Will HOD prepare for college and world knowledge?

[laurabelle1317]

I was telling my friend about HOD as she is considering homeschooling her 4 year old. She has a question that I hope many of you can help answer, since we have not started HOD yet and will only be starting out with LHTH this summer. So, please share your insight, especially if you have older children going through the later guides. My friend writes:

I looked at the homeschool websites. The heart of dakota was good price and I like its surrounded by biblical teaching in all subjects, but will it get give him the material to excel in high school and college? What was your take on the heart of dakota and it teaching so the kids can be ready for college and world knowledge?


Thanks everyone,
Laura

[MomtoJGJE]

Take this with a grain of salt since my oldest just turned 7

HOD will teach the child how to learn. Therefore they will be ready for whatever is thrown at them.

I'm not really sure what you mean by world knowledge... like how the world works? That is up to the parents to teach and model and show, in my opinion....

[laurabelle1317]

I just copied and pasted straight from my friend's email. So this is her question, not mine. I suppose she wants to ensure that they are prepared for college and "the real world" after going through HOD. I did mention to her that HOD isn't a high school curriculum so a lot of college prep can come in different forms through high school.

[blessedwith2]

Hi Laura! We are just now using the younger HOD guides, but this thread on how children that use HOD score on standardized testing is encouraging:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5917&p=43459&hilit=testing#p43459

Perhaps you can share some of this info with your friend? Also, looking through an HOD catalog can be helpful in understanding how the guides build on each other. (If she's local, maybe she would like to come to my house and look through the guides, too?) Hope this helps!


Blessings,
Delia

[blessedwith2]

Laura,

I just wanted to add that I agree with

HOD will teach the child how to learn. Therefore they will be ready for whatever is thrown at them.

HOD is great for teaching your children a love of learning and creatively teaches important skills along the way. IMHO, if your child has a love of learning and the skills with which to learn, that should prepare them for any path the Lord leads them to!

Delia

[ShariCA]

Yes. I have graduated two kids from high school. Although I have not done anything from HOD yet, I have done the whole high school thing. Anything done consistently during the younger years will prepare them for high school work. The discipline of doing school daily and completing work is probably the most effective way of preparing for any upper learning. I find it interesting in most college classes that they have a basic text, add in a few extra materials to narrow the focus in just one area, and assign a project to be completed. This practically describes the way HOD does it. I think the one area that most homeschoolers fail in is writing, and it looks like Carrie has covered that quite well in her guides. You also have to keep in mind that kids will retain more if they enjoy what they are learning, and it looks like HOD covers that too.

[Susan]

Hi,
I have homeschooled for 17 years and have two children already graduated. A love for learning and not being burnt out is important, I think. My kids loved high school and were prepared for college because they could work independently and knew how to think. I believe HOD provides this, especially a love for learning and living books. It gives me time for relationship with my children and time for discussion. My older two didn't use HOD because it wasn't around then. I wish it had been. But I was just consistent with what I used. It really isn't critical what you cover and how rigorous it is. They will be ready for high school if they love to learn and can think and work independently. Enjoy the early years! It is so much fun and rewarding. I miss them so much. I'm not saying HOD isn't rigorous, but textbooks are not necessary. They are boring. I always looked for curric that brought my kids to life as they learned. I have searched catalogues and HOD is the best!! My last child has completed 3 cycles of HOD and is thriving!!! Short lessons are so good for children, even in the middle school years. Wish I could homeschool all over again with HOD.
Susan

[my3sons]

HOD currently has set plans to have guides through the ninth grade year of high school, though we are praying for the Lord to put it on Carrie's heart to write more for high school as well. So, I know that HOD will prepare dc very well through that point of their education. With that being said, it is one of HOD's goals to enable every child who wishes to attend college to be fully prepared to do so. Carrie is writing with that intent for her own dc as well. Carrie has her masters in education, and is a born researcher. She loves to research, research, research - and we all love to benefit from that research by using HOD. I know she often works back from future skills to enable students to be able to flourish with greater independence within those skills by teaching them soundly early on. I am certain the Geography year will be no different. As far as world knowledge, I believe HOD prepares dc to be in the world but not of the world. They will know their academics well, but it will be built upon the foundation of a Biblical worldview. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[laurabelle1317]

Thanks for all of the replies!

For the record, I am really excited about starting HOD (we're starting with LHTH next month) and from my research am confident that HOD is a great program. But I told my friend that I would post her question on the board. So thanks for all the info that I can pass along to her!

[mariaw]

I will admit, I am a recovering "academic snob." At first glance, I thought HOD looked too simple. We are doing Preparing and LHFHG this year, though, and I really see the wisdom and the progression of learning. What seems like a simple "fill in the blank" assignment in LHFHG, grows into writing a 5 sentence narration in Preparing. Not only it is easy for our kids to learn (because of the gentle progression), it is also easy to teach. And if something like writing isn't easy to teach, chances are you won't teach it well and therefore your kids won't be prepared as well for college. As an English teacher's granddaughter (I spent summers at her house diagramming sentences!!), I realized that my ability to write was one of the single most important skills for college.

As I teach my children using HOD, I am so thankful for the all the academics, but especially the way they are learning to write. I wish I had been taught this way, because not only would I have had good writing skills, I would have had fun learning them!! And like others before have mentioned, love of learning is way more important than a catalog of memorized facts. Good research skills and a thirst for knowledge will serve a college student better than already knowing material. Of course, math is a little different, but the math program recommended in HOD is solid, and you can easily substitute it for any other program if you wish.