heartofdakota.com

Carrie -

I see that the books being used in the new program are listed in the store section, so I've been peeping. Can I just say how totally impressed and thrilled I am? I already own some of the core resources (Illustrated Family Bible, Apologia Land Animals, Dinosaurs by Design, and more!) so this would be a very economical choice for me - a big consideration for a single parent homeschooler!

Are you able to share what the language arts pieces will be for this program? Grammar? Writing program?

I'm very excited that there will finally be a HOD program at a good level for my 12yos - you're finally catching up to me! I think this fall will be our year for HOD.

Jen

I just peeped too and am so excited! Most of the books are things I've looked at and wanted to use so badly, but didn't know how to piece it all together to make it work. It's going to be amazing! You are so talented Carrie! (and I do believe you have "bugged" many of our homes and/or are reading our minds...LOL )

LOL!

I think Carrie is definitely a kindred spirit.

Jen

Ooooh, neat! Off to check out the store!

Ladies!!! You are SUCH researchers. Women after my own heart! I wondered how long it would be before you started finding the resources in the store! The actual descriptions and packages are coming soon on the website, but the items are already in the store.

We are VERY excited about the resources that will be used in the new guide. Our web designer is working SO hard to get all parts of it just right before we launch the new product on the web for pre-order.

As far as the language arts goes, for our newest guide we will be listing a choice of Rod and Staff English 4 or 5. We will also be including dictation passages for Level 3, 4, and 5 in the Appendix. Drawn into the Heart of Reading will be in the schedule 3 days a week, (with the choice left to you as to what order to do the units).

We will include guided written narration practice with the history stories, oral narration practice with Storytime and Geography, and reading of poetry from poet Robert Frost. Storytime will be your choice of 3 options: History Interest, Boy Interest, or Girl Interest. A guided literature question list will be provided in the Appendix for you to choose a few questions for discussion during the Storytime sessions.

For creative writing, we have changed our mind to use Write with the Best Vol. I, instead of Story Starters (which we had planned to include before this). We have found Write with the Best Vol. I will do a better job of preparing kiddos incrementally for upper level writing requirements, and also use classic literature passages as models (which we really like). This, of course, changes our future writing recommendations.

So at this point, in order to be prepared for high school level essay writing, we are upping our writing requirements in the middle school years. We are tentatively thinking of the following sequence for writing: Write with the Best Vol. I, then Igniting Your Writing Vol. II (doing intermediate lessons one year and advanced the next year), and last using The Elegant Essay by IEW in the final middle school guide. I mention this sequence for any of you who are seeking to fulfill writing requirements that will prepare your middle schooler for high school level writing.

Blessings,
Carrie

I love your writing choices! It looks like an incredible plan that is sure to prepare kids for upper level writing. I can't wait!

Carrie, thanks so much for taking the time to post that for us. I thought I'd seen Story Starters there and then gone! (LOL I do know that the items listed on the store front right now are subject to change.) Don't ya just hate it when we're all watching you like you're under a microscope? But we're just so excited!

I'm so thrilled with the looks of this program. My son was excited at the book choices as well. History interest or boy interest? Oh no. . .we have to choose?

I guess for his grammar studies, then, I'll most likely keep going with the old reprints of Voyages in English; he'd be doing the 7th grade level in that by the time Hearts for Him is available. But it's nice to know so many CM language arts ideas will be available in the plans for his use as well.

Love it!

Jen

I am getting so excited, and are 2 years away! LOL! We will be doing Preparing next year and then start the Ancients. I love the Writing choice. I have been reading ALOT about Write with the Best. May I ask why only Vol I will be used and not Vol II in later years? Also, have any of the IEW themed History programs been considered... Ancients, Medieval or US History???

butterfly123,

Write with the Best Vol. II is quite a bit harder than Write with the Best Vol. I. We feel this makes Write with the Best Vol. II better suited for high school level writing. It includes many assignments that high schoolers are often asked to utilize for literature study and history. So, our recommendation would be for Write with the Best II to be reserved for either freshman or sophomore level writing assignments.

We also did weigh IEW's Ancients (themed writing program), however after doing SWI-A and much of SWIC-B with our son, we've had limited enthusiasm for the quite formulistic style of writing through IEW. We feel Write with the Best ties better with literature as the model for good writing, rather than pulling apart very short factual passages as IEW typically does. We just prefer the overall style of Write with the Best over IEW and enjoy the CM-style lessons and the literature tie-in. We also are already getting a healthy does of factual writing through written narrations.

As always, you each know your own homeschool goals best, and if another writing program meets those goals better you are encouraged to pursue it!

Blessings,
Carrie

I was just looking at the things that have been added to the store, and they really do look great!! We just have about 4 more years until we'll be ready to use them! I've already got most of Beyond and am soon going to start collecting Bigger, so you never know, I may be buying the newest one sooner than that! It's all just so great it's hard to wait!