heartofdakota.com

We are now in Unit 7 of Bigger with my 8yod. We both love, love, love the program!

I also have my 12yo using the extension pack. She is also enjoying the year's study. I do "extend" the extension for her as a 6th grader by adding written narration, some report writing, etc. to "beef up" the curriculum. It is working very well for us.

So even though I am only in Unit 7, I am already beginning to financially prepare for Preparing Hearts.

Will I need to purchase the teacher's guides for Singapore Math 3A, 3B, and for Rod & Staff English 3 to use with Preparing for my 8yo?

I plan to purchase the Self Study Extension Package for Older Students for my 12yo who will be a 7th grader when we begin.

Will I also need to purchase the Self Study Deluxe History Package for my 8yo? Is this part of the basic program for the Preparing student, or is it another option for the older student to use as extension materials?

Thanks for any help you can give me!
Callia

Callia,

I'm so glad that you are getting a chance to use and enjoy "Bigger...". We are loving it ourselves!

As to your questions, you will need the textbooks for Singapore Math, but we do not sell or recommend the Teacher's Guides.

As far as English 3, we do recommend the Teacher's Guide due to the review questions at the beginning of each day and the key. But, if you had to economize, this is one thing you could get by without.

For the Deluxe package, these are history readers for the 3rd and 4th grade student to do independently along with the schedule and activities in "Preparing...". It works much like the Extension Package, but for younger students. The purpose is to train them to take over more of their own history reading in preparation for the guides to follow.

Blessings,
Carrie

Thanks, Carrie.

I think I "get it" now. I will plan on both extensions then--one for my 12yo and one for my 8 (will then be 9yo). I appreciate having my daughter learn more academic independence as we go through the years.

I will probably space out my purchases through the year in order to balance the budget!

Rod and Staff English books are often available at used curriculum sales around here. If I can find a used copy of the teacher's manual, I will. Otherwise, I might just wait to see how much I need it.

If at all possible, I try to purchase my materials through you. First of all, it is much easier that way! But I also have a strong view that, as much as we possibly can, we need to support other Christian businesses, especially those that are ministering to our own family in some way.

Blessings to your family, and thank you for your help.

Callia

Callia wrote: If at all possible, I try to purchase my materials through you. First of all, it is much easier that way! But I also have a strong view that, as much as we possibly can, we need to support other Christian businesses, especially those that are ministering to our own family in some way.

Blessings to your family, and thank you for your help.

Callia

I so agree with you, Callia! I try to always purchase directly from the authors if possible. Especially when they have given me personal service, and if they are Christian families striving to make a home business work, I know that's tough! Good personal customer service is a "dying breed" these days - probably because customers don't always show their appreciation by buying product from the people who actually took time to help them. We are a one income family, so I know the value of saving money, but when we're talking an average amount of money, it's worth paying some extra to me to keep getting good, personal service.

In Christ,
Julie

I have a question. I was pondering this last night and actually was asking my husband about this. Does it harm HOD to buy their products from a vendor? I know this might sound like a silly question, but I really don't know how this all works. I want very much to support HOD when I make a purchase for obvious reasons! So, I want to know if it harms HOD if I were to purchase their product from a vendor of their products? I know vendors seem to have the products for less at times which, of course, would save me money, but I don't want to do that if it is not good for Carrie. Can someone explain how that works to me? Sorry if this is a dumb question -but I really want to understand this.

Callia wrote: Will I need to purchase the teacher's guides for Singapore Math 3A, 3B, and for Rod & Staff English 3 to use with Preparing for my 8yo?

Callia

For me, I have found the Answer key helpful for checking my daughter's work
http://www.singaporemath.com/Pri_Math_A ... mak1-3.htm
because I am not very math-minded, and I don't like to have to figure out the right answers

HappyatHome wrote:I have a question. I was pondering this last night and actually was asking my husband about this. Does it harm HOD to buy their products from a vendor?

It is going to profit HOD the most by purchasing directly from them. If you buy from a vendor then the vendor gets a cut too.

my3sons wrote:

Callia wrote: If at all possible, I try to purchase my materials through you. First of all, it is much easier that way! But I also have a strong view that, as much as we possibly can, we need to support other Christian businesses, especially those that are ministering to our own family in some way.

Blessings to your family, and thank you for your help.

Callia

I so agree with you, Callia! I try to always purchase directly from the authors if possible. Especially when they have given me personal service, and if they are Christian families striving to make a home business work, I know that's tough! Good personal customer service is a "dying breed" these days - probably because customers don't always show their appreciation by buying product from the people who actually took time to help them. We are a one income family, so I know the value of saving money, but when we're talking an average amount of money, it's worth paying some extra to me to keep getting good, personal service.

In Christ,
Julie

I will add that I've begun looking at the country of origin, too. I'm trying to support local business as well as US business with my dollars. Not that I have a lot of them there dollars to spend! But the ones I do spend I want to spend wisely.
ok, sorry for taking this off topic!

my3sons wrote:

Callia wrote: If at all possible, I try to purchase my materials through you. First of all, it is much easier that way! But I also have a strong view that, as much as we possibly can, we need to support other Christian businesses, especially those that are ministering to our own family in some way.

Blessings to your family, and thank you for your help.

Callia

I so agree with you, Callia! I try to always purchase directly from the authors if possible. Especially when they have given me personal service, and if they are Christian families striving to make a home business work, I know that's tough! Good personal customer service is a "dying breed" these days - probably because customers don't always show their appreciation by buying product from the people who actually took time to help them. We are a one income family, so I know the value of saving money, but when we're talking an average amount of money, it's worth paying some extra to me to keep getting good, personal service.

In Christ,
Julie

I agree as well.

Thanks for thinking of us ladies! It is MUCH appreciated. Since we give other vendors a discount when they buy our guides, and then often customers will buy the resources that go with our program from the vendor as well, you can see what little profit we make on that sale! This is why companies similar to ours (like MFW, Sonlight, Winter's Promis) are sole source and do not sell their guides through other vendors!

While we are grateful for other vendors, because we would have been unable to keep up with the amount of orders otherwise, we are looking into becoming a sole source for our products eventually (as our boys are growing and able to help more with packing orders).

We're happy to be able to offer competitive package pricing now to make HOD more one-stop shopping.

Blessings,
Carrie

I am one who bought many resources from a vendor-I didn't want to do it, but the hubby looked at pricing and insisted if we saved a few dollars with a vendor, that would be best. I hope that by the time the NEXT guide comes out, he will see the wisdom of buying everything directly from the souce I, too, want to support all the wonderful work you do, Carrie.

Thank you for taking the time to answer this question, Carrie. I must admit it is hard not to save some bucks when a homeschooling budget gets stretched so far. But, I think that the work you are doing is invaluable and you need to be supported!! I hope that you are able to be the sole source provider soon! I know God is blessing your work as I read through the ladies' posts on this board. I am soooo looking forward to trying it out next year!

You're most welcome ladies! I appreciate your honesty and your words of encouragement. Each one of you is a blessing to have on the board! And I too like to save money when possible, and never really considered that from the publishers view until we became one!

Blessings,
Carrie