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Hi! I have used Heart of Dakota for many years when my kids were young, found something that worked better for the season we were in, and now want to use it again. I'm looking at the placement chart again, and it looks like my son places in Revival to Revolutions. Please explain to me how to make this high school credit worthy. Also, what would this look like for the next four years? I generally would like to start with the high level, but with him, I think less is more. I would however, plan to keep with doing half of English 7. When using the extensions, do I add that to everything else or do in place of something?

This recent thread is a place to start: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17890

I have a freshman starting with MtMM for 9th and my plan is to assign extension reading in lieu of the storytime for history. I won’t add anything else for history but will utilize all of the boxes (not skipping anything). I am using the World Geography guide language arts boxes (BJU lit with Boy interest novels plus EIW writing and first half of R&S7). He will also do a HS science in lieu of the MtMM science but it isn’t the WG science yet. It’s a bit lighter science (not HOD) giving him time to dig in to the heavier reading load with the WG LA and history extensions. I am using the IPC science from WG with my current 10th grader and do plan to use it with my 9th grader when he is in 10th and he is using the WG guide. It’s been very good! Science isn’t my rising 9th grader’s strength or passion so I will do IPC in 10th, Biology in 11th and the Astronomy in 12th. He won’t tackle chemistry beyond IPC. For 9th he will also do Logic which is scheduled in WG. My strategy is to look ahead to the next high school guide (or two) for the electives and put them where I need them. It’s a bit of a puzzle. I am not sure if he will do the Spanish (my older son is doing HOD Spanish and it is fine for him). We are going to do the MtMM Bible as written for a half credit and go ahead with health for 9th to open up his credits a bit later on. On the transcript you’d call Rev2Rev US1 and MtMM US2 I believe. Your son would do WG in 11th and WH in 12th. You’ll have to juggle electives and I’d suggest writing out a plan with the HOD guide open. When my son gets to WG in 10th he will do most of the guide as written but we will pull language arts from somewhere else. I may just work LA from the next guide all the way through because the way Carrie does literature is wonderful! We also plan to skip one of the Bible survey courses so that he can use I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist in 12th. He won’t use the US2 guide for history but he will use parts of it for electives and science while he uses US1. You may want to ponder the Bible courses Carrie has chosen for high school and decide on your four favorites. My thoughts are a bit jumbled and typing on a phone is tedious but I hope this gets the planning and sorting process moving forward.

LeAnna wrote:Hi! I have used Heart of Dakota for many years when my kids were young, found something that worked better for the season we were in, and now want to use it again. I'm looking at the placement chart again, and it looks like my son places in Revival to Revolutions. Please explain to me how to make this high school credit worthy. Also, what would this look like for the next four years? I generally would like to start with the high level, but with him, I think less is more. I would however, plan to keep with doing half of English 7. When using the extensions, do I add that to everything else or do in place of something?

Hi LeAnna!

We received your phone message at HOD with this question, and I left a message for you to give us a call but thought I'd answer here as best I could based on what I know. I tried to look up levels of LA/math, etc. from orders but couldn't figure out much. So, to start, I'll just mention that there are two ways to award high school credit. There is the traditional method of assigning credit based on time spent on coursework. Typically 1 Carnegie unit of credit is for 120 hours of work, or 160 forty-five minute class periods. There is also the other option for awarding credit based on quality of work completed, rather than just the time spent. This is often used in homeschool settings, where students may work at faster or slower rates and aren't having to sit in a class for a certain amount of time. This works well with homeschool settings, as the goal is knowledge of the subject taught, not just to spend a certain amount of time on the subject. Making Rev. to Rev. credit worthy will depend upon what your state requirements are for high school (and also what type of higher education plans you have for your child as to whether that child is college bound, etc). I think the best way to go about this is to give you a list of what your student will need for 9th grade and then give you a general overview of what the next 3 years of high school will look like. Below you’ll find the credits that can be earned and the packages you’d need to order. The “*” items are suggested ways to beef up the courses to make them high school credit worthy…

1.0 Credit American History & 0.5 Credit of Government:
RevtoRev Economy Package w/ State Study & Signers
RevtoRev Extension Package
*Federalist Papers (Not all, but for sure 10,14,84,78,70,39,51)
*5,000 Year Leap
*Note: Or, do Government from US1 guide later, possibly as a summer course or alongside 11th or 12th grade year.

1.0 Credit Physical Science with Lab:
Science Add On – Option #2

1.0 Credit Language Arts – English 1:
The Exciting World of Creative Writing
Drawn into the Heart of Reading – 6/7/8 Student Book
Level 7/8 Boy Pack (do at least 6 or more titles)
English 7 (first half)

1.0 Credit Bible:
Bible Study included in RevtoRev Economy Package
*Balancing the Sword
*How Then Should We Live?
*Note: Or, add the reading of the 4 Gospels or something of that level and time.

0.5 Credit Fine Arts – Music Appreciation:
Composer Study in the RevtoRev Economy Package
*Lives of the Great Composers
*The Gift of Music
*Additional in-depth listening to some composers of your choosing
*Short paper or two on a composer(s).
*Note: The above * need not ALL be done, but this is at your discretion.

0.5 Foreign Language:
Getting Started with Spanish, completing a few lessons a day at the start, and then one lesson a day when they get longer. This will help the course be completed within a year.
Getting Started with Spanish ($20.95) is something that we have used with our son and it is scheduled in our World Geography guide.

1.0 Credit of Math:
One of our choices of Algebra 1

The above plan will give you 6.5 credits for the 9th grade year.

The following years in general would go as follows:

10th grade - MTMM with extensions (counts as one credit in American History 2; 1/2 credit in Bible or add more for a full credit; add to science or use WG science; use WG English for English II (lit./comp/grammar - 1 credit); electives/etc.
11th grade - WG
12th grade - WH


I hope this helps! But, we can discuss each year as it approaches to work out the details as well! It is easy to make a transcript via http://www.transcriptmaker.com, so that is a super help too! If you have any more questions, please let us know! We are always here to help - via FB, email, message board, website, catalog, blog, YouTube, and phone. When it comes time to place your order, I’d be glad to help with that as well – just give us a call! Our family appreciates your support in ordering from us, and we look forward to serving you!!!

In Christ,
Julie Grosz

Thank you so much, Julie and Katrina! I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and process all of this, but this looks really helpful! Hopefully, I can get some down time tonight to do some planning! Just to make sure I'm understanding, I would add on the extension package to the economy package to add to it? Not do in place of, correct? Would I also do the read alouds in addition to books from 6/7/8 DITHOR?

LeAnna wrote:Thank you so much, Julie and Katrina! I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and process all of this, but this looks really helpful! Hopefully, I can get some down time tonight to do some planning! Just to make sure I'm understanding, I would add on the extension package to the economy package to add to it? Not do in place of, correct? Would I also do the read alouds in addition to books from 6/7/8 DITHOR?

You would add the Extension Package to the Economy Package, the Basic Package is optional. You would do DITHOR 6/7/8 for the lit part of the English I credit, alongside R & S English grammar and The Exciting World of Creative Writing composition. Hope that helps!

In Christ,
Julie Grosz, M. Ed.
Heart of Dakota