I just wanted to say you are not alone in hearing this. I have also turned several moms over to looking at HOD as well. A couple of my friends switched this year to HOD and I know of a few moms who are interested in switching next year. I also give out the catalogs like hot cakes. And if someone asks, I am more than happy to pack up any levels they want to see in person and go over the program with them.
One thing I have found is that most of these moms like to follow the pictures and don't read the catalog. That to me is huge! You must read the catalog! I think the verbage within the catalog is what drives the understanding and most homeschool moms I know like to read the pictures only, KWIM? And I am not knocking them either. When I first started homeschooling, I went very traditional and was eclectic for the first 3 years of my homeschool career. Then in year 4, I knew my year would be better with a boxed curriculum. I found most companies catalogs that were not for a specific grade (like Sonlight and MFW) to be confusing because you had to read the whole catalog to understand what you were looking at and how it is set up. Something like Bob Jones or Abeka is very straight forward because everything thing is listed by grade. So with HOD, it is listed by ages and abilities. Some of the things I have heard that confuse at first is why to choose the level you are choosing based on abilities and not the time period you want to cover (but across the board, this is still the same set up for most companies that have a similar type of curriculum). I have heard confusion about why do they have to pick so many areas (boxes) to complete their package, but again, this is standard for most companies. People ask me if it is a complete program (clearly, yes
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
). Because they aren't reading the catalog, many people are confused about extensions and storytime. I will admit, and I did get confused with the Preparing level about the independent history box, which then led me to contacting HOD over the phone.
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I was so glad I did call because Preparing was the first level my oldest did and it was such a wonderful year and lead us to find our forever curriculum home
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
. The only other thing I have heard moms say about the catalog being confusing is about DITHOR and how that is set up. But again, I think it is because they don't read the catalog. JMHO.
Now, if we are talking about improvements, there are a few I would love to see
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I would love to have a drop down menu somewhere in the top that listed things by subject. So if someone was looking for a grammar or math, right now you have to jump into each level to figure out where the math is. I would love it if I could click on "math" in a drop down box and it would take me directly a page with all the different math levels on it. Same for grammar. Those two things seem like they could vary easily among levels.
One other thing that might help people is if HOD had a few videos on their website. Some people don't do well with reading and following instructions. If they use HOD, their kids will become great at it! But as individuals, you would be amazed at the sheer number of people who lack this ability. If HOD had a few 5-10 minutes videos they put on here showing people how to use the program, how to choose your level, and few other things like that, it may break the ice for people to be more comfortable with the catalog. I personally think very logically and love charts and graphs. When I organize information, I would have definitely come up with something very similar in presentation to what HOD has done. However, I do know that other people don't necessarily think like I do. So I guess it could seem confusing. Some people may want to see ALL the books on one page for the history, science, bible and CD, writing, and storytime. Then below that you would show a price for each part of the package. Then below that, you could talk about the extension. But then after that, it would refer to another section of the curriculum for the grammar, math and DITHOR since those things are not done by level nearly as much or those are the areas that family adjust the most. One other thing that HOD does that most there companies don't do is they give a description of each book. That is nice! Most other companies list the books but they don't describe what they are about. All in all, I think I prefer the way it is set up now with videos but agree that I would hate for someone to miss out on this fantastic curriculum because of confusion.