heartofdakota.com

Hello! I was going register with some catchy user name and go incognito, but I decided to appear as myself.

I'm Colleen. I've been homeschooling for 14 plus years. My 12 children are 20(married), 18, 17, 16, 14, 12, 10, 10, 8, 5, 3, and 1. We are a very busy farm family.

I'm not here because I disliked any of my past curriculum. I've had an enjoyable 14 years of homeschooling. I have been praying about HOD for some time because:
~the Christ centered-ness is very appealing to me.
~I love literature based learning.
~I want to continue to enjoy my children by doing something enjoyable with them.
~I wanted someone to prod me to do more activities than I typically end up doing.
~The guides look doable even to me, someone who seems to wing it a lot.
~The samples and the photobooks look awesome.
~....and my prayer also includes asking the Lord for the funds.

I feel like I have a "fresh batch" of children coming on that doing HOD with will be a blessing. Children grow up too fast! I want to spend time with them instilling Godly values.

I think I will need to start in slow. I am probably going to order Bigger Hearts soon to do with my 8 year old this coming school year. If more funds become available, I want to order the CTC package for my 10, 10 and 12 year olds. Maybe, too, Little Hands for my 3 and 5 year olds. We'll see. I *could* possibly combine, but part of the reason I wanted to give HOD a try soon with Bigger was because I felt it would be giving me an opportunity to do something special with *just* my 8 year old for a change.

We already own and use Rod and Staff math and English and plan to continue that.

I have 2 questions:
1. I have a 10 book set of those Bible Story books on my shelf. Could I use them instead of ordering any of the other, although terrific looking!, Bible story books for the younger programs?
2. Is there a list somewhere that tells me in approximately what order the books are needed in CTC? With more secular titles you have a chance of limping along with the public library. I am glad to buy the books, I just might have to do it in hitches if I am going to make it work, kwim?

Welcome!!

We're new here, too, to the boards and HOD, but everyone has been so nice, helpful, and friendly.

Colleen,

You are a BLESSED and busy mom! It's a joy to "meet" you here.

I love your list of why God's leading your to HOD now, and have to agree that those are the very things that He has used to confirm to our family that we're in the right place for our schooling right now. HOD has been a huge blessing to us, and we're thoroughly enjoying it! Praying that you'll find the same to be true.

To answer your questions, all of the guides list the pages for the reccommended Bible story book. But they also list the actual scripture passage so that you're free to read right from God's Word if you choose. So, if you would like to use your own story Bible, you would just have to see if the actual scripture passage matched up with a story included in your story Bible. Does that make sense? It would be a little more work...but I'm sure it's doable if you want to give it a try. We love the choices that HOD gives as far as the different story Bibles. The length of the stories included seem to match the attention spans of the age group VERY well. But, I totally understand needing to make it fit your family budget, too, and I'm so glad that you have that option in the guide!

Here is a thread that lists the books you'd need for the 1st 12 weeks of CTC. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5255 I could look tomorrow and tell you what genres you'd cover if you're looking for the genre-based storytime rather than the history-based set. I'm guessing the genre-based storytime titles would be pretty easy to come by at a library whereas the history-based ones probably aren't. Let me know if you'd like that.

Kathleen