heartofdakota.com

We're in IN visiting family now, but will return to NC and begin school on July 13. I can't wait to get back and get started! A few of my friends are lamenting the new year, not too excited about their resources. I'm sure they're getting tired of me going on and on about how eager we are to start HOD. The big girls have looked through their guide and are equally excited, though not so much about starting new math and l/a.

We school year-round, as do the public schools in our area. Our neighborhood is served by 3 different public elementary schools, plus a few kids go to private, so everyone is always on different schedules. I appreciate their early start-date; if their neighborhood friends weren't going back in July it might be hard for us to start back too. Our first long vacation will be in October when we take our big beach trip with extended family.

We school year round too. Florida is soooo hot in the summer months. We take more time off in Janurary, February and March. We are starting our new school year next Monday, July 6th! I am part of an umbrella school so I have to record 180 days of school (very easy) so I can start recording our days July 1st.
I am excited to begin. We have been off 2 weeks and I can't wait to get started.....We are doing Bigger too!

We started yesterday! (see my other post about our first day) I'm so glad I won't be alone!
Leah

We started last week. We school year round but took off most of May and June, although we were still doing reading, math, unit studies, nature walks, and play days with our homeschool group. At one point I considered us on break but we were doing more than my sister's 3rd grade ps school class!

We will start the first week of August, doing school four days a week. After Labor Day, we will move to five days a week for the first time since we started homeschooling. That is going to be an adjustment! But I am fitting in speech therapy twice a week, Tuesday afternoon homeschool PE and several activities after school, so we will need it this year to fit everything in. We don't school year-round, but we are on a schedule that is different from the schools around here. We are looking forward to starting to HOD!

Shelly

I am also getting very excited to start! We will start sometime near the end of August. We'll be doing CTC/DITHOR 4/5, Beyond/Emerging Reader's Set, and probably LHTH halfway through the year. My little toddler is definitely ready to start, but he's pretty little yet - however, he and I just may not be able to resist LHTH!

We take the summers off here in SD, since it is some of the nicest outdoor weather we have here. During the winter, we hibernate. We only leave the home for church on Sunday and 1 play afternoon with the cousins. Otherwise, my vehicle pretty much never leaves the garage (other than errand day, during which I go alone, so the dc are still hibernating ). So, that works out to be a great season to power school. My favorite addition to our home was a fireplace last year. We snuggle up and read by it throughout the long cold winter months, and we stand and read our poetry in front of it, pretending to be great poets ourselves. Such great fun is ahead of us this year - can't wait!

In Christ,
Julie

We're going to be starting school again mid-August. I think. (I haven't actually got out the calendar to see when we need to start to finish when we want to. )

I had big plans for getting a lot done this summer during our break. So far there has been too much to do outside to start all my inside projects. We operate a dairy farm, so there's always plenty of work. My husband does most of the "farm" work...but mowing several acres, gardening, pets, kids, the house are all mine. The kids and I have also been having a blast hitting the pool, working on 4-H projects, and playing in the mud. Ahhh! Summer fun memories!




The first picture here is one Grant took while we were working on photography for 4-H. The kids and I were all on the 4-wheeler going through pastures to patches of wildflowers. When we headed through the woods, there was a lot of mud and running water (from a recent rain) on our trail. We carefully snapped a few pictures in "good clothes". Then we zoomed home to change and go back for some mud fun.

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful summer - whether you're starting new HOD guides or just enjoying your kids!
Kathleen

Good question!

I asked the kids when they wanted to start school, and two of them want to hold off until fall, and the other wants to start next week. I don't have a particular timeframe in mind, but I did want my youngest of the three to turn 6 before we start the Beyond manuel.

I don't want to complain, but we haven't had much of a summer yet, and it's really starting to get on my nerves. Tomorrow is the first of July, and it's only 68 degrees outside.

We'll more than likely start in August. That's my plan, and as the next few weeks pass, I'm sure we'll build up the motivation to get back into the swing of things.

Joy
Loved LHFHG
Looking forward to Beyond, LHTH, and DITHOR

We school pretty much year-round as well. We will start in October with Bigger 4 times a week with ds of 6 and LHTH with ds of 4 and have dd of 2 join in for the fun.

We are taking a long summer break and will start late august.Im excited and I may start earlier so we can go half speed for a while.Currently we have several things we are watching :caterpillars -so far they have made crysalids- hopefully they will emerge into painted lady butterflies ,the bean ,tomato,aubergine,pepper and cucveumber plants are getting big and flowering.The strawberry plants are a bit dissapointing so far its just got a single flower.

I unoffically started yesterday. We hit the books three times a week until August and then go full force until Christmas. Then we will break from Jan-March for our move.

If all goes well we will start school on July 6, it is HOT in Las Vegas so we might as well do school since playing outdoors is not much of an option right now. The other kids in our neighborhhod are out of school, but they don't play all so we can still both, school and play. I plan to take a couple of breaks in the fall and spring along with holiday breaks. We are essentially schooling year-round since that gives us the most flexibilty.

I'm would love to start in August, but looking at our summer schedule, I probably won't start until the first week of September. I can't wait for Bigger!

We are finishing Beyond, we should be done the 1st week of September. We had serious illness this spring and that put us way behind schedule. We didn't do any school for a month and then started back only doing half time.The children don't know yet but the 2nd week of September we are going on vacation to Disney for a week. The week after we come back we will start Bigger.
Kim

Probably within 48 hours of receiving my Creation to Christ TM.