heartofdakota.com

Hello Everyone!

My name is Cynthia and I live in Sunny (hot, sticky) South Florida. I have two children (an 18 yo DD who is going off to college in the fall) and an 10 yo son who is starting 5th grade in the fall). After much prayer, we decided to pull my son out of private Christian schooling, and try home schooling him this coming year. I never in a million years thought I would HS, but here we are. God spoke...we obeyed. I expect it to be quite a journey.

One of the things I didn't realize about HS is how much of a curriculum war there is. I call it war because when I found out that I would be HSing my son this year, I started investigating curricula and noticed that there are some very strong opinions about the "best" curriculum. Anyway, I figured that I would just ignore the war and seek God's face over what would be best for MY son. That is how I wound up at HOD. I have hemmed and hawed over HOD for a few months now, looking at various curricula and always coming back to HOD. Finally, this morning, I placed my order! Lord HELP MY CREDIT CARD.

I do know that several of you on here say that you go to the library for the books, but I just know myself. I will pay more in late fees than for the book! LOL Also, I would love to teach my son about annotating and highlighting, and he needs his own books for that.

We ordered DITHOR and the new Creation to Christ study with the science adder. I ordered all the readers that go with them, and the WONDERFUL writing curriculum. I will be using Christian Light Education for Math and LA. I will be using the Precept Upon Precept Genesis Study (and subsequent ones as we complete Genesis) for bible.

I basically have three concerns about this curriculum and was wondering if someone could answer these questions for me.

My first question is this. Are there hands on project recommendations? My son loves to do projects, and I am a little concerned that this might need to be supplemented with lots of hands on stuff. If so, where would I find stuff like that for his grade level (5th grade).

Secondly, there seems to be an large about of reading with this program. Does that work well with someone who is not nuts about reading? I mean, I know he needs to read, but is there TOO much reading in this program?

Finally, I am worried about "gauges" as to how he is doing throughout the year. If there are no tests or worksheets, how can I know how he is progressing. I think that because I have absolutely no training as a teacher, how would I know where he is supposed to be at what time of the year? This is really my greatest concern.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any help with these questions.

Have an awesome day in the Lord!

Welcome Cynthia! I am South Florida, Sarasota to be exact. Where are you?
I had to laugh about your comment on the library. I am exactly the same way. I end up paying soooo much in late fees it is cheaper to buy the books. Especially b/c I have 3 more children that will use the books.
I can't help with all your questions. But I will help as much as I can...I have a child that is not a huge reader fan but since switching to HOD I have noticed a desire to read. He actually asked to read an extra book yesterday He is learning to appreicate reading. I think b/c the amount of reading is not overwhelming during the school day and the stories are fun and interesting. As far as gauges go, there are some options you can do for "standarized testing" at the end of the school year. It depends on whether you are registered with your local school board or under an umbrella school. These tests can give you an overall idea of where your son is compared to his peers. However I get the feeling you are talking about throughout the school year. This is alittle more subjective in the areas of hisotry, science and others. But with the activities planned you can get a good idea if your son is retaining the information based on how much help he needs from you on recalling the information to finish the project and do his narrations. I think you will be surprised with what he will tell you about months after you have studied it. Since you are use CLE for math and LA then you will have a great idea how he is doing with their tests and quizzes. I hope this has helped some I am sure others will chime in with their help too. This board is really great for support.
Great success this year and many blessings!

Hello Michelle!

I am in the Fort Lauderdale area. I guess Sarasota is about 3 hours from me? Thanks for your help. I can only pray for the day that my son reads on his own...without me prodding. We will see!

I hear many people talk about the challenges of homeschooling several children. I think my head would explode! I feel so incredibly overwhelmed, and I haven't even started yet! LOL

I look forward to others chiming in...

Still hoping someone else can help...please.

Cynthia828 wrote: I basically have three concerns about this curriculum and was wondering if someone could answer these questions for me.

My first question is this. Are there hands on project recommendations? My son loves to do projects, and I am a little concerned that this might need to be supplemented with lots of hands on stuff. If so, where would I find stuff like that for his grade level (5th grade).

Secondly, there seems to be an large about of reading with this program. Does that work well with someone who is not nuts about reading? I mean, I know he needs to read, but is there TOO much reading in this program?

Finally, I am worried about "gauges" as to how he is doing throughout the year. If there are no tests or worksheets, how can I know how he is progressing. I think that because I have absolutely no training as a teacher, how would I know where he is supposed to be at what time of the year? This is really my greatest concern.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any help with these questions.

Have an awesome day in the Lord!

1. I am not doing CTC, but in BHFHG and LHFHG we are doing a lot of hands on things. We do paintings, make egyptian collars, do science experiments with balloons and such...so I am assuming the hands on continues through the later guides.
2. There is a lot of books that are read, but the reading is well laid out and it isn't huge chunks at a time. This was a big change for my dd8 who was used to reading a book straight through. She is retaining a lot better this way. We did have to adjust to 1/2 speed after a few days b/c it was a big change from ps. 1/2 speed is working well for us and adjusting her to the different style of learning.
3. I have worried about how will I know that my dc are really making progress. I have a class lesson planner from clp and in it has an assignment list page as well as lots of forms like attendance and curriculum listing. Lots of forms for a portfolio. I have been wrtiing down the subject, books and pages read, and work pages completed and then you check complete. It really adds up to a lot of learning going on. It s a visual for me of how much my dc are truly accomplishing (and in the future for any one who may need to see what we have done). I am also keeping a 3 ring binder (portfolio) for each of the dc and take pictures of all of our "projects". In case they don't survive for any number of reasons and for ease of showing in the portfolio. I take a picture of them doing the project and the finished project. For narrations, I am not grading them exactly, but will keep an assignment record of them and will kind of use an s, n, u scale. Satisfactory (very good, not much prompting, nothing left out), needs improvement (lots of prompting or leaving out details), or unsatisfactory (it would have to be bad for this one). This is more to let me see weak areas and help dc to strengthen them. I will also have math samples, langauge arts, and handwriting from throughout the year to show beginning, middle, end of year progress.
Hope this helps,
Val

Cynthia,

I just wanted to pop-in and welcome you to HOD! We're glad to have you here.

In answer to your questions, HOD takes a very balanced approach to the various types of learning, making sure to include auditory, visual, and kinesthetic (hands-on) learning EVERY day.

Here's a link to a thread where I list out projects that are found within Preparing Hearts. This will help you glimpse how the projects within CTC would look:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1715

As far as the amount of reading goes, each of our guides takes the very CM route of shorter readings of fewer/higher quality books, done more slowly over time. So, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the bite-sized readings and the narrative tone. Here's a link to the first week of plans from both Beyond and CTC, so you can actually see the bite-sized pacing of the history and science readings.
Beyond: http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/beyond ... t-week.pdf
CTC: http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/CTC-first-week.pdf

For example, in CTC daily reading on the student's part would include time spent in God's word, a short history reading, a short science reading, and a short reading for DITHR. If your child has the extension pack, then that would be additional time (typically 15-20 min). In CTC, the parent will read aloud from Genesis Finding Our Roots or Geography of the Bible Lands and the storytime (making only 2 readings per day for the parent). Each reading would be 15 minutes or so.

Blessings,
Carrie

Welcome to the HOD Board, Cynthia! I am excited for you to begin your homeschool journey. You are already off to the best start possible - when God speaks, I've found it is always wisest to listen. HOD is very God honoring, and has been such a blessing for our family. I know it will be for you as well.

Cynthia828 wrote: My first question is this. Are there hands on project recommendations? My son loves to do projects, and I am a little concerned that this might need to be supplemented with lots of hands on stuff. If so, where would I find stuff like that for his grade level (5th grade).

We have 3 sons, and the attention to including enough hands-on activities in HOD's guides is one reason we're in love with them. We just finished PHFHG, and will be doing CTC next year as well. The hands-on history project was a big hit in PHFHG with my ds - and this project is worked on 3 of the 4 days of each week's plans. In fact, if you check out the past weekly check-ins (prior to mid-May), you'll see what I mean. I posted pictures of my ds doing PHFHG, and a good deal of them are of the hands on portions of it - his favorites, definitely. Also, there is a science experiment every single week. I felt so good about my ds doing an experiment each week. I know without HOD, I would never have gotten that done. There are also several notebooking assignments, etc. that are hands-on. I think you'll love this part of HOD for your ds.

Cynthia828 wrote:Secondly, there seems to be an large about of reading with this program. Does that work well with someone who is not nuts about reading? I mean, I know he needs to read, but is there TOO much reading in this program?

We've found the reading to be very balanced. HOD schedules reading in short segments, and the books are very engaging, as well as varied - keeping their attention so well. They are the kind of books one has a hard time putting down. I think you'll find your ds will become more and more interested in reading as he does HOD's guides. It builds a love for stand-out, timeless literature (as opposed to joke books or books with just a bunch of facts, etc.).

Cynthia828 wrote:Finally, I am worried about "gauges" as to how he is doing throughout the year. If there are no tests or worksheets, how can I know how he is progressing. I think that because I have absolutely no training as a teacher, how would I know where he is supposed to be at what time of the year? This is really my greatest concern.

There was a great past thread that may help answer this question:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3696&p=27417
I have found that the way HOD does assessment is much better than the way ps took grades. Back when I used to teach in ps, we had to take grades because it was an easy way to rank dc and also to share this with parents. It has been such a breath of fresh air to move away from that, and to truly have a product my dc are doing (whether that may be oral narrations, written work in the form of narrations, notebooking, lab reports, projects, etc.) gives an immediate feedback to show whether my dc really "got it" or not. It also lets me see what parts of what we did they remember most and stood out the most, rather than having them just each give standard answers to me. Anyway, you will know, right away, how it's going because you will see/hear how your ds responds to each reading or learning activity by his assignments. One more little thing to consider - not every little thing studied/read is meant to remembered and mastered. Some things are just for enjoyment; some are just for introduction; some are in the "with your help" stage; and others are meant to be independent and mastered. I have learned NOT to add more of my own questions or requirements to HOD's plans. It is not necessary nor helpful - it's been much better to just do the plans as they are written and not draw them out. The plans are beautifully written, and they are more than "meaty" enough!

Enjoy HOD, it is such a blessing! I'm so glad you are here, Cynthia, and I can't wait for you to start homeschooling your ds!

In Christ,
Julie

Oh my goodness! I can't believe I missed the past couple of responses! THANK YOU SO MUCH! It is very helpful information!