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Hello, my name is Karlyn Crafton and I'm new here on the discussion board. I've used HOD in the past when my girls were little, but then switched them to a curriculum combination that they could work through more independently as I dealt with difficult back-to-back pregnancies, health problems, a major move, and a husband who works a lot and has an odd schedule, etc. Now, I have six children ranging in age from 3-13. Life is finally settling down a bit, and I'm looking at trying to find a way to get all of my kids placed in appropriate HOD guides. Conveniently, my children are paired together nicely...my oldest are girls age 11 & 13, so I'm looking at RTR with them (with the girl interest package), and using the extension package for my 13-year-old. My middle boys are 4 & 6, and they've been through LHTH. My 4-year-old is quite advanced, and I believe he will be more than ready for LHFHG in September when we begin our new school year. My 6-year-old is average, and should do fine with the 1st grade recommendations in LHFHG. My twin boys just turned 3, and I'm not really worried about starting with them yet. My big question is actually about my girls...they've been using Christian Light Education for Reading, Language Arts, & Math, and SOS for Science and Social Studies. They both work well independently, and seem to be learning well (they always test above grade level on the achievement tests). However, I know that HOD is not as traditional in educational approach, and I'm wondering if my girls will be confused or unable to do some of the HOD assignments since they aren't used to it. They haven't been in a HOD program for 5 or 6 years...they probably don't remember much about LHFHG. I will certainly be able to help them with the assignments, but I'm just wondering if the learning curve will be too much for them...you know, adjusting to a different style of learning. I'm really hoping they just love it and take off with it...it has to be more fun that doing workbooks and answering questions on a computer. I would like for all of my kids to really love learning, and I think that by pairing them up in these "learning teams" that they will get even more out of their education. Anyway, I've probably written too much...I usually do...so thanks in advance to those who read through my entire post!

Last year was my first year with HOD and my kids loved it! So I would say - you should definitely check the placement chart. And if you feel like HOD is right for your family, then I say go for it and see how it goes.

Okay, so here's my question: are you planning on switching the oldest two completely over to all HOD choices? Because you have options. Math and Reading are areas where you can use different programs, whatever fits best. If they are used to CLE math and you have been happy with it, it might be best to stay with that as different programs cover things in different order and different ways. Reading might be more flexible and DITHOR is really fun and interesting, they might enjoy the switch there.

Then, I am not familiar with CLE or SOS but I would say some of the things unique to HOD or Charlotte Mason style learning are narration skills (written and oral) and literature based learning. In HOD they won't be reading through one book and then starting another (necessarily, sometimes you do and sometimes you don't). In order to weave in the topics and provide for deeper understanding sometimes you skip around a little bit. Narration is a skill they will probably need some growing into if they aren't already familiar with it, and HOD's style may be different even if they have done it before. But I would recommend you take it slow with them, work on one or two of the skills at a time to help them learn what they need to do. The Preparing guide has pretty good instructions for the teacher to help you understand what they need to do, but I don't know if this is done as much in the older guides.

Sometimes when you have two older students in a guide you will want to buy two guides so each one has their own. The teacher's guide has all of the step-by-step instructions and your students will want to refer to it often throughout the day. There may be times when you are doing something with one of them and you will want to have a guide and the other student may be working on their own and need it. You obviously need two of any consumable resources, but often if you schedule them or if they work out a schedule they can share the other books from the guide, but the guide itself is really needed. I know some parents keep the guide in one central location and have the kids share it, but I think personally I would just get two. I do let my DD mark the corner of a box in pencil when she has finished it and this is a great visual for her (of course you can also have a checklist or whiteboard for this purpose).

Thanks for the great ideas! I do plan on keeping them in CLE Math...it is working well for us. I will definitely think about purchasing two guides. My girls like to talk a lot, so I imagine that the oral narrations should be right up their alley. I'm feeling better as I research everything and decide about which resources to get for each child. I believe this will work for us, even though I imagine it will take some getting used to. I'm sure that once we get into a "groove" we'll be happy that we switched!

My kids love learning so much with HOD! There are so many things intertwined to enhance learning, and skills that I know I would not think to teach them that really enrich their learning. You know all the talk in public schools about how they want to cut art and music programs because they don't improve test scores, but really they do improve test scores and they definitely improve the quality of their education. HOD has so much built into it, and yet it is balanced so that you don't feel like you are covering 14 subjects each week but you are. I bet your kids will enjoy it!

Oral narration is more than just talking about what you read, although that is part of it. It has taken me probably all of the 5 years I have been using HOD to kind of "get" what narration is supposed to be. That might be something you read up on and try to get a handle on yourself before you start. It is so different from the way I learned. My DD is similar to me in personality and learning style, and she has had to grow a lot in narration, but now that she is doing pretty well with it, I have seen how she is able to think about what she reads in such an in-depth way. And her retention and comprehension of what she reads is much better than mine was (and maybe even better than I am now).

I will read up on narration and maybe do some "practice runs" before we officially start our new school year. My 13-year-old is an excellent writer, so I imagine she'll do fine with some written narration. My 11-year-old is not a very strong writer, although she likes to write. Her grammar isn't perfect, but I have to remember that she still has 7 years of school left to "get it" before she graduates! I just hope that I'm capable of juggling all six kids and the different levels of learning and different eras of history, science topics, etc. I'm sure God will help me through, and my husband is very supportive. Now, I just need to order my books and organize everything before we start! Thanks for the ideas!