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I also posted a similar question on a FB group and got some good answers, but just to get lots of ideas/opinions i'm posting here also. Oh....and sorry for the long post!

I am very seriously thinking of switching to HOD curriculum. There’s a lot about it that really attracts me to it, such as teaching philosophy and so many of the resources used are awesome. I also really appreciate that it seems so Christ centered. I'm not unhappy with what we've been using (MFW) but I'm just wondering if HOD would be a better fit for our family and for what we're looking for as far as educating out kiddos. So, by all means, share with me what you love about HOD and why you stick with it for the long haul. I'm still pretty early in our home school journey so I feel like I'd be okay switching now, but in a year or two I would be in a harder place as far as switching. Barring anything unforseen I want to be able to stick with the same curriculum the whole way through.

I do have a couple of questions. It all boils down to placement I guess. Here are my kids ages and grades this fall and my thoughts regarding placement which all lead to questions:

Daughter, will be 9 when we start school, grade 3, currently finishing up MFW Adventures. I would place her in Bigger Hearts for His Glory according to the program placement chart. This being her 3rd grade year lines up nicely to finish the final year (HFHTHS US History II) in 12th grade. I was initially thinking of placing her in PHFHG since she just had a year of American history, but have heard that is best saved for 4th grade. I'm leaning toward the emerging reader set for her though some of the early books would be a little easy, some of the later ones would be just right to bordering on challenging. I don't want to miss any of the DITHOR books, so will that work out okay in the future to have enough years to get each level in? I do have the 4th book in the DITHOR book pack (Hannah) and she could read that, albeit slowly and with some help.

Daughter, will be 7 shortly after we start school, grade 1, currently finishing up MFW K. According to the program placement chart I would place her most likely in LHFHG as her 1st grade year This may be a tad easy, but I think the BLHFHG would be a little hard and she tends to get discouraged easily. Also, i'm more of the opinion to hold off a little on formal learning. This would also line up well as far as finishing up the final level in 12th grade. If I were to go with Beyond, but then she would not be ready for Bigger the following year leaving a gap year with me wondering what to do. So I’m thinking that LHFHG is probably the best way to go.

Son, will be 4 shortly after we start school, has not had any formal learning, but has picked up on a very few basics (except potty training ). I would think that LHTH would be a good fit for him. But I’m wondering if I should wait another year for him to do it so as to not get to far ahead. Because then the following year he will not be ready for LHFHG. I also have another preschool sitting on the shelf for him (because I love curriculum ) that I could use and looks really good, but then i'm worried that LHTH will be to easy by the time we get to it.

And then I have an 18 month old daughter "helping" with everything she possibly can get her hands on!

LHTH, it's a preschool program, but then LHFHG can be kindergarten or 1st . For my almost 4 year old: say he uses LHTH for preschool, then do I do LHFHG twice? One year consider it K and the next year consider it 1st and get the appropriate level books? I guess I'm confused because if you count the years all together starting with LHTH as preschool moving to LHFHG for K and so on you get to the final course in 11th grade. I'm probably missing something, but it feels like there should be an additional program in the beginning years. What do people do...those who start at the beginning and work the whole way up? If you use LHTH as your preschool, do you really double up/make one year last two? Do you use something else for a year in K or 1st and then come back? I’m sorry, I hope this makes sense.....

Oh...and Math I've switched math probably to much. We've been using Horizons lately and it's been working good. Is there any reason to switch to the HOD recommended Singapore? Or should I stick with where I am since it's working, and I already have it.

Sorry I had a lot to say. If you made it this far Thank You and i'm excited to hear your advise/opinions! TIA!

One thing I find with preschool programs is that they are hard to get done once you have one or two older kids also find school. We started LHTH multiple times with my third born. We finally got consistent implementing it at 4.5, as she really wanted her own school work then. And I knew it was time to start some formal learning with her. I personally would start LHTH a few weeks after starting the other guides, with the expectation of doing a few days if the guide each week. If something is too easy, modify it. For example, if your child is past the point of putting items on a letter to work on letter recognition, move to writing that letter somehow (in sand, with paint, tracing, etc). The Bible and devotional will not be too young even at 5yo.

As for math, if it isn't broke, don't fix it! If Horizons is working, start with it. We actually have used Horizons since finding Hod since my oldest was already in the first grade books. It isn't an issue using a different math at all!

I am sorry I cannot speak to your situation or the placement but I can share what we enjoy about HOD and why we have stayed with it. The greatest thing for me has been that I did not grow up in church but discovered God later(and continue discovering more about Him) and HOD has taught me as well as guided me through teaching my children about Him. I was behind and they would have been so much more without HOD. Also, how Carrie ties and points out how history is really His-story continues to strengthen our faith daily. To learn and SEE how God has always been there is so encouraging. I have come to learn and understand so much more about history than I ever remember being taught in school. At the same time church is so much more vibrant knowing the world history that goes with it shows our dc how God is with us outside the church building. Then there are the edible history projects, science projects and math...yum, we are enjoying homemade caramel corn this weekend. Thank you Carrie. These have been fun things that I would have wanted to do but may not have been otherwise motivated to fit in to our day. The ability to see our whole week or just one day at a time has helped cut down on stress. As the dc have grown, Carrie is slowly weaning me and moving them toward more independence. We still have flexibility with our days and our weeks sometimes to combine and move on and sometimes to slow down. Our days are scheduled but still flexible. Hod is still customizable to dc's learning abilities and sometimes I discover they have learned a concept that I did not realize they were learning. It was taught so naturally and gently. Resources that I liked and would have brought into our learning earlier, Carrie brings in at just the right time. I have learned that Carrie is helping me guide my children not just presenting subject material to them day in and day out. We have noticed too that our daily learning has matched up with character issues and personal issues we were dealing with at the time. Just another amazing step in the journey! I encourage you in your homeschool journey. Finding HOD was a Hallelujah! moment for me and continues to be.

Your placement for your 9YO and 6YO sounds good to me. Those would be good places to start. LHTH is really flexible and I think it can be a preschool program or even good for a K level child, adding on anything the child may be ready for in terms of fine-motor skills, handwriting, or starting reading. Yes, there may be some parts that would be "too easy" if the child knows all the letter sounds, but I guarantee the child will enjoy repeating and learning it anyway. And also by that point the 18MO who will be 2 1/2 or so will enjoy tagging along and I guarantee you that one will be mostly engaged with everything except perhaps the Bible stories and devotional book depending on which ones you use. I used LHTH with my oldest at 4 1/2 and her sister who was 2 1/2 tagged along and loved it.

But, doing it part time is also a good way to go. That's basically what I did with my 3rd born, since she was really fired up to do something and have some school of her own. I did it when I could which pretty much amounted to half time. With my son, who showed less than NO interest in formal schooling at that age, I was much more low key and I am going to end up skipping LHTH with him I think. I am trying to get the Bible stuff in in other ways. But I do love LHTH and will hopefully get another chance to use it when my 5th is older. I think it gives them a great insight into the Bible and really solidifies the basic learning preschoolers need - letters and sounds, math concepts, pre-writing skills, in such a fun and engaging way. None of my children felt like it was any kind of chore or work for them when we were doing it.

Now - another thing to consider if you haven't already - the younger guides are 5 days planned for a week, and I think 34 5 day units. In Preparing it goes to 4 days a week and 35 units. So for me, I tend to start LHFHG in Kindergarten and take it slowly - 4 days a week, and then those 5 day guides stretch out over 4 years approximately instead of 3 and you're on track for high school after that (if you keep going at the 1 guide a year pace). I like the 4 day a week schedule. One day is free for field trips, meeting up with friends, nature walks and exploring, or even doctor's appointments (because with 5 kids we seem to have a lot of those between dentists, eye doctors (my son sees a specialist) etc).

If you're more disciplined and prepared to spend 5 days schooling, what you're proposing will work out fine. When your oldest switches to a 4 day guide you can just give her the day off on Friday or carry over any work you didn't get done earlier in the week. When I was in a 5 day mode and therefore had all of my kids on "Monday is day 1, Tuesday is day 2" that's what I did. There was always something to carry over it seemed. But I am not there anymore!

Many have already agreed with you placement wise but I would like to share with you why I we switched from MFW to HOD.

Just to give you some back ground, we started off with Abeka and I used that in full with my oldest. Then I found that I didn't like math at all because my dd just didn't get it. I also wasn't crazy about their science or history and found it to not be a good fit for us. For the next two years (my oldest 1st and 2nd grade) I tried being eclectic at that point. I also had my son start school in K once my oldest was in 2nd. I didn't enjoy putting my own stuff together and struggled significantly with finding a history and language arts that we liked. I wanted something with hands on activities and wanted to read more interesting books to my kids. I found MFW when my oldest was going into 3rd grade. My son was in 1st and my youngest was going into K. Because I wasn't in love with the way my year was going the years before, I decided to use everything they offered and switch it all except math. I had found a math program I liked at the time. We were using MFW K, MFW 1st, and MFW Adventures. It was a very fun year. We loved it. However, the following year my son and oldest dd moved into MFW ECC and my youngest moved to MFW 1st. It was not a good fit for us! The books didn't seem very living. My son and oldest dd were not at all similar in abilities. The material covered was too easy for my oldest but too hard for my son. And I was frustrated with the cost of the project. I had to go shopping quite a bit to buy materials for them to make things.

With HOD, I love it! My son and youngest dd are much more similar in level. You can see by from signature information that my youngest and son are combine in a guide. My oldest is now on her own and guides ahead. As for projects, HOD uses mainly household items. I felt like I needed to scheduled and coordinate all of my crafts with MFW and I was always having to help. Also, craft time went for quite an extended period of time when we worked on them. With HOD, the crafts from Preparing are scheduled over 3 days. In the younger guides though, the crafts don't typically take more than 20 minutes and the kids can actually do them. With MFW, I felt like I was always finishing them or my kids would lose interest in the project before it was finished. As for history, HOD is very living. I love the books. My kids love the books. In the younger guides, you read the history text (which is living anyway) and then read another book for storytime. The books are engaging and fun and interesting. My kids loved them! And you study elements about stories as well while reading them. With the older guides from Preparing and up, there is a story time but it is the same time period as the history being studied. It complete brings the history to life and helps my kids remember what they learned. As for language arts, this program fits us perfectly! I know that CM doesn't recommend having formal grammar until the kids are older but what I love about it is the complete package of how it set up. I love that they do mainly copywork when they are younger but that Carrie set it up gradually walk the kids up to creative writing. I felt like with MFW, writing was thrust at us but I struggled with telling my dd how to write. And we didn't do tons of copywork before finding HOD. I didn't realize it's value. I also didn't quite understand how to make the notebooking pages either with MFW. It was very open-ended. With HOD, it is very detailed and specific. I found that with MFW, it was more up to me to figure out how to direct my child in their writing and with HOD, it explained more. In addition, I really like the writing resources that HOD has selected. I like that they use different resources each year for writing and that they don't use one specific vendor. In addition, the kids really learn about writing written narrations in Preparing. They then use that skill to do more of them each year thereafter. For us, this is a great fit. I loved that in Bigger they did a bunch of notebooking. It helped get the creative juices flowing. I also will say this, I am not sure if you are on facebook or not but I would recommend not use all of the files that are on there. I would use HOD as written. My kids are all very different and by not using all of those supplements, I can see those differences. Plus, it helps my kids make understand how to use their space wisely. The supplements listed look fancy but using the guides as written is better IMHO. I also love some of the extra topics that are covered in each year. I love the music, art, Shakespeare study, and the projects and activities just built into the guides. And finally, I like how HOD steps it up the independence. I love that with HOD, each year my kids get more and more independent each year. With MFW, I felt like I was just reading, reading, reading and trying to get through it. With HOD, I love that my kids starting taking on some of the responsibility of their day earlier on. And they love the books anyway so it wasn't a problem. I love it because it helps them invest in themselves and makes them responsible.

My oldest started in Preparing and I am not at point where she is almost in MtMM. She has 5 weeks left of RevtoRev. I can't believe it! I can't believe how different she is. I personally feel like she is so far above her peers in her ability to learn and to write. HOD starts having the kids do research in Preparing with the help of a parent and by CtC, they are working on it more independently. She can also write. Really write! I never thought I would see that day come. My dd also wasn't the best reader when we started. She reads SO fast now and is a really good reader too. When we first started, she couldn't focus and get her day done. I can't say that she is wonderful at this now but it is a lot better. Everyday it gets better and better.

In summary, I found that MFW was a lot more work on my part and I felt like my kids just didn't remember most of what they learned. With HOD, I find it to be very balanced and good fit for the amount of work that is required per guide. I love that the lower guides are very directed and how my kids can work independently. I just love about the depth and fascination of topic in each level and how material is covered. You asked if you needed to switch your math program and I would say no. When we first started, we did use our own math. Over time, we ended up switching. The only thing we sub out is spelling for my son. He has auditory processing disorder and receptive language impairment. I could use HOD spelling but I found a unique program that is greared toward this. But who knows, at some point he may not need to be switched out. But other than that though, we love doing everything exactly as HOD schedules it. Even my oldest has mild dyslexia and HOD works perfectly for her. For us, HOD is wonderful fit.