heartofdakota.com

Hi!

My name is Heather, dh Brad, and we have one daughter who will be 13yo in September. She is going into 8th this year, and I've been praying about what to use for her high school years.

Well, just this week (and I have no idea how/why, unless it was the Lord leading me), I ended up on the HOD website and fell in love with it! It is SO much how I envisioned our homeschool from the very beginning.

We used "Five in a Row" for our early years and loved it, and then as more workbooks and textbooks were used in the older elementary grades, she has basically lost her love of learning and school in general.

I see that several here are using HOD with the extensions for their high schoolers! I think it would be wonderful to have such a strong Christ-centered and Charlotte Mason approach for our high school years, building memories and a love of learning, just the way it was for our early years!

I'm still reading the posts on the boards about "high school", (got through 12 of the 92 pages so far!) and praying, but feel strongly that this might be the path that the Lord is leading us to take.

Anyway, sorry for the long introduction. I just noticed that everyone here on the boards seems SO helpful and friendly, and I wanted to say "hi"!
(And anyone who has any advice or input on our decision, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!)

Love in Christ,
Heather

I just wanted to welcome you. I understand how you feel about the love of learning and finally finding such a God honoring, gentle program. Yet, it is still so full! After ten years of homeschooling and watching my oldest totally lose his love of learning I am so glad to have chosen a different way with my youngest. We stared HOD last year for the first time, but used it mostly for history and some of the science, because I wanted my 11 year old to cover American history. We used Bigger and since she was academically above the guide I knew going into that we would not use it as written. Even so, we had a good year, but adding in the extra "Workbooks" and other curricula still had a "Bogging" effect. This year (at age 12, 7th grade). She will be using CTC pretty much as written, adding in the history option books and the extensions. We too started very laid back, with this child. We used Singapore Early Bird Math, English for the Thoughtful Child, and Queen Language lessons when she was young, using real books and hands on things for science and history. She has always LOVED to learn. The past two years we added in lots of spelling, vocabulary, more math, tons more required reading, extra science, etc and I have started seeing that love vanish. So, after prayer and reflection, I have decided to take this beautifully written program Carrie has done and stop trying to "Re-invent the wheel!"

I have been pouring over the CTC materials and I think you can have a marvelous year using it for 8th grade, keeping in mind to acurately place your child in LA and math. If you have not been using Rod and Staff, I encourage to consider making that switch. We are and I am excited to see the results. I urge you to pray about and allow the Lord to lead you. Also, I urge you not to try to "ADD" too much. Using the extensions and history read-aloud packages that Carrie has designed should be plenty meaty. With older kids we seem to look at what the school sytems are doing and start feeling like we need to add this or that, truly CTC is very full! Try not to get blinded by distractions and instead allow God to work within your family.

Personally, I am looking forward to getting back to a more relaxed way of learning. I am thrilled that Carrie has taken the time to write such a God-honoring program. I am also excited that my daughter will be spending so much time in the Word this next school year and in such a way that will not seem overwhelming. Unless the Lord leads us another direction, I plan to continue using HOD through high school, until we run out of guides. (Hopefully, we won't)

Hi Heather,
And welcome to HOD! I'm using CTC for my soon to be 8th grader. Our original plan was to begin the full program in February, which we did, but then I had a baby arrive early and we've just been spending the remainder of the school year on basics. So, we'll be back in CTC full steam in August (8th grade). He'll be finishing up Rod and Staff 5 and moving into 6 while we're in CTC. We're finishing up with Singapore 6 and we'll begin pre-algebra work using Math essentials. Finally, we've added on the Biology 101 DVD's. We do everything HOD recommends. It is a perfect fit for my son.

Hi and welcome to HOD. I completely understand how you feel I ended up at HOD and it definitely was the Lord. I never would have led myself here but it turns out God's best really is the best and it just does not always look like we think it will. We are towards the end of CTC. I used it for 7th grade and I would not hesitate to use it for 7th or even high school with some modification. I am one of the people that is going to use HOD for high school also. In fact we are doing RTR next year with Algebra and high school level science so I have decided we are going to go ahead and call that our first year of high school. Carrie is really great about giving recommendations for older students if they need more. CTC is really very full but as you read the high school threads you will see she is great about helping folks beef up the programs and that does work really well.

I just recently spent moths looking at everything that was out there for high school and trying to put things together. I finally came to realize that there is just nothing like HOD and we would have a much better program just beefing up HOD than we would using bits and pieces of other things or a unit study that just does not fit where I am feeling God call. I think you are going to find lots of company with others beefing up the later guides for high school.

Well just wanted to say welcome! I think you will love HOD!

Thank you ALL!!!!!

Your replies are SO helpful, and everyone on the board is so friendly and warm. I love it!

I think it will be neat if we can all be together homeschooling our kids through high school with HOD. We can encourage and support each other while watching our children learn and grow in the Lord!

Heather4Him wrote: I think it will be neat if we can all be together homeschooling our kids through high school with HOD. We can encourage and support each other while watching our children learn and grow in the Lord!

I agree! I am starting to see those are the years when you really reap the harvest of the earlier years because you can just go so much deeper. I don't want them growing any faster than the are but I am excited about high school!

water2wine wrote:
I agree! I am starting to see those are the years when you really reap the harvest of the earlier years because you can just go so much deeper. I don't want them growing any faster than the are but I am excited about high school!

Totally agree!!

And, I guess we're going to go for it, as I just submitted my order for our CTC, Extension Package, and DITHOR 6/7/8!!!!! SO excited!!

You're going to love it! We are just finishing it up for this year soon here and I am really ready to start it again. It's a great program. They all are great but this is just a tie frame that I think is hard to do well and HOD just hits it out of the park. Congratulations!