heartofdakota.com

Hi, I am new to HOD and very excited about this program and all I have read about it! I noticed some of you have a signature and I am not sure how to do that yet so.... I will tell you a little about myself. I am a wife of almost 23 years to a wonderful man,mom to 6 blessings. DS 21 currently deployed with the USMC,DS 19 lives in Montana, DS 18 in Montana w/brother for summer, DD 16 home schooled, DS 11 home schooled, DS 7 home schooled. I am looking at using Bigger Hearts for my 7 year old and Resurrection to Reformation for my 11 year old. The RR looks so wonderful I am getting excited about ordering it! One year I used a program that had lots of reading but too much ancient and weird stuff so this past year I went more traditional and my son said he missed all the real or living books! Did not want to use that particular program though. okay, a question. For third grade my son studied the Aztecs and that time period (what was i thinking?), this past year we used BJU History. If I go to Resurrection to Reformation would he be missing out on American History? Like Korean,Vietnam,WW I and WW II or does anyone know if that will be covered later on in HOD? I love American History and don't want him to miss out there either. We have studied Columbus and the Pilgrims and all. He has also read a lot of biographies of Americans in free time but not sure if he tied them all together in a time line in his head. Also, I plan to use Saxon Math for my 11 yo will that fit okay instead of the Singapore? Sorry for all the questions, I am just beginning this HOD journey!

Hi!

Welcome to the HOD boards!! I'm new here, too. We just ordered CTC with extensions and DITHOR for our 12yodd, and I'm so excited to receive it and use it, too, so I know how you feel!!

Because I'm new, too, I can't answer your specific curriculum questions, but I do know how to make a signature on the board.

Go to link above that says "User Control Panel", then click on the tab that says "Profile", and right to your left is a place to click "Edit Signature". There you can type in your signature how you want it. Make sure you hit "Submit" on the bottom to save it, and that should be it! Hope this helps!

Welcome! I am fairly new to HOD, in that we haven't officially started, although everything is in place. We're just working on reading over the summer. I have been excited about starting this since February when I found it So, I understand exactly how you feel.

You've already been given the signature instructions from the previous poster. The only other question I can answer is the one about Math. Many use their own Math. Singapore is Carrie's recommendation, but you can still do HOD with something different. Someone else will have to answer the history question. That isn't a problem for me because we are starting out with LHFHG. DD was in school for K. She finished with that now and I'm anxious to start, but we'll enjoy some summer vacation first I just know that it is going to be a great year

Hello and welcome to HOD. I just wanted to let you know that if your son does RTR this coming year, he will get American History in the years to come (if he stays with HOD). Carrie is planning 2 more programs after RTR to finish out a 4 year history cycle. (There is also plans for a geography program for after that, but that's besides the point ).

Anyway, I just wanted to reassure you that if he picks up with RTR, he will get American history in the following years.

Hello, and welcome to the HOD Board! We used CTC and Beyond last year (as well as half-speed LHTH), and we are so excited to do RTR and Bigger Hearts (along with half-speed LHTH) next year too! We will have to share our year with one another here. As the pp said, HOD will be finishing out the history cycle after RTR, so your dc will still get American history. You can use any math program with HOD, so if Saxon has been a going well for your 11 yo, you may as well continue with that. You will love all of the living books HOD chooses. We enjoy our homeschooling so much, and it is due largely to HOD. One last thing to consider, if you haven't checked out the placement chart, it's super helpful in accurately placing dc. It's worked well for all 3 of our dc, so I'll give you that link just to be sure the placements are what you want for your dc:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you all for the wonderful reply's! You are all very helpful. I will be back her often I can tell. This crazy home school mom is finally getting it together I feel. love real and living books but I am not an organized person ....sigh . Having this all put together for me plus the author of program has the exact same feelings I do about not teaching ancients to soon is so wonderful! I love this board already. Getting so excited to get that order placed.

Homeschoolheart,

I just wanted to pop-in and welcome you too! We're so glad to have you here. If you haven't already had a chance to check out the placement chart, you may want to take a peek at it before plunging into RTR just to be sure that's the perfect fit for your 11 year old. RTR is designed to be fairly independent and does have fairly long readings with quite a bit of writing and a ton of mapping. So, you'll want to be sure your son is ready for the rigor of the program. You could also consider CTC. Both are truly wonderful guides, so you can't go wrong. Hopefully, HOD will be a blessing to you and your family.

Blessings,
Carrie

Just wanted to say welcome! I wanted to assure you also that you do not need a ton of organizational skills to do HOD. That is a huge part of why I love HOD (besides the content and it being so absolutely perfect for our family that is). Carrie does all the organizing for you! Some people here are really organized and do a lot of preparation but I will confess that I am one that really does absolutely no preparation other than in the beginning of the year to make sure we have the things Carrie says to have on had in the beginning of the manual. Day to day though we are very open and go. I never know what is coming next and our day really goes very smoothly. So don't worry about that, you have just found your organization. Happy choosing your program and welcome!

Okay, I thought I had this figured out. Now after the suggestion I looked at Creation to Christ. My son is a very strong reader I believe, so was thinking of Resurrection to Reformation. He loves American History and was turned off the ancients while doing SL. I am thinking if I would do Creation to Christ and then Resurrection to Reformation he may be very tired of that time period. Would it hurt anything to just go right to Resurrection to Reformation? He did Bob Jones History last year (American). He is going into the sixth grade this fall. Any thoughts?

You may want to print out the week of RTR and the week of CTC and lay them side by side to see in which he seems to fit better. To do RTR, a student needs to be a strong reader and writer, good at following directions carefully, quite an independent worker, and it is a huge help if the student is familiar with CM's methods of dictation, oral narration, and written narration. I think if you print the 2 weeks and look especially at the "I" boxes and their specific directions, as well as the "S" boxes, you'd be able to tell more clearly where your ds would best place. If it is CTC, I think you'd find it a fresh treatment of the ancients. The ancients is a time period that honestly had me a bit scared to cover. If one is not careful, it can be just way too mature, too graphically detailed, too into almost "celebrating" the depravity of men, and too confusing for dc due to the many "gods", "goddesses", and mythology. The way it was covered in HOD was exactly the opposite and put all of those fears I had to rest. I think the Christ-centered focus running throughout, and the careful choosing of books where depravity was not celebrated but was shown in its proper light - as man needing redemption - strengthened my ds's faith so much. I say all this not to assume CTC will be the best for your ds, but just in case you do feel that is where he places better academically, it would feel like a new treatment of the ancients I am sure. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thank you Thank you for all the wonderful advice! It really made me look this over some more and my son looked at the book choices and I have decided to do Creation to Christ. My son thought he would like to start at the beginning. If you all had not posted this good advice I would not have given a second thought to my first choice. Resurrection to Reformation will have to wait until next year!

Thank you for asking questions about CTC and RTR. I was a bit confused myself, and I think that helped to answer my questions, as well! Welcome to the boards from a fellow newbie!
Erica

Hello Erica, glad to see you have also chosen HOD. This board is so very friendly and helpful. Hoping my children will be as excited about HOD as I am this coming fall!

homeschoolheart - You are wise to give this careful thought, and I think you have ended up with a super plan for your ds! I'm glad you are going to get to do CTC. It is an amazing program that left my ds and me with a deeper understanding of the ancients and a deeper faith in our mighty Lord's power as well!

In Christ,
Julie

Hi, and welcome!

I am a newbie myself, doing Bigger with my 7 yo boy and 8 yo sister. I first ordered it and then asked here! (ha, ha! what was *I* thinking ).. The wonderful ladies pointed out that Beyond would be a better choice for my dc, especially for my writing-challenged 7 yo boy, but it is too late now....

So we will try to take Bigger a step at a time and even do it half pace to get my children up to speed...

Enjoy your HOD journey...