heartofdakota.com

Hello to all!!
After an extensive search it seems like I found the curriculum I was looking for.... I just have a few questions.... I have a 5 year old son and I plan to start him on Little hearts for His Glory. How many people have done year-round school? If so, how to I pace the curriculum? Also, is this curriculum linked to the public school year as far as holidays and activities go or can I start anytime of the year? Also I have a 3 year old and I don't think I'll be combining them... Is it hard to do 2 or 3 curriculums at once? Thank you so much... I really appreciate. I was reading some of the posts and I feel like this is a wonderful community and I look forward to talking to such wonderful women!
In Christ,
Karla

Welcome Karla! We did Little Hearts last year and loved it! You can start anytime. From what I remember, it did not tie in to any public school schedule or anything. It was a great year and my daughter learned so much! HOD has been such a blessing for our family! I hope that you have a super year with Little Hearts!

Hello, Karla!

To answer one of your questions...no, it is not hard to do more than one curriculum guide. Scheduling is really the key to using multiple guides within your family. We are doing 3 here at our house! I just started LHFHG with my 5 year old and it is just great.

Like the previous poster said, Little Hearts does not tie into the school system in any single way.

I think you would do a "normal" pace with the material even if schooling year-round. Whenever you finish one guide, just begin with the next, as long as the child is ready for the skills being introduced in the next guide. That is how I would do it if we schooled year-round.

I hope this helps a little! We just love HOD, and I have come to love this message board as well!

Welcome!

We just started LHFHG 6 weeks ago and plan to stop for the summer and then pick back up in the fall again. I suppose that will have us moving to the next year in Jan, but I think it will be fine. I have a 3 year old, and have been surprised at how much she loves school and tags along. She loves the read alouds and gets the answers right before her sister even, lol. We're having fun with it!

Welcome Karla,
You are in for a blessed fun year with LHFHG. We started school last July and plan to finish first week of June, so the year round school worked out perfect for us. We plan to take a few weeks off in June and start back up with BLHFHG for her first grade year. As far as pacing, I basically took a calender out and highlighted holiday weeks, vacation days and breaks to take off. I also had a baby in October so I accounted for about 3 weeks off there. The great thing about HOD is that it is soooo easy to pick up where you left off.
I'm also schooling my ds for his preschool with LHTH on Mon. Wed. and Fri. I started him when he was 3.5 and plan to finish up when he's 5. Did I mention I have a 2 year old and a 5 month old in the mix, yikes! Believe it or not, most days I'm done schooling both of them by 9:30am. That's how doable HOD is anytime of the year. Enjoy!

God Bless,
Jennifer

Welcome to HOD! You're going to enjoy LHFHG. My ds used it last year and my dd used LHTH at the same time. It was perfect for each of them and didn't take too much time to do both programs. I enjoyed the one-on-one time with them each school day.

We are schooling year-round this year for the first time and I'm really enjoying it. We are able to take days/weeks off and not worry about making it up, or doubling up days to get done by late May or early June to have the summer off. I sat down with my calendar and tentatively penciled in all the units leaving breaks for days I knew we wouldn't school or would have a vacation/holiday breaks. It's worked out really well so far - we'll finish in July, take two weeks off and begin the next set of guides in August.

I am using LHFHG now with my 5yo and I also have a 3yo so I will be doing two guides too.
We plan on doing year round school. Although my plan right now for the summer is to do Lifepacs LA and the next level of singapore math. I have considered just moving forward in the HOD but I don't think I will. I really want my summer to be lighter and I want to reinforce LA skills.

We love HOD and will be using it in the years to come and at that point I may just move forward in the guides.

Thank you ladies for all the answers!!!!! Just one more question. I'm am working with "learning how to read in 100 easy lessons" with my son (almost 5). I don't think he would be ready for the emergent readers yet. What would you suggest to do in the meantime?
Thanks again!!
Karla

What good advice you've received already! We too loved LHFHG - you have much fun ahead of you! We do 3 guides and have for awhile and enjoy our years together very much. HOD makes this easy on us, while still being spiritually and academically strong. As far as phonics, I'd just finish out your "100 Easy Lessons", and see where ds is with his reading then. If he can read a "Frog and Toad" book or an "Amelia Bedelia" type book fairly smoothly, with only an error or 2 on a page, then he can begin the Emerging Reader's Set. If not, he can do another year of phonics with another phonics program, such as "The Reading Lesson", or "Reading Made Easy" (2 excellent phonics choices HOD carries), or any other phonics program you think the 2 of you would enjoy. Dc do phonics anywhere between 1 to 3 years - however long they need is fine. HOD recognizes this need for flexibility in phonics and does not tie its guides to a specific phonics program because of it. HTH! Welcome to HOD and your new homeschooling journey - it's a lovely ride - glad you're on it!

In Christ,
Julie

Just wanted to welcome you to HOD as you have already gotten great advice. We will be starting LHFHG in the fall for my ds who will be 5.5 then. I plan to do LHFHG his glory half speed for his K and 1st year. We are loving LHTH and we are looking forward to LHFHG.

Blessings on your HOD journey!