD guides?

Blessings,
Carrie

[TrueGRIT]

I have seen where my 8yo son could not do written work in Beyond, to being able to do copywork in Bigger Hearts.
This year he is also able to narrate back to me and do a fair job. The other thing is that he is begging for more History/Science/Storytime readings!

So, you see, I couldn't just choose one thing. He has made too much progress for that.

It is too soon to see much progress academically in my 5yo from LHTH, but he has made great strides in maturity.
And I do see bits and pieces of more retained knowledge in his 'subjects'.

There has been enough growth that friends are moving over to HOD.

Thanks a lot HOD!
Mikki

[psreit]

My 9yo has shown improvement in so many areas this past year. She had CP and eye tracking problems, so there has been some delay in certain areas. I was concerned that there was not a lot of improvement for a good while, but now I am seeing maturity that I know has helped. Here are some areas of growth. When she was learning manuscript, it was difficult because of eye tracking and hand/eye difficulties. Now she is learning cursive and is doing great. She is actually enjoying that. A big change from the tears while learning manuscript. Her drawing has also improved tremendously.

Academically, she is improving in Math, which is a relief to me, even though she is well behind her peers in that area. She has always had good reading comprehension, even though she gets distracted easily. I am seeing some improvement in her spelling. That is another area of difficulty. So, overall, she is progressing. Maybe not in leaps and bounds, but enough to bring mother relief. The short lessons in HOD is just what she needs.

I have to say that what makes me happiest is to know that she is growing spiritually and in character. HOD has also been a huge help in this area.

[countrymom]

My younger (just turned 6) who is in LHFHG 1/2 speed is starting to be able to focus. He can actually sound out a 3 letter word now. This is a huge step for him and I have not pushed because of his age, but am pleasantly surprised to see where he is at. We are improving in following directions and obeying the teacher (mommy) too. I owe that to the action rhymes, where he really tries his best to make it his own . Everyday we talk about following directions, obedience, etc. and then we start our action rhyme over. Thank you HOD, for those incorporating so much into the curriculum!
My older (7 1/2) is really coming along in so many fronts in Bigger. I am absolutely amazed at his grasp of geography and I can honestly say I doubt many 7 yr olds understand geography like our "HODers" do. I think I have seen his biggest improvements in reading and spelling, and boy oh boy, dictation (which we have just started) is forcing him to be careful in his writing .

[mom23]

I love this thread! What a great way to stop and be thankful!

My 5 yo (turning 6 this Saturday!) has come so far with his writing abilities in LHFHG. He loves the Do it Right workbook, but his writing is also really improving with his numbers in the math book and writing his name. His coloring is also getting much better. I'm also hopeful that his reading is turning a corner-it's been much better over the past few days.

My 8 yo has hugely improved in his attitude. We used to have huge meltdowns whenever anything was a little challengning, or he didn't get it right the first time. While it still bugs him, he's learning to take a deep breath and try again. He's willing to do even things like writing (which he hates) with a positive attitude. Major victory! He's also coming really far in his ability to sit and listen. His favorite subject is now History, and he loves to hear about the pilgrims (we're doing Beyond) and will often try to get me to read a few extra pages-which I never do, but he keeps trying. The ER's have also been a tremendous help with his reading. I never thought this would be a child who enjoys reading, but he really does. Really, all of these areas tie back to his attitude, which has allowed him to realize that he actually likes some of these things when he's willing to sit and listen and really try. HOD has been a very helpful tool in giving him small, doable chunks to challenge him.

My 10 yo has grown through Preparing in her narrations, and just her general reasoning about the meanings of the things that we're reading. It was not all that long ago that I was really not knowing what to do with her for things like History and Bible-anytime we had discussion questions in the box it would turn into a big standoff between us, with her not wanting to say anything, or giving one-word, completely random answers like, "God" no matter what I asked. Wow, I had nearly forgotten about those not-so-fun days! We received some great advice from other HOD moms and I spent a few weeks modeling the types of deeper thinking we were looking for. After a few weeks, she had the confidence to give it a go on her own, and now she's giving beautiful written narrations and great answers to discussion questions.

[LynnH]

I think the area where I have seen the most growth with my ds is in his ability to answer the deeper questions that are part of the storytime box in Rev to Rev. The first couple weeks of this year were tough. I have noticed for the past 2 books he is really getting it. He seems to be able to relate to the characters more. I have also seen his research skills improve. He is better able to pick out important information.

[davisfam7]

This is a great thread! I have seen a lot of growth in so many areas. My husband has even noticed how much easier our school days go with HOD. This is our second year using Heart of Dakota, and my kids were none to shy about letting me know that I was absolutely NOT to change anything about our curriculum for this school year! That spoke volumes, as I can usually not get any of them to agree at the same time on the same things where school is concerned!!

My 10 yo son is doing remarkably well with dictation. He hated doing spelling lists so I thought we were really going to struggle. He loves it and typically gets everything correct the first time around. It has boosted his confidence in writing and spilled over to his reading! Whoohoo!! He loves the history this year in RTR and the devotions and bible time are really showing fruit in this little guy!!

My 12 yo son is doing an amazing job with everything this year. He is also doing RTR and loving it. His handwriting had gotten a little sloppy at the end of our school year, but with the beautiful notebooking pages he really takes his time and does a great job.

My 14 yo daughter loves the Nature journaling in MTMM. She likes the whole program but really has gotten into the Nature journaling. We are having great discussion about the speeches and everything that was going on during this time in history. I have enjoyed reading all the books, each one just gets better than the last one!

My 16 yo son who is in 10th grade this year is really owning his education this year. He is doing MTMM with some beef-ups for highschool credit. It amazes me how much research he has done on the side to further investigate many of the topics brought up in MTMM. He has enjoyed every book. This is huge for a kid who couldn't stand to read anything two years ago! I truly have HOD to thank for making him an avid reader.

Thanks Carrie for the great guides, they have made a huge difference in how we do school, and the enjoyment with which we get it all done!!

[MomtoJGJE]

Wow... this is a thread that makes me stop and think. It's hard to see progress when you are looking day to day.

Jayden - 9.5 - Preparing -- She is really coming along with narrations and other writing, like the poetry assignments. She now appreciates different styles of writing and loves copying different things out of other books unrelated to HOD. Basically, starting her own Common Place book! She also has come to a place where she understands that she is just going to have more work than her sisters, but that Grace is going to be there soon too. So she won't be alone in schoolwork taking more than 30 minutes.

Grace - almost 8 - finishing Beyond -- Her handwriting has improved the most out of anything.... reading has as well. I was having to help her with several words on each page in the ERs, but just in the past month she's gone to where there are very very few words she needs help with. Maybe one or two in the whole passage. Therefore her comprehension has also improved. Her handwriting though has gone from random spacing and random capital letters with no punctuation to very very beautiful handwriting that makes me jealous.

Julianna - 6 - LHFHG -- Her handwriting and spelling has also come a long way... but just from basically nonexistant to the random spacing and capital letters with no punctuation... but she's actually getting words close enough in her own writing that we have very little trouble reading what she writes now. Everything else just isn't moving fast enough for her. She is absolutely ready for Beyond.... so I'm going to start spelling list one and ERs after our Christmas break.

Evie - 3.5 - LHTH -- she recognizes all her letters and numbers and colors and can write her name (although she spells it E I V E instead of E V I E, and yes I'm aware it's backwards and have a feeling it's because old habits of sitting across from lefties die hard with a right handed child ) So just those things clicking into place with her. Outside of school, her speech is her biggest area of improvement. We've gone just in the last month from us barely able to understand anything she said to now we only miss one or two words a day.

Interesting story... I put Jayden and Grace together to do the science from Beyond the other day. It was the one where they have some sort of circle snack and learn about the phases of the moon. I can see how HOD teaches them methodically how to put information together and make connections. Grace doesn't have that quite yet. She is learning, but the connections are just not there... I think due to her having had less information put in. Jayden however is completely there! It was so awesome to see them and mentally compare them When I explained the phases of the moon, then told them that one day on the moon was equal to 30 days on the earth, Grace stared at me with a blank stare while Jayden put it together that the phases were like the sun rising and setting here on the earth. That the reason we see the different phases of the moon is because the sun is rising and setting on the moon. (which is really sad because I obviously missed that the first two times through Beyond, since I went through it twice with Jayden when she was little... I was just as amazed as Jayden was!)

[Mommamo]

Love this thread! I love seeing how everyone's kiddos are growing with HOD.

Caroline (9) - She has come so far! The main area where I've seen growth for her I mentioned in another thread, and it's written narrations. I am so proud of her ability to get her thoughts down on paper now! It is still nowhere near where she is when she does oral narrations, but it's definitely coming along. Another is just in overall responsibility. She came to me on her own and told me she wants to work harder on handwriting and spelling--two areas that are just tough for her. I am so proud of her for that.

Dalton (6 1/2) - He has really grown in his listening and comprehension since we started LHFHG. I am so glad to be back to HOD with him, and I'm also glad that we took a year in between LHTH and LHFHG to allow him to mature a bit. I feel like he's getting so much out of LHFHG, but especially the Reddy Fox stories. He is able to listen and really grasp what is happening in the stories.

Emma Cate (4 1/2) - She is doing so well in her gross motor skills. Listening/comprehension hasn't been an issue for her like it was for her big brother, but her motor skills have significantly improved, and I think it's from doing the activities that are part of the rhymes and that go along with the memory verses. In fact, the memory verse and accompanying activity is her favorite time of day.

Lillian (1 1/2) - Now she obviously isn't doing HOD yet, but she comes and sits with us while we do LHFHG, and she is really loving being included as a part of the lesson with the middle 2. She mimics us when we do the rhymes, which is HUGE because she was a bit behind developmentally (looonnng story), but now she is trying to mimic, and just has such joy whenever we get to that part of the middle 2's lesson.

[bethelmommy]

My oldest two are combined in LHFHG.

DS 6.5 has really progressed with drawing and creative thinking. He has mild CP and is on the autism spectrum, so these two areas have typically been challenging for him. It is exciting to see him now enjoying the various art, science, and dramatic play activities.

DD 5 has recently made tremendous progress with her reading. She started TRL early at her insistence, but really did not have the attention span to do more than a page or two at a time. However, the last few weeks she has shown a lot more focus and is flying through TRL.

We are having a great year.

[homefire]

I love hearing the progress that others are making, it reminds me that I'm not the only one out here plugging away.

Dd 7 in Beyond has matured a lot in her dictation and handwriting and we will be starting DITHOR after Christmas.

Ds 6 in LHFHG has grown by leaps and bounds in his attention span and his attention to detail. I think this is largely due to the emphasis on Charlotte Masons philosophy of small bites but quality work.

Dd 4 has also matured a lot using LHTH this past year. I think it has more to do with the one no one time she gets with me first thing everyday.

Honestly I think I have been the one to grow the most. The layout of the guides and open and go simplicity has helped this dyslexic, ADD Mommy get a grip on our school days!

[Rachel]

ds (10)- Preparing- I think we are starting to see dictation begin to pay off! He has always been very behind in spelling (even with being 10 in gr.4), but now I am starting to see his confidence improve, as well as his actual spelling in written narrations. Still not at grade level most likely, but moving that direction...

dd (7)- Beyond- She is starting to soar in reading! Really enjoying the ER set (w/a friend), but also an avid reader at other times in the day, and reading aloud to me from other books in the afternoons. She will definitely be ready for DITHOR by next year. Also, her cursive is really beautiful and she is very happy to do her Cheerful Cursive lesson every day (shocking me, after having dragged reluctant boys through another cursive program). I'm really thankful for that HOD cursive suggestion!

[moedertje]

What an encouraging post, it is great to see the different areas that kiddos are making great strides!

With my dd5, I noticed great improvement in her reading as we are getting to final lessons in TRL combined with some gentle ETC activities. She is beginning to see the "special sounds" in the words! She is very interested in reading during family devotions and is able to join in and sound out some of the difficult words!
She has also very much improved with her listening skills during bible reading, devotions and story time, to be able to answer the questions!

With my ds7, the improvements I noticed are in his spelling, as we are concentrating on the "special sounds", he is beginning to understand the concept of spelling much better. He amazes me at the answers he gives during our bible discussion time, the connections he is able to make now, as we are past the halfway point in Beyond they have improved much!

With my ds 10, I noticed improved handwriting . It slows him down very much, but I'd rather him learn to do things slower and better! He has also shown great improvement in English, half way through R&S 3, I got a bit nervous, but he has grown into it very nicely. I must mention vocabulary, I don't think that without the great vocab activities my son would be able to understand how to find words in the dictionary so easily, or retain their meaning.

One other area that does not come natural to our family is narration. I am excited to see how all of my family is improving in narrating!!,
All in all a great thank you to HOD

[school4princesses]

Great and timely thread!

My just-turned-five-year-old is using LHFHG. She loves it! We are going slow - top half of both pages one day, bottom half of both pages the next. Her reading is really taking off. But she enjoys school so much so that she is mad we are taking a one week break for Thanksgiving! I told her the break is for Mom, not for her.

My second grader has made the transition to Bigger quite nicely. I had assumed that we would be going half pace for a bit longer than we have, but she is keeping up. She is loving learning cursive, though she still prefers to use printing when she writes her own stories, which she does several times a week. She LOVES the storytime books. She'd just as soon ditch history and double up on storytime! She is doing a very good job with narrating back from storytime (unlike with her history ) especially considering this is her first year doing such a skill. She is very happy to have a one week break, however.

My sixth grader is using RTR. She is doing quite well. She is my ADD/SPD girl and distractions have generally had their way with her. We started off our year with the goal being to finish her school work by 3:30, which would mean that there were minimal distractions. For the most part, she has done this, and generally has enough free time in the day to play with her sisters. She is also doing a great job with the written narrations. We need to work on the oral narrations, however. She is my drama queen and seems to want to retell EVERYTHING instead of pick out the important things. I'm pleased with her progress though, as this is her first year with HOD, so I was a little uncertain of her placement. I think we got it right though.

My eighth grader is using Rev2Rev. She is having a bit harder of a time. We made some changes in where she is required to do her schoolwork and she is finally starting to find her groove. The improvement I've seen in her is her attitude towards certain subjects. She used to hate history and science, and make sure everyone knew it. While they will never be her favorite (as Language Arts is her love) she is finally doing the work without complaints. Since we are new to HOD (and Charlotte Mason in general,) I started off the year without having her do the Extensions. I am hoping to add those in after our Christmas break. She has surprised me with how great she is with her oral narrations. We aren't yet up to the full six minute detailed ones, but will add those in after Christmas as well.

[andreacress]

Loved reading all your posts!

My ds (11 yr) is doing so well with CTC. The area where I have seen the most growth has been with the poetry. At the beginning of the year, he wouldn't even read them out loud and now he really seems to enjoy his weekly presentations. He sets up his watercolor picture in a special place, has me seated and then makes a grand entrance. I always give lots of applause!