heartofdakota.com

Hello,

I have homeschooled for the last 7 years with the Charlotte Mason method. I have been pretty eclectic in my book choices and lately have used SL in a CM way. My kids are 11, 9,7 and 4 (the only girl).

I have to say I was drawn to HOD because our farm is close to South Dakota in SW Minnesota--we are by Walnut Grove, MN. Right now we are on a military base in AL, but we are Minnesota farmers at heart. Anyway, I had no idea that HOD had used CM methods or I would have looked long ago.

Yesterday I purchased Little Hearts and Bigger because my homeschool consignment store had then and after seeing them I had to have them! We were doing Sonlight core 1+2 and core 5 and I was getting very burned out. Last year we did Sonlight core 3 (American history) so some of BIgger is review, but I thought that would be nice anyway. I want to do HOD over the summer and see how it goes. I am printing off the first history books so I can start today.

Here are my questions. My oldest is 11 and will continue with Apologia General Science through the summer and his core 5 readers (hopefully I will add DITHOR for him at some point) along with his math and Intermediate Langugage Lessons/ DGP Grammar. Would be be ok to do Bigger with his younger brothers if he keeps up his own English, math and science? I thought I could have him do copywork from the poems and hymns along with his brothers too, but he is pretty used to dictation already. My other question is what book would my oldest go into next if I wanted to start him in an older book next year? Is it best to go to Preparing or Hearts for Him?

Thanks, we are going to start our first HOD day.

Blessings,

Carrie

Hi,

Welcome to HOD! We are having a very good year with HOD. I know more ladies will chime in here with advice, but in the meantime I would check out the placement charts to help place your son.

http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

I am using Bigger with an almost 11 year old and it is going great. We are really enjoying it!! He does his own math, grammar, dictation. He actually enjoys the science in Bigger immensely - it is his favorite subject. I started out doing the extension pack with him but now do them as read alouds and we like that fit better. His readers come from a variety of sources most from his dad picking them for him. Every family is a little different in their approach and it all works!! I am planning to move onto Preparing next year too, I just don't want to miss a year of this amazing curriculum! Have a great time making it work for you!!

Thank you, that is very encouraging. I did my first HOD day today and it was so nice! I was truly impressed by the bible lesson in Bigger. My kids looked up "persistent" in the dictionary and then the verses in the bible. We had a really nice discussion after that. They loved the Longfellow poem and I am going to have my 11 year old use that as dictation and the younger kids as copywork. We are doing the same with the bible verse. Even the hymn was one I knew from childhood! We all sang it and I may add that in for dictation down the line too.

We chose Gladys Alward as our biography read aloud because we had just started that a couple of days ago and she was also a very persistent person! It all fits so well.

I can see how these volumes can be easily adapted for older students. All of the poems and bible verses are rich in vocabulary and the readers can be as difficult as you need. I could easily take dictation from the Columbus book since it certainly is not twaddly (is that a word?)

All in all it was a wonderful day and I feel the strain of marathoning through wo SL cores slowly seeping away...

Carrie,

I'm so glad that you found us! I just wanted to pop-in and welcome you to the board.

It sounds like you had a wonderful first day. I agree that your older son fits within the extension range of Bigger Hearts, so he should be fine doing Bigger with the Extension Pack and keeping his own language arts and math.

Then, the next year your oldest 3 could move into Preparing Hearts (since the target age range for the program is ages 8-10 with extensions for ages 11-12).

Blessings,
Carrie

Yeah! I am glad we can do Preparing next. My kids wanted to do school today and that NEVER happens. I forget how poetry and hymns often got forgotten or rushed through, but with HOD they are right there on the schedule.

Thank you, Carrie, for the warm welcome. I am loving this and it is the perfect thing to take us through the summer and beyond. We have always schooled year round and I was trying to figure out how slow my breakneck reading pace for the summer. This is absolutely perfect. It is one of those times that God just shows you what you need before you know you need it.

Carrie,

I just wanted to pop in and welcome you, too! I remember starting Bigger this fall and being as excited as you are! Now, I have to tell you that we are on Unit 30, and still enjoying our days just as much! You have a lot of fun and learning ahead of you.

Kathleen

Hi Carrie (momontheprairie),
Welcome! I'm glad to hear Bigger is working well for you. I'm going to be using it next year with my two boys (7 & 9) and I can't wait. It's neat to hear some of the things we'll be doing. I've used Beyond for the last two years. I stretched it out because we had another baby.
I saw in your post you mentioned a homeschool consignment shop and I wanted to ask you about that. I private messaged you on the board, but I'm not sure it worked. I'm kind of new to this myself. I saw you were online so I figured I post my question. If anyone else wants to chime in, that would be great too.
Anyway, I live in CT and I have been thinking lately that it would be great to have a place where homeschoolers could come and actually see new curriculum before they buy it, and buy/sell used stuff. I always just wanted to get the books in my hands and look at them. The conventions only come once a year and only one is in CT (which is small) so options are limited. I figured I wasn't the only one. There may not be enough homeschoolers around here to do it, but when you mentioned it I got excited that such a thing actually exists somewhere.
I just thought if you could tell me about it, that would be helpful. What sort of things do they have there? Only used stuff? How big is it? Is it in a big city? whatever else ???
I look forward to hearing from you and "chatting" on the boards.

Kristen

I'll reply here and pm too.

I live in Huntsville, AL right now and we have a homeschool consignment shop run by a wonderful homeschooling mom to 12 kids. I think it is a GREAT idea. I do not always buy, but it is great to actually see things before I buy. I found HOD this way. Someone had moved onto Preparing and was selling LHFHG and BHFHG. I loved it, but I probably wouldn't have understood how CM it is without looking at the appendices in the volumes.

I would love to have one of these when I move back to MN. Basically, the store here gets inventory by moms bringing things in or having book sales and taking the leftovers for consignment. I don't know if it is a booming business but it really is a big help to me. She also runs classes out of her store which helps bring in revenue from other sources.

I think we should have them all over the country!

Thanks so much, Carrie, for your responses. That sounds great. So, not only the curriculum but classes, and obviously a place for homeschoolers to meet and connect. Awesome!
I've been feeling God leading my heart that way so when you mentioned it I just had to find out. I'm going to keep praying about it and see what happens.

Kristen