LHFHG Singapore Math activities?

[WhisperedAbundance]

I just bought LHFHG back in March, but I am one of the ones who happens to have a set of the older versions of the Singpore Earlybird 1A/1B & 2A/2B. I was also able to locate the (oop) Thinking Skills book, too.

Quite honestly, I think it is wonderful of HOD to offer a deal and so grateful that changes are not made EVERY SINGLE YEAR like another company which always made me feel like I had the "old" version all the time. It was ever frustrating. It's a blessing to have found HOD.

I do wish I wouldn't have to ponder the decision to give up my guide, that I just bought though, in order to get the discounted price for future years, but I do understand the business decision.

Thank you, HOD!

[MelInKansas]

I think it is very gracious of them to make an offer like this, and I understand why they made the offer the way they did. As she already mentioned, the old guide(s) are not unusable, they just aren't the best and most current available. So if economics dictate that you can't purchase a new guide, you can still use the one you have.

They really don't have to offer us anything. It's not their fault that the Earlybird books are no longer available. I'm sure they've received negative feedback from plenty of people about this choice but I fully support them in it, and I feel like I've gotten an amazing value in my LHFHG guide already, and they don't owe me any more favors.

[Kathleen]

Carrie,
Thanks for your hard work in getting these new math plans done! (In your free time, right??). . I'm another one wondering when the half- price exchange needs to be made. We've got a couple years before we need it, but I am looking forward to using it again with my little guys.

Dusty, you do realize that this rewrite that Carrie had to do wasn't just by her choice, don't you? Singapore quit printing the math books previously recommended. So, she rewrote math plans for us so we would have something to use that matches the new workbooks from another company. I guess I think that's fabulous customer service! Knowing the schedule that Carrie had to keep, I feel like this rewrite is like one of my little guys needing me to find a lost shoe when I'm in the middle of getting supper on the table on 4-H night when there's only 20 min before we need to be on our way... There's a time crunch which makes me feel like not serving with a smile (especially since I didn't create the problem in front of me). I feel like HOD has done a great job of serving us graciously with a smile!! . They're helping us all have just what we need for our school year to get off on the right foot... just like I want my boys to leave home with 2 shoes.

Kathleen

[Dustybug]

Carrie,
Thanks for your hard work in getting these new math plans done! (In your free time, right??). . I'm another one wondering when the half- price exchange needs to be made. We've got a couple years before we need it, but I am looking forward to using it again with my little guys.

Dusty, you do realize that this rewrite that Carrie had to do wasn't just by her choice, don't you? Singapore quit printing the math books previously recommended. So, she rewrote math plans for us so we would have something to use that matches the new workbooks from another company. I guess I think that's fabulous customer service! Knowing the schedule that Carrie had to keep, I feel like this rewrite is like one of my little guys needing me to find a lost shoe when I'm in the middle of getting supper on the table on 4-H night when there's only 20 min before we need to be on our way... There's a time crunch which makes me feel like not serving with a smile (especially since I didn't create the problem in front of me). I feel like HOD has done a great job of serving us graciously with a smile!! . They're helping us all have just what we need for our school year to get off on the right foot... just like I want my boys to leave home with 2 shoes.

Kathleen

Yes I do realize this.

[Dustybug]

Here's the thing: No one said anything bad about Carrie OR HOD. There's no need to circle around those of us willing to voice our frustrations in a civil manner trying to make us feel guilty for daring to speak up. There were many customers displeased with this decision, and like I mentioned, NO company, no matter how great/loved is or should place themselves above customer feedback, whether positive or negative, as long as there is no ill intent or malice. How can a company truly be great if customers are never allowed to express dissatisfaction?

I'd also like to reiterate that I have loved HOD myself. I've never said anything bad about the curriculum at all. In fact I have recommended it to many. I also said that this isn't overall a huge deal if you are willing to just nix the hands on math activities in the guide. But to many, the decision seems unfair in light of how things were handled (not being informed early enough that the PDF file would not be available, so people purchasing brand new guides believing it would be, therefore costing them the price of 1 1/2 guides to get them, etc--which is NOT setting a school year off on the right foot, imvho).

I have no doubt that Carrie worked extremely hard on these updates. I know that it must require many sacrifices for her and her family. I know that it wasn't her fault that Singapore stopped printing the books (though I'm sure they knew it was a possibility seeing that they had to make a special arrangement with the company for them to print them exclusively for HOD). I don't believe HOD owes me any favors. However, I do believe that it would have been better approached by announcing when the math books first went out of print that the update would not be made available as other updates had been so people could have prepared better/not ordered guides until the updated ones were ready, etc. I do believe it would be a better practice to charge a small fee for download of the PDF rather than requiring mailing back of guides, charging MORE money to receive them, etc. I also don't like the feeling of underlying disdain for those of us who have no choice but to purchase used curriculum. We are not lesser of a rank of HOD user/supporter simply because we did not purchase directly from the company.

[Carrie]

Ladies,

Since this thread has been running now since May 26 on the board and there has been ample time for anyone who wishes to respond to it to do so, I am going to close it out at this point.

I think it is safe to say that whenever a decision of this nature is made, it is possible that some people will not be happy. I'm glad that this type of situation occurs very infrequently at HOD, as we love to make your school year's run as smoothly as possible.

As I close out the thread, I am going to mention just a few things that may make our decision a bit clearer. First of all, we have made every effort to warn families that the Earlybird Kindergarten Math was going out of print. We've put it in our catalog right under the Earlybird Math description for the past 2 years. It was also on our website for the past 2 years and on our Message Board as well. This past thread was a sticky on our board since August of 2012. Link: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12379

Anyone who has seen the math plans in LHFHG knows that switching to an entirely different math program is a major revision. Since the revision affects every single day of the plans, it is not a huge surprise that a replacement schedule is not the best way to address a change of this magnitude. A change of this size meant that every day of LHFHG plans had to be opened and rewritten. The entire guide needed to be reproofed and a new set of plates had to be made for the entire guide at our printer. There was only time to make all of these changes in the original guide, meaning there was (and is) no time available to pull out each box of the math plans and also make a separate PDF of just the math plans. To do that would require me to transfer the text of each math box one at a time for 170 boxes into a separate document that eventually would be 42 pages long. This document would then need to proofed for errors and while I am doing this entire secondary process, I am delaying the World Geography guide's release date by more and more days and weeks! This is definitely not good customer service at that point, as each of those families waiting for the World Geography guide will be unable to begin their school year without the World Geography guide. To say I do not have the time to make a separate document of just the math plans from LHFHG is an understatement! With this in mind, we decided that the best way we could serve those customers who support HOD with their business was to offer a brand new guide to them at half price.

It is important to note that we are not charging families for this update. Instead, we are allowing families to purchase a brand-new LHFHG guide for $25.98. That is considered an awesome price for a brand-new LHFHG guide, even if you tried to buy it used!

If you are a person who purchased the previous version of LHFHG guide new from us within the last 30 days, you are still within our return window and can return your guide and exchange it for the new one for no additional charge. If you purchased the previous version of the LHFHG guide new from us within the last 60 days, you can return your guide minus a 15% restocking fee and exchange it for a new one. If you purchased the previous version of LFHHG guide new from us longer than 60 days ago, you can return your guide and still take advantage of the 50% offer.

In response to the time frame for the half-off offer, we are thinking 2 years is a good time frame. That will give families ample time to take advantage of this offer and not have to rush to make a decision. Feel free to contact us by telephone or by email to take advantage of the offer. We'll look up your LHFHG guide purchase in our system and send you a postage paid mailer to return your previous guide.

In closing, I am going to share that while every person is definitely entitled to his/her opinion, this quote below suggesting that we are "stabbing" our loyal users by offering them a brand-new guide at half-price goes a bit far. So, I want to encourage use of a more moderate tone as we express our opinions in the future.

While overall, it's not a huge deal because the math portion of HOD isn't integral to the program in its entirety so you could just keep your old guide and work your own schedule out for the math, it feels like a stab to some loyal users. I've heard many people brag about the level of customer service offered by this company. This move seems to counter that a bit. :/

It is up to each of you whether you choose to take advantage of the half-price offer or not. Either way, we pray that LHFHG will be a blessing to many families and will draw you closer to the Lord as you use LHFHG each day!

Blessings,
Carrie