heartofdakota.com

i am new to hs'ing and new to the HOD boards. i have researched over curriculums for about a year and a half. last year i thought i was going to go with SL. i liked the idea of using real books instead of textbooks. a friend from church had used it with her dd and she said she would let me use everything she had (core 1 & 2). so last summer i started it with my ds who was 7 at the time and going into 2nd grade and my dd who was 5 at the time going into K. the kids loved the reading out loud that i had to do for them. they didn't like it if the book did not have pictures. i on the other hand did not like all the reading i had to do. my youngest ds at the time was 1 y/o. so trying to do school with the older two and read lots of pages while dealing with an active toddler didn't work out for us. i also was undecided on what math to get for them. my ds struggles with math in the ps. so i ended up putting them in ps. my ds has gone to ps since K. dd really wanted to go and experience ps like her brother. so she begged me to go to K. i let them go and they just finished up K and 2nd grade a few weeks ago. ds is still struggling with math and now with reading comprehension and language. dd did wonderful in K and the ps wants to put her in the gifted and talented class for 1st grade. i'm ready to pull them both out of ps and hs. ds needs help with his weakness in math and grammer and dd needs something for an advanced 6 y/o. so back in april i ordered R&S for both of them (math, reading, writing, spelling, and english). we just started on it 2 wks ago. the reading is so boring to him (it's the OT) and no pictures in the book. english is a weakness for him and the english 3 starts out with alphabatizing which is something he has trouble with especially if everything starts with the same letter. so we had lots of trouble and tears last wk from the reading and english, and it took about 5 to 6 hrs to do school. thats a long time with having 2 others dc to take care of plus being preg. and tired. dd is doing fine with all of it she is in the 1st grade books. her work is actually too easy for her but i think as we go on it will be more of a challenge for her. ds is doing the 3rd grade books. i posted on the homeschoolreview.com boards about my ds having problems with R&S reading and someone on there suggested i look into HOD for ds for reading. i got the HOD catalog and have looked at the whole thing. i'm kind of confused on what to ordered. i would love to do something that ds and dd could do together so i though beyond little hearts would be good. ds reads really well and did great in phonics and spelling it's just comprehension because of his ADHD. so i figured we could use HOD with R&S. i did see how in the HOD catalog they said use R&S english 2 if your child had not gone thru an advanced english. i also have R&S english 2. so we can use that. however, i'm just confused on what to order? also i need to know if this is like SL. will i spend an hour reading to them. my youngest ds is now 2 and very active and i am pregnant and due in 2 months. so in 2 months i will be nursing every 2 to 3 hrs and i do not know if reading for hours will cut it at our house. so please help me if you've used HOD. let me know what i am to order if i'm going to use my R&S stuff with it. my dd reads really well i'd say she's on about an end of 1st grade reading level. ds is on about a 3rd grade level in reading. sorry if this post is too long i just have lots of questions about HOD.

jennifer

Hi Jennifer! I am heading off to bed, but I can see you have lots of questions, and I think I can help you answer them as I too have used SL. I think you will LOVE HOD! No, it is not like SL in the length of time for reading. I am new to HOD, but I am in love.....
I am anxious to answer, but so tired....feel free to private message me, and I will be more than happy to help you!
You are in for a treat with HOD!

meg, i look forward to hearing what you have to say about HOD!

jennifer

I sent you a private message, maybe you can check there?

I used Sonlight for three years. HOD is much more user friendly.

I think HOD is a much better fit for you. I would consider using Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory with both of your children. It sounds like LHFHG may be a little too young. It should fit both of your children really well. We are using Beyond for 1st grade this year after using LHFHG for K last year. I have not used Sonlight, but I looked at it and it is a lot of reading. We would never make it through.

jennifer,

I just wanted to welcome you to the board! We're glad you're hear!

As I read your post, I could sense your frustrations just pouring from you. I used Sonlight for almost 4 years, and as the years passed, I was feeling less and less satisfied with how our school day was progressing. When I added my second son (and a baby) to our school day, I quickly realized I couldn't keep the Sonlight pace, nor did I want to anymore.

That was when we began writing our curriculum guides. At HOD we strive for balance in all parts of your day. We also desire for the teacher to spend time interacting and discussing and moving toward the student taking over their own reading as they are able. We desire a rich academic structure balanced with meaningful interaction with your kiddos in your day.

So, when moms come to the board in frustration, we usually recognize the need for a change so that you dont' burn you or your students out in the long run.

I'd recommend taking a look at our placement chart first. Here's the link:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

After reading over the chart, let us know where you think your kiddos place. That will help each of us help you so much better.

I just want to encourage you that sometimes frustration that leads to change can actually be good for getting your family on a less stressful path.

Blessings,
Carrie

thank you all for you help. i'm thinking my dd who is 6 can go ahead and use the emerging readers. i actually have some of them from SL and i let her read the amelia bedelia book yesterday and she read it really well. i only had to help with a few words. my ds who is 8 can read the amelia book with no help at all. so he could maybe move up to the next level. my question is this is the next level after emerging readers DITHOR? if so, how does this work. is DITHOR just a reading curriculum or is it like the Beyond curric.? i'm sort of confused. could they both do beyond yet have separate readers, math, english, writing, spelling. my 8 y/o ds spells really well for his age but dd who is 6 has not had any spelling before. so she would need beginning spelling. if we use beyond would they both be on the same spelling level or would i use 2 different spelling books? basically i'm wanting to do bible, science, geography and history together with them. the only things that they would be on different levels would be math, reading, english, spelling, writing. also, carrie if you could help me on what to do with the R&S english for my ds. we started english 3 a few weeks ago (he just finished 2nd at the public school 4 wks ago) the english 3 was very frustrating to him because it seemed advanced for him. i have the R&S english 2 book which seems like he could for sure do - it seems like it's a lot easier than 3. i read in the HOD catalog that it was suggested to us R&S 2 if the child had not done an advanced english before using R&S 3. my question is this will he be behind in english by setting him back to R&S 2 eventhough, he's doing 3rd grade? my other question is does R&S english 2 come with a workbook like the english 3 has? sorry for all the questions but this is all a bit overwhelming trying to figure all this out. thanks!

jennifer

In Beyond there are two spelling lists for each unit. One for the lower level and one for the upper level. You are just choosing which Singapore Math level they should be in. The 1A and 1B has activities in the guide to do for math and the next level you would need to purchase the textbook. DITHOR is after emerging readers and it's done with the curriculum. Writing is the amount you determine. It's just copywork. It sounds like it would work great for you to combine. Maybe someone else will chime in and explain it better.

From what I understand from reading on these boards is that the R&S English is very advanced and is easily one year ahead so R&S 2 might very easily be where your son should be. We're just doing LHFHG so I don't know from experience, but that' is what everyone always says.

Jennifer,

It does sound like you could combine your 2 kiddos in "Beyond....". I would teach Beyond as is to your 6 year old, including the Singapore math 1A/1B with hands-on lessons, the Emerging Reader Schedule in the Appendix, the spelling lessons, and the gentle grammar lessons included in the guide.

For your son, I would have him listen in on the left side of the plans in Beyond and the storytime box of the plans from Beyond. I would also have him do daily copywork of the poetry as scheduled in Beyond.

Then, I would have your son do the right side of the guide in Bigger..., following the Rod and Staff 2 English scheduled and using the dictation passages as scheduled in "Bigger..". I'd also use the Singapore 2A/2B for math with the hands-on activities scheduled in Bigger... I would additionally add in Drawn into the Heart of Reading Level 2/3 for his reading instruction.

I hope this helps!

Blessings,
Carrie