heartofdakota.com

Hello,
I am looking into using HOD for next year. I have a 9,7 and 2 year old and one more on the way in September. I am using LHTH with my 2 year old and we love it. This year I almost did BHFHG but changed my mind last minute to Adventures. While I did enjoy parts of this curriculum parts of it were not a good fit for me. And looking ahead to next year I know HOD is the right fit. I am wondering where you ladies think I should start. I have followed the Trivium and not started much formal math and grammar yet as I wanted to wait until they were 10 years old. Now with that said we do math everyday in some gentle way and we are using Primary Language Lessons for English with a very gentle approach to grammar. I'm guessing I will need a few manuals for a few different levels which is fine with me. My 9 year old will be 10 in June and is very ahead of the game mentally and my 7 year old is just catching up to second grade reading and comprehension but will be 8 in June too. He has some processing issues too. Any input from you ladies is very much appreciated!! Christa

Hi! Welcome to the boards! LHTH is such a great start to homeschooling - isn't it?!? I've used all of HOD's programs so far, and I can assure you that they all measure up to the wonderful beginning you've already had with LHTH.

I think the placement chart will be very helpful for you - it certainly helped me! Here's a link to that:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/

Based on what you've said here, I would guess that your turning 10 yo would place in Preparing Hearts for His Glory, OR otherwise in Bigger Hearts for His Glory. I think that Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory would be a good fit for your 7 yo. You could do Drawn into the Heart of Reading with both of them, using Level 2/3 for your 7 yo. and Level 4/5 for your almost 10 yo. They would read different books based on their reading level, but DITHOR is meant to be multiage and has awesome connections.

As far as your 2 yo, you may want to just do LHTH slowly over the next few years. We made the mistake of rushing through it when our oldest son was that age, and then he was too young to begin LHFHG, so we were kind of in limbo for a bit. We did begin doing LHFHG eventually, just doing half of the plans each day and taking longer to go through it - but looking back with my first ds, I wish I'd done LHTH more slowly. However, you may have a totally different plan that is much better than what I've mentioned here! I'd love to hear your thoughts after checking out the placement chart, and I know other ladies here will chime in more then too.

I'm so glad you are here, and can't wait to get to "chat" with you more!

Christa,

Welcome! We're glad you're here. I think your thread got buried in the board today. I just wanted to pop in and say that my3sons gave you great advice.

Once you get a chance to look at the placement chart, let us know what you think. More ladies will chime in once we have your read from the placement chart. It is the best way for us to get a glimpse into where your kiddos may fit best, and we'll be glad to help you fine-tune your placement.

As my3sons mentioned your 7 year old would fit best in "Beyond..." or "Bigger..." and your 9 year old would fit best in "Bigger..." or "Preparing...".

Blessings,
Carrie

Hi! It sounds like you want to keep a gentle approach to grammar for your seven-year-old, in which case you could start him on Beyond Little Hearts...because it has gentle language written into the daily plans. Bigger Hearts might be a good start for your 10 year old, to ease into the more formal grammar lessons, perhaps substituting Rod and Staff Grammar 3 if you felt Rod and Staff level 2 was too easy.
That's just my first impression, although I don't know where your kids are in math, or whether you plan to continue with your current math or switch to Singapore. Would love to hear more details and what you think after you've checked the placement charts! And welcome

Ok after the placement chart I am thinking Bigger for both-my concern is this -that my soon to be fourth grader would miss out on the 5 year cycle by the time he gets to high school. I know that is a long way off but help me ease this planning craziness in my mind.
Regarding math I am not sure what to do. I am looking at Systematic Math-it is DVD course starting in 5th or 6th grade or Teaching Textbooks. I am not a great math teacher and think a DVD course would be great. Unless the lesson plans for math are easy enough for a non math mind to teach with. Thanks again for all of your help.

Christa

Christa,

One way you may be able to squeeze in the '5th year' would be if you do school year round. Then, maybe you could just move into the next level once you finish and make it all the way through by the end of 8th? I'm not sure if that would work, but it might be worth a try. I am starting my 5th grader (next year) in Bigger with my 8 year old, and will use the books from the extension pack to supplement. We will start sometime in the summer, once we finish this school year. I plan to school year round, with short breaks here and there. Good luck in your search for the best curriculm choice for your family. The ladies here offer terrific advice!

I'm so glad that you got a chance to check out the placement chart. That really helps us advise you so much better! It sounds like "Bigger..." is the way to go overall from your comments. I do think that the Rod and Staff 2 (that is scheduled in "Bigger") is a good place to begin with more formal grammar instruction, so your older kiddo could really benefit from going through it. If you want to delay formal grammar for your 7 year old, you could either use the gentle lessons written into the "Beyond..." guide once a week, or use one of the Queen's Language Lessons books we have on our site. It's probably not worth purchasing the "Beyond..." guide unless you need some other elements of it though (like perhaps the math lessons, or the lower spelling lists too).

If your older kiddo is a good, independent reader, you would also want to add the Extension Pack to "Bigger..." and follow the schedule in the Appendix for that.

In the area of math, what have your little honeys been using up to this point? If they haven't used any formal math, and you are looking at Singapore Math at all (which is what we schedule and use in our guides)... you could give the placement test for Singapore just to see how they come out. Here is the link to the Singapore Placement Test:
http://www.singaporemath.com/Placement_Test_s/86.htm

The test is very accurate and would help with correct placement. If you are considering a DVD or Teaching Textbooks program that is fine too! You can easily substitute in your own math with "Bigger...".

Let us know what you're thinking, if you get a chance. The moms on the board are so good at helping out!

Blessings,
Carrie