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I've spent some time looking over your weekly HOD check ins and I'm just amazed at all the wonderful fun, engaging, educational things you ladies are doing with your children. I love reading about the progress your children are making, etc. My question is are all these things you're doing, written in the HOD manuals or are you supplementing with things you've researched or looked up? Again, we are seriously praying about using HOD this next year and if all these wonderful things are in the manual it would be so wonderful. I try to do things like this with my dc now, but I am not a naturally creative momma, but my dc love to do things like I've seen posted about. It just takes me so long to compile all the resources. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Yes, all of those wonderful things you see are in the manual. Isn't it great? I am sure everyone tweaks a little here or there or embellishes now and then, and some families add extra curriculum, but the weekly check-in is an excellent example of what we do. I can't even list off all of the things we did between the two boys just in this week. Yet it is easy to do with little preparation. Well, most of the time it is easy, our quail never did look like a quail

This is our first year using HOD. I started out the year supplementing and adding, only to find it wasn't really necessary. My 13yr dd is not a strong reader so I opted out of using the extensions and had gone with a different language arts program. Now midyear I'm ditching our language arts and going full steam HOD. The manual is so very easy to use. The days my dd can clip right through her lessons are such a blessing.
We are currently using the CTC manual. I absolutely love the fact that Carrie has art worked in with poetry, and history. I don't have to sit and spend countless hours and endless frustration searching for the right project to go with dd's lessons. Carrie has thoughtfully and prayfully done that.
I can't wait for RTR to come out!

All the activities and projects in the weekly check in are in the manual. It has been fabulous! My son loves all the activities. I started out with HOD and then decided that it was too easy and I must be missing out on something so I switched him to another curriculum. I had to come up with my own hands on stuff and it was taking me forever to find things and taking the fun out of schooling for me. Plus the activities I found seemed to be more busy work and didn't seem to connect with my son the way HOD activities did. Needless to say, we switched back to HOD in January and are absolutely loving it. There will be no more switching for us. We are staying with HOD for as long as Carrie continues to write guides!

Hi John's mom,

I have to agree with the ladies that the weekly check in is a fantastic place to get a peak into how HOD is played out in our homes. I'm another that just follows the guide. One of the things that I love about HOD is that it is so open and go. I do not have to do very much prep, Carrie has done all of that. I have been truly amazed at all the great things we have been able to do this year in Bigger and LHTH.

Yes - all things posted in the Weekly HOD Check-In are from the HOD guides! Isn't that amazing? That is precisely why the check-in was created - to show what is done within HOD. I'm so glad you've enjoyed it, and yes, if you choose HOD, you would get to do all of those same wonderful things. Since you are enjoying the check-in, another place you may enjoy looking is the HOD Photobook website. These photobooks were created for Book Fairs, but we decided to post them for others to see that are unable to attend the book fairs. Some of the captions may be hard to read, but all of the pictures can easily be viewed. This will eventually be added to the HOD Website as a link. Here it is:
http://heartofdakotasphotobooks.shutterfly.com/

In Christ,
Julie

I want to start participating in the Weekly Check-ins. I don't blog anymore. I just don't have the time to put into it. So, I'd like to post pictures here at the board instead. I take so many and they are just precious!! We are having so much fun with HOD. My sons are proud of their projects. I'd love to share some of my photos. Can anyone tell me how to post pictures? I have tried to figure it out but no luck. I know where to put them but not HOW to do it.

I have to agree with you, I love the weekly-check-in's!! I love to post about our fun, AND read everyone else's. And, I can tell you that everything I've enjoyed with my kids is straight out of the HOD guides. I absolutely love the activities and hands-on things that are planned in HOD. They truly are easy to accomplish and the main idea of the lesson sticks with the kids. I have been having a blast with my little ones, and am so glad that my oldest in 4th grade is still getting to do great hands-on things that he can do by himself with HOD!!

I bet you'd love HOD! I know my favorite part is the way God and His Word are the focus of our days. (But a close 2nd is the great activities!! )

Donna - Here's a post about posting pictures... viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2364 I'll look forward to seeing your little guys on the check-in.

Kathleen

Kathleen wrote:I bet you'd love HOD! I know my favorite part is the way God and His Word are the focus of our days. (But a close 2nd is the great activities!! )
Kathleen

I totally agree with you. After looking at the Weekly Heart of Dakota Check-In it's made so much more clear to me how God's Word is interwoven with everything else. My list of why it looks so great is:
1) Rooted in God's Word
2) All planned out for momma
3) Wonderful living books
4) Fun, hands on activities
I'm sure there's more, but that's what I think of when I think about using HOD.

Thanks for taking time to answer my many questions, ladies.