heartofdakota.com

Hi! I learned of this company over at another board and I'm very interested in it. I have a few questions though.

First, I was wondering if there's a statement of faith/denomination background for the Bible portion of these programs. I noticed that a lot of the books used are from Christian Liberty Press which is Reformed Protestant and also that a couple of the Children's Bible books were written by Presbyterian authors. I love and already own some of these books, but I was just curious if any particular theology comes across in the programs?

Also, I was looking at the new Preparing Hearts program and noticed the use of A Child's History of the World. I have heard some negative reviews toward this book in that it is not written from a Biblical Worldview, however, many like it because of its narrative style. I was originally planning to use MOH for the ancients (already own it and have used it for my older 2). I'm just wondering why CHOW was chosen for this program rather than something like MOH which is more Biblically based? Just curious. BTW, we also already have the Ice Age and Dino books recommeded, and they are awesome reads!! MOH also recommends them.

Lastly, I plan to do Beyond for my 8yo next year because we already own most of the books in the pkg, and I was already planning to use them. My question for this is, do you do a lot of jumping around in the books? I'm coming from using another curriculum that did this a lot to keep the "unit" idea together, and I'm just now figuring out that this jumping around is very irritating to me. I like to read our books cover to cover like the authors intended. I know..."Olive Organized"...

Anyways, TIA for any answers to all of my long winded questions.

Nancy

Welcome Nancy! I know you are going to get a lot of answers to your questions. The women are very helpful here! Just reading your question here vs other board I see the jumping around issue is jumping all over the books so that the program provider can use it other than the original author's intent. That kind of jumping does not happen. Only if the original author wrote it out of chronological order for some wacky reason and then HOD put it in order which I understand happens with one book. But you will not be page flipping to essentially make a new book out of an old book.

Can't wait to see response to your questions!

Welcome to the board, Nancy! We're glad to have you here!

I'll answer your questions, and I'm sure some of the other moms will chime in to welcome you as well.

For the Bible portion of our programs, we go right to the Bible as the source for all teaching and deeper analysis, so we do not represent a certain denomination in that area of study. We do use several Christian Liberty Press books for the history portion of "Little Hearts..." and "Beyond...", which do have somewhat of a Reformed Protestant slant. Our devotionals used in our early programs have also been chosen to be very Biblically based, rather than doctrinally-based. The Eggleston texts used in "Bigger..." were written by a Methodist minister.

Our own family background is from a small-town Reformed Church upbringing in quite a Dutch community. So, we have very conservative roots! My husband and I actively participated in a more contemporary Reformed Church in the city where we lived for 13 years before recently moving to a more conservative Evangelical Free church. So, our background is Protestant with Calvinistic leanings.

The reason we chose Hillyer for "Preparing Hearts...", is because it a very living retelling of world history, written by a Christian man. It is important to note that at the time Hillyer wrote CHOW, Christians of the time believed that evolution was a way of explaining the Biblical story of creation. Charlotte Mason herself believed the same as Hillyer, and she was an avid Christian.

Since the overall tone of "A Child's History of the World" is from a Christian worldview, we do not mind skipping the opening chapters which contain evolutionary content by today's standards. But, that is because the error is due to the time period is which Hillyer lived and wrote, rather than because he was seeking to disagree with the Scriptures. We feel that is much different than choosing a modern evolutionary book and skipping the evolutionary portions, because the modern book is working to undermine what is put forth in Scripture. You will see Hillyer's Christian belief system shows through much of his writing.

We have also read "A Child's History of the World" through out loud more than once to our boys and have really enjoyed it. From a Charlotte Mason perspective, it is a wonderful living book told in narrative form by a single author who is passionate about his subject matter. In our opinion it is unequaled in its presentation of world history as a story told in a way that children can understand.

We have also enjoyed Hillyer's other books "A Child's Story of Art" and "A Child's Geography". Though out of print, they are written in the same living, narrative style.

In "Preparing Hearts...." we do weave in a large dose of Biblical history, directly from the Bible and using "Grandpa's Box" which is an overview of Biblical history. We also add in "Life in the Great Ice Age" to explain that period of time from a Christian perspective, and "Hero Tales" to link evangelism with the reading about pagan cultures. Our storytime read-alouds in Preparing are almost all from a Christian viewpoint as well.

We know the study of world history can bring up many controversial topics, and feel that the selection of books is one of the most important choices we will make in each curriculum that we write. So, it is not without MUCH thought and prayer that we bring our selections to you knowing many families will be impacted by our choices. You, ultimately know best, whether this philosophy lines up with your family belief system, but I hope this has shed some light on why we do what we do!

You will see a book or two that mention pagan gods in "Preparing Hearts...." such as Leif the Lucky, but that book also contrasts the paganism with his later conversion to Christianity. Even Aesop's fables which mention greek gods are discussed in light of the Bible.

It is also important to note that before entering any study of history that talks about pagan gods and cultures, we have laid an excellent foundation in Bible knowledge and study through "Little Hands...", "Little Hearts...", "Beyond..." and "Bigger....". We feel that by laying a strong foundation in the Bible prior to teaching world history, we will have that foundation in place when it comes time to know more about the pagan cultures that surround us. Then, the paganism can be seen in a correct light and not glorified to be just something fascinating to learn.

Blessings,
Carrie (who you'll note had to edit this to more clearly say what she meant!)

Hi Nancy! You are asking some important questions, especially in regard to the Biblical focus, that everyone should be asking of every curriculum out there, IMO. I have done all of HOD's programs, and I have really appreciated the Christ-centered focus of HOD's curriculums. It is difficult to explain, but I believe because of the way Scriptural-based learning is woven into almost every possible facet of learning in HOD, my sons have a natural faith much deeper than most children their ages (certainly more than I did at their ages, and I grew up in a very Christian home with wonderful parents).

I appreciate that a Biblical focus is a major part of learning, and that God's hand is always shown through history as well. In many curriculums, Bible is a separate subject, books are chosen without regard for Christianity, and the Scriptural connections are somewhat weak and disjointed. I have never found any of these things to be true with HOD. It would be tough to find a more all-around, God-honoring curriculum than HOD's programs. I really think you'll be pleased with the results, and you will have ample time planned in your homeschool day to make known to your children your own personal faith. It's not fake, it's real, and it gives you time to discuss important things with your children in almost every area of learning. What an important thing to ask, so glad you did! I'm very confident HOD's programs will fulfill that need for you and your children. Can't wait to get to know you more! We did Beyond... last year, and you're in for a real treat!

Thanks for all of your replies. I'm looking forward to giving HOD a try with my 2 youngest. I do like the choices for books that I see, and have already used many of them with my older 2. I plan to see if our library has CHOW so I can have a look at it. (Our homeschool bookfair may have it too.) I'm glad to hear that you skip the evolution based beginning, and that makes total sense that its in a whole different category of its own as compared to a modern day secular Science book with evolution. Do you read the book through cover to cover chronologically? (skipping the beginning as you already mentioned.) I'm also wondering this for the books used in Beyond. (Specifically, Stories of the Pilgrims, since it's a fairly long, but wonderful, book). I have the first edition to that book, so I'm assuming that I can use the tm without the update? Or is the new edition better to have? Anyways, thanks for the big welcome and all of your wonderful responses.

Nancy

Nancy,

Just wanted to say hello and give you a warm welcome!

Candice

Nancy,

We do read Stories of the Pilgrims completely through, but we do deviate a couple of times to insert a week of American Pioneers and Patriots or a week of "Boys and Girls of Colonial Days". I think you'll find it works very smoothly as we go in chronological order with our readings in all of our guides for the history portion.

We do use Hillyer in almost complete order. However, we do reverse a couple of chapters on India, Africa, or China to give a culture a smoother read in a couple of places. We do also pause in Hillyer to insert Biblical history.

We do read all science books in "Bigger..." and "Preparing...." cover to cover in order, but in "Beyond..." we just read topically through the science book as the topics match the history study. This is because a textbook does not necessarily lend itself to being read cover to cover and is used more as a reference for additional reading rather than being the spine. Hope that makes sense.

Blessings,
Carrie

Nancy wrote:I have the first edition to that book, so I'm assuming that I can use the tm without the update? Or is the new edition better to have?

The only difference is that they have color pictures in the 2nd edition. If you already own the 1st, don't bother getting the new one.