heartofdakota.com

Hi Ladies,
We are new to HOD and we are going to start in July. I will be doing Resurrection to Reformation with my 12 year old daughter and Preparing with my 10 year old and 8 year old. Then I will also be doing Little Hearts for His Glory with my 5 and 6 year old. Do you ladies have any helpful suggestions for me?
This is our 8th year homeschooling but our first using HOD. I am very excited and have ordered my material and gotten them. The children and I had a good time looking everything over. I am so hoping that his year is as exciting for the children as it looks like it will be. We got a bit bored last year with our curriculum and we all need a good boost! So any helpful suggestions on using HOD and making it as great as I think it will be would be a blessing.
Thanks!

Welcome to HOD! Our kids are similar in ages to yours. I have 12, 10, 9, 7, 6, and almost 5. We are just about to start RtR with my 12. My 10 and 9 are in Bigger right now, but will move to Preparing this fall. My 7 and 6 are in Little Hearts (with the 7 doing LA and math from Beyond), and my 4/almost 5 is doing Little Hands.

We are going on our 3rd year with HOD and have loved every minute of it. There is a great schedule thread that is helpful to see times for different guide combinations. It is a sticky at the top of the board. (Sorry, am typing on my phone and can't link you right now).

But as far as general "advise": For first starting out, I would start the RtR guide with your oldest first and really "train" her in how to "make it her own". Depending on how independent she is already, this could take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks. Once she is up and running, you could do the same with your Preparing kiddos, and then on to your youngers. After they are up and running, we have had daily "meeting times" with my older one (and now with the 10 and 9 yos), to go over all the day's assignments, check over independent work completed, etc. We have preferred having one longer meeting time, rather that me checking up on every subject. Of course, I am available should an immediate question need arise, but generally the once a day meeting has worked well for us.

There are so many ways to make scheduling work for your family, and a lot of it will just depend on your "style" and family dynamics. The scheduling thread is a GREAT place to get all sorts of varying ideas. We had been homeschooling from the beginning, but coming from a more traditional approach, it took us a while to hit our groove with HOD. But I can honestly say that my kiddos AND I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 3 years, where our first 4 were merely "getting it done".
Enjoy your year!
Angie

Thanks Angie! We do have them very similar in age! I think your right I should get my oldest daughter going first, that's a good idea. She is very independent already and one reason we went with this was for her to be able to be independent, she has been waiting too much on me to get to her! She is ready for a more independent approach and I am looking forward to her being able to move forward and yet still like the thought of having a daily meeting just to keep up with her. Thanks for the great advice and I'll check out that schedule thread!

Kymberly

Welcome to the HOD Board, Kymberly! Angie did such a great job of answering you already here, and she has such a similar family make-up, I'm so glad she took the time to answer.

We have 3 sons, ages almost 12, 8, and 4. We did RTR, BHFHG, and LHTH last year, and we had a blast! I agree with Angie that starting your RTR child first will be helpful. You can really sit alongside her and train her how to each of the boxes well that way. We let the dc doing Bigger Hearts on up use the guide as their own. They carry it with them, have it open near them, and check of their boxes as they complete things. This allows them to be successfully independent with their guides in the areas that are meant to be independent. You can do the same training with your PHFHG child. Then, LHFHG will be easy to add once your oldest 2 dc have learned the routine of their guides.

We added check times for the independent work in the upper guides as well, rather than me checking everything on the spot when they finish - this causes too many interruptions otherwise. Using teaching blocks of time, ending each block with an activity/skill dc can finish out independently, having my olders take a turn playing with the younger, having a routine order of doing the boxes that each child had a copy of, and having a definite start time all helped our year flow soooooo smoothly. There is a great schedules' thread on this board that may be helpful. My schedule for last year is the last post on the last page of it, in case you are interested, but there are many wonderful schedules/routines to look through and find something that fits your style...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093

I think you'll find HOD to be such a blessing in your home! We surely have, and HOD has made my homeschooling years be years we've enjoyed so much together with our dc. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie