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I want to thank HOD for making my homeschool days a pleasant treat. My youngest is using Preparing. She loves every aspect of her day. She loves to draw, write, and read. Once again she as been inspired to be a scientist. She dons her lab coat and gloves and gathers her specimen holders and magnifying glass. Off to the woods she goes. She has LOVED reading her own science book Arctic Tundra. I can't wait until Minnesota winter hits!
She loves her R&S grammar book so much she keeps it next to her bed.
She enjoyed her DITHOR book Helen Keller so much that she read it in one hour. When I explained how DITHOR books are to be read she completed her day's assignment with ease. The next day she reread the entire book so she could do day 2's assignment. I love that enthusiasm.
Her favorite part of the day is drawing. What fun to have so many drawing assignments each day. She is so happy. I wish I could post her pictures, because they are beautiful. She takes an art class in our Co op by a professional artist. She is learning how to draw better (more) in HOD than in our Co op.
She completes the written narrations on day 4 so easily. I have to stop her at 4 sentences.
Her day takes 2.5-3 hours in length and seems easy. My inclination would be to wonder if she is inappropriately placed, but years of HOD and homeschooling tells me "no" she is right where she should be.
School should be fun and inspiring which it is. Thank you HOD! The thing about my daughter is that 5 years ago she was diagnosed by my school district as autistic. That was a hard, dark time in our lives. She has changed so much through the years and is so full of enthusiasm for life and learning I won't take that away by pushing to hard academically. The interesting thing about the autism is that we privately had her evaluated and found her not to be autistic but had other issues. She received speech therapy to help her communicate. Now she can't stop talking. Her speech therapist said that once she began to read her communication would improve. It did and quite dramatically.
We plugged along in kindergarten with LHTH, kindergarten LHFHG resources, and the phonics program we owned. Half way through kindergarten we started LHFHG. So, as you can see we have slowly progressed and have always been behind the average. This has truly allowed my dd to grow and be inspired beyond our discouraged imagination. Of course we thank God each day, afterall, He created her. But I just wanted to share a glimpse into our journey with HOD as the new school year is kicking off. I know it can be weary, discouraging, and tough. But we serve an awesome God who can and does help us along the way.

Tammy I loved reading this post. It sounds like she is just flourishing and is loving learning. The public school also came to some conclusions about my son that just weren't true. He came home after 4th grade and started Preparing his first year home and I saw his attitude about learning totally turn around also. It is so fun as a mom to watch this happen.

I love reading your post Tammy. Gives me so much encouragement for my son! I got the go ahead of the private consultation and planning to schedule it. I also have seen drastic changes in my son since beginning school and have noticed a significant increase in language which I contribute solely to the living book approach with HOD. So glad she is having a blast! Sammy is too

Preparing IS a treat, for sure! We just started last week and my son has absolutely LOVED it! We started in LHFHG and he loved that, Beyond and Bigger, but Preparing is something else! The books are amazing and I think the tiny bits of independent work, awesome Bible studies and of course the DRAWING has just made him blossom! He glows! I kept toying with the idea of posting a thread "Preparing, son can't stop whining and complaining" for the subject and then in the actual post "he keeps complaining when we are done with a box and have to move on because he wants to keep reading!" LOL.

I am so happy to hear about your daughter's success! What an amazing story. I bet it would be completely different in public school. ? She probably would have spiraled into social anxiety rather than developing good social skills in her OWN time. She sounds like a sweetie. I bet her drawings are so beautiful. What a lovely mom she has.

I think all of the programs look great. But Preparing always looks like the funnest year to me! I am so upset that I didn't know about HOD when we first started homeschooling. My daughter was in 4th grade, it would be been perfect. I know she would have loved it. Sigh.... Oh well, she is enjoying CTC and my second child will give me the chance to do Preparing. Have a great year!

I loved reading about your dd! Loved it - every word! The gains she has made and her passion and enthusiasm for learning made me actually cry reading this! I want to hug your dd and tell her, "Way to go! Congratulations - this is what perseverance looks like, and this Scripture comes to mind...
...but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Your dd has persevered, and that has produced character, and hope!!! What a blessing, and this is due as much to you and your encouragement you have provided as her mother as much as it is due to HOD! I know something about what it is like to embrace patience when all I wanted to do was impatiently push faster. God had better plans! He gave me a son born 2 months prematurely who had nothing to say but a few words when he was 2 yo, who never said 'Daddy' until he was 3 yo, who had to be 'taught' to roll over, to crawl, to walk, to do everything really, and who attended speech therapy for years, and who now is an articulate fun-loving high schooler who loves life and learning with all his heart! God gave me another son who had to spend more than a month in neonatal intensive care, years wearing a helmet and attending PT and OT, overcoming stuttering and speech delays, severe reflux, life threatening fish allergies, and now that child is thriving in BHFHG! To see where we are we must take time look back from where we've come. And your daughter - she has come a long way and is at a place of celebration, of joy, and of accomplishments to be proud of today! These stories need to be told. They need to be shared to inspire others 'back on the path' where it looks all rock strewn and impassable. It will not always be so. But I will say, it is in the journey that the joy comes - and if it were all so easy, we may not know enough to be thankful for the end.

Thank you, Tammy! You have a way with words that the Lord has blessed you with. Thank you for sharing here!

In Christ,
Julie