heartofdakota.com

I go to other forums and most of them will have a stray person or two over the months ask if anyone has heard of HOD. Most of the time they will get folks saying they never heard of it. What is funny is the classical crowd knows about HOD. When I went to a hs book fair a few years ago HOD was there and I live in small-ville-usa. How come so few people know about HOD??? This is like one of the huge blessings for the hs community like TT or Notgrass or Apologia. I just don't get it!

I don't understand either. I belong to a co-op and almost everyone there uses Sonlight. I am the only one who uses HOD. I am just thankful I found it.

I have found the same thing to be true. I have been telling all of my friends about our switch to HOD and everone has said that they never heard of it. I had heard about it through CBD, seeing it in the catalogs and then on the Home School Reviews board.
Word is going to get around though, since everyone who uses this curriculum is SO excited about it!!
Kelly

I think it has to do with the fact that Carrie is still raising and teaching her own kids. It takes a lot of travel apparently to be known everywhere. But luckily we all found it!

Oh, do I get what you are saying! It seems like some places in the U.S. (and the world) know a lot about HOD, but others know nothing. Now, this is coming from my being Carrie's little sis' here, but I think it is because Mike and Carrie view homeschooling their own children as an important priority, as well as testing all of their curriculums out on them, and they don't go to oodles of book fairs all over because they are trying to balance their time between homeschooling their own children and sharing their curriculums at book fairs. Plus, advertising costs a ton, and they don't believe in driving up their prices to accommodate that - they firmly believe in keeping costs down so the average homeschool family can enjoy their products.

Because of all that, HOD is like a slow burn, IMO. The Lord keeps growing it and growing it, but word of mouth (and "word of" email/message boards/etc.) are the main way people learn about HOD. That's why what we do here (and other places) to share HOD is so important. I try to tell as many people as I can about HOD - I love to think of other dc (and their parents) enjoying it, like we do. Plus, I feel it brings God some glory - I think of getting HOD into people's homes like getting a little bit of the Lord into their homes too. I want this generation of children to have God be a part of their daily school, and HOD helps do that in an easy and natural way.

WHEW! You weren't looking for this much of a response, were you? Well, I just wanted to say that we really all have so much to do with getting the word about HOD out - because Mike and Carrie are still trying to fulfill their God-given purpose of homeschooling their own children at home, instead of putting their children in school and putting all of their time into their business, or instead of dragging their children to tons of book fairs or leaving them home with a nanny. I think the time they put into testing their curriculums with their own family shows though - nothing makes for a better homeschooling guide than a guide written by a homeschool parent actually currently using it.

O.k.... I'm stopping now... no more caffeine for me today... time to slow down for a relaxing Sunday night.


Hope others respond here too - didn't mean to hop on my soapbox!!!

In Christ,
Julie

P.S. I was the first person to be posting here, but in the time I took to type this, a whole bunch of you posted before me (not hard to figure "the why" of that one out since I got so long-winded)! But it's so nice to read the rest of your posts and see you had the same thinking as I did!

Now I could use a bit of that coffee, but my thyroid can't handle it right now, so my response will be slow.

I wasn't suggesting more advertisement or curriculum fairs. I was meaning that I see the books everywhere: all the major hs suppliers and even at a book fair. I doubt Carrie was there, but I couldn't say for sure I was not a HOoDie at the time. Seems like more folks would know about it just from this.

Just want the world to enjoy this curriculum, Carrie to stay in business, and having a real live HOoDie friend to share excitement with wouldn't hurt. You can bet your boots that I will spread (and have been speading) the word.

my3sons wrote:Oh, do I get what you are saying! It seems like some places in the U.S. (and the world) know a lot about HOD, but others know nothing. Now, this is coming from my being Carrie's little sis' here, but I think it is because Mike and Carrie view homeschooling their own children as an important priority, as well as testing all of their curriculums out on them, and they don't go to oodles of book fairs all over because they are trying to balance their time between homeschooling their own children and sharing their curriculums at book fairs. Plus, advertising costs a ton, and they don't believe in driving up their prices to accommodate that - they firmly believe in keeping costs down so the average homeschool family can enjoy their products.

Because of all that, HOD is like a slow burn, IMO. The Lord keeps growing it and growing it, but word of mouth (and "word of" email/message boards/etc.) are the main way people learn about HOD. That's why what we do here (and other places) to share HOD is so important. I try to tell as many people as I can about HOD - I love to think of other dc (and their parents) enjoying it, like we do. Plus, I feel it brings God some glory - I think of getting HOD into people's homes like getting a little bit of the Lord into their homes too. I want this generation of children to have God be a part of their daily school, and HOD helps do that in an easy and natural way.

WHEW! You weren't looking for this much of a response, were you? Well, I just wanted to say that we really all have so much to do with getting the word about HOD out - because Mike and Carrie are still trying to fulfill their God-given purpose of homeschooling their own children at home, instead of putting their children in school and putting all of their time into their business, or instead of dragging their children to tons of book fairs or leaving them home with a nanny. I think the time they put into testing their curriculums with their own family shows though - nothing makes for a better homeschooling guide than a guide written by a homeschool parent actually currently using it.

O.k.... I'm stopping now... no more caffeine for me today... time to slow down for a relaxing Sunday night.


Hope others respond here too - didn't mean to hop on my soapbox!!!

In Christ,
Julie

P.S. I was the first person to be posting here, but in the time I took to type this, a whole bunch of you posted before me (not hard to figure "the why" of that one out since I got so long-winded)! But it's so nice to read the rest of your posts and see you had the same thinking as I did!

I LOVED reading this! It reminds me again and again why I LOVE HOD so much! I so appreciate that Carrie and her husband keep their priorities so in order. Drink coffee and post ANYTIME Julie!

Susie, I totally understand how weird it is when someone tells me they've not seen HOD?

Interesting thread, ladies! You are right that HOD isn't known everywhere for most of the reasons you mentioned. In order for us to keep writing and publishing a guide each year, it takes most of our spare time to accomplish that. So, we decided we'd just keep plugging away at writing and let the Lord grow our business in His time.

We also decided years ago that it was important for our family to be together at home to homeschool. So, our priority is to be home at night and on the weekends with our kiddos, so that we can remain true to our first calling which is to HOMEschool our kiddos.

If you take a look at most of our major competitors, they are each attending 25-30 or more bookfairs a year. This means their families are either apart during convention season or are traveling half of the year while homeshooling. We choose to attend only 6 or 7 conventions yearly.

Most of our competitors spend MUCH money advertising, while we only do some.

Most of our competitors write guides that are a fraction of the size, volume or detail of ours, and they often can turn out one or more guides a year due to this. Instead our guides take an entire year to write, and we can only produce one a year. This has made the path for HOD slower in coming along. Now that we are getting into higher grades with our guides, we are getting MUCH more recognition.

Also, in the early years of our business, we spent much time waiting on the Lord to show us whether this was His plan for us. So, my husband didn't quit his job, and we didn't rush headlong into it. We just focused on excellent customer service, high-quality products, and have pondered and prayed much over each guide. This helps us enjoy each and every one of our customers.

So, long story short, we are grateful to each of you who are willing to spread the blessings of HOD with others. Our business is built on families like you, which we treasure! The Lord has taken excellent care of us, and while we sometimes long to go, go, go and flood our business, we know that is not the Lord's plan for our family.

Blessings,
Carrie

Carrie,

And all of that focus, prayer and waiting on the Lord shows up in HOD!

I hope you do know that I am not suggesting more fairs or advertising. Just wondering why with the books that are already out there that there isn't more knowledge of HOD. I am sure it will grow, but I appreciate all of the attention you dedicate to the curriculum, and I certainly appreciate you HOMEschooling! I would want the same if I were in your shoes. Above all I appreciate your praying before making decisions!!!

And I also appreciate my friend Polly, who brought HOD to my attention!

susie in ms wrote:
I hope you do know that I am not suggesting more fairs or advertising.

Susie, I did not think you were suggesting that at all. (warm smile) I thought you were amazed that MILLIONS of people aren't using HOD because it's so GREAT!

MamaMary wrote:

susie in ms wrote:
I hope you do know that I am not suggesting more fairs or advertising.

Susie, I did not think you were suggesting that at all. (warm smile) I thought you were amazed that MILLIONS of people aren't using HOD because it's so GREAT!

Exactly!! Why can't I word myself like that?

I have a sneaking suspicion that just as Carries children are of an age to take on lots of administration tasks HOD will grow by leaps and bounds.

I am grateful for the Homeschool store in my town. That is where I found HOD. Unfortuneately, they are closing their doors in June. They will still exist online but I am a browser. I would never have found HOD without seeing it on a shelf. I am sure that HOD will take off exponentially when Carrie's kids are old enough for the family to travel to more conventions.

MamaMary wrote:

susie in ms wrote:
I hope you do know that I am not suggesting more fairs or advertising.

Susie, I did not think you were suggesting that at all. (warm smile) I thought you were amazed that MILLIONS of people aren't using HOD because it's so GREAT!

Susie - I didn't think you were suggesting that at all either!!! I feel exactly the same way you do - I mean, who can't know about HOD yet?!? Right?!? But, I do know the day-in, day-out, lifestyle Mike and Carrie lead, and believe me - it is a conscious choice every day to continue doing what they do, both with homeschooling their own children and writing curriculum. You know they've had big companies offer to sell their products (or even buy the rights from them) if they'd just take "God" out of their products? That's just one example of temptations that they have faced and overcome. Another is limiting their book fair attendance so they can homeschool their children at home themselves. They're asked to come to every major book fair, so it's tough to stick to the vision of homeschooling their own children sometimes. Plus, they've chosen only to have family in their booth at book fairs. I thought maybe I'd share some of this since they usually don't. Don't get me wrong - they LOVE what they are doing! And I know they'll keep doing it - it's just the "how" of doing it that requires much prayer on their part - which they do. I'm so glad you brought this up, Susie, and I totally think you have a heart of gold - your motivation for this post was pure kindness - I knew that right away when I read it!!! Thanks!
In Christ,
Julie

In searching various boards, I have found that it IS hard to find many people using HOD. It is even harder to find anyone with negative things to say about HOD. For almost any other curriculum you can find a variety of people explaining why XYZ didn't work for them. I haven't found that in my searches on HOD. The comments regarding HOD products are all flattering. From what I can tell, the programs look wonderful!