New to HOD, and have some questions.
Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:50 pm
Hey, everyone! I am happy to be here. My name is Sara, and my wonderful husband and I have three great kids ages 5, 3.5, and 10 months. We are a conservative Christian family with a vision to raise our children in the Lord, and part of that for us, as for many of you, is homeschooling. We have not yet begun using Heart of Dakota, but I am planning on using it this coming school year. So let me get into our position and some of the questions that I have about the curriculum. Sorry, this will be long!
Let me begin with our oldest, our daughter Cassidy. She is a very advanced, highly intelligent, hilariously funny, heart-warmingly sweet, extremely strong-willed beauty with a big dose of ADHD. She basically catches on to concepts before I can finish teaching them. My challenge with her is simply keeping up with her. I reluctantly started K with her when she was a month shy of 4 years old, because academically she was ready. I say reluctantly, because I felt unready to move so quickly. She, however, has thrived on working through K and now, this year, 1st grade. She's doing amazing. She loves it and is retaining well.
Next is our sweet and completely adorable son Joel Peter, who is 3 and a half. As he has matured I have assumed (wrongly) that he would follow a much more traditional schedule. I began just a couple of months ago working some preschool with him. And I realized that he is already far ahead of where he 'should' be. He can almost read already, and I've put almost no time in with him. He works with numbers with confidence and accuracy. He's working through a K math book right now with no difficulty. I'm trying to 'teach' him letters and discovered he not only knows 3/4 of them, he knows their sounds as well. I guess sitting on my lap as I teach Cassidy hasn't been for nothing.
If you've made it this far, bless you! Now for the questions.
Cassidy: I have realized that, although she still enjoys it, our schooling has become simply a stuffing of facts into her poor head, and I really want to bring it back into proper focus, which is relationship! I feel that HOD will help us do that. However, having looked at the placement chart, there is some discrepancy in where to place her. Originally, I planned to put her in Beyond Little Hearts, and sort of slow down and redo first grade. However, she is going to be ready academically to start English 2 and Math 2. Can I use the history and literature portion of Beyond with 2nd grade English and Math?
Joel: Age-wise, Joel would be in Little Hands to Heaven. But he'll really be ready to start reading and math by this coming fall. Would it be wise for him to start working slowly through Little Hearts for His Glory instead? I think he would be bored with Little Hands at this point.
Input? Thanks!
Let me begin with our oldest, our daughter Cassidy. She is a very advanced, highly intelligent, hilariously funny, heart-warmingly sweet, extremely strong-willed beauty with a big dose of ADHD. She basically catches on to concepts before I can finish teaching them. My challenge with her is simply keeping up with her. I reluctantly started K with her when she was a month shy of 4 years old, because academically she was ready. I say reluctantly, because I felt unready to move so quickly. She, however, has thrived on working through K and now, this year, 1st grade. She's doing amazing. She loves it and is retaining well.
Next is our sweet and completely adorable son Joel Peter, who is 3 and a half. As he has matured I have assumed (wrongly) that he would follow a much more traditional schedule. I began just a couple of months ago working some preschool with him. And I realized that he is already far ahead of where he 'should' be. He can almost read already, and I've put almost no time in with him. He works with numbers with confidence and accuracy. He's working through a K math book right now with no difficulty. I'm trying to 'teach' him letters and discovered he not only knows 3/4 of them, he knows their sounds as well. I guess sitting on my lap as I teach Cassidy hasn't been for nothing.
If you've made it this far, bless you! Now for the questions.
Cassidy: I have realized that, although she still enjoys it, our schooling has become simply a stuffing of facts into her poor head, and I really want to bring it back into proper focus, which is relationship! I feel that HOD will help us do that. However, having looked at the placement chart, there is some discrepancy in where to place her. Originally, I planned to put her in Beyond Little Hearts, and sort of slow down and redo first grade. However, she is going to be ready academically to start English 2 and Math 2. Can I use the history and literature portion of Beyond with 2nd grade English and Math?
Joel: Age-wise, Joel would be in Little Hands to Heaven. But he'll really be ready to start reading and math by this coming fall. Would it be wise for him to start working slowly through Little Hearts for His Glory instead? I think he would be bored with Little Hands at this point.
Input? Thanks!