heartofdakota.com

Hello everyone,

My name is Corrie and I homeschool my two children, Hope (8.5) and Josiah (7 in October) in Melbourne, Australia. I have been homeschooling for 2.5 years now. Two of those were spent living in central Vietnam where our family were involved in community development work with a christian not-for-profit organisation. It was great but I am really appreciating being back in Australia where there are other homeschoolers and I have greater access to resources and people who speak my own language! Lol.

I have been reading through this message board for a few days now as I am researching my curriculum choices for the 2011 school year. (Our year runs from Jan-Dec). I thought I had decided what I would do for every subject...I had priced it and completed a spread sheet and everything! Then I started reading this forum and review boards on this curriculum, HOD! The thought of having a complete schedule which is flexible, affordable and integrates the Bible through it sounds too good to be true. I have looked at other literature based programs and there is always something I don't like but yet I would still have to pay a phenomenal amount of money for!

So I have a few questions if anyone is able to help me. I will tell you a little about my 2 kids so you have a better understanding of my situation.

Hope (8.5yr old dd): This is my beautiful auditory sequential learner who is an independent reader and a solid speller. She is good at math and enjoys science and loves being read to. She is not strong at writing and would much prefer to do things orally rather than write it down, but she could definitley use help with grammar and punctuation and speaking her thoughts clearer and more succinctly. She is fine with workbook style, hands on learning, and manipulatives, but as I said, resists writing creatively, but is fine with copywork. She loves art and craft and drama also, anything expressive!

Josiah (nearly 7 yr old ds): This is my cheeky visual spatial learner son who does not enjoy reading as it is a big effort for him and his attention span for being read to is very limited unless he is extremely tired! Lol. He much prefers 'doing' than listening! (This is one of the reasons I have hesitated with literature based programs in the past). He is nearly finished learning all his phonograms but he does not understand spelling as so many words in the english language break the rules he has learned and this messes with his mind! His memory for things he has learned is also minimal and it takes a lot of consistency and review for this to stick! He gets maths concepts very quickly and he looooves science, especially if it is hands on! He hates handwriting and he still struggles with speaking the english language properly let alone learning the grammar related to it!!! He is excellent at drawing and art, but hates colouring in. His mind works in mysterious ways as sometimes he comes up with the right answers to things or alternative solutions, even though he has never learnt about the problem!

So, my question to you lovely ladies is, where should I start???? Do I do Beyond and then extend for my daughter who is more capable? Or do I do Bigger and do a different LA for my son? I have been using MUS for the last 2.5 years and I have been very happy with it. Singapore looks great and I have heard amazing things, but I figure of it ain't broke, don't fix it! I have been using an intensive phonics program with them, but it does not touch much on grammar and the spelling method is very intense and rule based and I am not sure my son (or I) will cope with it. I use the Getty/Dubay handwriting books already but because my 2 are hesitant handwriters, we are only on Book B as I started both of them on this program only 1 year ago. I have a nature study book for science and I am happy to continue that off and on but I like the idea of something a bit more hands on and involved. I am doing a read-a-loud for Australian history which I would continue if I do HOD as I don't mind doing American History, I just want the kids to know about their own country too.

So, there we go....sorry my post is so long but I hope I have given enough information for you to give any welcome suggestions! I would love to hear from anyone else who is in Australia who has made HOD work for them also.

Blessings,

Corrie

Welcome Corrie! We are fairly new to HOD. We haven't officially started a guide, but I've been working with dd on phonics and reading during our summer months. My dd turned 7 in May. I bought Beyond to use for her when I first decided I was going with HOD. But as I read more and more on this message board, I decided that Little Hearts would be a better fit for dd. Your ds sounds much like her as far as the reading and attention span. I probably could have made Beyond work, but I think the history and science reading in Little Hearts will be gentler and offers more visuals. Another reason I chose to step back to Little Hearts is that many have said there is a big transition from Beyond to Bigger. I don't think in one year dd would be ready for that. Maybe someone can give you more detail on Bigger. I know there was a thread about that, but I haven't learned how to bring those up to post. Maybe someone else will step in and give you more information. Many use more than one guide for multiple children, so that is an option. Whatever you decide, enjoy HOD! We are beginning in 4 weeks and I am so excited!

Welcome to the HOD Board! HOD is such a blessing in our home, and I think you would love it as well! Thanks for sharing about each of your dc here, as that helps so much. The placement chart really helped us place our 3 dc, so here's a link to that in case you hadn't seen it yet:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php

I think from what you've shared your dd would place in Beyond or possibly Bigger Hearts. Since this would hinge on the writing for your dd, here is a past post where the differences in writing between Beyond and Bigger are described:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1516&p=11829

For your ds, I think he places in LHFHG. He would enjoy the hands-on components of LHFHG and would also have some time to grow in his LA skills.

If you would like to combine your dc, I would guess Beyond would be the best way to go about it. Your dd could do it as it is written, with her MUS, and with DITHOR 2/3. If you wanted to up the LA more for her, you could have her do Bigger Hearts dictation and R & S English 2. For your ds, I'd have him do the fine motor skills books from LHFHG, as well as continuing with phonics and math.

What are your thoughts about all of this? I think you have several good options here. Sometimes it's easier to combine, and sometimes it's just more work than it's worth. If your dd seems to solidly place in Bigger Hearts according to the placement chart (including the writing part of it), and your ds seems to solidly place in LHFHG, I'd be inclined to do them separately. However, if they can meet in the middle in Beyond fairly well, that is a good option too! I think you'll find this board to be a very encouraging place to be, and HOD is such a satisfying way to homeschool! I look forward to getting to know you better here.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for your thoughts ladies.....I suppose one thing I need to keep in mind is that we will not start this for another 7 months when our new school year starts so I need to keep in mind that my son will be nearly 7.5 by then and my daughter will be 9.
I have looked at the placement guides and I feel like my dd would be fine with Bigger but maybe hesitant with the amount of writing. (But maybe she needs that leg up to challenge her, especially in 7 months time when she is 9.) My son would probably competently do LHFHG, but he might cope with Beyond as long as I keep him at his own LA and Math level. He is fine with copywork for up to about 2 sentences at a time and about 2-3 lines of handwriting on one day plus practising his letters on his phonics pages....this is about the extent of what he will do without complaining his hand is sore and tired! (Amazing considering he will draw pictures for hours....lol).

Julie, you mentioned (if I understand correctly) that if I did Beyond, I could do dictation from Bigger and possibly motor skills for LHFHG for my ds.....how does that work? Does that mean I buy all 3 manuals and use components of each? Or does Beyond manual contain some upper and lower level of materials that I can use for different children?

I do like the idea of one manual and just doing separate maths and LA, as I think they would both be fine on History, Science & Bible together.....but I know they are VERY different in their reading levels (she can read chapter books by herself, he will read 4 pages of a reader and get tired).

How much of the program is based on independent reading in comparison to read-a-louds? If most of it was read--a-louds I could do them together and then just buy the DITHOR for my dd and she could do her independent reading separately....

Sorry for all the questions! As many other mums have said here, it is about wanting to get that balance of making sure your kid is sufficiently challenged but not overwhelmed...

Blessings,

Corrie

I personally think that Beyond... is a fantastic guide and it would would work well for both of your dc. It is all done with you, the teacher, so it sounds like it would be a good fit for your family as far as combining goes. The copywork involved each week comes from a chosen poem that is in the appendix of the guide. You can choose how much of it you want them to copy....say several lines a day for dd so that she has copied the entire poem by the end of the week and maybe just 2 lines a day for ds so that maybe he has completed half the poem by the end of the week. This is how I did it with my dd and by the end of the year her handwriting had improved dramatically and she was copying an entire poem each week. There is a gentle introduction to grammar, I think once each week, so this may also be a good solution for you before heading into Bigger...and R&S English the following year. Of course, you could always add R&S level 2 for your dd this year if you want to go ahead and move forward more quickly with her in that area. You can use parts of Beyond... and parts of Bigger... if you so desire, as Julie mentioned, but is also quite easy to use your own schedule/program with those subjects that must be kept on the child's grade/ability level, such as math, spelling, grammar, etc. Then, it would not be necessary to purchase multiple guides. You'll need to keep in mind what you feel is best for your family, as well as what you think each child can handle, but I think you would be very pleased and learn a LOT with the Beyond...guide. We loved it, and I'll be using it again with my ds 7 beginning in August!

Hi Corrie!

I wanted to pop in and welcome you to HOD, too! I'm thinking that in 7 months, your son might be ready for Beyond as-is. (But you'd probably want to wait and see and check when it's closer before you order everything as a lot can change in our kid's abilities in 7 months! )

You mentioned spelling being hard for him, I'm thinking that HOD's method of teaching spelling might really help him out. I'm getting ready to begin spelling with HOD with my daughter this year, and I thought this post by Julie (my3sons) gave a great picture of how it works. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6728
In Beyond, HOD uses the copywork of poetry as the child's handwriting practice (as long as they have the basic formation of letters learned). So, if you go with Beyond, you wouldn't need another handwriting program.

For your daughter, you would use MUS on her level. Then you could easily use R&S English 2 with her and just do a lesson per day. You wouldn't need to have the Bigger guide for that. But, you may want it for the dictation in the appendix, if she's past the level of the 2 spelling lists in Beyond.

For reading, you'd want to use DITHOR with your daughter. And then, Beyond has a schedule in the appendix for the "Emerging Readers". These readings are quite short at the beginning and are perfect for a child who has a basic grasp of phonics and is ready to being reading real books. They increase in difficulty, but are done in bite-sized increments. Carrie has also written comprehension questions according to Bloom's Taxonomy to go along with the readings. It's the perfect bridge from phonics to reading chapter books! I'm thinking that this set of books may be just what your son is ready for in 7 months as he moves along with phonics now.
Kathleen

Thanks soooo much for your thoughtful advice ladies! I really appreciate it.

I think the idea of doing Beyond with both of them and just altering the LA and of course maths should work for us, especially as this will be our first literacy based curriculum. If worse comes to worse, I can always order Bigger at a later stage if I am finding it is too easy for my daughter but she enjoys books of any level so I think it will be fine. I will wait however for a few more months before I look at ordering so I am more aware of the current level of my kids when we will be close to starting.

Be blessed...

Corrie

Ditto to what Kathleen and inHistiming said. Thanks for sharing more about your ds's writing, and I think using LHFHG for fine motor skills wouldn't be necessary then as he'll do fine with Beyond's copywork and gentle grammar. For your older dd, you can easily schedule out the R & S English 2 by just doing a lesson a day. If you wanted Bigger Hearts for the dictation you could get it, otherwise dd could do the second harder spelling list in Beyond. DITHOR 2/3 will up the reading nicely for her, and that's listed as an option for reading in Beyond already. I think you're on your way to a great placement for your dc, but like Kathleen said, you may want to revisit this placement as the 7 months draws to a close - sometimes a lot can change in 7 months (and sometimes not ). HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks Julie....appreciate your input too!

It looks like these ladies have done a great job answering your questions. I don't have any advice for you since my little guy is only 5, but I wanted to say welcome to the boards! The only other thing I can think of to add is that even if you use Beyond and think it's a little easy for your daughter you could always get a few library books each week on the history or science topics to give her a little more depth and that way you would still be able to keep them together.