heartofdakota.com

Hello,

I am Terri from WA state. I have 5 children--9, 6, 4, 2, and almost 6 months. I am getting ready to start Little Hands To Heaven and have become interested in the guides for older children. I used MFW Adventures for my daughter for 2nd grade, but we fizzled out on it and I have been meaning to finish it up in her 3rd grade year. We had a baby in between there with terrible nausea and now a time of adjustment with his sleep habits. I also tried to start up a very teacher intensive reading/spelling program--Spell To Write and Read. I am still trying to implement that. I used MFWK with my son for Kindergarten and just recently finished up what I wanted to use from the phonics portion of that during his 1st grade year. We still have the science and bible portion to finish and I have been meaning to fit that in for the rest of this year also. We are also playing catch up in math. With getting used to the new baby I have mainly been focusing on math and SWR. I and, I believe, the children are incredibly bored and I am trying to figure out how to put some life back into our homeschool. I have been leaning towards using KONOS because of all of the fun, hands-on activities. I think my 6yo son would LOVE that. However, I just don't know if I have the energy or time to pull it all together. That is what appeals to me about HOD, the well laid out lessons. I guess I am concerned that it just won't be "fun" enough for them compared to what they could have with KONOS. I mentioned MFW because I have considered continuing on with them with ECC. I also mentioned TOG because I have been considering them also. If anyone could comment on this I would much appreciate it!

Thanks for listening and for any advice, comments, wisdom you can share!

Hi! Just want to say, I'm not up late because of a long school day, LOL.
My favorite things about HOD programs, and this is coming from a long-time homeschooler (11 years):

God-centered-the Christian focus is evident throughout.

Purposeful, fun, simple activities, but no overkill-the students can really do the projects without my help! Too many times, other project-based curricula wound up having activities that were so hard that I really had to do for them! Purposeful, because they tie in with what is being learned in a non-awkward way.

The supplies for projects really probably are already in your home.

Really organized-Carrie Austin has a gift for writing guides that eliminates wasted time and busywork, so your day really flows.

Short lessons-I am using Bigger with my 3rd and 4th grader and am DONE in 2.5 to 3 hours. Other moms on here are able to do 2 or even 3 HOD programs with different-aged kids and it honestly does not consume their life!

Finally, I want to direct you to the threads on the board that are under the headings of each individual program. There you will find testimonials of real moms who are loving HOD. There is also a new "weekly check-in" thread where we are posting about the great things our kiddos (and we!) have learned each week.

I'm sure that, at a decent hour, other moms will pop in to share the love-but be patient, the weekend can be a bit slow on the boards-on Monday, you may have a deluge of responses!

Be blessed!

Lourdes,

Thanks so much for your reply.

So, would you say that your children consider your homeschool day "fun" because of using HOD?

We used MFW Adventures last year and hated it. We are using MFWK because I already bought it and because my dd isn't quite ready for Little Hearts yet. My son is doing well in Beyond compared to last year with adventures when each day was a battle...

I think you will be surprised, we love HOD.

I'll take a stab at this one. I have a friend who used KONOS once and she graciously loaned me her manual once to "browse". (She had tried to use it and it just didn't work for her.) It looked like a LOT of work to pull it all together and appeared to be very time consuming. Now, there are moms out there who just love this sort of thing and love to do all the organizing and leg work that it takes for this to work. I'm not one of them. I want to just open the book and go.

I also used MFW K and we really enjoyed our time with this. My kids learned a lot and loved doing their "school" time with this. It was a perfect prek/k year for us.

I took it kind of personally though, when I would visit their forums and read how they "very strongly discourage" you against combining your kids in the younger grades. They firmly believe each child should be made to feel special by having their own personal K and 1st grade. I was made to feel like world's worst mom for combining!! Sorry, but my kids LOVE to be together and feel very left out if I don't do everything together.

MFW also encourages you to teach to the older and let the little ones tag along in Adv.and up programs. HOD encourages you to find the good place for the younger and beef up for the older, which just makes so much more sense and is much easier to accomplish.

So....I went searching for a curriculum that was Christ-centered (like MFW) but more open and go, and would not frown on me for combining my dc.......found HOD and LOVE it!! I'm not sure how to explain why it's so much better than MFW....it just is in so many ways. It's so easy and my kids love it.

I'm short on time and my kids are waging WW3 on each other right now, so I've got to run and apologize if this doesn't make any sense!!

MommyInTraining wrote:Lourdes,

Thanks so much for your reply.

So, would you say that your children consider your homeschool day "fun" because of using HOD?

Terri,
First of all, you can have fun and not learn a thing. That said, my girls are having fun with HOD, but are also recapturing the joy of learning they had lost when bogged down by lengthy lessons ans overwhelming projects. They are actually learning and retaining what they have learned, and have a joyful attitude each day! (So does mom )

An example of that retention is on this thread:

http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=577

And it was WEEKS ago that they learned about Pocahontas! It was great to see their eyes light up as they felt, "Hey, I know that!"

I find that HOD strikes the right balance between living books, workbooks, hands-on activities, academics, and Godly education. Carie Austin has also proven to me that homeschooling does not have to take all day long in order to be effective.

There was an adjustment period, as there usually is when changing methods/curricula, but that lasted, oh, about 2 days
By day 3, we were quite well in the swing of things, and I plan to stick with HOD as long as Carrie keeps writing! I can honestly say, I have never felt that way before with any curriculum.

I look wistfully at people with littler ones, like you, who will get to start at the beginning-if I want to do that, I'll have to have another baby

Here's a great post by one mom:

http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=580

MommyInTraining wrote: I just don't know if I have the energy or time to pull it all together. That is what appeals to me about HOD, the well laid out lessons. I guess I am concerned that it just won't be "fun" enough for them compared to what they could have with KONOS. I mentioned MFW because I have considered continuing on with them with ECC. I also mentioned TOG because I have been considering them also. If anyone could comment on this I would much appreciate it!

Hi Terri! Welcome to the HOD board! I think HOD would be an ideal fit for you and your family. It is FUN, hands-on, and it is very doable for multiple ages. We did 2 HOD programs last year along with HOD's DITHOR, and we are doing 2 HOD programs with DITHOR this year. I do think it is very complete and balanced, and yet we are done with all of this in about 3 1/2 hours.

I totally understand what you are saying about the stress of staying in the swing of things with a baby. I homeschooled last year from our couch a lot of the time, due to almost total bedrest for practically my entire pregnancy. We STILL enjoyed HOD, and my children learned a ton!

This year, we've been struggling with my baby's severe reflux issues, sleepless nights, wearing a helmet - anyway, with all of this that could make things tense - our HOD school day is stress-free, and a needed happy "break" from the rest of life sometimes. I look forward to teaching it each day, and the children really love school.

I have found when I look at a guide like KONOS that it "looks" good, but in reality, it is very hard to pull off. I think KONOS' activities would not often get done at my house. I also think I'd end up taking them over, because many portions of the activities seemed to require me doing them. I like that my children are the active participants in HOD's activities. They can actually DO the science experiments, notebooking, hands-on activities, rather than watch me do them. I also appreciate not having to run to the store or the library. I have everything on hand for HOD at my own house.

I have not taught KONOS or MFW, but I have looked at each of them quite extensively. Here are a few links comparing MFW and HOD:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/view ... hlight=mfw

http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=250

http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/forums ... x?id=29960

I think you would enjoy HOD for the very things you mentioned - it's very fun, hands-on, pick up and teach from it, complete - it puts the "love of learning" back in our dc's hearts. It also keeps us moms excited about it and able to do it for the "long-term"! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Welcome Terri! (((Waving from Florida)))

If you were to ask me to give you a simple answer to why I like HOD better than KONOS.....,

KONOS is a big juicy wonderful elephant. It's chock full of idea's, but the year we used it I found we started off strong and then nose dived because it was very difficult to be consistent. I wanted to do everything.

HOD lays everything out for you in perfect bite size portions. I feel like I walk away everyday comfortably full. Not too much, not too little, just right. I loved what Lourdes said..,

blessedmomof4 wrote:[Carie Austin has also proven to me that homeschooling does not have to take all day long in order to be effective.

Currently, I am using 3 HOD programs:

1- Little Hands
2- Beyond Little Hearts
3- Bigger Hearts[/b]

We start school between 8:30-9:00am and finish no later than 2 each day and that is with an hour break for lunch. Sometimes LESS!

I started off with two and then found it so FUN, easy and effective that I added another program.


We are having a BALL!

My children and I are forming forever memories as we do our bible activities, history and science experiments and notebooking together, etc..,


Effective!

We have homeschooled for ten years and have used a gamut of programs. I found many to have lots of activities, but I could never figure out the purpose behind them? I mean I love having FUN with my kids, but I have four so if we are going to invest the time I need them to help cement something they are learning, we are working on.

HOD does just that!

Here are some of my blog entries. It will give you an idea of what HOD activities and assignments look like

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MamaMary/477452/

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MamaMary/485566/

http://homeschoolblogger.com/MamaMary/487703/

Hi Terri! I have a lot of relatives in WA. It's a beautiful state. Ok this is a little long but you are asking to compare to other specific programs and so this is me, trying to do that for you. Please be patient with my wordiness.

I have tried MFW. What I found about it was that the way it is written it felt to me like it had an exact way to do the program and there was very little room for being creative on your own or be able to skip anything. Plus I have my own personal goals for my kids on character training and Bible training and I did not find a lot of room and flexibility to incorporate that. There is also the fact that I find the spokes person a little inflexible in discussing using alternate books for certain spines that did not fit our families convictions. That pretty much sold me off MFW for good because I am very particular about what my kids see, hear, and learn. And I need a publisher that is respectful of that. On the flip side Heart of Dakota I feel their curriculum is their ministry and they are very willing to help you match your family values. They get that it is you that will stand before God and that different people are convicted of different things. I love that about them! To me it is invaluable!8)

Konos. I have no experience except browsing. My oldest dd said it all when looking at Konos in a Christian Book Store one day, "Mommy they need the lady from Heart of Dakota to come and fix this thing." That is pretty much how I felt when I looked at it too. There was a lot of stuff that actually looked wonderful but I could not see how to get to it all. Very overwhelming to me. And I have learned that if at first good look I feel that way, the feeling never leaves no matter how much I hope it will so I just don't go there.

That brings me to TOG. I have actually a love for the redesigned version of Tapestry of Grace. It is in a think tank for the High school years. My explanation for this one is a little involved but if you have ever read the Heart of Wisdom book it is very Greek minded and I am wanting Hebrew minded for my kids (especially in the younger years) which I find HOD to very much be exactly that. If you do not know that book almost everyone knows the classical model. This model claims Rhetoric is for the later years but wants to study gods and false religions at an early age when by their own definition they do not have the skill and maturity of Rhetoric to properly interpret truth from falsehood. I feel being capable of Rhetoric is essential for going into those eras beyond the Biblical account. So that is a very personal conviction there that eliminates it right now as a choice. Also the redesigned versions are what I would want to use because the old versions look like too much work and once again if I am paying for someone else to write it I want it to be easy to use. I don't mind work but I want to work to implement the things that matter to me and not what I am paying someone else to do for me. That seems ludicrous to me. So I would need to see those versions moving faster than they currently are, but if we have a couple more finished by high school I will go to look at it in person to see if it is a good high school choice. Mean while I still pray secretly and often that HOD will reconsider writing High school and at the same time I am looking at piecing together something myself.

Last thing I want to say. What was very helpful to me when I was at a time I felt like there were a lot of things to choose from in the way of good curriculum was to make a list. It was a one topic list of what ultimately mattered and was important if I stand before God and account for the teaching of the children He entrusted in my care. It was remarkable to me how many things fell off my list. For me one thing that fell off immediately was the classical model because I felt like for me that would not be God's concern. But of course this is a very personal thing that will be different for everyone and honestly for how God speaks to you on His call for them. Anyway perhaps that will help you. It made things crystal clear form me and completely ended my second guessing for good. Ultimately what I want is a tool for helping me teach my children what I feel God is asking me. HOD is, for me, an invaluable tool to do just that. The bonus is that it is easy to use and fun.

Beyond this I reviewed HOD on HSR. Here is the link. http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/review ... spx?id=401
I am right under my dear board friend Mary.

Hi Terri!

I have not actually tried any of those programs, but I did do some extensive research into all of them before settling on HOD for my 7 y/o.

I came very close to ordering MFW. I was actually working through it in my mind, trying to rationalize spending so much money on one program, when I somehow found out about HOD. For starters the guidebook for HOD is about half the price or less than those other programs. That leaves wiggle room for getting the other things you need to pull it together. I spent total on our entire HOD Beyond order what I would have spent on just the guidebook from any of the other programs. My dh really loved that!!

I prayed about what program to use before starting this. I had reached a point of utter confusion, exhaustion, and total frustration with trying to put my own program together. Our days did not run smoothly, and work just didn't get finished. I was feeling like a failure at the end of the day. God does not want that for us! He led me here, to HOD, and I looked everything over, printed out the samples, did a placement check, and ordered. Our shipment arrived in about 3 days--amazingly fast!

I think (to my knowledge) that this is the only program with a message board that the owner has an active part in. You can ask Carrie anything, and she is so good to either post a reply or e-mail you back. I've even talked to her on the phone. I'd call that real customer service in this day and time!!

Good luck with your decision! It is possible to have a smooth-running day, and also to actually finish everything with plenty of time to spare. Everything is all laid out for you for each day---just pick it up and go. I'm excited to see the new "Preparing" book that will come out soon. To me, that will be so much easier than TOG (which I have yet to figure out how to use--no knock on it, just very confusing, therefore it wouldn't get done in my home). Pray about it, read some of the posts here. Most of these ladies have used these programs before or have some knowledge of the comparisons.

Dear Terri,
I haven't yet used HOD but I keep feeling strongly led to reply to this post!
I am planning on using a "modified" (by me) Bigger in the fall or sooner if we finish our school earlier.

I agree so much with what has been written here (I feel like I am a kindred spirit with Water2Wine!!! )

I just wanted to offer some words as a mom of many as I too have five and will have a new little baby in May.

As far as "fun" and the other programs you mentioned: I only have personal experience with MFW and have looked at others- but not KONOS as I knew I could NEVER do it!

I would ask yourself, seriously, from the heart, if you are a very hands on type of mom. What is the point of tons of fun activities if you are stressed out, unable to get school done, or feeling very pressured? Some moms thrive on the external activities and would not feel "complete" without them. With a large family, if you are not one of those... you will probably feel swamped and discouraged.

As someone else wrote: MFW is designed to be taught as written. Although I am sure that there are many people who are able to flex it to meet their needs there still is a strong emphasis on every component being very crucial to the overall integrity of the program. Because you have used Adventures and K and First- you should have a very good idea of their flow and if it is what God would have for your family.

Personally, I would wait on TOG until later if you are feeling interested in that program. I haven't used it. I am one of those that can't really make sense of the online samples. However, if God is directing you to it- you will know. There are those who love it with young children...

I think Heart of Dakota would be very doable for your family. Sometimes that is what we need: doable, complete, that "gets the job done!" so to speak. If you are really liking what you see in Little Hands, I would venture to say that you will be happy with the older programs.

My one word of encouragement: in your search for "life" in your homeschool: make sure you don't put pressures on your self that will be hard to fulfill therefore leading to more discouragement rather than success!

I really think so much with home schooling curriculum is your personal goals for your children with an added dose of what can realistically be completed. Maybe thinking through those would help with your decision..

I hope this makes sense! God's blessings and peace as you seek His direction for your family!
Sincerely,
Rebecca

Rebecca wrote: I agree so much with what has been written here (I feel like I am a kindred spirit with Water2Wine!!! )

Rebecca you are so kind. I love how positive and up beat people are on this board. It is so encouraging. And thanks, really I could use a kindred spirit It is wonderful to find like minded moms!

Me too!
Rebecca

Terri,

Welcome to the boards! We're glad you're here.

This past thread on a similar topic may be of help to you too! Here's the link:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=230

The ladies on the board are so good about being uplifting and encouraging. We are blessed with a wonderful group here.

Blessings,
Carrie

Well, since there's nothing to add to the amazing advice already written, I'll just chime in with a welcome and a wave!!