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HI All

Its late, so I will keep this brief, but I am considering HOD for my dd (7 - 2nd grade I suppose). I already use LHTH for my son and we enjoy it alot. My dd and I have been doing unit studies and we like this, but I am feeling very convicted that even tho, I enjoy it, it is taking too much of my time. One of my things, is I'm picky about books and liked being able to choose. I was paging through the catalog on a trip this weekend and found HOD had pretty much selected what I would and I got to thinking perhaps HOD would work just great..

Here is one of my questions....I know its open and go, but is there any room for creativity??? I'm sure that a wonderful job has been done, but sometimes its just fun to hunt and search and add things in. Also, my daughter is one of those who loves science experiments (we just did an oceanography unit and she had a complete blast dissecting a squid). How could that be worked in or couldn't it?? Does anyone out there tweak?? I know it can be done for LA and Math, and thats good, but just curious for the others.

I'd love your advice!

Thanks so much
Kelly

Welcome to the Boards! I am afraid that I won't be much help for the lower guides, but I am sure the other ladies will jump in! Here is the little bit that I do know: For science, Carrie does schedule science experiments. In the older guides it is once a week, but I don't know about the younger guides. Also, the scheduling is so great that you could easily add things in if/when the creativity bug hits you or if your dd asked for more. I used to do that, but have found the program so wonderful and complete that it is not necessary. HTH.

Seeing as BHFHG is about a 3-3 1/2 hour day, I would say you could add in whatever you wanted, with plenty of time to spare. It appears that most moms can begin HoD in the morning and finish by lunchtime, so if you were to add in more science, you would just have a longer school day. It's your homeschool and you can do what you want. Although the subjects in BHFHG are related (learning about birds in science while reading about Audubon in History, etc), I don't think they make a direct reference to one another, so you could be reading about Audubon in History and do Oceanography in science if you wanted to.

I am a newbie and haven't really begun Bigger yet, but I have searched through the manual and read it almost front to back!

Hi Kelly,

Welcome to HOD! I know when I first looked at HOD, I wondered if I would feel trapped by those boxes. What I've found is that I love having all of the wonderful activities already in place. If I still have time and creative juices flowing, we can easily add in more, but to be honest I haven't done that often at all. The program is so rich and full as written that you may find that it is perfect for you the way it is. However if you do want to add more, it is very easy to do so. Little Hearts only takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours per day as written, Beyond only takes around 2 hours, and Bigger takes 3 to 3 1/2 hours daily. Everything is covered in that time so you have lots of time left over to do other things.

Since your daughter loves science, here is a little more about the science in the early guides. Little Hearts and Beyond both have 2 days each week that are devoted to a science exploration. Science becomes an everyday event in Bigger with two days each week devoted to experiments/explorations with one of those days writing up a lab sheet. Two days a week, the parent reads the science material to the child and then the child narrates. On one day a week, the student does a notebook page about the science topic. The science concepts loosely correspond to the history reading. That doesn't mean that you couldn't substitute in a different science curriculum or add to the current one. The plans are very flexible. The wonderful thing is that the core of your day is ready to go for you, so if you want to add anything more you actually have the time to plan it and do it!

If you haven't had a chance to check out the placement chart yet. Here is a link to that: http://www.heartofdakota.com/placing-your-child.php Again, welcome to HOD! I hope it blesses you as much as it has blessed us!