heartofdakota.com

and what is even more crazy, my husband gave the okay

Introductions first, My name is Elsa and I used to teach middle school in the ps before my last little one was born. I am married to a soldier as my user name indicates. God has us currently stationed in MS with our 3 children, my dd10, ds9, and dd5 soon to be six. We began hsing 2011-2012. My older two were pulled out of ps for 5 very specific reasons. My interest in the Classical approach initially had me considering TOG, but since I am a do everything or die trying kind of girl and it was my first year of hsing, my mission-minded friend suggested MFW. After careful consideration, I thought MFW Adventures would be the perfect fit. I could teach my 2nd and third grader together, select the math and language arts myself, and the lessons were all ready prepared. By the end, I was dreading library visits, science was becoming hit or miss, art was non-existant, and the lessons were not as open and go as I thought they would be and seemed a bit repetitive. When I thought how I could beef it up, it was time to move on. Last summer, my dd5 had her heart set on going to ps like her big sis and brother got to do, and only agreed to stay home if I agreed to teach her first and she had her own curriculum. She can drive a hard bargain Thinking I could improve MFW with study on Charlotte Mason approach led me to HOD. While I wasn't completely happy with MFW our first year, I also was not happy with where my older two placed on the chart and how that would affect MY goal of having them complete at least one 4-year cycle of history by the 8th grade So I opted for MFW ECC for my older two and LHFHG for my dd5.

While we have loved studying missionaries, animals of the different ecosystems, and reading Kingdom Tales by David and Karen Mains, the problems we had last year are still present and just as frustrating. While my ds has learned lots, my dd10 (who we plan to have tested for dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and capd) has not retained much of what I wanted her to learn and the coloring and filling out of the "notebook" pages frustrates her. Currently, it has me teaching from 8am to suppertime and my house is in shambles. My current dissatisfaction had me looking into next year. I spent about week, checking the website, perusing the catalog, and reading about every post on PHFHG that I could find. Finally, last night, I said, "Why wait?" And the two reasons I came up with was it was very financially wise to spend money on a curriculum and not complete it...but what homeschooler hasn't done that and we would be further behind on MY plans. In the end, The Lord showed me His plans are not my plans (duh) and the pros outweighed the con's. I am look forward to shorter days, balanced in learning styles and subjects taught daily, the truly open and go lesson planning, all the guess work being eliminated on whether I am doing too much or too little, transitioning my children gently from all me to independent learning, and just some hand holding as I learn to teach in Charlotte Mason kind of way. All the wonderful study of literature is bonus and has been dearly missed in this house.

Very late last night, I ordered BHFHG Economy pkge along with the Science Add-on, Emerging Reader's Set, Cheerful Cursive, and everything of the Basic pkge except R&S 2 because I started it this year knowing we would eventually switch to HOD. And although the Book sets were very tempting, I figure I already spent enough on hsing this year and between our home library and public library we have at least one of the suggested books for each genre except Biograhies and so I ordered Ben and Me. I figured looking for one book will still go by much quicker then trying to find the 30 or more so recommended in MFW. And quick visits may respark the love of libraries in my children's heart.

Looking forwared to gaining much wisdom from y'all, and believe I already have as you have answered many post with the same questions I had.

Your Sister in Christ,

Elsa

Welcome Elsa. I pray that the journey with HOD is one filled with joy and contentment.

Elsa,
You made a VERY wise investment in YOU and your children's lives! You won't regret it!!

I am in the same boat. My dc are 6 and 8 and after doing mfw adventures last year we are half way though mfw ecc this year and looking for a change. Hod was recommended to me so I am here checking it out. Both of my kids are independent readers and I am having a difficult time choosing what hod manual would work best for us next year. The one I think fits best does American history again just like we did in mfw adventures last year. I wonder if my kids would be bored?

Elsa, welcome to HOD! You will truly love it, I feel sure. We switched from MFW years ago, and really have not looked back. I believe MFW is a wonderful program, but based on what you shared, it seems that HOD will be a perfect fit for you as it has been for me!

Thanks everyone for your encouraging words

Jennifer-Anne wrote:I am in the same boat. My dc are 6 and 8 and after doing mfw adventures last year we are half way though mfw ecc this year and looking for a change. Hod was recommended to me so I am here checking it out. Both of my kids are independent readers and I am having a difficult time choosing what hod manual would work best for us next year. The one I think fits best does American history again just like we did in mfw adventures last year. I wonder if my kids would be bored?

I have to admit that was factor that steered me away from HOD for my older two. I thought MFW would be a nice precursor to PHFHG. Initially, we did great, but when we moved I fell behind. When I fall behind, I tend to stress. When I stress, I tend to take the fun out of learning. When I take the fun of learning, my kids want to go back to public school, even more so now since we are new to the area and they have not made friends. So for our homeschool health, I believe we needed to make the change now. Another important factor that has weighed heavily on my decision is probably not an issue for you since your kids are independent readers. I feel our hodgepodge of Language Arts programs, which has been chosen for my dd10 who is a struggling learner, will do nothing to prepare them for PHFHG. I believe my ds really needs more of challenge in this area, he is on the verge of becoming an independent reader, but I need something to help bridge that gap. I also hope my dd10 will be able to see what reading and writing is really about as we study litertature and the different genres. From what I have read in posts HOD gives a gentle, step by step, encouraging approach to deep learning that hopefully will give my dd10 the desire to persevere when the going gets tough. As for boredom we'll see...I don't think my dc retained much from that year since we kind of sped through it, but I could be wrong. Hopefully, HOD will provide a deeper study of the information we just glanced through.

you are not alone! I just switched this week for three of my kids and I couldn't be happier. I look forward to hearing how the first week goes!
pam

I'm thinking about this too! Switching - I keep longingly looking at CTC for next year and *sigh* I keep trying to get us through the stuff we are doing now.

I laughed when I saw this topic - My husband left the Army (medical board) for injury 5 years ago - but dealing with the VA is *still* a full-time job We have a 4th grader (9yr), a Kinder (5yr), and K-tag-along (almost 4yr - she just can't stand to be left out) and a 1.5yr old. We started homeschooling 2years ago (pulled the then 2nd grader out of private school we could no longer afford) and started with Abeka Academy. It was wonderful as it was a great 'transition' year for us. I learned her learning style, got comfortable with the idea of teaching her myself, and learned that we HATED pure workbooks We still use Abeka for language arts and math at K....the programs are strong, but that was it. We needed something more alive for our history and science and music, and, well, everything else

We did all sorts of research and thought that MFW would be the way to go - we bought MFW K and ECC. But the repetition took all the joy out of the schooling for my K-er. He nearly cried when we talked school time. We switched in January to Sonlight A after seeing how he was such a reader - he could read (or be read to) for hours! It has been an the BEST switch for him! He actually enjoys school again. He actually read for the first time yesterday! Woohoo!

Now I struggle with my 4th - we've been hanging in there with ECC. December was our low point - neither one of us wanted to do school We were tired of repetition, and we found much of the suggested books dry. Text-like sometimes - what we had hoped to skip out on from Abeka. Abeka 4 Math was also causing tears. And we were dragging our feet so badly, we NEVER got to do art (her favorite subject). We were schooling from 8am to suppertime (like 5pm, sometimes later!) and still not getting through everything. I can't say she was lazy - just uninterested. So, we started adding in the read alouds from Sonlight's Cores F (Eastern - we are studying China, Africa, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc) that I thought weren't too heavy (she's pretty mature - I think that happens with dad's deployments - you talk about lots you don't think you are ever gonna talk about). We also switched to Teaching Textbooks. That has made her like school again, and we can get through a day's work in a day, but now all she wants to do is read And it's hard to 'connect-the-dots' on most days for her. It's not that the curriculum is wrong, it just isn't what I think is best. There are still days she drags her feet...and she's really unhappy with the science. We love AIG, but Principles of Ecology is just dry We talked about switching to CTC - her love is history and I really want to start a history cycle. She's excited about the art and the notebooking (we were lapbooking - but the repetition drained here there too - no longer fun). And she loves the graphics on the samples.

Oh, i want to switch now Guilt over the $ is holding me back. So is the idea that maybe I'm wrong and the switch won't help - I know that the change of curriculum isn't a panacea. Arggghhh....But I had to laugh - even my husband is in agreement that SOMETHING needs to change

Ok, thanks for letting me vent. Congrats on your switch!
*disclaimer - none of the above mentioned curriculum is "bad," just not for us apparently*