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Good afternoon! I've been using HOD with my 4 young boys, and we're loving it! I wish I had used HOD with my daughters, but unfortunately, I've been boring them over the past 10 years with worktexts, workbooks, and traditional "school at home" methods. Now that I'm done with having babies, toddlers, & preschoolers (and done moving!), I feel that I'm in a position to make my daughters' education more interesting and enjoyable. So, I'm looking into HOD for this upcoming school year for them. They will be starting the high school-level guides. I'm wondering if they will have difficulty transitioning to the HOD method after doing traditional schoolbooks all these years. They are both average learners, and they are accustomed to lots of quizzes, tests, and learn mostly by reading. I've been using Alpha Omega's "Monarch" program with them, and Christian Light Education as well. They do well on their standardized achievement tests, but they really don't have a love for learning, and they certainly don't love school. I'm hoping to change that, especially since it might be in their best interests to home school their children someday. Thanks, and I appreciate any help with thinking this through!

First thing to do is to really check the placement chart and make sure they place in the high school guides. What guide or guides are you looking at? I would pay close attention to the writing. The high school guides are pretty intense as far as amount of writing so if they have been using work texts that might be a challenge. They should be able to write 3-4 paragraph written narrations. Also are they used to a long school day? If they aren't ready for the high school guides you might consider starting with something like MTMM. Many people have used that guide for high school by beefing it up just a little bit. I do think if they jump righ into the high school guides it will be a big adjustment, but it can be done. I would start out half speed or stagger start them from the younger kids so you can really spend time helping them understand how the guides work.

My second daughter did her first HOD guide last year. We started in the World Geography guide. We had taken an eclectic approach to school until that point and I was concerned about placement as well. I agree with Lynn H, these guides are heavy on the reading and writing expectations. Being confident in the area of writing is a big plus when considering high school guides. Strong reading and comprehension skills are very important at this level as well. The third thing I would consider is the child's maturity level and their ability to handle a long school day.

I have used the Monarch and LifePac curriculum with my oldest daughter. She is a gifted student. I can say with certainty that, if done correctly, those programs can be very challenging and are heavy on reading and writing as well. Their layout is redundant and can become boring, but if your kids score well and do all the writing the curriculum assigns, they should transition well to HOD. Honestly, we found the Alpha Omega curriculum more challenging, but much less enjoyable.

Perhaps you could show them the program and ask their opinion. I did that with my daughter. She said the program looked interesting and loved the idea of reading all those books as part of school. She read the placement charts in the catalog and looked at the sample weeks available on the website and felt she would do fine with the workload. She also loved the idea of having the guide, and knowing at a glance exactly what was expected of her every day.

I will be doing the same guide with my son this coming year. I know he is not as strong in reading and writing as my daughter. I also know he loathes long school days and being still is not his specialty. So, I will be tweaking the guide for him. We will use the parts of the guide that fit his personality and learning style and substituting something else for the parts that don't. That's the beauty of HOD, isn't it? I can change the plans to fit each of my children without losing the richness of the program. I have the comfort of knowing that even if he isn't able to follow the guide exactly, like my daughter did, he will still get an excellent and interesting education.

Looking at the progress posts that LynnH and my3sons have on this forum have helped me tremendously. If I wonder what an assignment should look wonder if we are on the right track, I go there for encouragement. They may be useful for you as you make this decision.

Thank you both for giving me something to think about! My oldest daughter should do fine with the high school guides, and now I'm thinking about doing MTMM with my younger daughter. She is the one who lacks the most enthusiasm with schoolwork. However, the long school day might be somewhat of an adjustment. They were able to fly through their Monarch and CLE lessons...those usually only took about 3-4 hours a day, and they completed almost all of the assignments! I want them to have plenty of free time to learn other life skills as well, so I'll have to think about whether or not I want a long school day. Thanks again!

One thing to consider is if they are college bound you might want them to start working up to assignments that take longer to complete and aren't fill in the blank answers. My dd will be a senior in college next year and she did an eclectic textbook approach to high school and was able to get her day done in about 5 1/2 hours. She said the biggest adjustment to college was the amount of work and how long the assignments took. She has had essay assignments in almost every class, even math and sciences and often several essay's due each week. She does have some fill in the blank type assignments, but the majority are not. She has lots of projects, oral presentations, and short essay answer type assignments. Just an FYI, for the workload HOD goes by HSLDA guidelines for how much time needs to be spent on a course in order to assign a credit.

Thanks! We're looking at all of our options right now. We might be going with Notgrass history instead, since we already have decided on Teaching Textbooks for Geometry, Apologia for Biology, Rosetta Stone for Spanish, and Total Health for Health. This will fulfill her 10th grade credit requirements. I'm still deciding on what to do with my younger daughter...so many options and decisions!

I personally think you'd love HOD for your daughters! The workload is befitting high school level work in the high school guides, but it is so incredibly exciting and varied that it is sure to be a breath of fresh air for your sweet girls! I think it is important to consider that assignments are rotated, and that variety keeps the writing and reading in balance, with no one day being too heavy compared to the next. We have found time generally decreases to do school each day, as the year progresses. This is because students get better and better at completing the assignments as they become more adept at them. HOD has given our sons an outstanding education, and they LOVE to read, they enjoy the variety of their assignments, and they are proud of their beautiful work in their full-color notebooks! HOD's guides, beginning with PHFHG and all the way through high school, are 4 day a week guides. This day off each week can be used to spread the work over 5 days to have shorter school days, or can be taken off for other interests to be followed instead. I just wanted to encourage you not to be dissuaded from HOD because of reading/writing levels in the guides. Your daughters sound adept in LA skills, and 4 hours of textbook/workbook type school, is equivalent (IMO) to 5-6 hours of awesome living books readings/daily fresh varied assignments/lively discussions/fun projects/hands-on interesting experiments/beautiful full-color notebooking pages to complete work on, etc. The day flies by when it's full of exciting learning! I think you'd find the change a happy one you'd all embrace!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for the kind words, Julie! I'm still deciding on what to do with my girls. I was looking at trying to combine them in MTMM, since there are extensions for 9th and 10th graders. It looks like a good fit for both of them...the younger is 13 and the older just turned 15. My older daughter will technically be in 10th grade this upcoming school year. The only problem with this is the fact that she has already completed World Geography and Integrated Physics & Chemistry this year through Monarch, so next year if I keep her in HOD, she would be doing those two classes all over again. Not that it's a big problem, because she really loved physics & chemistry, and she would probably enjoy doing a full year of chemistry this upcoming school year, and wouldn't mind repeating physics & chemistry again. However, her high school transcript wouldn't look like a "traditional" transcript if she took courses in that order. I'm not sure if I should worry too much about the transcript, if she's taking courses that she loves, though. She could always take Biology during her 12th grade year, to satisfy all of the science requirements, right?

Anyway, I need to make a decision soon. I already have my four boys' school figured out with HOD, and I just need to place the order. I know they will love another year with HOD!

Thanks again, and if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Hello!

Welcome to the HOD Board! We're glad to have you here. In looking through the thread and what you've shared thus far and in thinking ahead, if you did combine your girls in MTMM, then the following year you could bump your older student forward to World History and move your younger student into World Geography. This would keep your older student from repeating both a history and a science that she already has had. Instead, she would then have World History and Biology for her junior year. Then, for your older student's senior year she would move into US1.

If you followed that plan, then for your older student for the coming year you could do the chemistry and genetics and DNA in MTMM. It can count as a general high school chemistry with some beefing up. We recommend adding the Chemistry 101 DVDs and Carbon Chemistry from Ellen McHenry if you desire to count it as a chemistry credit with lab. However, when you get to US1, If your older student is bound for a four-year college with a science degree of some sort, you will need the more math-based chemistry in US1. At that point, your student would then take the math-based chemistry scheduled in US1 and list the science from MTMM as an elective credit probably titling it something that shows the breadth of what was covered in MTMM science beyond the scope of just chemistry (so you wouldn't have two chemistries listed on the transcript.).

If you have any idea of what your older student may be doing post high school that would help as we ponder a science path for her. If you get a chance to share a bit more about what her thoughts are at this point about college etc. that would help us know better what we need to have in place transcript-wise as we look down the road a bit.

Blessings,
Carrie

Wow, Carrie, thanks so much! This plan sounds really doable, and I am planning on talking with my hubby about it once he gets some time off of work. My older daughter is looking into either interior design, landscape & horticulture, architecture, or some other field that has to do with design and hands-on work. She has a definite talent for it! Her actual dream is to go into costume design, but her art & sewing teacher told her that she needs to major in a field in which she would more likely get a job, and keep costume design as a hobby. Jobs in the costume design field are few and far between, and there really aren't any colleges that offer it as a major. She has looked into fashion design schools, but she really dislikes modern fashions, and has a disdain for the whole high-fashion, runway model environment. Most likely, she will be going to a local state college or community college (we live in Minnesota). Thanks for helping me think this through!

Thanks so much for sharing a bit more about your oldest daughter and her plans for the future. It helps to know where students are heading as we plan for needed transcript credits for college entrance.

In thinking ahead a bit, if your oldest daughter did MTMM this year, to keep things simpler it would help to do the guide as close to the way it is written as possible (with the exception of adding to the science the suggestions I mentioned above). Those could be added on her free fifth day each week, since MTMM is a four-day plan.

Since she is in 10th grade though, it would be wise if she added foreign language study. She could easily do this by doing Getting Started with Spanish from the World Geography guide (doing two lessons a day early on when the lessons are shorter and one lesson a day after that). Since Getting Started with Spanish is divided into lessons already, it would be easy to use.

Often another area for high school students that we mention adding to in MTMM is the Economics study to earn credit in that area. However, in your daughter's case I think it would be better to add the Economics study to her US1 year instead (as she will be doing US1 when she is a senior and Economics is often done senior year). In order to make room for Economics her senior year...since there are two government-related courses in US1 (Government and Constitutional Literacy), when your daughter gets to US1, she would choose only one of those government-related courses to do at that point and then substitute in the Economics from the US2 guide in place of one of the government courses in US1. She might also want to use the science from US2 at at that point too, since she isn't majoring in a science-related field and likely won't need the more math-based Chemistry from US1 at that point (and will already have earned her general Chemistry credit in MTMM). Of course, we can just wait until she gets to US1 to decide what to do for science at that point as either science option would work.

Since you talked earlier in this thread about doing Total Health and Biology next year, I will also mention that it might be wise to wait to do those subjects until your daughter does the World History guide for her 11th grade year, as both Total Health and Biology are scheduled in that guide.

Last, I will mention that for literature in MTMM for your oldest daughter you could do DITHR and use the Girl Set of books from the World Geography Guide along with it (since your oldest daughter will be skipping World Geography due to already covering that content). Or, if you'd rather, you could do the literature for her from World Geography as written, including the BJU text and the Girl Set of books, simply having your daughter follow the literature box of plans from the World Geography Guide for literature each day. To do that option, however, you would need to purchase the World Geography Guide. The literature for World Geography is linked here if you scroll down: http://www.heartofdakota.com/hearts-for ... ckages.php

Hopefully, this doesn't confuse you too much as you ponder your options. It just helps to look down the road a bit to make sure we are on track to earn the credits your daughter will need by the time she graduates.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks, Carrie! Currently, I'm teeter-tottering back and forth between doing MTMM with both of my girls, or possibly Diana Waring's History Revealed program. It would work out for my oldest daughter to do the next three years in that program, since there are only three time periods available. Also, she could do all of the the other subjects that she wants to do with the curriculum that she wants to use. However, I really, really like the look of MTMM...I guess we'll have to talk about it a little more and come to some sort of agreement. There are so many options available! We're going to pray...we definitely need God's guidance in this situation!

Thanks so much for creating a fantastic curriculum! Even if we go with something else for my girls, I know we'll be using HOD for my boys for many years to come!

In Christ,
Karlyn Crafton