heartofdakota.com

Hello forum people! This is my first post so forgive me if I am doing something wrong! I am still new to homeschooling. I have four children ages 5, 3, 1, and a newborn. I just recently learned about Heart of Dakota from a friend. I did a lot of research comparing HOD with Sonlight which was the curriculum I was using. I decided to make the switch based on the philosophies, ease of use, and PRICE! Right now I am having difficulty deciding where to place my five year old daughter.

We did Sonlight 4/5 preschool and K reading. I am most concerned about placing her in the appropriate reading program. She can read words that "follow the rules" and can write sentences. Sonlight doesn't teach many sight words in K nor do they teach any of the phonics rules beyond the very basic. When I look at the program placement chart, she is more in the BLHFHG than LHFHG, but either way she would still be one of the phonics programs so I feel I should keep her in the LHFHG--I'm not trying to raise little geniuses. I am leaning toward The Reading Lesson to be our phonics program.

I have two main questions. One, is there anyone else who has made a transition from Sonlight to HOD who might have some insight on how the programs compare. Secondly (and more importantly), does the Reading Lesson go beyond what she knows now, and in your opinion will this program work for us?

Thanks so much for your help!

Blessings,
Mary

Mary I'm new to homeschooling myself so I can't answer your question. But you might get more replies if you repost this on the main forum. =) Blessings!

Thanks! I'll have to sit and figure out how to do that!

Hello! We went through both Sonlight 3/4 & 4/5 before deciding it really wasn't the right fit for us. Before I ever started researching curriculums I had stumbled across Little Hands to Heaven. I had a 3 year old at the time and was just looking for some fun things to do. I didn't realize it was part of a whole curriculum. So as I have been researching and researching I keep coming back to HOD and feeling a huge peace about it.

My now 4 1/2 year old is also reading. He has a good handle on all the sight words I've taught him so far but he doesn't write more than a couple letters and I don't really push academics, just when he is interested and we do a lot lot lot of reading together. So I wasn't sure about how to place him for reading either. When he was first interested in reading we got "How to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" we got through about 8 lessons and he had the ideas down and we were both bored with the book. So when I saw the Reading Lesson through HOD I was intrigued. We got it about 3 months ago (even though we technically aren't starting LHFHG until Sept) and we both really like it! Its definitely a bit of review to start, but its cementing several ideas for him, and building confidence, and then by later in the book it will be new concepts. I love HOD and how they guide you but let you pick what is right for each kid.

As far as how HOD and Sonlight compare, the defining things for me were how Sonlight comes from a "big world" study down to America, HOD seems to go the other way. I understand Sonlight's point on that, but was finding myself really put off by some of the fairy tales and tales from other countries, etc. I wanted something that felt a little more..... classic? I don't know. When I got my LHFHG box a few days ago I was in love with the stories included! I also was excited about the science and history books, as well as the devotions. I guess I was excited about everything! Sonlight had some fun books, but I felt like we were focused ONLY on reading and didn't have time for activities. I think HOD has a better balance.

Hope some of that is helpful!

Lacey