heartofdakota.com

Hello! I am learning all I can about HOD and love what I'm finding!

I really think this is where we'll land (provided dh likes it, too), but before we dive in I'd like to have a basic idea of how HOD looks when I get more than one kiddo schooling. I've seen a couple of options out there that encourage doing Bible, History, Science and Read Alouds for all kiddos together and then break off for individual LA and math. I have seen extension packages available in HOD, but I'm not sure if that will work quite the same. I think you can make this work if you kiddos are close in age, but my kids are 4 years apart. Can we do anything together in HOD with that range? I have years to figure this out logistically. Like I said, we're just starting. But my dh and I would like to try to stick with something at least through elementary without alot of switching around.

Thank you in advance!

No, there is not a family cycle option in HOD. HOD is set up more to meet children where they are at individually academically. The placement chart was put together to place children according to age and abilities, and the guides build in independence for each child as they grow older so they are working more on their own.

Your children being four years apart will need their own guides in Heart of Dakota. The guides build skills within themselves in the areas of science and history. Thus, children do better in guides that they place in on the placement chart. My children are 21, 20, and 24 months apart. Two boys and two girls. I have been able to combine the two middles in HOD who are 20 months apart with an active older boy and girl just behind him. My oldest could have combined with the second when they were younger. The first and third are only 3 years apart and much too far apart academically for HOD combining (both being very advanced in reading for their ages....it still wouldn't work since HOD is designed for kids to work at their own levels).

The cycle program you mentioned, that we used for a number of years, is a very different teaching style. Skills are built separately in math & LA. Then in history the LA skills are built at their levels, but the different level abilities are supervised by mom. The teaching isn't directed out in the guide so mom raises are lowers expectations based on ability in the content subjects that comes from the same books in the cycle. In the lower years and in Highschool though they have their individual programs. In 7th / 8th they have their own science. With 4 years apart you would get some family learning, but 6th / 2nd would be the only year with all content subjects based on how it works. The history and Bible would have 3 years fully combined.

They are very, very different curriculums. Each with their own strengths. Heart of Dakota is more individualized and open and go for mom.

I hope that helps.

LovingJesus did a good job of explaining the differences between the "Family cycle" options and the way HOD is set up. HOD is not intended to be used this way. If your children are 4 years apart in age it is really unlikely that they could be combined, unless the older one has some delays that would place them in a lower guide. Placement in the right guide, that best matches their skills is key. But the beauty of HOD is that each child has the right challenge, the right amount of work, and can grow at their own pace. Planning is already done for you. So while your school day may be a bit longer (especially in younger guides as you are part of and helping with most subjects) your planning time is practically none. That's the trade off, that and the fact that it is not difficult for you to figure out what each child is to do with the materials - when you teach different levels using the same books you will have a lot more decisions to make about what your children are expected to learn and do with the material.

HOD is customizable for things like math, reading (to a degree), writing, and grammar. Also their independence grows so gradually and is built in that they can really soar in taking over their own work earlier than in other curricula (again because it is all planned out so they just need to follow directions). The independence is what makes doing multiple guides possible for the teacher, each child can keep working on their own even if you are not working with them.

And as far as shared learning that does still happen. Sometimes we all listen to read-alouds together. Sometime one has an activity that includes another person so they do it together. There is repeat and overlap in the history topics so sometimes the kids are sharing with one another that they read about the same thing. It's not like we're all closed off in a room doing their individual work, we are still all growing and learning together.

Originally I thought we would do history, Bible, etc as a family. But as my oldest finished kindergarten, the common programs that have a family cycle didn't seem to be a good fit for us, at least for first grade. We found HOD and decided to give it a try. The idea when we started HOD originally was that the oldest would do her own thing, and then I would combine the next two since they are only 20 months apart. We tried LHTH (HOD's program for preschool and/or kindergarten) two or three times with them together, and it just wasn't working. The oldest was thriving in LHFHG and then Beyond, but doing school with the next two together was a child that often resulted in them arguing about one thing or another. So, I decided to try them alone, and it has worked so much better! They want the personal time with me. And I don't have to worry much about over challenging one or underchallenging another. They are all in the guides that fit then best. If I need to slow down with one, there's isn't the question of what to do with the other.

Just subbing to the thread

I would have liked a family cycle, and know others who use it successfully. However, when the readings started to get a little more advanced, the younger ones would leave the room. I couldn't keep them together if I wanted to.

I'm homeschooling five children using four guides and it's manageable. My youngest, who is currently in Bigger, still demands a lot of my time. I wouldn't have it any other way. On the other hand, my oldest is in MMTM and is pretty much independent.

I guess it depends on what you want and what works for you and your children.

As an encouragement, I always thought that I would be that homeschool mom that was filled with fun and we would just learn everything together. After all, I only have 3 kids and my oldest and youngest are only 3 years different. What has happened though in my homeschooling education couldn't be farther from this route. When we first started homeschool, I was very workbook oriented with my oldest and had plans of being eclectic. My oldest used her own workbooks for math and language but then I had the others listening in on science, history and Bible. It went okay but it seemed difficult to implement. Once my oldest turned 7, I became overwhelmed with organizing it all and went with My Father's World. That year my youngest did K, my middle child did 1st and my 2nd child did Adventures. That was probably our best year that we had had when compared with other prior years. My kids each did their own thing and they each learned so much. I was so glad to have found something that was written out to me and I didn't have to go and search around for as much stuff. However, the following year, I had my oldest and middle child combine. Well....that year ended up being a disaster! Those two kids are night and day different. My son couldn't do half the stuff my oldest could do, he constantly seemed lost and I felt like many of the topics for my oldest were review. I didn't know how much to make her read or write each day. I always felt like I needed to add stuff. And whenever we did a project, I always ended up finishing them myself because none of my kids could finish projects, they just took too long for their attention span. Plus, that curriculum had a lot of projects that involved coloring and cutting things out (my son hates all art but he ultimately despised these two areas very specifically at the time). And finally, I had to get to the library for the book basket and I never made it there. We made it 7 weeks with MFW that year and I ended up dropping it abruptly and switching to HOD.

I had never heard of HOD before then and only found it because I started researching what I was going to do. And even then, I was researching ways to modify MFW since I had already bought it and owned it. I hadn't thought of switching originally. I knew I didn't want to be eclectic anymore. Too much researching and I struggled with finding things that were fun (plus my follow through by this point was becoming elusive LOL). I also knew that I didn't want a bunch of textbooks or workbooks. I wanted something fun and engaging but also something where they would grow in abilities and skills. I found HOD right about that time. I didn't fully understand how it worked. I ended up calling them on the phone and spoke with Julie for almost an hour. I originally thought it was program where I could just teach all of my kids at the same level and then modify and change things around to meet their needs similar to what I was already doing. However, as I learned more about HOD, it became very obvious that it lends it self better for kids to do their own thing or be combine with kids who are similar in abilities. In addition, they never will repeat a guide. I really liked that. While I do know that 5 years later, kids won't necessarily remember everything they did, I like the fact that they are always getting new, interesting, and more challenging books each year. And one bonus had I never realized I desired at the time was the independence that HOD includes in their guide. MFW doesn't become as independent until the kids get much older. In HOD, the kids start taking on some independence in Preparing. When I decided to make the switch, it was a bit scary for us. I hadn't financially planned it and I had already spent quite a bit of money on curriculum. I talked to my husband about it, prayed about it and he ended up giving my his shed fund (he had been saving up to build a shed in our back yard at the time) to buy a whole new curriculum. I was feeling very antsy about this since I had switched curriculums every year for the first four years my kids were in school. And the year prior to finding MFW, I had actually done the same thing. My kids started the year with something else and 4 weeks in I bought MFW because we weren't happy. Needless to say, my wonderful hubby already knew my track record for buying multiple curriculums in multiple years. Yet that wonderful man of mine still supported my decision to switch.

I have found that with HOD, it is actually very easy to teach multiple levels at the same time. When I started, I bought Preparing for my oldest and Beyond for my younger two kids. I didn't realize how the program was truly set up so my youngest wasn't quite old enough to be in her age range. After my first year, I then realized the reason for the importance of taking the age range into consideration. Preparing has a lot of independence items and if a child isn't 8 yet, it can be overwhelming. Well, last year we decided to have my youngest move down to Little Hearts, my middle child bumped up to Bigger and then my oldest advanced to CTC. It was another fantastic year. Each child was appropriately challenged and they each thoroughly enjoyed their year. This year though, I did start off with 3 levels. My oldest bumped up to RtR, my middle child to Preparing and then my youngest to Bigger. Everyone was doing very well except my son was needed a bit more hand holding that I had time for. My son has always struggled with language activities and has needed a lot more hand-holding. He has always been on the low end of the spectrum for this area of learning, much lower than his peers and I had a feeling that the had Auditory Processing Disorder. Well, as it turns out, he does. I had him tested and officially diagnosed this year. With learning all of this and knowing how the reading and language will increase in future guides, I decided to take him out of Preparing and have him repeat Bigger with his younger sister. This was a very wise decision. He is redoing much of the guide and I am amazed at what he does remember. I also love seeing how his work has changed and improved from last year. The only thing I let him continue on with is science from Preparing. He is loving that. He is also doing very well with it on his own. This leaves me with pondering science for next year but ultimately, I am not worried about that right now and I have a plan.

For me, I am glad I have discovered that he and his younger sister are a great match to learn together. They are both at similar levels, get along great and it frees up my day to only run two guides. I absolutely love having these two combine. On the flip side, I love that my oldest does her own thing. She is light years ahead of my middle child and those two previously did terrible together. For us, running two (or even when I ran 3) guides at the level of my children actually went faster than trying to combine everyone and run only one program. I also work from home and I needed a program that was truly open and go. HOD is that. It is very open and go. I found that with the other curriculum, there was more freedom in tweaking. For me, that was not a good fit. I didn't want to plan and I didn't want to tweak. In the other program, there were many days that the kids would make some hands on item and I would have to run to the store to pick up supplies. That happens way less with HOD. While there are a few days where I will need to get something special, it is much more rare. With the other program, I felt like it was a weekly occurrence. In addition, I like that HOD gets independent quickly. I used to exhaust myself always trying to read history and science to the kids all day long. I am glad that HOD has my kids are do some of that reading to themselves - especially once they hit the guide Preparing. Both programs really are great programs and both fit some personalities better than others. For us, HOD has been a huge blessing and our perfect fit. My kids love it and I love it. I feel like I don't have to plan, my kids can look at their guide and do their work, and I feel like it has a lot of fun and interesting things in it. For me, that is a win, win.

I do hope others jump in and share their successes as well.