heartofdakota.com

Hi my sweet HOD friends,

I've missed you, missed you, missed you! (well except those who facebook with me, LOL) What a year! Lots of learning curves! I'm learning to delegate and having much more fun now, LOL) We only got half way through Beyond last year. Between my blood pressure issue's last summer, my dads cancer, my sons seizures, over scheduling speaking engagements and committing to too many writing assignments......, I CRASHED AND BURNED!

I actually got to a place where I loved talking ABOUT homeschooling but had lost my love for actually doing it. I have done nothing except math/language arts for weeks now. (reading a loud yummy books too) I Pulled in and turned the lights off and I finally feel my cup has been re-filled. I haven't even colored my hair since May Don't worry I have an appointment on Wednesday.

I was actually dancing around taking a year off of HOD and coming back next year, but I've changed my mind. A dear cyber friend (Hi Karen) e-mailed asking me about my Bigger a couple of days ago and as I pulled it out my heart began that old excited thumping I had lost late last year. Then as I have been preparing to speak at a conference in a couple of weeks, talking to moms of special needs children and went on a hunt through old blog posts and found one from March that reminded me how much I LOVE our HOD experience. I then looked through the whole year and it brought tears to my eyes. Seeing those boys smiling up at me with excitement about what they were learning. Realizing that even in the midst of craziness they STILL learned. I realized it wasn't HOD that burned me out, it was LIFE! Too much. However, things are going much better. I am finding a groove with the whole speaking, writing thing. My dad is doing much better. My blood pressure is wonderful. (with my meds) Seth's seizures are under control and life is GOOD!

We are going to put our Beyond away and do Bigger with all three of my younger boys. My Brandon is in his senior year and working almost independently of me this year. (sob) Actually, I am excited for him. He is learning to FLY and I am learning to move to the sidelines and cheer him on! He's gonna do GREAT!

All of that to ask, When are YOU starting your new school year and which program are you using? Has this already been asked and I just missed it?

This will be my first year of homeschooling and we are doing Preparing and starting August 25th.

This is our second year with HOD and we will be using Beyond with two of my dc and LHTH for the second time with my ds.
We will be starting around the first of September. Looking forward to another wonderful year with Heart of Dakota!!

LeAnna

Mary, great to hear from you again! I've tried to check your blog to keep up with you. I'm so glad your life is calming down some.

We have started already (early July) so we can take time off when life happens. This year we are using 2 programs. My little guy is enjoying a half-speed start to LHTH. He likes having his own school like his big sister. And big sister is using Beyond with a few LA and math items being tweaked. Though she is really loving reading the Bible for herself through the emerging readers package.

Oh Mary,

You have been soooooo missed! Glad your back and you have a renewed sense of how you want to proceed with the new year. Much of your life seems to echo mine. I had a lot of health issues derail my first year with HOD. I'm still sitting here trying to figure out what I am going to do. Even though it was a wonderful year we only got through half of Bigger and I beat myself up for it for a while until Julie came along and lovingly reminded me of all the great things that still got accomplished. My dd10 (5th) and ds8 (3rd) are probably going to continue with Bigger this year and do California History alongside this as we had to scrap that last year. I think we will start late August. I normally start day after labor day but I'm itching to start. I also have a senior this year in my dd16. She leaves for diabetes camp tomorrow for twelve days so I will work on getting her curriculum set up for her while she is gone.

I'm thrilled to know that your health is in check as well as your son and father. What a blessing! Welcome back. I look forward to sharing our HOD journey with you and all the wonderful families here. BTW, I'm just a few years older than you (43) but if I didn't color my hair for two months I would look like a skunk LOL.

Love,
Jeri

LHTH and Bigger on Monday.
CTC--Aug. 17th She will start her math, English and DITHOR on Monday with the youngers.
Glad you are back, well, and ENERGIZED? May I borrow some of your enthusiasm? I need a jump start this year!

MARY! *doing the happy dance for you with a big pregnant belly* because I am so glad you have that enthusiasm from seeing your boys last year and actually was JUST reading a post about your youngest doing LHTH on that board TODAY!!
So you know I am glad to see you here, even though I read your updates daily on FB But still..we dont talk curriculum much there

Ok so we are using CTC with my 5th grader and LHTH with my 4.5 yr old and almost 2 yr old. We are starting next week with LHTH and mid aug with CTC

LOVE seeing you back and I pray that your year is a great one!! BTW your boys learned A TON this year....just look back at all of the Lord's doing they have seen and His goodness and protection!

This will be our first year with HOD! We will begin August 10th and using Preparing Hearts!

Hi Mary (and everyone)!

Our story parallels yours - minus the speaking engagements. (NO, NO, NO!!!! haha!) We were working through Little Hearts and Bigger when health issues and life took over. I became very involved with the co-op we're involved with, and I crashed, too. Like you, we continued on with LA and math and lots of reading. And we called it a year. Didn't even continue through the summer like we normally do because Mommy needed a break.

We will be starting again on August 24 and will be having both kids in Bigger. Millie is a quite advanced/mature 6 year old, and Caleb (will be 10 in Sept) will add on the extension. We're going to loosely use WP AW for our science, I think, since Millie really wants to do it and Caleb would love to sit in on it again. Plus, we already have it, so why not.

I really struggled this year with choosing between SL, WP and HOD, but HOD won out when I thought back through how much the kids enjoyed it and how *easy* it is to follow.

Hi Mary!

We are using...

Bigger with Ryan (7.5yo)

CTC with Lydia (10yo)

We will probably start Friday, August 14th.

I'd love to start sooner but back to school is a very busy time for us since hubby is a ps teacher.

Hey Mary!!

We will be using Bigger w/ my dd for 2nd grade and Little Hearts for K w/ my ds. We are going to start on August 10th.

This will be our 3rd year homeschooling and our first year using HOD! I am using Bigger with my 7.5 year old DS. We are starting August 10.

We already started our school year here. We are using Beyond for the 2nd and 1st graders. I'm considering starting LHFHG half-speed with my 4.5 year old, though I might wait until after December when he turns 5.

We gave LHTH a try for a bit, but the 2 year old is not interested at all, and the 4.5 year old was bored with it (which is why we might have to start LHFHG sooner rather than later!)

Welcome back Mary!

We are planning on starting the last week in August. We will be using:

Beyond with my two boys ages 6 & 7
Bigger with my 9yo girl (we will be using the extensions for the history readings (aloud) since the boys will be hot on her heal ans it will vary it a bit using it 2 years in a row)
CTC - with my 11yo dd

My two younger DDs (8 and 6) are doing Beyond together starting next week. We always start the first Monday in August, but I am sure it is coming sooner this year! Summer went by so fast! But we are looking forward to finally starting HOD!