heartofdakota.com

First, I'd like to thank Carrie and the other ladies who took the time to answer several of my questions I've recently posted about these programs. I have only recently discovered HOD, and it through a monkey wrench into my plans! I was having a gnawing sense that I wasn't providing the education I really wanted to give to my son. I don't have time for the "beautiful" things because we are so busy getting all the work done. So thank you to all who helped me get back to where I started - remembering that mostly I want to teach my children to love and honor the Lord, and secondly, that more isn't better, better is better.

Now for my new questions! I have been drawn to Language Lessons by Queens Homeschool for a while because I love the use of classic art to educate. Does anyone use this in conjunction with HOD?

My other question is, do you personally find time to add in another language, nature walks and study, music appreciation and history study, music lessons, etc.?

Thanks again for your time in responding. It's so encouraging when people respond with heart-felt, helpful advice and suggestions.

Laura

Laura,

Look here. http://www.heartofdakota.com/store/ They are an option in the program it seems.

As far as time goes that is the beauty. There is plenty of time to add anything you want. That "anything else" is going to be different for different families. You get to pick But the time is there, no problem.

Laura,

I am really drawn to the Queen language program as well, and for the same reason as you (among other reasons). Although we are just barely starting our homeschool journey (my daughter is just 4), I did end up purchasing their very first language issue which is Language Lessons For Little Ones. I absolutely love it, especially the Picture Study & Narration and Poetry Appreciation & Narration. When I found that Carrie incorporates the Queen programs I was very pleasantly surprised! Like others, I feel sometimes like HOD was created for me and my daughter. It suits us so well and we are so glad to have found it.

By the way, I don't remember if I said hello in your initial post so, hello and glad you are here!

Candice

Laura,

At our house we do incorporate each of the things you mentioned, and we do have plans for adding a 5th day option/package to the HOD website at some point for those who want that option for our new programs (which will be written with a 4 day plan).

Basically, the 5th day option would include CM-style composer/classical music, picture study/art appreciation, nature study with a notebooking entry, and possibly hymns or additional poetry study. We are not firm yet on exactly what areas would be included, but we do some very easy no-prep things within these areas at our own house that would make it easy to share with others.

The 5th day option could be done on the 5th day or spread throughout the week one each day if time allows. We have done it both ways at our house and are doing one each day this year (i.e. poetry, classical music, art study, nature journal).

All of that is to say that you can easily add it whatever works for your family, due to the shorter time spent formal schooling with our guides.

We do also have our boys doing daily Greek lessons with the Student Books from "Hey, Andrew Teach Me Some Greek".

Hope that helps! We didn't include formal study of classical music, art appreciation, nature journal in our previous guides, due to the need to hit the 3 r's hard in the early years. This is why we have planned to move into adding more of those things as the children get older.

Blessings,
Carrie

My Hubby does the music lessons once a week. So i don't have to, but my dd practices piano at minimum 25 minutes a day. She such a blessing she loves it so much she needs no prodding to practice.

My dd and I have time to study India In-depth.

And I'm still tossing around adding the 25 minute tapes of verbal only Chinese language lesson... (see signature if you wonder why Chinese)..

My dd has a lot of trouble with hand eye co-ordination so about 3x a week we play wii sports. You gotta love hitting a virtual baseball inside the house on a winter day...

also about once a week if she finishes her copy work neatly and quickly we use an Usborn "How to draw Animals" book My 8 year old is still drawing stick figures. So I added that in as her artist mommy despairs over her illustrations, and she is not happy either she wants to draw better but she has no talent. But as the book "Drawing on the right side of the brain" says. Drawing does not require talent it is a skill that can be taught. We also use "Doodles" a creative coloring book when she doesn't finish early but wants to do art.

Does anyone use this in conjunction with HOD?

I bought Lang. Lessons for the Very Young to try as an alternative to ETC. My dd's enjoyed ETC, but it brought my ds to tears. LL has been good to give us extra phonics practice (I went back to vol. 2 so that it would be more of a review and it has been just what ds needed to cement short vowel sounds and blending), poetry study and picture study. It has also given me good ideas for questions to use with other pictures during picture study. We will be starting vol. 3 in about 2 weeks.

My other question is, do you personally find time to add in another language, nature walks and study, music appreciation and history study, music lessons, etc.?

We listen to music at night and discuss the composer. I haven't started a foreign language, but hope to in future years. My oldest two took piano lessons for one year, and to my great dismay, dreaded every lesson and I had to force practice... so we quit for now. Nature study is pretty easy for us as we live way out in the country and have plenty of "nature" on our farm. IThey do have nature journals and we try to draw and label something at least once a week.

I think it makes it easier to add these "lovely extras" if our children are actually interested....at my house nature study is easy (they love it) and music is not