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I find I really look forward to certain parts of my HOD guides each day - how about you? You think they'd be the same, but they change based on which child is using the guide and what else is going on in my life overall.

This year in RevtoRev with Emmett, my 11 year-old, here are my favorites...
#1: Storytime: I am reading these aloud this year, and I love it! When my olders did this guide, they read the Storytime themselves, and back then I loved that. But, I find everything comes full circle with my youngest, and I find I love to read aloud once again. We get our warm blankets, turn on the fireplace, and snuggle in. I sip my coffee throughout the reading, and we take our time. We both love this time together, and the books are awesome!
#2: Inventor Study oral narrations: Emmett is an entrepreneur at heart, and he loves the inventors he is reading about. When it comes time for me to hear his oral narrations, he is so impressed by the inventors he read about that his narrations are just such fun to hear. They are full of details and enthusiasm!
#3: Bible Memory Work: Every Day 4, I have Emmett recite his Hebrews Bible memory work for me. He's just a great memorizer, and it is neat to hear his memory recitation growing each week!
#4: Timeline entries: His captions are written neatly, in a straight line, and are spelled right. His pictures are outlined and colored neatly. Huge progress! Just so happy all those years of me making him correct misspelled captions and of me making him try to draw/color fairly neatly have paid off! Now, I just get to oooh and ahhhh.
#5: Dictation: I realize this sounds strange. I think I love it because it is quick, he has improved so much, and he rarely makes a mistake. It just feels like an accomplishment to keep moving forward through the levels!

This year in USI with Riley, my 16 year-old, here are my favorites...
#1: American Literature: First, I'm just amazed at the depth of these books he is reading! But second, I love his daily literature journal entries and his literary analysis sheets he does at the end of each novel. Riley loves to read, and his journal entries show how much he is learning. The literary analysis sheets show the depth of his understanding of the novels, and I don't know how anyone could long for textbooks with quizzes or tests in place of amazing living books and annotating, reflecting, and lit analysis!!!
#2: U.S. History oral narrations: Riley really enjoys Bennett's style as an author, probably because Riley's style is similar. He has a dry wit and a knack for storytelling with memorable quotes. Riley just plain loves history, probably due to all the years of doing it HOD's way. Hearing him retell what he's read in USI is just pure entertainment.
#3: Great Documents in U.S. History critical thinking questions: Riley loves to respond to these, and he has learned to support his opinions well. These topics are rich, and there is often not one right answer. It shows how complicated decisions can be for our nation's leaders - in history and today.
#4: Living Library double-journal entries: What amazing quotes Riley chooses! Just neat to see what quotes stand out to him and how he explains their poignancy.
#5: Book of Centuries entries, USI maps, and Common Place Book entries: Riley writes neatly and colors beautifully. He writes in cursive for his Common Place Book entries (because he deems them special and worthy of the extra effort of cursive writing). So, really, I just love all of these because the work is neat and colorful.

Okay! So, those are my HOD favorites this year! What are yours? I'd love to know!

In Christ,
Julie

Those were fun to read!

I always enjoy the oral narrations from history. My dc get so excited about what they’ve learned. The independent History is always fun. Especially the drawings. One of my favorite parts is the research box. My kids eyes always brighten when they get to research on the computer
Highschool Bible has been super fun this year! And, you know, each new book that gets taken off the shelf for the first time for a student just makes me smile

Thanks for letting me share.

Kristen

For my 12-year old in CTC:

1.) We sit down together while she does the watercolor paintings. I know it’s an independent box, but she really likes me sitting down with her through this. She is thoroughly enjoying this part of the day. I swear I can see her stress melt away.

2.) Storytime- The history read alouds for this guide have been amazing so far (granted we aren’t very far in). We are almost done with The Golden Bull, and we both love it!

3.) I love how excited she gets about the extension books so far. I’m not sure if we’ll do all of them, but she has loved the first two.

4.) She also loves the science book so far! She comes to me everyday excited to tell me what he learned in the Zoology book.


For my 10-year old in Preparing:

1.) The books for the history readings in this guide just can’t be beat. She’s excited for history every day.

2.) She doesn’t want me to sell or give away her first DITHOR book this year. I love seeing how excited she gets over books!

3.) She thrives with the history projects. I love that she’s getting this creative outlet!

My daughter is in MTMM, but is using US2 Astronomy that she is really enjoying, both the subject and the Apologetics aspect. It's fun to snuggle up on the couch and watch the DVDs. My son is taking Astronomy at the Community College, he really wanted to take HOD Astronomy. We have lunch right when he returns from class. We re-watch the video and discuss. It is fun to discuss the two World View approaches to Astronomy, and have a real life experience to compare how they are taught.
We are also enjoying the Nature Journaling. I purchased the DVD, which isn't a resource HOD recommended, yet it has enhanced both learners. My son enjoyed it 4 years ago and it helped him to see step by step how to draw. Now my daughter, who loves art & nature, is watching DVDs and learning many new techniques of drawing. So fun to see my daughter's drawings and journaling, and how different they are from my son's.
Finally, another area that my daughter is enjoying isn't included in HOD. She is using One Year Adventure Novel. She wants to be a writer and devours books. I was hesitant to use this curriculum as I had used it 11 years ago and I knew how challenging it was. It takes a huge time commitment, so I know that HOD wisely does not include it. My daughter loves it. Yes, it is very challenging. After Bible and Astronomy she will tackle OYAN. She's excited to know she'll have a novel. I can't wait to read it.
Although my son isn't using HOD, he is taking full time college courses, we are still side by side in his day to day assignments. It is a joy to see the benefits of learning with HOD as they come to fruition. My son has US Geography that requires two weekly discussion posts. He's drawing from previous year's learning in his comments. All those weekly written narrations have been a tremendous help. He has to do a 150 word original post and 100 word response to another person's post. It doesn't take long to complete. I remember struggling with Preparing's written narrations that took forever. One sentence took about 10 minutes. Thanks to HOD as he incrementally learned how to complete written narrations this is not a struggle in college.
Another area HOD has helped is in his Astronomy course. He takes bullet notes during the lecture and then turns them in. I recall his assignments in HOD that required bullet notes. So helpful. The interesting thing about college is being able to use those notes on his test. During HOD he did open book tests, and in college he can continue that process. To accommodate his learning challenges he records the lecture to assist with more taking. So far he hasn't needed to listen to the recordings. I was concerned that HOD was book based learning and how would he do in a lecture based class. Interesting the Astronomy class doesn't have a book. The teacher kindly is avoiding requiring students pay $$$ for a book, so it is completely lecture based. Yes, HOD has prepared him well for college. He's a senior this year so I thought it would be ok to include how he's doing.
Thanks HOD for the wonderful curriculum. Praise God we have had this opportunity to home educate.

Oh, ladies! I am loving reading this thread. It just warms my heart to hear your kids' favorites from the guides. It is always amazing to me how many different favorites there are. These favorites have varied much from child to child at our house through the years, even when our child is using a guide his brothers have done before him.

What a blessing it is to share this journey with all of you!

Blessings,
Carrie