heartofdakota.com

Hello, all! A friend mentioned HOD a while back, but I thought it was only for preschool and kindergarten. I ran into it again on someone's blog and thought I might want to look into it more.
I'm a homeschooling mom of 4--dd is 11, finishing 5th gr; dd is 9, finishing 2nd grade; ds is 7, finishing 1st grade, and dd is 2, and we may start preschool this fall. My oldest has done ACE for much of her schooling, but we switched to R&S last year. I was wanting something that pushed her a little harder, and R&S definitely did that--a little too much, I think. My 2 youngest have done Abeka, Horizons, and this last year R&S. Abeka was done at a private school, but with Horizons and R&S, it became a task to just get the paperwork done.
One other thing to consider this fall is that we'll be traveling on deputation (gathering support to be full-time missionaries to Brazil). We'll be doing school in the car, in hotel rooms, and at home. Would HOD work for that kind of lifestyle? I'm leaning toward going back to ACE, but would love another option.
In looking at the placement chart, it looks like my 9 yo would do better in the Biggest, and my 7yo in the Beyond. Would there be a way to combine them so they would still both be on their own level?
Another question I had was that my 11 yo made it through R&S 5 English this year, but struggled with it quite a bit. Wondered if we'd go back through it again or not with CTC?
Sorry I have so many questions. I'm not familiar with this curriculum at all, but liked what I saw on the website. Thanks in advance for all the help!
Erica

Hi Erica, and welcome to the HOD Board! We have many missionary families using HOD. It works quite well on the move, and it is very Christ-centered. We have loved using HOD for multiple years, and I think you would as well. As far as placement, I want to be sure you saw the placement chart, as we have found that to be very accurate in placing our dc:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

If you've looked at the placement chart, especially the first page, and feel that your oldest places best in CTC, great! I wouldn't do R & S English 5 over again, but you could definitely do English 6 half-speed, just 2 days a week. HOD recommends doing a good portion of it orally, which I think makes a big difference in how well it goes, especially as dc get into R & S Level 4 on up. Here is a link where I described how we go about doing this:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4659&p=34269#p34269

For your other 2 dc, I'd take one more good look at the placement chart, and combine them in either Beyond or Bigger Hearts for their core program. I'd lean toward Beyond. Then, you would just use the right side of Bigger to up the LA and math for your older child (i.e. DITHOR, dictation, grammar, math). I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on this! I think you will love HOD - it's been such a blessing in our family, and I pray it will be in yours as well.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for your reply. I dug in a little more into the website and feel like I understand it a little more. I'm wondering if I should put 7yo son in the Bigger with sister instead of the other way around. He's an emerging reader, but just loves to learn. Also, he just finished R&S 1st grade, so I think that would put him in the Bigger. The only reason I hesitate is that he hates to write. I'm not sure if there's a way to modify the writing a bit until he gets better with it.
Since 11yo daughter is new to HOD, I think CTC would be a better fit, but we'll be up a level in English. She doesn't enjoy writing at all, so I hate to push her faster than she's ready. What do you think? Thanks again for the help!
Erica

Just wanted to say hi! We are M's in East Asia, and I'm about to purchase and begin our hs with HOD books. I am so excited! One major factor in choosing curriculum for me was how to implement it without a library, and also have it be somewhat portable. I, for one, am excited that so much is right in the guide (lots of LA, history, art, science) so that will be mean fewer individual books as we go back and forth. It is always confusing about how to pack when leaving for a 6 mo. HA in the US, and then coming back again, all within the same school year! We also travel quite a bit within our country, and I picture HOD working well for this as well.

Hi!
I am new to HOD but have homeschooled for 4 years previous with different curriculum. I am so glad I found HOD and just received my first order. I have a 7 and 9 year old and will be combining them in Bigger - for several reasons, since my youngest fits better in Beyond, but my oldest in Preparing. But they both like doing the same subjects, stories, and activities and those things often work better with more than one person. They will be doing their own math and language arts, and I will require more of my oldest in some areas and probably help my younger one with writing more. There are so many good ideas that address these on this forum. After looking through the R&S, which was the only thing I wasn't sure about, I can see how doing it mostly orally or me on the whiteboard with each of them will be a huge help for us all.
Everyone on here is so helpful and encouraging, you will be blessed by them.
Good luck!

Thanks for sharing more about your dc, Erica! It sounds like your placement for your oldest in CTC will be good. I think she'd enjoy the "Write with the Best" writing lessons, and it was a nice pairing of doing those 2 times a week, and then doing R & S English on the other 2 times a week. Doing a good portion of R & S English 6 orally should help keep the writing within that manageable. The writing within the CTC Student Notebook is balanced out nicely over the 4 day plan, so that helps keep it steady. We appreciated being able to depend on about the same amount of writing each day, and about the same amount of time for doing school each day. CTC is an amazing program! I think you'll enjoy it very much.

For your 7 and 9 yo, doing Beyond would really be a good place to start. There is quite a bit more writing in Bigger Hearts than Beyond. Here are a few links that describe the writing in each:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1516&p=11829

I think what you'd have to do to modify Bigger Hearts for your 7 yo, since writing is a concern, would mean key skills were being missed. It also would mean that your younger may always be stretched too far as he moves through the HOD guides. If you enjoy combining, HOD typically suggests picking a core guide for the younger and beefing up for the older. It is easier to beef up and keep the balance in a program, and it also means younger dc won't be hearing too mature content too early. Once dc get to Bigger Hearts, there are extensions written for older ages, which makes it very easy to happily combine for the long-term. Here is a past post where Carrie explains how to beef up Beyond for a fourth grader, in case something here is helpful:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3247&p=24196

These are only suggestions to consider, but you have the final decision about what placement would be best for your dc, which is wonderful, because you know them best. Either way, I think HOD will be a great way to go about homeschooling your dc! I hope something here helps as you consider placement. It's worth spending some time on, so you are wise to ask questions, think, and pray about it!

In Christ,
Julie

Wow, I'm so thankful for everyone's help. It will make ordering so much easier when the time comes. And what a blessing to hear of another missionary using it and finding it a good fit! I'll dig into a few of the links posted and see if I can figure out just a bit more about placement. Thanks again!
Erica

Hi Erica,
We are serving in Indonesia and I have recommended HOD to a lot of my co-workers. We have quite a few families using it over here in various settings, lots of kids, interior families, town families, mini schools, etc. It has been a great open and go program with godly values and choices. I have been looking over some other material that another family left here and have been shocked at the content of the program. I love the choices Carrie has made and feel like they give the information without exposing the children to too much information at a young age.
I love the fact also that we are able to use books from our own library for so much of the program. As I am a homeschool advisor for our folks I know the problem it is for folks to have books sent over or find someone to bring them over so the mostly all in one packages for HOD are an extra blessing for us.
God bless you in your ministry of home schooling your children and serving Him in another country,
Sherry

were Home office (USA) missionaries were in the home office but we do support raising, And our supporters are spaced far and wide we have lots of car time... so I have successfully schooled in the car, in the park, in the church lunch room so it totally can be portable. I do have to do some prep work to make sure I Have the right colored paper for art projects etc. I give each kid a notebook with everything they need in it. A pencil case (w3 rings) with basic crayons pencils, and counters/chips for math, glue stick, scissors pencil sharpener. I also photocopied just the weeks I needed. Poems and bible verses, copy work, and set them up in the kids binders, Cause I like to travel light I don't usually take the whole book with me Also I found at office depot like place a thin hole punch that fits inside a 3 ring binder totally worth the 5$ I paid for it. All the stuff typically will fit in a carry on bag with room to spare.
I do, do more "free" reading than DITHOR when were on the road mainly because I don't want to heft the DITHOR book with me. I few plastic envelopes for extra paper etc. helps keep everything organized. and a clip board can come in mightily handy so if you have room tuck one in.

Hi there,

we are missionaries in the Philippines and we are going to use HOD this September. I don't have any words of wisdom for you, I think we are on the same boat!

I just wanted to say "hello!

Blessings,

Esther

What a blessing to hear from some "in-the-trenches" missionaries making HOD work. I especially appreciate some of the good on-the-road tips. I think I'll have to be a little more organized than I usually am at home, but am excited at seeing how it all works. And as we get started this fall, I'll be eager to ask more questions of some of you, I'm sure. Thanks, y'all!
Blessings,
Erica

Erica,

The ladies did a terrific job of talking through your questions with you, so I'll just pop-in to welcome you! We're glad to have you here. If you have other questions, feel free to ask away. The ladies on the board are so encouraging and excellent at helping one another!

Blessings,
Carrie