heartofdakota.com

I recently learned about HOD. I had been fairly set on using My Father's World next year, but had some things about I wasnt too impressed with. After looking at the samples of the teacher's guides and books for HOD, I think it might fit us. I'm a little confused though on how to pick the right level, and how or if you can combine kids in one program. Next year will be our 2nd year homeschooling, so I"m still not very confident in myself doing it. We did a textbook based program this year and want to get away from that now.

I will have an 8 year old boy that will be on 3rd grade level all across the board. He reads and retains information very well. Not crazy about writing, but he can do it. He also has done well with a 2nd grade level grammar this year. He loves science, and in depth science and is interested in history.

I will also have a 5/6 year old (she will be 5 when we start and turning 6 end of September) girl. We tried a textbook K curriculum this year and she didnt do too well with it. We've backed off and are only doing letter and letter sound recognition right now. By next month I think we'll be able to start small words. She does well with math though, except for clock and calendars...we havent gotten that yet.

So, I was thinking if we went with HOD, I would use "Little Hearts for His Glory" for my 5/6 K girl and "Preparing Hearts for His Glory" for my 8 year old 3rd grade boy. Does that sound appropriate? Is it possible to combine kids in one program? I'm wondering though since I have a "moving right along 3rd grader" and "kind of reluctant Ker" next year that combining probably wont work well. If I use 2 programs, how hectic and long would that make our day? (I also will have a 2 year old when we start).

Thanks for any advice. Im still figuring out how HOD works and how you piece your program together and add all the parts, but after studying the website a while I think I've got it understood better.

Forgot to add....my 8 year old works well independently and has not been challenged much at all by our 2nd grade curriculum this year (Bob Jones). So he's ready for a more in depth curriculum.

http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php
If you will check the placement chart then share where your children fit that would be a great help.

From what you have shared then I would say Little Hearts for your youngest and Bigger for your oldest. There is a lot more writing in Preparing than Bigger Hearts.

Using that chart....my Kindergartener (5/6 years old) fits perfectly in Little Hands. My 8 year old 3rd grader is a mix of Bigger Hearts and Preparing Hearts. He hasn't done cursive yet, but he knows parts of speech and can write short narratives and paragraphs now...but I"d say not very well.....he needs more work on it. So Bigger Hearts might be better for him. I'd rather be slightly below than way too far above what he can do.

Also, our family is fairly new to Bible study. How would that play into teaching my older child the Bible portions?

Well, a lot can change rapidly with your youngest and phonics. I would lean towards Little Hearts. Let her watch the Leap frog video Letter Factory. She will most likely quickly learn her letters and sounds.

I would not worry one bit about the Bible study. In fact you can both learn right along side each other.

I would not try to combine because at their skill levels it would be harder to combine than do separate guides.

For those ages I would suggest doing Bigger and Little Hearts.

I meant to type "Little Hearts" for K I'm still new to remembering the titles.

Thanks for sharing about your dc, and I'm so excited for you to begin homeschooling with HOD! It sounds like you have checked out the placement chart and found a good placement for your dc with "Little Hearts for His Glory" (LHFHG) and "Bigger Hearts for His Glory!" (BHFHG) I bet your dd will LOVE LHFHG as much as my 6 yo does! He cannot wait for school each day. For your ds, I bet he'll love BHFHG too! Our sons especially loved the outdoor adventure type stories of great Americans in the Eggleston books. There is great guidance for developing writing/LA skills in notebooking, copywork, dictation, and vocabulary cards. R & S English 2 is considered a year advanced and will give a great foundation for the subsequent years to come in English. R & S English 7 and 8 are high school credit worthy, so completing Level 6 by the close of grade 8 is a common goal for dc. As far as the Bible Study, the guide has key ideas with the main ideas, and the questions are guiding in that the next question often give clues to the answer to the previous one. I think you will thoroughly enjoy this! It has been so helpful to me teaching the boys as it focuses on Godly character qualities, which helps me discuss things like responsibility, honesty, diligence, trustworthiness, etc. with our sons.

HTH, but what are your thoughts?
In Christ,
Julie

Thank you for all of the information! Still so much to decide on though.....I'm honestly going back and forth between HOD and 2 other curriculums I've found....all are similar yet different. I do however really love how HOD sets their teacher's guide up in boxes for each subject area....how ingenious for us box checkers! My only concern is doing 2 completely separate programs with 2 kids and a toddler.....vs another curriculum where I could combine my 2 kids for all except math and language arts. However, I'm not sure my 5/6 year old would get all I wanted her to out of that....just a lot to think about and pray about.

Thanks so much for all the advice.

Hi, to put it in perspective the daily time for Bigger is about 2.5 hours and for Little Hearts about 1.5 hours if you are using all the materials HOD recommends, and once you and your children get comfortable with doing school the HOD way. There is a "sticky" thread at the top of this board that's called "Let's Share Our Schedules" where you can see how other families are successfully running 2, 3, or more guides at once-HOD makes it possible

starryiz929 wrote:...I do however really love how HOD sets their teacher's guide up in boxes for each subject area....how ingenious for us box checkers!

I just wanted to add that not only do I love the boxes, so do my dc! They enjoy initialing each box as they complete it, and they can literally see their day progressing... check, check, 1/3 done, check, check, 2/3 done, check, check, DONE! It alleviates the "how much school do I have left?" question completely! It also makes it clear they should be moving on, instead of forever working on one thing. For my older son, I love seeing his initials on independent boxes when we meet for our midpoint meeting time. It makes it super easy to have him show me his work, do discussions, and read key ideas as summations. It makes his independent work a success, and helps me remember my parts as his teacher to make it a success too. In the older guides, starting with PHFHG, each box has a very helpful letter in its top right hand corner... "T" for teacher-directed, "S" for semi-independent, and "I" for independent. I LOVE this! It keeps a nice balance to our day, helps my ds grow and mature in the areas he should be taking on more independence in, and helps me keep a handle on the skills that are newer and need to be taught. It also eliminates the discussions about which part is "his" part and which part is "my" part. I'm a born 'hoverer,' so my ds especially appreciates the "I" boxes!

starryiz929 wrote:...My only concern is doing 2 completely separate programs with 2 kids and a toddler.....vs another curriculum where I could combine my 2 kids for all except math and language arts. However, I'm not sure my 5/6 year old would get all I wanted her to out of that....just a lot to think about and pray about...

There are also concerns to consider when combining, and combining in one curriculum is not always easier than teaching 2 separate curriculums. Here are a few threads written by Carrie that may be of interest to you - so many, many, many families wish they'd read this at the start of their homeschooling!

What would my child be missing out on if I did choose to combine him/her in a guide that doesn’t fit him/her well on the placement chart?
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9342

Why do we ask you to look at the placement chart for each of your individual children when considering the best placement for your family?
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9339

Why don’t you recommend having children younger than the target age range of the HOD guide simply listen in with the older student’s guide?
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9341

My experience with this...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7019&p=51157#p51157

HTH as you prayerfully ponder what is best for your family! I can honestly say, don't worry about teaching multiple guides with HOD. I've done it through 6 months of bedrest several times over, through poor health myself, through my father's poor health, through my dh's constant traveling, and through working part-time myself - AND, HOD has had my back every time. I can look back on my past 10 years of homeschooling with HOD with joy, with contentment, and with delight at the years ahead - even if trials come. And my dc enjoy their schooling too. We are so blessed! I want that for you too!

In Christ,
Julie